Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2055

Chris Hemsworth is Very Bitter in this AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR BTS Video

Aside from his brief cameo in Doctor Strange, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen Thor play a major role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, Chris Hemsworth hasn’t let us forget the God of Thunder in the lead up to Thor: Ragnarok. After releasing two hilarious skits with Thor and his ordinary roommate, Daryl, Hemsworth is now on the set of Avengers: Infinity War. But he’s still finding humor in Thor’s exclusion from Captain America: Civil War.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Hemsworth comes across a wide assortment of Marvel action figures that he describes as a “secret Avengers rehearsal.” However, Hemsworth is jokingly put out by the lack of a Thor figure so he calls upon Mjolnir and dispenses a little pain to the Marvel toys that vaguely resemble his co-stars. And his description of Hawkeye’s action figure is particularly funny.

Click the image below to play the video:

 

It’s a nice touch that the video includes the Mjolnir sound effects, and there are a handful of Avengers who don’t meet the business end of Thor’s hammer. Winter Soldier and Falcon make it through intact, while Hemsworth claims the Hulk figure is his “mate” and walks off with it when he’s finished.

While Thor is actually quite funny in the MCU, these short films have allowed Hemsworth to show off some of the comedic chops he previously displayed in Vacation and the Ghostbusters reboot. Because Thor: Ragnarok is being directed by Taika Waititi, it’s expected that Hemsworth will get a chance to be more silly in that film as well.

What did you think about Hemsworth’s Avengers video? Call down the thunder in the comment section below!

Image: Marvel

Nine Inch Nails Might Release 2 New EP’s This Year

Late last year, Nine Inch Nails released Not The Actual Events, the group’s second EP of original material and first since 1992’s Broken. As you can probably tell, Trent Reznor’s project doesn’t often involve itself in EPs, but that is about to change soon, and we only found out because the band messed up (via Birth.Movies.Death.).

When the group released Not The Actual Events, they also announced a vinyl release of The Fragile: Deviations. Sadly, though, that record has yet to come out, and after months of speculation, Reznor sent an email that read in part,

“The blame for this lies with me and my team. We ran into a variety of quality control issues with the audio and various aspects of the artwork, then we got obsessive about getting it right. At some point these f—ups started to add up to a substantial delay that I wasn’t fully aware of until recently.”

Then, in the same email, Reznor announced that Not The Actual Events is actually just the start of something more:

“Finally, did you know there’s a new top-secret Nine Inch Nails EP that will be released before the first shows we do this summer? Did you know Not The Actual Events was the first part of a trilogy of related EPs that will be released about 6-8 months apart? Now you do.”

Since Not The Actual Events came out just before Christmas, this means that the next EP should come out at some point in the next month or so, and the third EP perhaps in time for the end of 2017. Listen to “Burning Bright (Field On Fire)” from Not The Actual Events above, and let us know in the comments below what sort of musical direction you’d like to hear from the upcoming EPs.

Featured image: Apple

Everything We Know About the WONDER WOMAN Sequel

Going into the weekend, we had a pretty good feeling about how Wonder Woman was going to do at the box office. And we’re happy to say that Wonder Woman far exceeded our expectations to become one of the biggest solo hero debuts in cinematic history. Even before this success, director Patty Jenkins and Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, were signed for the inevitable sequel. Today’s Nerdist News is looking ahead at Wonder Woman 2, and deciphering the somewhat contradictory clues from Jenkins.

Join host and Themyscira’s most feared skee-ball player, Jessica Chobot, as she runs down everything we’ve learned about the Wonder Woman sequel. Almost all of it has come from Jenkins, and her answers have varied from outlet to outlet. For example, Jenkins told Fandango that the next film would explore how Diana first came to America, then she went on to tell The Hollywood Reporter that the sequel would be set in the present. It’s entirely possible that both answers could be true if the next film follows Diana over a long period of time. However, it’s far more likely that the details of the story haven’t fully come together yet.

