American Gods: 5 questions we have after ‘The Bone Orchard’

2. Is Shadow Moon just a human?

For the bulk of American Gods’ premiere, we’re very pointedly led to believe that Shadow Moon is our proxy. We are seeing this world with identical eyes, equally as mystified by the same coin tricks and seemingly god-like powers of his new employer and his associates.

But is that all? When American Gods first introduces us to Shadow, he admits to feeling something strange in the air — and it’s not just the snow. There’s a blade hanging over his head, he says, one that he can still feel even as he’s about to be a free man.

Then there are the nooses. As we mentioned above, the noose, itself, has a special part in the ancient story of Odin from Norse mythology. Perhaps Wednesday himself is producing these visions as a sort of heralding for his imminent arrival in Shadow’s life.

Only, they are premonitions, right? The men in the prison yard hold a noose as they eye Shadow menacingly. Later, when Shadow is dreaming a walk through the bone orchard, the scene ends with a noose falling heavily into frame.

It takes nearly the full length of the episode for these Chekhovian signs to come to fruition. When Shadow’s outmatched by Synthetic Toad Skin’s faceless thugs, he ends up hung from a tree by the side of the road.

All of which begs the question: is Shadow just a human? Or is he actually divine in some way too?