Dying Is the Best Thing That Happened to Laura Moon

Published August 2, 2017 · Updated July 6, 2022

“Love always has you at a disadvantage.”
“Death has me at a disadvantage.”

And I was smitten!

I gotta admit, guys, the first 45 minutes of this episode, I thought, “Oh god—Is Laura friggin’ Moon a main character now? With an entire episode being devoted to her, she probably has more overall screen time now than anyone other than Shadow. I don’t know how I feel about this.”

But then a miraculous thing happened. Laura grew a personality. And she only needed to die to do it! Dead Laura was a thousand times more personable and hilarious than alive-but-dead-inside Laura.

From the tete-a-tete with Audrey in the house where Audrey went from being terrified to being pissed, all while helping Laura sew her damn arm back on (“Thoughtful of you to make us a scrapbook.” “Fuck you, Laura.”), to the witty banter in the car (“Well, you had a shitty obituary because you had a shitty life. You were shitty.”), I was suddenly totally on-board with the Laura-Audrey buddy comedy. Who knew that actually giving the two some good writing would make each of them better characters and better actors?

Also, what’s up with Laura’s newfound superpowers? Is it standard for zombies to have cartoonishly-overpowered strength against anthropomorphic tech beings? What’s happening there? Does she have the strength of the dead behind her?

Also, Anubis and his minion didn’t seem out-of-water patching up Laura and making her look alive. Looks like they’ve done this before. How many Zombie people on a mission are running around the American Gods universe?

Keep up the good work, guys. Been listening since Westworld and Taboo. You folks do a fine job.

Thanks,
Shain in Kansas City

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