Shadow and Mr. Wednesday seek out Dvalin to repair the Gungnir spear. But before the dwarf is able to etch the runes of war, he requires a powerful artifact in exchange.

Ok, time for me to reset my expectations. There was a point early in this season where I assumed that one of Neil Gaiman’s issues from Season 1 had been addressed, namely that it has been steered back on course to the book’s narrative. That has seldom proved to be the case and here we have an episode that takes such a sidestep away from the primary plot as to be incidental. The good news is that Doctor Who director Rachel Talalay is a master (Missy?) at tackling this sort of material, and once you accept that an eighth of this season has been given over to such a diversion then there’s lots to enjoy.

As we all know, character and emotion will always trump special effects and action and a lot of this episode is spent in flashback to a burlesque music hall show where Shadow was compère and his son Odinson (Odin’s son, geddit!) was star act and ultimately became just too popular. It’s a tragic tale, helped by great period costumes and a sense of place, Ian McShane getting more to do then normal. The powerful artefact that they need for their quest is certainly not something you’ll see coming, and there’s rumblings in the background as Mr World harnesses the power of New Media in readiness for war.

Verdict: As a piece of well-made fantasy TV this ticks the boxes and passes the time, but at this stage in the season it feels like too much of conceit when things really should be coming to a head. 7/10

Nick Joy