American Gods (TV Series)
add a link
Bryan Fuller and Michael Green Talk Bunnies, Bilquis and Wednesday's Big Reveal
Bryan Fuller and Michael Green Talk Bunnies, Bilquis and Wednesday's Big Reveal
Warning: This post contains spoilers for American Gods‘ Season 1 finale.
Welp, now the Shadow knows.
Keywords: american gods, season 1, 1x08, season finale, bryan fuller, michael green, interview, spoilers
|
I remember visiting this website once...
It was called ‘American Gods’ Finale Recap: Wednesday Is [Spoiler] | TVLine
Here's some stuff I remembered seeing:
Warning: This post contains spoilers for
rounded out its freshman season on Sunday with a finale that definitely answered one of the fantasy series’ biggest questions: Who, or what exactly, is Mr. Wednesday? Though many viewers (especially those who’ve read the Neil Gaiman novel on which the series is based) figured it out a while back, it took poor Shadow Moon eight episodes to finally wrap his mind around the truth.
“I am Odin,” the enigmatic older man told his bodyguard, copping to his true identity as the deity at the head of Norse mythology, aka the god of war.
The revelation came at the end of an episode that saw the official start of the battle between the Old Gods and the New, as well as:
* The introduction of Easter, the goddess of the harvest and all things fertile, whom Wednesday rallied to his cause with promises of being worshipped again (rather than just tagging along on a Christian holiday)
* Laura’s learning that Mad Sweeney, working on Wednesday’s orders, caused the car crash that killed her
* Easter’s assurance that Laura couldn’t be resurrected, because she’d been killed by a god
* Bilquis’ backstory, which goes like this: She’d once had temples of undulating naked lovers worshipping her/sacrificing themselves for her, but by 2013, she was homeless and living on the street. That’s where Technical Boy found her, handing her a cell phone loaded with a dating app that would help her more easily find people for her to, um, take to church. So she flourishes, but when TB finds her in present day, he demands that she pay back the favor. Next thing we know, she’s having lethal sex in the bathroom of a bus headed for a Wisconsin attraction called House on the Rock.
Naturally, we had questions. So we asked showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green to give us some insight into the season-ender, starting with the show’s hoppiest cast members.
RELATEDSummer TV Calendar: 90+ Premiere and Finale Dates to Save for June/July
] No one’s asked us about the bunnies yet… If you’re upset about bunnies, we have a way to make you un-upset about that in Season 2, hopefully.
TVLINE | I wasn’t upset about bunnies at all. I was thinking back to Episode 7, and how a bunny was what hopped into the road and caused Laura to swerve and crash the truck, and how it seems that things are even more connected than we thought. Or am I reading too much into that?
FULLER | There were actually more instances of bunnies that had to be dropped because we were over budget in [visual effects]. You were going to see a lot more bunnies running through people’s stories, including Bilquis’. Everytime you see a bunny, that is a spy for Easter.
GREEN | Similarly, there are a lot of cats in Season 1. In Season 2, you might find that all cats share a common character.
TVLINE | The huge revelation scene at the end, when Shadow realizes that Wednesday is a god: How close is the finished product to your original vision for that pivotal moment?
GREEN | A lot of the way things finished in this episode were discovered in post, with intention meeting reality meeting capability and meeting imagination. That’s an abstruse way of saying we had a number of visions for it and we are thrilled with the way it turned out, but they are not identical twins.
Outlander: First Season 3 Teaser Gives Glimpses of Claire and Jamie’s Lonely Lives Apart, Battle Carnage — WATCH
TVLINE | We spoke earlier this season about how you originally had Shadow figuring out that Wednesday was a god in Episode 4. And that’s something that our readers have pointed out: Why does it take so long for Shadow to catch what’s going on, given all the weird stuff that’s happening? What’s your response to that?
FULLER | [Shadow] has bought into the fact that this is not the world that he experienced before going to prison. And now that he’s been released from prison, the world is upside down. There’s a fun metaphor there for what it’s like to acclimate to reality when you’ve been in a confined space, but reality is pushing back in this regard. For Shadow, there was an element of realization early on in the season, and so we had to do a lot of mid-stream repurposing and removing of certain scenes and certain lines of dialogue that was on the original path of Shadow realizing gods were in play much earlier. What we did was double down on “this is a weird world that he’s into” and the reveal actually being that it is gods. Because the world can go weird in a wide variety of ways, and the specificity of
weird being god-related and faith-related, and that he has been vocabulary building for the last eight episodes, felt like it was a way to knock Shadow out of his numbness.
