"RED HARVEST“ PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, EPISODES 4-5

This review contains spoilers.

Like the original series, “City of Angels”“ opts for the shorter season format that has become popular in this new “Golden Age of Television.”“ Instead of the old twenty-two episodes or more per season model that once dominated television, with its episodic approach and a central storyline threaded throughout, but very much on the backburner until it was time for a season finale with a shocking cliffhanger, shorter seasons aim to give you a complete tale like a novel or a film. From a narrative point of view, such shows will adhere to a tenet of dramatic storytelling for each season: the three-act-structure. The first season of “City of Angels”“ is scheduled to run for ten episodes. Now at the mid-point, with five episodes in, the manner in which the story is broken down becomes apparent. Since John Logan, the show“s creator and main writer, comes from screenwriting first and foremost, we see that this season very much works like your typical three-act-movie. The first three episodes together served as the first act. Logan introduced the setting (we are in a highly-fictionalized version of Los Angeles of 1938), the genre (a hybrid between a crime drama and a supernatural thriller i.e. “pulp fiction”“ genres popularized in the 1930s), his players (police detectives, gang members with an ethnic background, corrupt politicians, religious worshippers and foreign agents as well as two immortal deities), and the central conflicts. With episode four, Logan kicks off the second act. In keeping with the three-act-structure, Logan needs to achieve several things during this part of the story he wants to tell. The main conflict must come into sharper focus, otherwise the loosely connected, more personal stories which the writer set into motion during the first act (“the introduction”“) will remain just that, individual stories about the lives of several characters. The audience may be induced to follow these smaller conflicts to see how they are resolved, but they may not. Logan knows that with so much entertainment to choose from, an oft-repeated mantra among viewers is: “I“ll give it three episodes to see how it goes.”“ Going forward, this show, every show that follows this format of storytelling, will need to build one central theme out of these smaller story threads. This theme needs to more universal in opposition to the personal, character-based conflicts. What the show must do once it begins its second act is to reveal its true nature. Logan chooses to begin the fourth episode in a similar fashion than how he started the season: with the death of men. Since he has already introduced us to the angel for the dead, Santa Muerta (Lorenza Izzo), once we see her presence, this time in a town from across the border, we know that there“ll be some dying. Death comes for the just and the unjust alike. This time, the inciting incident isn“t brought about by her evil sister, though. Magda isn“t trying to prove a point like she was doing during the apocalyptic opening to the series, when the demonic entity set a field ablaze with the fires from the hell from whence she surely must come, and every migrant worker in it, including the father of our lead Tiago Vega. This time, Magda is nowhere around. She doesn“t have to prove a point, since she“s already proven it. Though this is a peaceful community, with men, women and children who are still out at night to have a late meal or to enjoy each other“s company, we realize that this won“t last. We know this from Santa Muerta“s presence and the pained expression on her face. There are others, two men who are not here to celebrate, but to make a brief stop on their long journey through the night. From their language and the way, they carry themselves, we immediately learn that they“re foreigners. In this country, they are the outsiders. Even more so, they“re Jews, which makes the men outsiders in every country they“ll turn to. But they are also traders in violence. They are long past the point of “turning the other cheek”“. Without intending this, simply by choosing a life that is governed by “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”“, they“ve brought to this little town what Magda told Santa Muerta what men will always bring, violence and death. For they are violent men who lead violent lives and who will find a violent end. Like the Mexicans who work across the border, these men want to send something home to support their loved ones who have stayed behind. Only in their case, there is not a country they can call home, but one that must first be won by bloody conflict. Hence, the guns they“ve on their truck are intended for their brothers and sisters Palestine, to fight the Arabs. Though the boss of their boss and by extension, their boss, are brutal gangsters, they are still Jews who understand what it means to be one with the Holy Land once again. Their home, both imagined and very real, is the lover they are willing to win and to defend with violence. But then there are others. Also, men who know the way of the gun, also Jews, but Jews who do not possess honor or who feel this sense of loss, of yearning for a country from which they“ve been uprooted in spirit. The lure of fast