"WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN“ PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, EPISODE 2

NOTE: This review contains spoilers!

A curious thing happened after my review for the first episode of “City of Angels”“ got posted. As is often the case with modern audiences, there seems to be no “the middle ground between light and shadow”“, at least not on social media. But is there a better way to sample a cross-section of fan opinions? For us, who are interested in genre fare, and have been for a long time, Twitter has become the backroom of your local comic book shop where, some thirty year ago, you“d hang with like-minded people to discuss the latest issue of a favorite title which might happened to have a new storyline that promised “nothing will be the same anymore”“. Discuss we did. We take to Twitter now, to add our perspective, to be heard. I believed that the pilot episode (mostly) achieved what it needed to do. Was it groundbreaking or was the world left in awe? No. For all intents and purposes, we had witnessed sixty-seven minutes of a well-made drama created for television. For me, that was well-enough. Not that I don“t want to have a mind-blowing experience through a narrative that is nail-biting intense and keeps me on the edge of my seat from the first minute to the last with content that poignant and riveting at the same time. But that isn“t how the mechanics of dramatic writing work, be it for television, the movies or for other forms of media. Having done a bit of writing myself, I am not only very appreciative of a long set-up (some of my readers will tell you that my columns are often fifty percent set-up and they might be right), but I feel that only if the base of your narrative is built properly from the ground up, can you offer any kind of meaningful pay-off. Back in the day, you“d save up for a particular issue you saw displayed in the store window of the aforementioned LCS, and though the long wait was nearly killing you, you knew the reward would be so much better for it (and in my case, since the issue was Daredevil No. 181, for which I paid my full allowance for the month of September and then some in 1982, the reward was very sweet indeed). But now, there are no shop windows anymore (at least not metaphorically speaking there aren“t). We want our reward right away. What we“ve lost it seems, in the days of binge watching, is our patience to wait. We have access to a wide range of media, streaming shows, movies, digital comics, games all day, every day. We want to be captivated from the get-go. Entertain us, or we“ll move on. It would seem, that with so many options, time is the commodity that“s most scarce today. I find it telling that one person in our group that assembles on Twitter now, commented that “nah, he couldn“t watch more than five minutes, that everything felt overcooked.”“ Yes, I“d be the first to admit, “Penny Dreadful”“ is overwrought if by design or otherwise. The show has always been like that, and its sibling or cousin “City of Angels”“ won“t disappoint in that respect, or it will very much disappoint you if this is not your bag. Another comment, a bit angrily worded, bemoaned the lack of any actual characters from the pulps. The original show was (mostly) comprised of characters from British literature of the Victorian Era. Since “City of Angels”“ takes place in America and in the late 1930s, it would only seem logical to assume that you“d get some of the characters that this genre of thrills and cries for vengeance and war on crime spawned, like The Shadow, The Spider, The Avengers or Doc Savage. Or in the very least, if your show features the clandestine plot of a foreign country, with enemy agents secretly placed in positions of power, where was Operator # 5 to the rescue? And while a walk-on by a fella named Lamont Cranston with a little wink to the viewers, might be sweet, and I am not saying that building your narrative around a superteam of pulp characters in a new format wouldn“t work, it does and it did, see Warren Ellis and John Cassaday“s “Planetary”“, I“ll also admit freely that this hadn“t even occurred to me when I reviewed the first episode. As a viewer of the original show, I was surely thrilled when Victor Frankenstein showed up, and the charming Mr. Gray (Dorian not Christian), but ultimately, if a show or a book wants to be more than a pastiche, or a shadow (as you were) of better works that came before, this can only go so far. While you had Nosferatu, the Monster of Frankenstein and the biggest bad himself, Dracula, ultimately, the hitherto unexplored story of The Bride of the Monster was far more engrossing. You can always deconstruct existing characters, but how about a bit of constructing? “Penny Dreadful”“, the original show, did it, heck the whole second season is built around a character made up for the show, Vanessa Ives, and what a stellar season it was. It if this sounds like I am already making up a bunch of excuses why the show delivered when it didn“t, which I very well might be doing, but won“t need to do this much longer, ponder this: there were also responses that brought up the pile of [insert expletive of choice, meanwhile I“ll settle for “hot”“] garbage that was the Logan penned (and Sam Mendes directed) Bond movie “Spectre”“. And full disclosure, I did myself in my review. The man who was partially to blame for