There is almost a 100 year gap between Wonder Woman’s solo film and her appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which seemed to depict Diana with a much darker outlook. Will we ever discover why Diana briefly turned her back on humanity? And was it the moment that she first read a comment section on the internet? We want to know!

What do you want to see in the Wonder Woman sequel? Lasso your thoughts and share them with us in the comments below!

This Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man Fighting Game Looks Like Windy Fun

We don’t know what the actual names for these things are, so we’re going to have to go with the label given to them by the famous Family Guy cutaway gag: Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Man. The reason we bring it up is because those giant flailing used car dealership things are getting another shot at glory. We’ve danced with them, we’ve fought with them, and now, we can make them fight each other thanks to a new game called Inflatality.

Indie development studio Hojo just released the game on Steam Greenlight, a platform that allows users to help decide which games get sold on the actual Steam marketplace (we first learned about the game from Kotaku). As you’d expect, playing as Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Men adds some interesting wrinkles to the fighting game dynamic. For example, the characters can’t move from their positions because, you know, no legs. Also, they’re susceptible to the wind in their environments, meaning players will have to get used to that and play the wind to their advantage.

Beyond that, players can customize their fighter’s color, facial expressions, abilities, and things of that nature. The concept is obviously silly, but from the game trailer above, it looks like the gameplay is pretty solid, especially given the novel fighting game concepts mentioned above.

If you’re a fan, show your support for Inflatality on Steam Greenlight so the game will hit its target release date of November, and let us know in the comments what other bizarre-but-great games you’ve seen on Steam.

Featured image: Hojo Studio/YouTube

WONDER WOMAN Creator’s Life Story Gets Turned into a Movie

For decades, almost everyone in the world knew who Wonder Woman was, as she was the most identifiable female superhero icon in history. But until this past weekend, when her debut film hit theaters and raked in record crowds all over the world, few people knew her origin story, or the real details of who she is. In comparison, everyone knows Superman and Batman’s origin stories, even your grandparents.

But what if I told you the real story of how Wonder Woman came to be published back in 1941 was just as fascinating as her fictional backstory? Wonder Woman has a backstory unlike any superhero in history, and it’s finally being made into a film called Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, which just released its very first teaser trailer, which you can view down below.

The film is written and directed by Angela Robinson, and stars Luke Evans as Wonder Woman’s creator, Dr. William Moulton Marston, and as the titular “wonder women”, Rebecca Hall as Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and Bella Heathcote as Olive Byrne.

Dr. William Moulton Marston was a prominent Harvard psychologist, one who consulted on Hollywood movies, and whose opinions on pop culture were consulted for magazine articles. Notably, he also helped invent the lie detector. After superhero comics exploded in popularity with the dual arrivals of Superman and Batman in the late ’30s, he wrote a magazine article condemning the “blood curdling masculinity” of this new fad, and how it was desperately missing a feminine touch.

To take some public heat off of themselves, DC Comics contacted him and asked him to create a character for them who exhibited his ideology, and Wonder Woman was born, and was an instant hit. Marston put it bluntly then, saying “Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who, I believe, should rule the world.”

But William Moulton Marston was living with a secret. He had a wife, Elizabeth, herself also Harvard educated and a lawyer, but they were in a polyamorous relationship with a young woman named Olive Byrne, who was also the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most important feminists of the 20th century.

Marston fathered children with both of them, and they all secretly lived together in upstate New York. This is during a time when such relationships weren’t just frowned upon by society, they could destroy your career and even land you in jail.

The three of them came up with the feminist ideology of Wonder Woman and her stories, shaping the minds of a generation of young girls all over America. It’s not a coincidence that the second wave feminists like Gloria Steinem grew up loving Wonder Woman. But although all three of them helped come up with these stories, only Marston was able to take credit.

All of their ideals and ideology became a part of these comic book stories, essentially aimed at children. Marston’s obsession with the truth, which led him to create the lie detector, became Diana’s magic lasso. Obviously his belief in the power of women was all over every panel. But there was also a ton of bondage imagery, and talk about “loving submission”, all of which suggest that Marston was heavily into BD/SM, although that’s something we’re all going to have to just guess about.