money, the principle of turning a quick buck, an inherent willingness to take every opportunity that promises such, which is a character trait that is ascribed onto men who share their heritage and faith by other men as a means to denigrate such as they but which is likewise a fundamental principle of their adopted home America, has led them astray. These men also come at night like betrayers very often will, for they have betrayed a cause that should be one shared among their community, and they have turned their bosses into impotent fathers and spurred lovers. They“ve come to rob these weapons, to sell them for a profit on to their sworn foes, but unlike Fly Rico and his fellow kooky cosplayers who dream themselves into big bandits of legend as Pachucos, these men are deadly serious, and they don“t hesitate. Their deceit is final, and their lives are violent, and their world is made of brutality. Their wages are war and the bill they have come to present reads death. And death is what they have brought upon this neighborhood of this Mexican town. Santa Muerta has come for the two men who are about to be gunned down by these men who willingly violate the basic tenets of their faith, the belief system their religion and their society are built upon. Men will do this, since men are born in violence. Maybe it“s a choice, maybe it isn“t, but these men, in this town, they will kill. Yet the angel for the dead isn“t saddened for any of these men, those two who“ll die in this moment as their bodies are riddled with bullets. Nor is the deity distraught for the other foreigners who will die later, since they“ll die as betrayers must die, but for these local men, women and their children. Like Santa Muerta, the angel for the dead, death has no heart to care for men. Death will come for the guilty or the innocent alike. Since this is a gangland heist and an execution all at once, no witnesses can be left behind. This is a red harvest! With the way in which Logan began the season and he now chooses to open the second act of “City of Angels”“, it would appear that his central motif is violence, or perhaps the fleeting futility of life itself, but as it turns out, violence and brutality are only manners in which the theme at the heart of “City of Angels”“ manifests itself. With episode four, Logan reveals that this is very much a show (or season) about love. “City of Angels”“ is a romance, maybe a dark romance, but still it is the search for love that guides the narrative and each character. We are conceived out of passion and pain. We are all born bloody. Thus, violence is an integral part of it. John Logan intends to tell us a love story, and his love story will include romance, lust, betrayal, and the good and bad things that“ll happen along the way. The good things are sweet, the bad things are violent and bloody, for this is the domain of the species called homo sapiens, humans. Love is about rebirth, and with rebirth, like with any birth, comes pain and blood. But once the pain subsides, there can also be forgiveness and individual growth.

On the surface, when compared to each other, it would appear that episode four is much stronger than episode five, and that this is tied to the fact that both episodes have two different creatives teams. The fourth episode, “Josefina and the Holy Spirit”“, is written by John Logan and helmed once again by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, whereas the fifth episode, “Children of the Royal Sun”“, was penned by JosÃ© Rivera and directed by Roxann Dawson. While this maybe holds true on a purely technical level, the overall pacing comes to mind with the latter episode feeling less energetic at times or the acting, which feels a bit less crisp and sharp (most noticeable with both Dormer and BishÃ© who have been outstanding so far) it isn“t a fair assessment from a structural point of view. First and foremost, both episodes are interlinked since they both serve as the first part of the second act. Other than defining the main theme (or conflict), the second act must present each central character with a choice, a point of no return. The characters have already learned a valuable lesson during the first act, now they all must make a decision based on what they“ve discovered about the world and themselves. In most cases, the characters know the mechanics of this process: if they go through this door or if they do this one thing, from here on out, they and their lives will never be the same. There will be consequences. Making every character aware of the gravity of the next step, they will either take or refuse to take (thereby also making a decision), allows us access to their thought processes. The way the episodes are structured, the latter one either serves as a coda to a decision made in the former episode, or as a reprise. In other instances, as we discover just later in the fifth episode, there is a culmination or a second climax to the previous actions taken. Hence, clearly by design, episode four is mostly all orgasm, then ultimately, there must be what is often referred to as “la petite mort”“, the sensation of post orgasm, a dejecting sense of dullness and sadness, of dying even, that follows a brief loss or weakening of consciousness. Thus, either intended or not, by juxtaposing the more