having added this movie to the legendary, storied Bond franchise, was facing an uphill battle any way you slice it. It“s a discussion worth having, that if a writer strikes out once or twice, must this mean that his or her other works can“t be any good, or does this creator “deserve”“ a second chance? Here“s the rub: Logan“s already redeemed himself. If you“re unfamiliar with the second season of “Penny Dreadful”“, seriously you“ve missed out, not only on great writing but arguably Eva Green“s best performance as an actress to date. Sure, Logan screwed the pooch badly with his sophomore take on the spy with the license to kill (I“ll do you one better, his script for “Skyfall”“ isn“t that great either). Even if that mattered where his other work is concerned, the writer does at least one thing excellently: Logan knows how to create and write compelling female characters. Oh, no! There I said it. It bears repeating, since Logan“s widely associated with his scripting work for the spy “On Her Majesty“s Secret Service”“, not a card-carrying advocate of women“s rights exactly, the rare exception notwithstanding. In the Bond franchise, Green“s Vesper Lynd is arguably the best “Bond Girl”“, ironically in the excellent “Casino Royale”“, not scripted by Logan. Since he isn“t a big name (yet) by any stretch of the imagination, not even among genre fans, this aspect of his work isn“t talked about much. It“s not like he“s broadcasting it in interviews or at conventions like some fan-favorite creators do, who also make this part of their “brand”“ (Joss Whedon comes to mind, though less so in light of more recent revelations), but indeed Logan knows how to do some magic in that regard, and from the look of things, “City of Angels”“ will get us into the territory in which he excels, only that as far as the pilot is concerned, he“d kept that card closely to his chest. But before people cry afoul, those who haven“t yet checked out “Dead People Lie Down”“, the second episode, the new female character isn“t taking over the show, nor does her inclusion “ruin”“ the series. As an experienced writer would, Logan equals things out when we see that this new character is smartly paired up with another character we“ve already met in the pilot, to magnificent results, which are surprising, because both actors bounce off each other perfectly. With Logan“s script delivering, they carry each other to what may very well be career best performances for both. As Logan turns this card with a sleight of hand, a trick so subtle we hardly notice what“s going on, there is still one burning question: where“s The Shadow in all this? You know, the aforementioned pulp character. On Comic Book Twitter, the little, quirky corner of social media where fans discuss all matters comics, B-movies and pulps like these are important artefacts of civilization (actually they are), we tend to take these matters and such questions seriously. And such a question bears asking. In short, wouldn“t we be better served with a show that featured the man who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? I“d love a show like that for sure. Alas, “City of Angels”“ isn“t that show. Clearly, it“s drenched in a certain pulp aesthetic, but it“s too self-aware and too self-referential to be pulp. Ultimately, it knows what it is, which kinda makes it the antithesis of pulp fiction as published in the 1930s. What it is, is a show which takes a modern point of view when it looks at a period of the past through the lens of a certain genre, that of the pulp detective, mixed with some horror tropes. In that, it“s very artificial, but to its benefit.

While I bury the lede even a little longer (I“ll get to all of that shortly), let me talk briefly about my initial impressions as I was watching the second episode for the first time, and thereafter, once “Dead People Lie Down”“ came to a close after fifty-five minutes. After the whisper and the bang that kicked things off in the pilot and which brought things to an end, in a brutal shootout that competed with the computer-generated fiery holocaust only a few minutes into the premier, I was a bit disappointed, to put it mildly. The second episode seemed to bear out the point of contention other reviewers had and may still have with the show, that there are simply too many characters. And wouldn“t you know it, this episode found room to add a bunch more. To give the previously introduced ones something meaningful to do and to squeeze in the new arrivals, the episode felt chopped up a bit too much, resulting in many short scenes that felt like vignettes and often clichÃ©d as such, especially in the beginning. We continue directly from the previous episode in which a standoff between Mexican Americans and the police of Los Angeles got bloody when the big bad of the show, the demon Magda (Natalie Dormer), first whispered to a rookie cop and then to the older brother of homicide detective Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) to make good use of their firearms. We are now in the hospital to which the wounded from both sides have been rushed. With Raul Vega (Adam Rodriguez) going on a shooting-spree, under the unduly influence of Magda, alas unbeknownst to his younger sibling, Detective Vega had to put him down to save his partner Detective Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) from harm“s way. With the matriarch of the