Synopsis of 1×05: Find out how much of an asshole a dead wife can be, how little help the local cops are, and meet another new god: Mr. World.
From there, “Lemon Scented You” picks up with Laura waiting on Shadow to return to his hotel room. He’s in disbelief and not yet willing to bury the hatchet on the circumstances surrounding her death with Robbie. As much as she tries to play it off, he demands to know the truth and she holds very little back in her retelling of cheating on him and the night of her death. While he steps out for cigarettes, Laura tries to warm her skin in the bath and one of Mr. Wednesday’s ravens flies off to inform him.
Nothing’s made better by Laura and Shadow kissing, though her heart does momentarily seem to beat. She asks if he’s still her puppy and he denies her before being interrupted by Mr. Wednesday. Before they can get too engrossed in conversation, the local police roll up and arrest them.
Soon after, Technical Boy is brought into his limo and confronted by Media, who is this time portrayed as David Bowie. He confronts Technical Boy about his latest run-in with Shadow and Mr. Wednesday, delivering the message that Mr. World would like an apology made to the two of them. Though he doesn’t want to, there doesn’t seem to be any room for arguing and Media leaves him.
While Shadow says nothing but ‘lawyer’ during his interrogation, Mr. Wednesday dithers until speaking the actual truth about a coming war of the gods. Naturally, they don’t believe him and eventually put the two of them in the same interrogation room. Shadow realizes the small town cop might have had it right, that something big is after Mr. Wednesday, as they hear screams from outside.
After he involuntarily leaves her, Laura is confronted by Mad Sweeney. He wants his coin back, but he’s seriously outmatched in strength and probably intellect. She questions him about his involvement with Shadow and he admits that he was asked to pick that fight in the bar and that Shadow shouldn’t be trusting Mr. Wednesday.
And while he can’t take the coin from her, and she won’t give it up, he does tell her that he’ll eventually get it back once the skin slides off her bones as she decomposes. It’s a gruesome thought that leads to them fighting. As he strangles her in the bathtub, the cops burst in and she remains dead under the water as they arrest him. He’s hauled off screaming, “You’re an asshole dead wife!”
Media, presenting as Marilyn Monroe this time, precludes our first look at Crispin Glover as Mr. World. He apologizes for snubbing Mr. Wednesday, who he realizes is a huge presence, even as Wednesday instructs Shadow not to speak to him. Mr. World relays to Shadow all sorts of information about himself. Media draws his attention to the task at hand and he summons Technical Boy to deliver his apology.
Technical Boy glibly apologizes, especially given the climate in America, and Mr. World offers Shadow the opportunity to knock his teeth out if he wishes. He declines and they move onto a bigger issue. Technical Boy, Media, and Mr. World offer Mr. Wednesday a truce, a merger. It’s a glorious piece of imagery that takes place on the four walls of the interrogation room and includes rainbows and unicorns. Nevertheless, Wednesday denies it.
They shrug it off and prepare to leave before Technical Boy confronts Mr. World about just leaving them be. He gets feisty and both Media and Mr. World put him in his place, as Wednesday is older than he’ll ever be. Leaving Wednesday with an opportunity, they depart and Shadow is still reeling.
As they leave their interrogation room, they find the small town police station wrecked and the officers killed. Before they can escape, the cop car with Sweeney pulls up, forcing them to change plans. Some kind of tree stemming from the cop’s death in a wooden chair attacks Shadow and presumably the other officers as they go to check inside. Shadow and Wednesday escape into the night and Mad Sweeney does the same from his cop car.
Laura wakes up in the morgue and finds that she has no breath when she tests it against a mirror. There’s another corpse there with her and she studies the woman before getting her own clothes and leaving.
English