action-oriented, very violent fourth episode with the slower, more reflective fifth episode we get both, the sensation of losing oneself, of becoming alive, of being born, then the sobering sadness that“ll arrive with the realization that this bliss won“t last, that pain is a part of the mortal coil of our existence. Consequently, by following the basic structure of three-act-storytelling, we encounter eight situations in which a character (or pairs of characters) must make a decision. Eight turns on the road either taken or not taken. Whereas some of the characters are ready and willing to find out where this may lead to, they cannot help themselves since they are driven by love or lust, the only character who turns this car around before it goes too far, has been set up to do that from the start. When we encounter Detective Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) in the premier episode, we quickly learn that this here is an honest police officer and an honest man. But Michener is also a Jew and he“s found out that the Third Reich has placed agents throughout the town, and that their main guy, architect Richard Goss (Thomas Kretschman), has his hands in something big. When two of Michener“s friends turn up dead after they were following the slick and refined architect, the veteran detective knows that this web of intrigue has grown too vast for him to handle this situation by himself. It“s the love for his people and the love for his dead friends that make Detective Michener afraid and willing to try something desperate. He arranges for a meeting with a Jewish mobster. The imposing Benny Berman (Brad Garrett), who has direct ties to brutal crime lord Meyer Lansky, actually takes the meeting, but more out of curiosity than courtesy. Benny and Michener meet at the grave of one of the detective“s murdered pals with the latter hoping to play on the former“s sympathies, to enlist his support in fighting the Nazis. They“re all from the same shtetl after all, and they are all persecuted, only Benny has the means to do something about this just now. And he would want to, Michener tells him, since the Nazis are working on a rocket that can reach “London, Jerusalem and New York.”“ Michener also knows that Benny“s boss Lansky supports their people in Palestine with guns and money. But to Benny Berman, this plays out on a much more personal level. Berman is hurting from rejection. “What have the Jews ever done for me?”“ he asks Michener while he tells him that his people have turned their back on him since he is not one for “turning the other cheek.”“ He is an outcast among outcasts. Ostensibly, the refusal he“s experienced has made him turn his back on his people. Still, Benny goes along with Lansky“s scheme to supply their people with funds and weapons, though it is debatable if the gangster has any choice in the matter. However, this endeavor ends with making Berman spurred a second time. Now his own people have dared to steal these weapons from Lansky, their people in the Holy Land and by extension, from him. The little he“s been talked into doing for those who have rejected him, to maybe eventually win their respect, he“s even denied that. There“s some tragedy in this, which is reflected in the labored, yet awkwardly stilted manner in which Logan has Benny speak. Benny wants to be accepted, desperately so. Benny is a jilted lover who tries twice as hard. And those men who stand between the object of his affection, those who steal the only prize he has to offer, they can only be paid in blood for their vile treason. What must have felt like a coup to these men, is their own death warrant. Consequently, Benny is not as unsympathetic to Michener“s plight, which is the plight of his people, his people who have rejected him. He will “stay in touch”“, he tells the detective. Soon thereafter, Michener is abducted from his own home by Benny“s henchmen and brought to a smoke house for fish where the mobster has strung up one of his associates. This individual, Mr. Leonard Schiff, was the brains behind the killing of two of Benny“s men and the subsequent hijacking of the truck with the guns. And yes, they murdered a “boatload of spics”“ as well, as Benny points out to Michener. And what about the weapons intended for Palestine? Why, Schiff sold them to the Nazis. Obviously, a man like Berman can“t let such insult upon insult go unpunished. There“s something else that irks the Jewish mobster: “Mr. Schiff, he“s a good Jew, you understand. Every temple wanted him.”“ This is when Benny puts a gun into Michener“s hand. “Go on, kill him. Do we do business, my friend?”“ This is when the detective must make his choice. How badly does he want Berman“s support, and at what cost? For him, it is no choice at all. Without a moment of hesitation, Michener hands the gun back to the Jewish mobster. Kicking the teeth in of one of Richard Goss“s agents in Los Angeles, albeit another unwitting fool like the young engineer Lewis and his friends had been tracking, is one thing, but shooting a tied up and badly beaten fellow in front of a bunch of gangsters is not the hill he will die on. But Benny must also make a decision, and thus Berman leaves Detective Michener with a cryptic quote: “By blood and fire Judea fell, by blood and fire Judea shall rise.”