Although some people have taken issue with a man “forcing” his wife to accept another woman into the relationship, all signs point to Elizabeth Marston being not only ok with this arrangement, but encouraging of it. When William Marston died in 1947, a mere five years after Wonder Woman was created, Elizabeth and Olive stayed together for another five decades. So take that, all you judgy people out there.

Now that Wonder Woman’s fictional history has been told via the hit film starring Gal Gadot, it’s high time that the true story of the people who created her was told to a (hopefully) more tolerant world. For more info, head on over to the film’s website, ProfessorM.movie.

Are you as excited as we are to see the true story of the people who created the Amazing Amazon come to life? If you’re stoked to see this biopic, let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Annapurna Films / DC Comics

Wonder Woman’s sword is real, real sharp

Mark III Fighting Robot Celebrates Unveiling with Prius Punching Wedding Proposal

Although the debut bout of the first-ever Giant Fighting Robot Sports League (GFRSL) is set for August of this year between Japan’s KURATAS and America’s Mark III, neither real-life mech warrior has been seen in full, fighting form. That is… until now!

Feast your eyes, fleshy blood bags, on the Mark III: The giant pile of metal, gears, and crush-ability that’s set to represent the good ol’ U.S. of A. in a fight that will undoubtedly go down in history as the world’s first giant-robot duel to the death.

The Mark III, which is being built by the GFRSL’s founding company Megabots Inc., has been under construction for more than a year now, with teasers coming every once in a blue moon to remind people that the Mark III still exists and that all that kickstarter money (more than $550,000) required to build it was not spent in vain. With a bald eagle head on its shoulder, and a generous helping of red, white, and blue paint, the Mark III definitely has the whole ‘Murrica!’ vibe down, although sadly it looks like it still needs a lot of work.

Despite the fact that the 430-horsepower 12-ton Mark III still apparently requires constant tech support and component change-outs in order to remain operational, even at one-quarter power its hydraulic fists can still do serious damage. Here it is beating the crap out of a Prius for example, because screw that car for trying to get good gas mileage! (Also, the Prius is made by Japanese carmaker Toyota, so maybe there’s some attempted psyching-out going on here.)

Aside from the Prius Fatality, the Mark III was also used by one of its engineers to propose to his girlfriend. Here he is asking if he can join her dental plan (because Lisa needs braces?).

What do you think about this first full unveil of the Mark III? Are you thrilled with the progress, or concerned that KURATAS may be able to take advantage of all these tech issues with its twin Gatling guns? Let us know your thoughts below!

Images:  YouTube / MegaBots Inc

Talking WONDER WOMAN, Female Superhero Films, STAR WARS Collectibles

Take a load off, Wonder Woman fans; you had a busy weekend, what with bringing Diana Prince’s first ever headlining feature to a mighty $100 million box office intake. Today’s Nerdist News Talks Back kicks off in celebration of the film’s Amazon-sized opening, as host Jessica Chobot and her honored guests, Nerdist Managing Editor and Fangirling empress Alicia Lutes and Nerdist Associate Editor Kyle Anderson, delve into what the successes of the feature mean for the future of two very important concepts: female superhero movies and our own personal Chris rankings.

Triumphant though it may be in its own right, Wonder Woman‘s true achievement may prove to be opening the door for further female-led and -directed superhero pictures. Though we’ve thus far really only seen male characters lead the transition from comic book pages to the silver screen, DC and Marvel Comics have plenty of heroines to choose from for future films. We’ve already got Batgirl, Captain Marvel, and DC City Sirens on the way, but who else do we hope to see make the jump?

Not to distract too greatly from the glory of Gal Gadot’s starring turn in Wonder Woman, but we’d be remiss not to throw a few golf claps toward Chris Pine, who did an impeccable job as Diana’s right-hand man Steve Trevor. After seeing him in this latest gig, we’re wondering if Pine’s standings –they being Captain America‘s Evans, Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Pratt, and Thor‘s Hemsworth–will soar.

