We start with Essie’s childhood in Ireland, where she was told tales of the leprechauns by her grandmother while waiting for her father’s ship to return from sea.Įssie’s character is played by Emily Browning, the actress who also portrays Laura Moon, in a Cloud Atlas scenario that creates a parallel between these two characters that wasn’t necessarily there in the book.

I’m not sure if this story needed its own episode, but American Gods sure does tell it with panache (the kind of panache Mad Sweeney himself might appreciate). It is Essie McGowan (Essie Tregowan, in the books) who believes in leprechauns enough to bring Mad to America. They are stories of belief - the kind of old-fashioned belief that is missing from the modern world of the present-day action.

However, as we learned in the Nunyunnini “Coming to America” vignette from a few episodes ago, “the gods are greater, but people are greater… for it is in their hearts that gods are born and to their hearts that they return.” The “Coming to America” vignettes are not stories of gods.

One might have thought that an episode called “A Prayer For Mad Sweeney” would see Mad Sweeney as its protagonist. This American Gods review contains spoilers.

American gods season 1 wikiepedia