“ That is after he“s shot Schiff in the head. Meanwhile, his partner Detective Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) feels equally mortally wounded, but he“s been shot through the heart. After he“d gotten very close to Sister Molly (Kerry BishÃ©), the face of the Joyful Voices Ministry, Michener told Vega that there“s strong evidence suggesting that she had an affair with the father of the murdered Hazlett family, James Hazlett being one of the Ministry“s money men. Michener had discovered that Hazlett even got them a love nest which he hid from the ministry, but apparently not well enough. After Vega has another run-in with the very racist Officer Reilly (Rod McLachlan) vis-Ã -vis the man“s brutal interrogation techniques, and he receives a stern talking to from his C.O. “to work the Hazlett case”“, the highly conflicted Mexican American homicide detective decides to pay Hazlett“s secret love nest a visit to confront the truth. What he finds confirms Michener“s suspicion. Indeed, Molly and James Hazlett had an illicit relationship. And judging by what else he discovers; it was indeed a consummated affair. Conveniently, this is when Molly shows up who is rightfully annoyed. After their meet-cute and their subsequent date, she sees no point in sugar-coating the truth for him only for him to feel better. Yes, she was sleeping with Hazlett, and he wasn“t the first man she has had an affair with. “I am not who you want me to be”¦ I“m not who anyone wants me to be. I am only who I want to be.”“ This must come as a surprise to Vega who got the sense that here was a woman who had no real idea about who she really was. Before the lovestruck detective has the chance to explore this any further, she tells him: “I cannot be what you want. We were someone else for a day, but now that“s over”¦ I am Sister Molly. That“s who I am. It“s all the value I have in life. We are who we are.”“ But he isn“t ready to let go of the woman he hardly knows, the illusion or the real her beneath all her acts and the pretend play. He wants more, but Molly tells him that she doesn“t want to see him again, and thus, it would seem, she closes the door on their romance. And this is where Vega should let things lie. For one, he“s a detective, and he“s working a case in which Molly is at least a person of interest. Furthermore, his instincts ought to tell him that she“s a deeply flawed, if not even a severely broken individual who might have lost herself on her way, and who he might be ill-suited to bring back. Also, unbeknownst to him, there are strong indications that her involvement in the murder of the family of four might further reaching than she“s let on, with her mother commenting to her security man: “We know how this is going to end”“, once she learns that Vega and Molly do see each other again. Vega has made his decision. And so has Molly. They won“t stay away from each other, but instead they give in to their impulses. Vega is trapped, and with a riddle like Molly, it“s he who is like a sailor who is lost at sea.

At the same time, it“s his sister Josefina who becomes dramatically unmoored from her life and her own identity. While Josefina (Jessica Garza) and her younger brother Mateo (Johnathan Nieves) are walking back from a grocery store, they happen upon Officer Reilly and some of his brothers from the force. It takes Reilly a moment but then he recognizes Mateo. He attacked the teen before at the hospital when he wanted revenge for his partner who had lost an eye during the riot in Mateo“s neighborhood. It was the young Pachuco Fly Rico (Sebastian Chacon) who stopped him from seriously injuring the teenager in a similar fashion, though Reilly is unaware that Mateo is Detective Vega“s brother. To him, this boy is just another Mexican American he and his brothers can harass as they please. The same holds true for the girl who“s underage. While the other officers hold Mateo pressed against a wire fence, Officer Reilly turns his attention to the young girl. What follows is a scene that plays out similarly to the scene in the movie “Crash”“ (2004) in which a police officer, played by Matt Dillon, pulls over a vehicle with an African American couple. While he puts the driver “in his place”“ in front of the wife and his young fellow officer, he then proceeds to sexually molests the woman, played by Thandie Newton. The young officer, played by Ryan Philippe, is growing increasingly uncomfortable while the black couple is brutally demeaned by his partner, though he does not speak up. Officer Reilly on the other hand doesn“t have to worry about any objections from his brothers who look on leeringly. Like Dillon“s patrolman, Reilly administers a pat-down on the teenager which is just a thin pretense to feel Josefina up. As the officer puts his hand under her skirt, the girl and her brother make a decision in their heads. With Josefina, there“s a sense of shame she must find a release for. She makes Mateo promise that he won“t tell their mother, but still she will have to tell somebody. She knows this. She needs somebody to make this right for her, to tell her that this was not her fault and that she was powerless to stop this. This leads her to the Joyful Voices Ministry and into the arms of Sister Molly who has put herself into a trance like state and who then