Season 3, Episode 9
The Lake Effect
Shadow has to decide the price he's willing to pay for his idyllic Lakeside life. As Laura and her new ally close in on her target, Wednesday has to persuade Czernobog that it's time to make peace with their enemies.
Tropes That Appear In This Episode:
- Call-Back: Like in "Fire and Ice", Shadow encounters Ganesha (here in the form of an ice sculpture), who gives him an ice-melting coin.
- Evil All Along: Hinzelmann was the one who kidnapped Alison. In fact, she is a Nordic spirit planted there by Viking invaders who has been sacrificing children annually as tribute to keep Lakeside prosperous.
- Frame-Up: Hinzelmann kills Derek and makes it look like he committed suicide after framing him for Allison's murder.
- Heroic BSoD: What having become of Tyr and Demeter have left Wednesday in a depression.
- Instant Expert: Discussed and Zig-Zagged. When practicing with Gungnir, it is clear that while Gungnir is itself magic, it is a weapon as heavy as Laura that she has no experience in using, so she is completely hopeless at using it without the magic of Sweeney's coin.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: Discussed. Laura makes a pass at Liam and propositions him for sex under the belief that she might die (again) the next day, but decides not to, recognizing that she is just repeating a self-destructive pattern.
- Rule of Symbolism: When Laura practices with Gungnir, she manages to impale an image of The Last Supper in a spot where Jesus is conspicuously absent in, implying that the spear will make a martyr of someone very soon, but not the one you're expecting.
- Wham Episode: Laura successfully kills Mr. Wednesday.
- You Are Too Late: After losing Tyr and Demeter, Wednesday has a change of heart and decides that the war is not worth it and tries to negotiate peace with the New Gods. While the New Gods have proposed peace in the past, at this point Mr. World provides a different offer; the Old Gods can flee to the farthest corners of the country so that they can live the rest of their short lives in peace before Project SHARD erases them from existence.
