WiC Watches: American Gods season 2
By Ariba Bhuvad
EPISODE 206: “DONAR THE GREAT”
Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to learn more about Thor? And no, not the one from the Avengers. This week’s episode of American Gods, “Donar the Great” flips back and forth between the past and present as we learn more about Thor circa the 1930s. The episode picks up with Mr. Wednesday as Al Grimnir hoping to garner worshippers through a burlesque show.
Along with Al Grimnir, there are other Gods that are partaking in the show including Thor (aka Donar), Mr. Nancy, and Columbia (Thor’s girlfriend). Interestingly enough, Columbia also represents something deeper in the form of a version of the United States before freedom.
Back in the present, Shadow and Mr. Wednesday go shopping…sort of? It’s funny to see the duo at a mall, which they’re visiting to get Wednesday’s spear fixed. He’s hoping that a dwarf by the name of Dvalin can fix the spear, but it seems like the dwarves are collectively losing their power. The reason? People are starting to believe less and less.
But luckily, there’s a cure! They may be able to help Mr. Wednesday if he can manage to get a leather jacket that was owned by Lou Reed. For some reason this specific item will give them the power they need to get up and running. How will Wednesday and Shadow get it? Pull off a con, of course!
Mr. Wednesday buys the jacket just as Shadow rushes into the store pretending to be a part of the Secret Service. Not only they do manage to take the jacket, but they take back the money they were going to spend on it. One jacket exchange later and Dvalin does his thing, magically fixing the spear.
I found it interesting how Mr. Wednesday kept thinking of Donar and telling Shadow how much he reminded him of his son. There’s a lot of hurt in his words, and we soon learn why. Despite being a God, something happened to Donar that he could never come back from. He committed suicide.
This moment in Donar’s life came after being used as a display to the world and becoming sick and tired of not having things go the way he wanted. He finally decided to run away with Columbia, but his father managed to get in the way of that. We’re in a 1930s flashback here, so the versions of the Gods we see are a bit different. For example, Technical Boy uses handheld phones rather than the phones he uses in the present. It’s all very intriguing, but simply not enough to keep me engaged in the episode.
Mr. Wednesday confronts Columbia as she’s packing to run away with Donar and lies to her about Donar leaving with the Germans. So she decides to take Technical Boy up on his offer to be the “face of America.” Donar believes she is coming until his father cooks up a lie about her running away without him. It’s devastating and disappointing to see how Wednesday treated his son, and how it inevitably led to his ruin, and his demise.
This moment between father and son also reveals why Wednesday’s spear was broken in the first place. Donar broke it with his hammer, and it’s a moment that was forever seared in Wednesday’s mind.
All in all, this week’s episode was mediocre. I think the reveal behind Gungnir/Donar/Wednesday was pretty important for the story but its placement in the context of the season felt random. It may have been better to have it earlier on.
I just feel like there are so many storylines taking place at the same time that going back and forth between past and present just made things seem more convoluted and hard to follow. With just two episodes left in this season of American Gods, who knows how all this will wrap up. I guess we shall find out soon enough.