spreads the gospel among her congregation. Josefina has found a new home, and, in some respects, she finds a new family. She invites the God Molly worships into her heart, the God, who according to Molly, will protect her from Satan himself, who is a man after all. The gods of folklore and myth her mother prays to, and relies on for protection, chief among them Santa Muerta, have failed her. Whatever Molly is selling, she will buy it from here on out. As it turns out, Mateo has already found a new family, and this brings about an argument with his mother and his brothers once they discover his Pachuco gang tattoo. While Mateo has to deal with his own sense of worth after he has failed his sister, though there was nothing he could have done against three grown men with nightsticks, guns and combat experience, he now feels shame and rejection from his mother and brothers. Since Josefina has also made him promise that he wouldn“t say anything to their detective brother, it surely must be Tiago“s rejection that hurts the most. The man who has attacked their sister is a man who comes from Tiago“s new family. Mateo is keenly aware how proud their mother Maria (Adriana Barraza) is when it comes to his brother“s choice of career, and his older brother Raul (Adam Rodriguez) seems to have completely forgiven Tiago for shooting him during the riot. Unable to go back on his word, there“s no way he can make his family understand, not that any words would make a difference now. Mateo has already been pushed too far during his initial encounter with the sadistic officer. And then there is the seduction that Fly Rico offers and Rio, the beautiful, red-haired queen of this group of Pachuco rebels. The face of Rio is one of the disguises the demon Magda (Natalie Dormer) will wear as she walks among men to show them that they can be bad and destructive as they please, because in her mind, this is the true nature of humans. Mateo must reclaim his identity, and he can only do this with the one family that hasn“t rejected him. Though Fly Rico is still reluctant to make a move against the police officers who constantly harass them, Rio has a friend who knows where they can find Officer Reilly during his downtime. As it turns out, the good officer has a couple of African American women he turns onto doing drugs, so they“ll give him sexual favors whenever he feels like it. As Rio“s friend knows, he is with one of these unfortunate women right at this moment. With Rio talking into his one ear and a highly motivated Mateo talking into his other, Fly Rico has little choice but to fall into line, though there are certain lines he will not cross, and as it turns out, he won“t have to. This isn“t his story nor is he the one who will need to make a decision. Soon, Rio, Fly Rico, Mateo and another kid who got badly beaten by Reilly kick down the door where Reilly is having relations with the black woman Rio“s friend told her about. With the woman pushed out of the room, the odds are severely stacked in favor of the Mexican Americans kids for the first time. After they have beaten the man, it“s Fly Rico who puts his switchblade into Mateo“s hand. Now it is Fly Rico and Rio who are whispering into his ears. “Kill him,”“ Fly Rico spurs the youngest Vega sibling on, while Rio tells him: “He has seen us, Mateo. He knows who we are.”“ Mateo is hesitant. He“s old enough to instinctively know that this is his point of no return, if he doesn“t turn the metaphorical car around, this will be his life henceforth. Then there“s Rico again: “Do it! She“s your sister.”“ And with all his shame, sense of rejection and rightful anger, there is nothing to hold him back. He does not have the moral compass Detective Michener has developed. What little compassion for his fellow men he“s left in his heart, after seeing his cop brother shoot his older brother Raul and then being forced to watch while his sister was getting molested by this man who is now down on his knees in front of him, with blood gushing from his battered face, it dies in the moment the officer makes a desperate attempt to escape his impending judgment. As he tries to crawl away like a wounded animal, Mateo straddles him from behind. He puts the blade to the man“s throat and starts slicing. But killing doesn“t come easy to Mateo just yet and neither does dying to Officer Reilly. He and the teenager struggle violently which puts the patrolman on his back. This way Mateo now faces his nemesis who is his victim now. Again and again he applies the sharp blade to the man“s throat as Officer Reilly tries to shake him loose, but to no avail. Mateo is the animal now. He is all rage, a blade made of stainless steel. Officer Reilly makes one last defiant and desperate burst to save himself, then his struggling subsides, and a raw, but satisfied look falls over Mateo“s face. He“s killed the beast. He has slain the dragon. He“s a killer now. He rises a new man, a man whose birth came like the birth of every man, in blood, and it“s not his own blood. He looks down on his victim for what feels like an eternity and as if to store this very image in his memory. Then they drop the bloody body of the naked officer right in front of the precinct. Though the dead man looks very much like a newborn, it“s Mateo who has been born again. A criminal.

