Vulcan has the kind of influence that Wednesday wishes he had, and Wednesday turns to his old friend in hopes of getting some extra firepower in his war against the New Gods. Vulcan is a new character created for the TV series, and the Roman god of fire is reimagined as an ammunition manufacturer whose factory employs the residents of a Virginia town that shares his name. Related StoriesĪmmunition also plays a major part as the industry that gives Vulcan (Corbin Bernsen) his power. Killing people who are trying to find a better life for themselves is antithetical to Jesus’s teachings, and the people shooting guns in the name of God’s kingdom are crucifying his son with every bullet fired.

That’s enough to make the statement clear, but then there’s a shot of Jesus dead on the ground in the same position as when he was hung on the cross, which is the visual equivalent of the creative team grabbing a megaphone and screaming in the audience’s face. The first bullet that hits Jesus goes through his palms to make sure viewers realize that this is a metaphor for his crucifixion, and a close-up of the engraving on the rifles highlights the hypocrisy of the shooters. The writers are making a very loud statement about how Christian values are corrupted by xenophobes who don’t understand what Jesus actually preached, but the storytelling is so heavy-handed that it diminishes the impact of message. “A Murder of Gods” is very short on subtlety, beginning with the prologue that has Jesus and his immigrant followers gunned down by border patrol officers with “Thy Kingdom Come” engraved on their rifles. It can do that because it isn’t trying to create a sense of reality, but as a result, its exploration of complicated ideas can feel very superficial. These are all complex subjects, but American Gods prefers to paint a picture with broad strokes. Writers Seamus Kevin Fahey, Michael Green, and Bryan Fuller realize that the current political climate gives them a lot of new material to incorporate into the general concept of Neil Gaiman’s novel, and they use this episode to directly address topics like immigration, gun control, and racism. with Jesus Christ’s help, and later visits an all-white rural town obsessed with guns and steeped in Nazi imagery.

The episode opens with a “Coming to America” segment following a group of immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. American Gods hasn’t shied away from political commentary in this first season, but “A Murder of Gods” goes harder in this regard than any of the preceding chapters.

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