Warning! This review is full of spoilers###When novels are adapted in/with regard to’concerning’regarding movies, they necessarily possess’own’nurse to be streamlined massively. Characters disappear or merge with others, subplots dissolve and narrative sidereveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure shuttered up. But Neil Gaiman's American Gods is acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting a intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully different treatment thanks to the creative freedoms granted by longin/with regard to’concerning’regarding m-narrative, non-network television. Things don't need to be cut, subplots can breathe and sidereveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s can play out as loudly as they please.###We've already seen one episode (the fourth, Git Gone), structured as one enormous’vast’massive’tremendous flashback. Now we possess’own’nurse one which takes the 'Coming To America' prologue device and makes it the focus of an entire instalment.###Tainted by the frustration of just wanting to see that main plot move along a bit faster now, please.###It's a double-edged sword. As a standalone 50-odd minute story, the tale of 18th Century, faerie-appeasing independent woman Essie MacGowan (or Tregowan, as she's named in the reserve ) — a bonus role in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the impressively chameleonic Emily Browning — is fantastically absorbing. It not merely’barely further cements Browning as this series' intense’fierce’exquisite est player, but also feeds in the backstory of Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber), repitching him as a far more sympathetic fellow than we'd at first took him in/with regard to’concerning’regarding : a fate-battered, manipulated fellah who looks after his own, and who's just with regards to’concerning’with respect to had abundant’ample’plentiful of being messed around.###However, in the context of this entire season, A Prayer For Mad Sweeney is tainted by the frustration of just wanting to see that main plot move along a bit faster now, please. All these drip-fed teases with regards to’concerning’with respect to the war, Wisconsin, and now "The House on the Rock" are starting to test the patience; the fact that this is the first episode to exclude Shadow utterly merely’barely emphasises the 'one step in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ward, two steps backwards' pace of this reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue .###That said, we do acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure one huge revelation, which clarifies Mad Sweeney's exact role in Mr. Wednesday's contorted plans — he's a supernatural bag man and fixer, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ced to do some terrible things. And he's a great character, too, so acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting a bit more time in his firm’enterprise hardly hurts.###**Q. Is Essie MacGowan related to Laura? **###There's no reason to say she isn't an ancestor, but it feels unlikely and dramatically irrelevant. The point is, Laura reminds Mad Sweeney of Essie, so we see her cast in Laura's in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m (as well as that of the odd’peculiar ly uncredited Fionnula Flanagan) to help explain the beefy Leprechaun's guilt-propel n decision to return the coin to her at the end of the episode.###Q. What's with the creepy rabbit?###Animals always possess’own’nurse token ificance in American Gods: cats and ravens possess’own’nurse apparently’manifestly’noticeably’evidently featured heavily thus far. So that Monty Python And The Holy Grail-ish white rabbit was most likely some kind of supernatural agent deliberately sent to slow Laura and Mad Sweeney. Our best guess is it was working in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Old God Easter (or Eostr), who has yet to appear, but is played by Bryan Fuller's Pushing Daisies collaborator Kristin Chenoweth###Q. What's The House On The Rock that Sweeney referred to?###Where it's all set to kick off. Eventually. And, like many of the locations in Gaiman's novel, it's a real place, too: a tourist appeal’tempt ion quite literally built on a 60-foot high column of rock, filled with odd’peculiar objects and featuring what it boasts as the world's largest indoor carousel.