In “Head Full of Snow,” American Gods Travels Through Worlds with Ease

The bank robbery is great fun—heists are almost always fun. But it also shows how successful American Gods is at changing tone. From horror in the last episode to a lighthearted heist in this episode, the series never balks at the mood it needs to tell whichever story it is telling. This episode alone includes comedy, adventure and romance—and the comedy is funny, the adventure is fun and surprising, and the romance is truly romantic.

In my favorite coming-to-America story so far (it’s my favorite in the book, too), “Head Full of Snow” tells a perfect short story about a worn-down salesman, Salim (Omid Atahi), meeting a tired cab driver (Mousa Kraish), who is really one of the Jinn and whose eyes are full of fire. The two men share a short conversation in Arabic, and in doing so, honor the humanity they recognize in each other. The decision to use Arabic captions as well as English is a beautiful touch, featuring a language often used on TV to inspire terror instead of kindness. Two brown men who speak Arabic is a scenario many Americans have been told to fear, but American Gods portrays them as compassionate and sensual. American Gods again takes something that could be viewed as sinister and makes it romantic during their sex scene, when it shows the men as massive ink-black figures in the desert sands, with fire in their bodies. Instead of a fearsome image against a night sky, it becomes a beautiful, loving image of the men.

By viewing this quite explicit sex scene tenderly, and without hiding their bodies, American Gods shows that it views the sex between them as beautiful, not shameful. The camera views these two men clearly and with compassion. It focuses on their eyes and faces, which are reflecting the love and passion they feel, and on full shots of their bodies, which are clearly experiencing pleasure instead of pain, anger, or embarrassment, as sexual encounters between two men are sometimes portrayed in media.

Though the Jinn says he doesn’t grant wishes, he does make Salim’s fantasy come true, both by loving him for a night and by giving him an entirely new life in America, if he wants it. When Salim takes the keys to the Jinn’s cab and puts on the Jinn’s sweater, the optimism Salim shows at this unexpected role reversal is a delight.

With a long climb up a narrow staircase, the woman in the opening leaves Queens for another world, never to return, just as the salesman does when he picks up the keys to a cab that isn’t his. Shadow makes that same metaphorical journey. Now that he knows that he can make snow, he can’t ever go back.