For all the weird and surreal things that happen in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, by far the standout moment is the part when a man literally fucks himself to death and is eaten by a vagina — it’s also known as the Orgasm of Death scene. This gory scene happens in the middle of the novel, so the Bryan Fuller- and Michal Green-helmed television adaptation could have placed it anywhere in Season 1. But writer Dan Wickline maintains that he has seen the pilot, and he says that infamous scene is in the very first episode.
The scene involves Bilquis, who will be played by Yetide Badaki. In the book, Bilquis is a succubus-like god who gets her energy through vaginally consuming her partner during sex. According to the report, the show changes her from a prostitute to a woman on an internet date. Even though Bilquis’s backstory has been changed, her hookup ends the same way, and it’s very graphic.
This is not a surprise to anyone who has seen Fuller’s Hannibal, which favored set pieces that were luridly hypnotic. But it’s still a ballsy move to put it in the pilot. For any non-book readers, it will immediately establish the show as a sexually progressive story full of weird wonders, head-scratching turns, and the occasional stomach-turning development.
American Gods will air on Starz in April.