The central theme of love and the conflicts a romance born out of violence will bring in this brutal world “City of Angels”“ depicts, is also at the forefront of the other four character turning points we get during this first half of the second act. Last we saw Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis), he“d just been denigrated by his secret Nazi benefactor Richard Goss. Filled with anger, shame and self-loathing, the politician was about to perform fellatio on a young male prostitute. His nightly escapades are very much on the radar of his assistant Alex (another disguise for Magda), and this she cannot allow. Charlton is too prominent now and he“ll be more so soon, since he“s Alex and Goss“s puppet candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles. Councilman Townsend needs a rebirth of his own, one that is orchestrated by the demon and her Earthly counterpart, the Nazi Goss. As Townsend is about to leave another male prostitute in a seedy room of a low-rent hotel, with him short-changing the fellow who has given him sexual pleasure, there“s Goss“s driver Kurt (Dominic Sherwood) darkening the door. He kills the man, and he abducts the politician. It“s in his car that we hear Kurt speak for the first time. To the councilman“s surprise he learns that seemingly Kurt“s an American, though he is part of the German secret police. This actually endears him to the smarmy bureaucrat who despises Goss and the power the Nazi has over him, and who“s back to his cowardly self. Kurt drives him to a motel on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and Townsend begs for his life since he must expect that Kurt is going to shoot him as well. But once they are in the privacy of one of the rooms, Kurt kisses him. Then he undresses the councilman while the camera pans to a mirror. Like with “The Wizard of Oz”“, we are allowed to look behind the curtain. What we glimpse is a guy with a handheld camera who is filming what“s going on in the room through the two-way mirror with a highly satisfied Alex sitting right behind him. This is the oldest trick in the book where politicians and their sex-lives are concerned, but to Charlton Townsend this feels like real love. And soon, he makes his decision, which seems small at first. He talks to Alex about Kurt while he“s about to choose a new tie from a box he“s sent for. The man is in love, but his assistant is there to tell him to keep his mouth shut. “Love is a glorious thing, isn“t it? But don“t you ever ask anybody else about Kurt again. Or any boy, hear me?”“ He needs to get his head in the right space. She reminds Charlton that he needs to imagine what his political enemies might make of this, or his father. Still, he decides to keep the blue tie Alex told him would suit him since blue is a royal color. But with a tiny gesture of defiance he“s subverted the tie from something that would befit a politician with designs on a higher station to something he will wear to look attractive to his clandestine lover. And later still, we find Townsend in his house in the Hollywood Hills. The house itself is already beautifully modern for the time period, like a structure built by Frank Lloyd Wright, but once we see the interior, we learn something new about this ambitious mid-level city servant. The man has excellent taste. The spacious living room is decked out with simple, yet exquisite Bauhaus furniture by the likes of Mies van der Rohe, Lilly Reich and Eileen Grey, with the little man listening to some Swing music. Then, Townsend begins to dance. Lo, the man“s also quite the accomplished tap dancer. It seems that for the first time in his life, which is in its fifth decade, he is willing to embrace who he really is. This is the decision he now makes as he chooses to no longer feel ashamed about it. It“s a stunning and bold development, and while Townsend is sniveling opportunist, it“s thanks to Gladis“ outstanding portrayal, that we feel sympathy, even pity for this character, who is highly repulsive in how he conducts his office on the transportation commission, less on behalf of the city of Los Angeles, but to best fit his own rather petty needs. Right on cue, there“s Kurt who brings him sustenance and the love and pleasure he seeks. Mateo on the other hand, must make a second decision. After his rebirth, it“s time for him to shed his old clothes which he selected for his former self. There is Rio with him who takes away the clothes that befitted the boy he no longer is, at least not in a spiritual sense. As the older woman undresses Mateo, she measures him for size with a measuring tape, but she also sizes up his naked self, his new self. He“ll be getting his zoot suit, the attire that“ll finally make him a Pachuco she promises. This leads to where a thing like this will lead to, with him already naked and a bed not far out of reach. When Fly Rico enters the room and he throws his knife into a post, the boy who is now a man misunderstand this gesture. In a world in which love and violence are inseparable, this isn“t Rico defending his turf, but staking a claim. Rico gets into bed as well. First, Mateo is kissed by Rio who has made him into a man sexually, then Fly Rico leans in to kiss him as well. Like his clothes have become too small for the man he is now, his beliefs are shed next, not just all inhibitions, but his limited and limiting views on sexual orientation and norms.