Stepping away from Themyscira, we acknowledge a bit of sullen news to take way in the Star Wars universe. If you’re a super fan, you may know about Rancho Obi-Wan, the largest private collection of Star Wars memorabilia in the known galaxy; for years known, owner Steve Sansweet has opened his Sonoma County, CA residence to fans for private tours of his extensive collection, with all proceeds going toward public outreach. As it turns out, Sansweet’s ranch has been enduring systematic robberies over the course of a number of months between 2015 and 2016. Nerdist News Talks Back has great sympathy for Sansweet, as we all know what it’s like to cultivate a collection we care tremendously about. With the subject on our minds, we’re discussing some of our own most prized geek-friendly possessions, Star Wars-related or otherwise.

Staying on the subject of Star Wars, we’ve heard that Apple and Industrial Light & Magic have teamed to bring the Outer Rim planet of Mustafar to life via the bounties of VR. The project includes the whole shebang: TIE Fighters, Vader’s castle… even the man himself. What do we think about this project, its propensity to rope naysayers into the world of VR, and the opportunity to finally have a real-life lightsaber battle (or the closest thing to it)?

Let us know what you think about future female superhero films, your favorite Chrises, and your most beloved collectibles!

AMERICAN GODS History Primer: Vulcan

The Old Gods in American Gods have roots in the past and in mythology. While we might know the ins and outs of the New Gods, like Media and Technical Boy, there’s probably a lot we can still learn about their predecessors. For those of you hoping to get a better understanding of these characters before you continue on with American Gods, we have you covered. Get to know the history that inspires the characters in our American Gods History Primer series.

Who

Vulcan, a.k.a. Hephaestus in Greek mythology

In the Series

Vulcan is the first god we’ve encountered in American Gods specifically created for the television series. He’s unique in how he’s found a way to adapt his needs and what he stands for to modern sensibilities. He has a comfortable life and is surrounded by a small town that works for and adores him–or at least what he’s about, which is guns.

Maybe it’s because he’s made an easier and fulfilled life for himself, but Vulcan is one of the most charming and happy Old Gods we’ve met. He doesn’t seem to carry the same bitter taste in his mouth as the others. He’s climbed to where is because he’s essentially franchised himself; what the New Gods tried to talk Mr. Wednesday into doing in the last episode. We saw Vulcan-brand bullets being used in the opening of the episode, and as Mr. Wednesday meets with who he believes to be one of his allies, you can see the extent of Vulcan’s empire. Any violence committed with bullets stamped with Vulcan mean he’s receiving belief and worship.

In Mythology

Put simply, Vulcan is the Roman god of fire. That applies to the obvious kind of fire–flames, burning, the whole shebang–but also volcanoes (the name volcano is derived from Vulcano, which is derived from Vulcan) and the forge. As such, Vulcan is connected with metalworking. When he’s part of art, the god is usually depicted holding a blacksmith’s hammer. Given that background, it’s easy to move Vulcan into a contemporary setting and associate him with the manufacturing of bullets.

When you have a Roman god, you usually have an equivalent Greek god. Vulcan was known as Hephaestus in the latter mythology. Hephaestus shared some of the same areas as Vulcan, but the god was more well known for his blacksmithing skills and the crafting of art such as jewelry and thrones for gods on Mount Olympus. But he only did this after returning from being outcast. Vulcan/Hephaestus was thrown into the sea from the heights of Mount Olympus after birth because his mother Juno regarded him as hideous. Yeah.

At least he went on to marry Venus?

Vulcan statue in Birmingham, Alabama; photo by Dystopos

Vulcan’s connection to fire meant he was worshipped for reasons of gratitude and fear. People thanked him for the power of fire and its role in crafting items that helped them work more efficiently. Since fire is dangerous, they worshipped him in order to keep spreading flames from wrecking their villages and crops. They went all out on Vulcanalia, the festival of Vulcan. It happened annually on August 23, a time of year when the lack of rain and blazing summer sun put crops at a higher risk of burning. To pay respects to Vulcan on his festival day, humans created large bonfires and sacrificed live fish to the flames.

