American Gods Recap: ‘A Prayer For Mad Sweeney’

Season 1/ Episode 7/ Starz I’ve seen the complaints about certain characters on American Gods. You know what? Let me not speak in generalities. I’ve seen all the Laura Moon shade y’all been throwing. And it’s super valid. She’s a walking embodiment of entitlement, manipulation, and selfish actions. She’s so determined to have her way that she even defeated death like she’s Wally West or some sh*t. But, despite all of this, I still like her. A lot. I don’t like her as a person, but I like her as a character and where she takes the story. Because this version of Laura Moon is 10 times more interesting than the one from the book and I’m glad she’s reaching a level of potential I never even expected. So, allow me to put my appreciation of Laura right next to Carl Grimes and Jon Snow in the box of my much-maligned favs. You could only imagine my surprise when I found out this episode was about two of my favorite characters of the entire series – Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon, kinda. Emily Browning had the honor of portraying two different, but very similar, characters in this episode. She started off playing the familiar Laura Moon, but would later play an Irish woman in the year 1721.

The episode starts in Ibis and Jacquel’s funeral parlor, where we find out that Jacquel has been the narrator of the series of Coming to America preludes thus far as he records them in a book. This time, he tells the story of Essie McGowan, a woman who spent much of her life finding ways to get what s…