WARNING: The following contains spoilers for American Gods Season 3, Episode 9, “The Lake Effect,” which aired Sunday on Starz.
Something is up with the idyllic Lakeside, and that has been apparent since the first episode of Season 3. Mr. Wednesday was insistent that Shadow Moon hideout in the town, but he did not disclose what was so important about Lakeside. Later on, a teenager, Alison, would go missing, and Shadow would begin to have premonitions connected to her disappearance; however, it is the town's matriarch, Ann-Marie Hinzelmann, who tells Shadow exactly what's going on.
While Shadow noticed things were off in Lakeside early on, things get darker with each passing episode, and in "The Lake Effect" Derek is found dead with Alison's jacket. While it's presumed he killed her, Shadow does a deeper investigation and learns the town has a long history of missing children. These kids would vanish around the town's winter festival, and as Shadow discovers, they were murdered and put in the back of each year's clunker.
The clunker is a broken down car that is put on the frozen lake, and the citizen's place bets on when it will crack through the ice. This competition is the perfect way to hide the bodies, since it is an annual tradition no one messes with, and no one bothers to investigate the cars once they sink.
Unfortunately, while investigating the clunker, Shadow falls through the ice. After seeing the spirits of the children at the bottom of the lake, Shadow tries to swim back to the surface, with the Orishas awaiting him. However, he passes out from the cold, and it's Hinzelmann who recovers Shadow's body.
She puts him in a bath so he doesn't suffer from hypothermia, and when he wakes up, Hinzelmann remarks that Shadow must have powerful guardians on his side. This implies Hinzelmann knows who Shadow really is, and Shadow realizes Hinzelmann is behind the murders, as she is in charge of the clunker competition. He then accuses her of framing Derek because she needed Shadow and the town to stop investigating.
Hinzelmann does not deny this, and she tells Shadow that each child was a necessary sacrifice for the town's prosperity. Earlier on in Season 3, Hinzelmann revealed the town had connections to Norse traditions, but this runs deeper than Shadow expected, with Hinzelmann citing those traditions as justification for the sacrifices. She also tells Shadow that the citizens should've been able to figure out the truth, but they chose to ignore what was in front of them.
In Hinzelmann's eyes, she's protecting the town from the dark realities of the world, and she tries to convince Shadow that he can be a part of this paradise, as long as he forgets what he has seen. She isn't surprised when Shadow turns her offer down, and she reveals she was worried about him from the start, but she owed Wednesday a debt.
Hinzelmann also reveals that she was originally a benevolent spirit, but because people began making sacrifices in her name, she needed to deliver, thus creating a cycle of bloodshed for centuries. Thankfully, Chief Chad Mulligan comes in and overhears all of this.
Hinzelmann hits Shadow over the head, and Mulligan shots her several times, but this doesn't hurt her. She tries to kill Mulligan, but Shadow comes to and grabs one of the blades from her wall, which happens to be spilling the blood of the first child sacrifice. He slices Hinzelmann's neck, and as her blood splatters, it catches whatever it touches on fire. She burns to death in her house, hopefully bringing an end to Lakeside's tradition of sacrifices.
Based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, American Gods stars Ricky Whittle, Emily Browning, Bruce Langley, Yetide Badaki, Ian McShane, Omid Abtahi and Ashley Reyes. The series airs Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Starz.
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