As I mentioned earlier, art featuring Vulcan usually has the god pose with a blacksmith’s hammer. That’s the case in an iron statue of Vulcan in Birmingham, Alabama (pictured above). The city grew as industrial locale because of the iron and steel industry, and they decided to embody the city’s growth by calling it out with a 50 ton statue of Vulcan, erected in 1904. Neil Gaiman mentioned passing a small town in Alabama and seeing a statue of Vulcan, so though Birmingham isn’t a small town, this could be the statue that helped inspire the creation of the character.

Images: Starz

TWIN PEAKS: The 7 Most Lynchian Moments From Episode 5

We are at chapter 5 now of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s return to Twin Peaks on Showtime, and things have only been getting and crazier, and really haven’t started to make that more sense, but are no less intriguing. Well, maybe a little bit more sense. But this is David Lynch we’re talking about here. We take what we can get.

In this week’s episode, we got more of newly reborn Agent Dale Cooper (living his life as Dougie Jones), played brilliantly of course by Kyle MacLachlan, not to mention more batshit crazy antics with his evil doppelganger. Oh, and we get our first visit to the Double R Diner since the show’s been back. Here are the 7 most Lynchian moments from chapter 5.

Evil Cooper In The Jail Cell

Back in Buckhorn, South Dakota, Evil Doppelganger Coop is sitting silently in his jail cell. He has a moment in front of the mirror, where we get a flashback to BOB and the Doppelganger Coop laughing crazily in the Black Lodge in the original series final episode. That’s a scene that never stops being nightmare inducing.

We cut back to the present, where we see Coop staring at himself in the mirror, as his face slowly morphs into that of BOB. (the late Frank Silva). “You’re still with me. That’s good.” It seems BOB and Evil Coop haven’t been separated at all during these years, and whatever bad stuff they’re up to, they’re doing it together. The slow morph of BOB’s face into Coop’s is creepy as hell, even if we don’t get full BOB, it’s enough to give us the legit creeps.

Dougie Likes Coffee

Real Coop, still brain damaged and living the life of Dougie Jones, is dropped off at his work by his wife Janey-E (Naomi Watts), which we find out is that of an insurance salesman in Las Vegas. While still wandering around like a lost toddler, a younger member of the insurance company’s staff, carrying coffees for the entire staff meeting, gets Dougie’s attention with the smell of all that “good Joe” he’s carrying. One thing Cooper loves, memory or not, is a good old cup o’ coffee.

After Dougie snatches a fellow employee’s coffee and drinks it like it was the elixir of life, he wanders dazed into the meeting, where a fellow employee starts going on about his latest sales. As a light flashed on his face, we get a sudden moment where Dougie seemingly becomes the real Dale Cooper again, and sternly tells the other employee “he’s lying”, right before fading back into toddlerhood. We’re not sure what all this means, but could the real Dale Cooper finally be emerging?

The Poor Casino Manager Gets Busted

Back at the Silver Springs Casino in Vegas, Supervisor Burns (Brett Gelman) is being harassed by a pair of mobsters, played by Jim Belushi and Robert Knepper. Both of these wise guys are not pleased that Burns lost $425,000 to “Mr. Jackpots,” and the pair of obvious mafia dudes are convinced that Burns was in on the job somehow. After roughing him up pretty bad, they tell him he’s fired, and to never step foot in Las Vegas again. What makes this scene so purely Lynchian is while all this violence is going on, we cut to some cute blonde casino employees in pink skirts as they watch on, bored, as if they’ve seen this all a million times before.

Becky Gets High

In our first scene at the Double R Diner, we are reintroduced to Norma Jennings and Shelly Johnson, once again played by Peggy Lipton and Madchen Amick, both still serving up coffee and pie 25 years later. While Norma is in a booth doing paperwork, we see a young girl named Becky, played by Amanda Seyfried, come up to the counter and ask Shelly for money. Turns out Becky is Shelly’s young daughter.