GREEN | There was a fun moment of discovery for us in the previous episode, when Laura and Mad Sweeney first pair off. In that episode, she basically says to Mad Sweeney, “What the f–k are you? What the f–k is all this?” and demands and answer and gets it right away. It’s the same episode where Shadow is unable to ask a question, and it speaks to who they are as characters in a really fundamental way. It takes Shadow a longer time to be able to come around to receive these answers. Personally, I think he doesn’t ask it because he can’t hear it until he gets to that point. Whereas Laura, being a very, very different creature, demands the answer and then gets it.
TVLINE | We meet Easter in this episode. In the book, she plays a crucial role in Shadow’s story later on. What can you tell me about that relationship as we move forward?
FULLER | There’s an interesting triangle of sorts with Shadow, Easter and Wednesday that will be fun to explore. Easter, as a gateway — really, Christ and Easter as the gateway for Shadow understanding we’re really talking about gods as opposed to just general voodoo, which is another god we’ll be getting into. [
GREEN | We love Kristin Chenoweth and we want more of her in the show. We demand more of her in the show.
TVLINE | Bilquis is shown to be in the New Gods’ debt, but she’s not necessarily the most willing soldier in that war.
GREEN | In an act of desperation, she accepted what seemed like an acceptable compromise, which is a far less extreme compromise than was offered and accepted by Vulcan, offered and rejected by Wednesday. It’s a much simpler thing: You just take a phone and say, “Yes.” She was also in much more dire straits. Now that she’s more herself again and she weighs the rewards of the New World against what was lost in the Old, she may come to regret that decision. But she is, at the moment, obliged.
FULLER | She has a very complicated relationship with the New Gods. Now, on her way to the big meeting of the gods at House on the Rock, she’s going. But whose side is she on is the bigger question. You got just barely a taste of Bilquis in the first season, and she’s going to be a major player in Season 2.
‘ season finale? Grade the episode via the poll below, then expand upon your thoughts in the comments!
If you like TVLine, you\'ll LOVE our weekly newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
A place we’ll learn about next season from what I understand. Looking forward to hear some big casting news about certain characters regarding it
I really want this show to pick up the pace next season.
There were only 8 episodes, and an entire new world with some very different and almost novel characters to set up. There are a lot of series that don’t get as far by then.
I agree with Jason. Judging the season as a whole it felt only set up and backstories. I feel like as a non book reader I was at a disadvantage and it was harder to follow the story.
Well… there’s always reading? The book and show pair brilliantly (and beautifully). It’s doing well enough ratings wise so I would encourage them to keep on their current trajectory.
I thought it was terrific, but I do take exception with Starz, who last week announced the special 2 hour season finale only to deliver a one hour episode rebroadcast over three hours.
Now begins the countdown until Shadow finds out who *he* is.
Yes! This. I cannot wait for him to find what his purpose is. I’m watching with friends and it’s killing me not to say anything. Now I know how all the people who read Game of Thrones felt the first five seasons. Lol
Oh, I’m so bad that I stopped watching the show (and the books). I’m going to wait until it’s done and binge watch all of it (and then read the rest of the novels).
OMG the episode was just visually stunning! I loved every second. Ostara’s show of power was so damn unexpected and unpredictable and like something a good would think to do. I pray they won’t make u wait for a year for season 2. I just see Bilquis going the other way ,these God’s really don’t like being told what to do. Awesome job guys best show on tv. Would be a crime if awards were not fortcoming .
I hope next season is better, this was adapted very poorly and out of sequence from the book. I know adaptations take liberties, but at times I was wondering if they even read the book.
Megyn Kelly Interviews Sandy Hook Denier Alex Jones — Should NBC Have Let It Air? (Watch Video)
American Gods Finale: Bryan Fuller and Michael Green Talk Bunnies, Bilquis and Wednesday\'s Big Reveal
The Ranch Finale Recap: Colt Receives an Alarming Call — Is [Spoiler] OK?
Reign Series Finale: EP Breaks Down Mary\'s Last Scene, Reveals the Story Behind [Spoiler]\'s Return and…
2Reign Series Finale: EP Breaks Down Mary\'s Last Scene, Reveals the…98
3Megyn Kelly Interviews Sandy Hook Denier Alex Jones — Should NBC Have…60
4Which Dance Show Is Best? Did Saul Crash Shock? Psych vs. Malfoy? Did…56
5Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Quantico, Psych, Stranger Things, Fear TWD…29
read more
Sign In or join Fanpop to add your comment