Like Mateo is, Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear) is finally able to consummate his relationship with the woman he knows as Elsa Branson, but who unbeknownst to him is the demon Magda in another disguise. After he“d invited Elsa and her son Frank (who is but an extension of Magda) to the birthday party of one of his sons, there was a moment of jealousy accompanied by a rather painful pang of insecurity when Elsa only seemed to have eyes for one of his younger, more attractive German pals, a friend who happened to be single. But during a singing contest, Peter bravely stood his ground, and thus, Elsa lets him claim his prize, even while the birthday party is still going on in the garden below. Their lovemaking is fierce, violent almost, but it“s also very quick and a bit awkward. But Elsa is not complaining because she isn“t a real woman and she got the betrayal out of Peter she wanted. Peter has not only cheated on his wife of many years, who is as unhappy in this marriage as Peter is, but who“s not willing to let him go without a fight it would seem, but the nerdy pediatrician has done so with Linda, his two boys and their friends in the house and on the estate. Since he“d been fantasizing about this, even whilst Dr. Craft was making love to Linda, this isn“t the decision Peter will have to make at this point in time. He“s already made that decision a while ago, maybe as soon as when he met Elsa for the first time in his practice with her son. Elsa has better ways to tie him completely to her as if he was part of her own flesh like the figment that walks around as her son Frank. But since she apparently can“t conjure up a husband, or Magda mightn“t want to in this case, she walks into a dance hall to pick up a jerk who fits the bill. A rich bloke who“s ugly enough and rich enough to feel that this gives him license and play with the ladies. A man who likes to hurt women, and who is sufficiently well-heeled to make it go away for himself afterwards. But just this once, and then never again, for him, there wouldn“t be an afterwards. As Peter is spending some quality time with his family with playing a board game, something that creates the impression and the illusion, that he and Linda are still in a happy union, especially with their two sons around, a frantic Elsa phones him. She needs to see him urgently, Elsa stammers in her thick German accent. Surely, as an MD, Peter can at least manage a convincing lie why he suddenly needs to leave the house at this hour. As it turns out, he can“t. He and Linda know each other too well, and frankly, at this stage, he couldn“t be bothered, really. They were just keeping up appearances now, since that“s what“s expected, It“s just a board game. Little does Peter suspect that Elsa (Magda) has been playing a long con. He“s gone for the bait already. Here come hook, line and sinker, and what would seem like a decision, Peter is too far gone to turn his family car around at this point. There“s Elsa whose face is a bloody mess. As she“s told him on numerous occasions, her husband is the violent type. Only this time, things went out of control. There on the floor of their living room is the body of the man she claims to be her husband. His throat is slit from one end to the other, though apparently, Elsa has done a much better job of it than Mateo with Officer Reilly. It is as they say, practice makes perfect, also with a demon such as Magda. After his initial shock vis-Ã -vis this latest development begins to wear off, Peter takes a long look at the woman he knows as Elsa. Like a man who“s dying will see his past life flash by in a matter of seconds, this is when Peter says goodbye to the life he“s known so far. He knows he won“t call the police. When the moment has passed, he is all business. He walks through the house and into the bathroom. The shower curtain, the old standby, will do just fine Dr. Craft muses as he tears the plastic fabric from its cheap rings. Then we are with him and Elsa in a forest that is tinged in the same green light we“ve seen throughout the season, the effect this creates is one of being under water, of drowning. Peter has already buried the body, and Elsa reaches up like a person lost at sea. He pulls her closer and they kiss on the grave of a man who“s found a violent end like this is the most romantic place to be. But Elsa isn“t lost a sea. She doesn“t exist. And like a man under water coming up for air for the last time, Peter has made the decision to kiss his old life