Apparently her husband, Steven Burnett (Caleb Landry Jones), a piece of sleazoid, drug-dealing trash in a white Camaro, needed to be bailed out of money troubles for the umpteenth time. Shelly gives her daughter Becky (is she Bobby’s kid? or Leo’s? Or Neither??) some cash, and we see that Stephen is dealing cocaine. He gives Becky a bump of his latest product, and as she they drive along, we experience her high as some innocent ’50s pop music plays on the radio, all while the sun shines down on her face. It’s a super Lynchy moment, and it (sadly) looks like Shelly’s kid makes the same bad life choices her mother made all those years ago.

Dr. Jacoby, Internet Star

For four episodes now, we’ve been watching as Dr. Jacoby (Russ Tamblyn), living in his beat up trailer in the woods, has been taking a bunch of shovels and spray-painting them gold. Now, we know what for. Turns out, our wacky Hawaii loving psychiatrist has only gotten more insane over the past 25 years, and now has his own internet streaming show, where he goes off on anti-corporate conspiracy rants as “Dr. Amps.”

This is all much to the delight of local pothead Jerry Horne (David Patrick Kelly) and Nadine Hurley (Wendy Robie), who all watch the show the same way they gathered around the TV for soap opera “Invitation  to Love.” Apparently, Jacoby is selling the gold shovels, so his fans can “dig themselves out of the shit.” This whole scene is the kind of crazy nonsense we love Lynch so much for.

Richard Horne Is Our New Frank Booth

Back at the Road House, we are introduced to Richard Horne, played by Eamon Farren. Yes, that’s a new member of the Horne family. But who is he? Ben’s kid? Audrey’s?? (I hope not). He seems more like a psychotic, sleazy nutjob in the vein of Blue Velvet’s Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) than a typical member of the Horne clan, who keep their evil carefully controlled under a respectable exterior. We see him in a booth smoking and brooding, and he continues to smoke even after being asked to stop.

A girl in the booth behind him makes the mistake of flirting with him, after which he gets physical with her and all but threatens to rape her. It’s a pretty terrifying scene, and very much straight from the world of Blue Velvet more than Twin Peaks. Richard also gives a wad of money to one of the new we cops were introduced to at the Sheriff’s Station in the previous episode, probably for some drug trade business. It seems that 25 years on, the cops in town aren’t all  squeaky clean anymore. Bummer.

Evil Coop Gets His “One Phone Call.”

Back in South Dakota, Evil Doppelganger Coop gets his mandatory “one phone call”, and he knows very well that the cops are recording him, per the FBI’s request. As he watches the camera, he threatens the police with calling a certain “Mr. Strawberry.” He then calls a mysterious call box in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The lights start flashing all over the police station, the computers crash, and all hell breaks loose, as  noise starts coming from every device.

Right before Evil Coop hangs up, he says “The cow jumped over the moon” into the call box, and all the chaos stops…and we see the electronic box back in Argentina vanish into a tiny gold ball, much like Dougie Jones did in the Black Lodge a few episodes back. In typical Lynch fashion, I have NO idea what any of this means, but it’s all watchable as hell.

What were your favorite Lynchy moments from chapter 5? Be sure to let us know down below in the comments.

Images: Showtime

Jesus Takes The Wheel, and Other AMERICAN GODS Moments Explained

Spoilers for episode 6 of American Gods follow! You have been warned.

This week, American Gods delved into entirely new territory for book readers, so it might take just a little bit more explaining for everything to make sense. Luckily, that’s what I’m here for! Let’s dive in to everything you might have missed while watching the episode:

Coming To America

A few episodes ago, Mr. Wednesday remarked to Shadow that there are many versions of Jesus walking around in the world of American Gods, and that Mexican Jesus in particular has had a pretty rough go of it lately. Tonight the show doubled down and showed us just what happened to the poor Son of God. While embedded with a group of migrant Mexican workers crossing into the United States, Jesus saved a believer from drowning by walking on water the same way he does in the New Testament–and then everybody, including the women and children, got shot down by a vigilante. However, don’t be fooled by the vigilante’s rosary beads, or his scripture-adorned sniper rifle (it says “Thy Kingdom Come”). He might not know it, but he worships a different God, as evidenced by the inscription on his bullets: Vulcan.

