As promised by showrunner Bryan Fuller, his adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s epic novel features brand new characters and scenarios, and in this episode we meet Vulcan, an old god who has adapted to meet the needs of modern Americans.

Running an eponymous town in Virginia, the focal point of which is a munitions factory, Vulcan has found a new set of worshippers who use the victims of his weapons as blood sacrifices. The town itself is scarily populated by extreme firearms fanatics who shoot a hail of bullets into the air in honour of their deity, a world-weary Corbin Bernson.

When Wednesday and Shadow rock up in town to check his allegiances and request that he forge a weapon for the coming storm, it’s evident that it’s not just molten metal that’s being pressed into the bullet casings. You get a real sense of the conflict that Vulcan feels in trying to be relevant in the modern world, while also realising that he is the architect of mass destruction.

Bernson is great as Vulcan, and there’s some nice repartee between him and Wednesday, who we continue to learn more about in snippets each week. My only criticism is not that the narrative has gone off track for the week, but rather that this feels like a ‘God of the week’ episode, which is fine when you have 26 episodes to play with, but less when you only have 8.

Of more interest is the new uneasy alliance between Laura, Mad Sweeney (‘Ginger Minge’) and taxi driver Salim. This unlikely trio are each working to their own agendas on their road trip. The ‘Coming to America’ segment features Mexican immigrants crossing the border in the company of a most unexpected God.

Verdict: ‘Is she a leprechaun?’ Salim asks. ‘No, she’s a leprec**t’ swears Mad Sweeney. And that sums up this episode – rough, funny and shocking. It may be a little indulgent at this stage to focus on a single God, but what a ride. 7/10

Nick Joy