goodbye. This is a feeling Tiago Vega might share with him after he makes his second decision, and in a way this decision is also made for him. While he could still decide if he was willing to pursue his romance with a woman as fickle and disingenuous as Molly Finnister, heartache be damned, you can never choose your own family. Such as it stands, his affair with Sister Molly has already put him on the edge and into more trouble than he was bargaining for. As it turns out, Officer Reilly was murdered while he was with Molly. Though Vega is not officially a suspect, his bouts of heated confrontations with the late patrolman have not gone unnoticed. So much so that his partner doesn“t trust him, especially not since Tiago is unable to account for his whereabouts during the night before. Vega can“t tell Michener that he was spending the night with one of their murder suspects in the Hazlett case. It needs Vega swearing up and down to convince Michener that he“s clean where Reilly is concerned. Though Michener remains a bit skeptical since Vega does act a bit strange, they follow several leads which brings them to the apartment building where Fly Rico is supposedly holed up who is a prime suspect in the brutal slaying of their fellow officer. What Detective Michener doesn“t know, the witness, the African American woman who was with Reilly during the night of, has also put a teen on the scene of the crime who Tiago knows must be his younger brother. When they burst into the apartment, Rio and Fly Rico make good on their escape. Michener is able to apprehend the other young man involved in the crime whilst Vega chases after his brother who he finally backs into a deserted alleyway. Once again, Vega must confront one of his brothers, and again this causes him tremendous anguish. He knows that Mateo is guilty before he makes his brother say it but say it Mateo must. With Tiago pointing a gun at Mateo, like Vega was forced to do with their older sibling when Raul went into berserker mode under the demon Magda“s influence, the aspiring Pachuco doesn“t hold back. Quite the opposite. He confesses with a sense of pride, because he now knows who he is. When Vega asks the question if he“s killed Reilly, Mateo“s all emotional, but firm: “With these two hands. He was here now? I do it again.”“ Vega holds firm as well. He keeps pointing his gun at him, and for a second, as his faces clenches tighter, he looks like he“s about to pull the trigger once again on one of his brothers. Like Peter, he has already made his decision while he“s still assessing the situation. Then he lowers his weapon“s arm while he screams: “Run! Run!”“ The die is cast. Vega is a changed man. This time, he“s put his family before his responsibilities as a police detective. Though the circumstances are different and it“s not like when Raul was holding a gun and he was ready to shoot a wounded Michener, still, he“s let a murderer go free, a boy who told him that he would kill again given the opportunity. He“s betrayed his convictions twice in a day. Like Dr. Craft, Santiago Vega is a man lost at sea who“s drowning. Like this, the first half of the second act of the first season of “City of Angels”“ falls shut. As things stand, Lewis Michener has affirmed his principles and his moral compass. Charlton Townsend has found a way to be comfortable in his own skin while Mateo has shed his old skin. And as he“s awaiting his new attire, he stands naked and revealed. Josefina has found her God, and Peter and Tiago have lost their identity. In closing, a line from the opening narration of one of the best episodes from a very different television show, “The Outer Limits”“, and from the episode “The Invisibles”“, which like this season of this series is about love, violence, lies and deception and birth and rebirth, as well as about fluid gender identity and homo eroticism: “You do not know these men”¦ They are newspapers blowing down a gutter on a windy night.”“ Such is the power of good storytelling and the decisions one makes in life. What seemed familiar, has become unfamiliar all the same. As it turns out, television and this mortal coil are not so different.

SCORE: 4/5

Author Profile

Chris Buse

A comic book reader since 1972. When he is not reading or writing about the books he loves or is listening to The Twilight Sad, you can find Chris at his consulting company in Germany... drinking damn good coffee. Also a proud member of the ICC (International Comics Collective) Podcast with Al Mega and Dave Elliott.