Serie - American Gods : our review on Prayer for Mad Sweeney episod (107)

By Mulder, 11 june 2017

Emily Browning takes center stage once again this time as the Irish damsel Essie McGowen, who extends the normal vignette of “American Gods” into nearly the full hour for the second to last episode of the first season. As Laura (Emily Browning) travels with Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schrieber) in a stolen ice cream truck towards her resurrection all while the narrator Mr. Ibis, describes the tale of Essie. We follow Essie as she goes from a young child on the cliff sides of Ireland awaiting her seafaring father’s return all the way to her as an aged grandmother living in the Americas.

Essie is an innocent girl who is lured into a life of folklore by means of her grandma telling tales about fairies and leprechauns. The myth of the leprechauns mainly being that if you leave an offering to them every night they will watch out for you. This idea of how leprechauns operate is slightly altered to better fit into the world of American Gods. Throughout Essie’s life she prays to these little woodland creatures but not in particular to Mad Sweeney who obviously is not little. Even though this is the story for Essie’s life it very much is one that shines some light on Mad Sweeney’s origins.

Essie continues in the traditions of her mother and keeps placing offerings at night to the leprechauns. This is a good metaphor for religions in general. Religions that offer prayers and devotion in exchange for better wishes. “American Gods” almost uses Essie as a way to openly mock faiths of the world. Essie’s devotion would even go so far as leaving whatever she had to eat even if it meant she starved a little that night. This is utter nonsense in reality but in the world of American Gods, Essie believes she will have her prayers rewarded.

Eventually Essie she is sent to work in the Americas but as “luck,” possibly Mad Sweeney’s influence would have it, the captain of her ship takes a liking to her. At this turn Essie begins to leave a somewhat happier life and Mr. Ibis describes how in the good times people tend to forget to pray, and this is another glimmering example of how people use their religions must when in need and not as a daily practice. At one point Essie share tales of the Americas with an inmate that very well must be Mad Sweeney and she unintentionally helps him decide to travel there to start a new life for himself.

The show cuts back and forth to Laura and Mad Sweeney in present time as they travel towards the people that can resurrect her. Laura doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get there and possibly because she doesn’t necessarily want to continue the life she previously lead. It may be a human notion of redemption but Laura wishes to pursue Shadow in order to gain his forgiveness. Maybe this will be the catalyst needed for Laura to continue into the afterlife with Anubis (Chris Obi) and a way for Mad Sweeney to retrieve his lucky coin that he covets so tirelessly. But Emily Browning has been phenomenal with the background of Laura and Shadow in episode four “Git Gone” and this one with her portrayal of Essie so hopefully she continues on with her ever improving role. As for Mad Sweeney maybe he recognizes the heritage of likeness passed down from Essie to Laura and wants to aid her, but more likely and plausible, Mad Sweeney has grown fond of Dead Wife, which he has also grown fond of calling Laura, and now wants to help her achieve her resurrection as his own personal form of redemption for past misdeeds.

Either way, Pablo Schrieber gets a spotlight on his character Mad Sweeney’s in this background story with a keyhole understanding of the tragedy that he has been running away from yet his true origin and employment with Wednesday (Ian Mcshane) remains a mystery. We get a glimpse into the empathetic side of Mad Sweeney that also seemed improbable but once we do it is fully rewarding. Yet once again, Emily Browning is the main attraction of a “Prayer for Mad Sweeney” with her absolutely enjoyable portrayal of Essie McGowen. It was an excellent choice to allot a generous portion of screen time on how Mad Sweeney came to America, even though it was sustained within the confines of Essie’s story. Hopefully in the future we get a more focused look into Mad Sweeney and how he came to be in service to Mr. Wednesday and how he was granted the abilities of a leprechaun.

Synopsis:
When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday’s bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the center of a world that he struggles to understand. It’s a hidden world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they’ve lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.

American Gods
Based on American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Developed by Bryan Fuller, Michael Green
Composer Brian Reitzell
Starring Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon), Emily Browning (Laura Moon / Essie Tregowan), Crispin Glover (Mr World), Bruce Langley (Technical Boy), Yetide Badaki (Bilquis), Pablo Schreiber (Mad Sweeney), Ian McShane (Mr. Wednesday)

A Whispertone review