Also, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that most people are at least loosely familiar with Christian iconography, but just in case: the bullet wounds on Jesus’ hands are a reference to the wounds he endured from being nailed to a cross (note the pose he’s in, too); the blood on his chest is modeled in the shape of the Sacred Heart; and the bramble that rolls across his face is a crown of thorns. A bit on the nose, perhaps?

Salim Is Back!

Did you spend Laura and Sweeney’s entire argument about bringing her back to life wondering why there was a New York City cab so far out from where it’s generally supposed to be? So did I, until Salim showed up again and joined forces with them for a road trip, confirming that he’s been given a new life by his Jinn.

Why Laura decides to take the three of them to the Crocodile Bar, however, I’m not sure–perhaps Laura and Shadow had been there before, and that’s why he stopped there in the first place (and why she stopped at her family’s house too, of course)? In any case, her story arc this season serves to remind her, and us, that her “afterlife” isn’t going to be anything like the life she had before.

Know Any Good Charms?

Speaking of thorns, we now have a definitive answer as to how the New Gods can control wood. It’s a bit hard to hear Mr. Wednesday, so here’s exactly what he says: “There’s always been a God shaped hole in Man’s head; trees were the first to fill it. Mr. World was the trees, Mr. World was the forest. He was a very old God who saw something very new, he saw a god-fearing society turn toward complete industrialization. So what did he do? He sacrificed his trees, he sacrificed his forests. And he became something else.” Certainly a fascinating origin story for a god who never got much play in the book–although with Mr. Wednesday, you never know if what he’s saying is true, huh?

By the way, that charm speech Mr Wednesday starts to give before he pulls the tree from Shadow’s side is straight from the book–well, sort of. They’re actually from the Hávamál, an old Norse poem attributed to Odin, which he ends by outlining the eighteen charms he knows.

Vulcan, Virginia

Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, metalworking, and the forge, is a new character to the TV adaptation of American Gods. According to co-showrunner Michael Green, his story is based on a real steel town Neil Gaiman once visited in Alabama with a statue of Vulcan in it (there’s also one in Birmingham, by the way), where it was cheaper to pay out the families of those who suffered fatal accidents than it was to shut down manufacturing to repair the factory.

Judging from the way this episode plays out, the show adapted that story very faithfully, with one particularly timely twist: this town produces bullets, giving Vulcan double the amount of sacrifices than he’d have otherwise. Just as there are different versions of Jesus to believe in, Mr. Wednesday, so are there different versions of America, and this one seems really into owning guns, wearing red armbands, and being white. Not that the latter is explicit, but there certainly doesn’t seem to be a single person of color in the town until Shadow rolls into town.

His set-up being as comfy as it is, Vulcan doesn’t much care about getting involved in a war, and brings up that Wednesday has “sacrificed himself” before. This is a reference to another passage of the Hávamál; in it, Odin hangs on a tree and fasts for nine days and nights with a spear wound in his side, dedicating himself to Odin (so, himself) to discover the runic alphabet. That’s what he means when he says “the world opened up” to him; but that method of gaining power, he says, won’t work anymore.

However, he tentatively agrees to join Wednesday, despite how thoroughly his faith had been “franchised,” and it’s not long until we find out why: he’s aligned himself with the New Gods, who are responsible for hooking him up with his gun connection in the first place (sort of like the missile deal they tried to make Wednesday last episode). Wednesday knew all this, possibly before they even got there, so he devised a scheme; he convinced Vulcan to forge a blade for him, and then killed him so he could tell the other Old Gods that Vulcan was actually killed by the New Gods for joining with Wednesday, thus making him a martyr for the cause.

And finally, Wednesday places a curse on the batch of bullets that Vulcan’s body falls into–or, at least, that’s what he says he’s doing. He could just be pissing on the gun industrial complex, which is perfectly reasonable, too, at least from where I’m standing.

What did you think of this week’s episode? Book readers, were you surprised as I was to see so much changed? Tell us all about it in the comments below.

Images: Starz