family, Maria Vega (Adriana Barraza) getting down on her knees in front of his hospital bed with a rosary clutched in her hands, we learn two things. Raul is not dead, but in a coma, and Tiago went for the head. While Maria is praying, and we already know from the pilot, that Mrs. Vega has an in with the angel for the dead, Santa Muerta, we see that her other children are also around. Josefina (Jessica Garza), the only girl in the Vega family gets even less to do than previously, and Maria“s youngest, teenager Mateo (Johnathan Nieves). When the score picks up, as composer John Paesano heavily channels Abel Korzeniowski“s work on the original series this time around, we immediately notice that the world of “City of Angels”“ is expanding. With an establishing shot of the hospital, a scene set at the beach later on and several other now locations, “City of Angels”“ suddenly feels bigger in scope. This is a world, and it“s populated by our cast, guest stars and numerous extras, all dressed in period clothes. There is a great eye for detail on display here, and kudos to production designer Maria Caso and returning director Paco Cabezas. But what“s noticeable, the sets come across a little less lived in than in the pilot episode. This pristine, almost sterile atmosphere suits the narrative very well, as we will discover later. Meanwhile, there are a lot of racial tensions since the shootout has left four police officers dead and many seriously wounded. When Detective Vega and the wounded Michener arrive on the scene, Vega“s presence makes matters only worse. Vega, who seemed very indecisive earlier in regards to where his allegiance is at, with his older brother and their neighbors as they were trying to stop the construction of a highway that would run right through their backyards, or the police that has just made him the first Mexican American Detective. He wouldn“t have to choose in a perfectly safe world, but this is a world that isn“t all that great if you are not Caucasian. Though he“s pledged himself to his employer, once he tried to negotiate on behalf of the City of Los Angeles during the standoff, he“s also proud of his heritage. With all the uniformed officers standing guard on the steps to the hospital, Michener suggests that Vega may want to use the back entrance, which gives Zovatto his first great line in this episode (one of many): “I do that and I go ”˜round back for the rest of my life.”“ That is some defiance, and as thanks, Officer Jimmy Reilly (Rod McLachlan), with whom Vega had a run-in in the pilot, spits into his face. There is more trouble brewing for Vega, from his own camp, but first we get to the clichÃ©d parts. The duo walks right into the arms of their superior, Captain Ned Vanderhoff (Brent Spiner), who inquiries about the shooter“s identity. Michener lies and claims that he couldn“t see anybody, though he and Tiago know full-well that it was Raul who pulled the trigger and who was about to shoot the man dead. That“s some brotherly loyalty from Detective Michener who“s only been Vega“s partner for a couple of days. As Captain Vanderhoff goes on and on about the number of casualties on their side, Vega can“t hold his tongue this much longer. He asks: “How many dead Mexicans?”“, but his boss shoots his question down immediately and angrily so, as we wonder who made the call to promote Santiago Vega from a regular patrolman to homicide detective anyway, considering that Vega is only in his late twenties and that race relations have been bad for a while. Anyway, though Michener suggests that Vega goes to his family, he doesn“t even know if his brother is still alive, we get another scene with the two detectives in which Vega explains to Michener what his partner already knows. He must have seen the shooter. It does feel clumsy, that in an episode that is jam-packed with scenes and characters (returning ones and new players) we should have a double beat this early. Alas, this scene is there, yet it serves no narrative purpose. Michener reaffirms that he is willing to look the other way, because he“s that kind of guy and that kind of cop, and to protect his partner and even Vega“s brother, while Tiago is once again portrayed as the honest cop who is uncomfortable with a lie. We already got that the first time, but thank you show, for reminding us and for showing us nothing new about these two characters. But then the bad news hits Tiago hard and fast. There is the doctor who tells him that Raul won“t make it and that they“d be needing the respirator pretty soon which is the only thing that keeps Raul alive. Then his little brother tells Vega that he saw that it was him who shot Raul. Mateo is clear where Tiago is concerned. Should Raul die, Tiago won“t be a part of the family any longer. Then we get another scene with the Captain and his detectives. He has not forgotten about the family of four, the family of affluent civil engineer Hazlett, erstwhile residents of Beverly Hills, who were murdered in what must have been a ritualistic killing rooted in Mexican folklore. Though Spinner chews the scenery pretty nicely (and why not, well deserved, sir, and more power to you), when his characters lets it be known that he wants this case “concluded, not solved”“, with Vanderhoff charging his men to bring him “”¦ a Mexican head on a plate”“, the former Star Trek actor is given license to cosplay as Lieutenant Dudley Smith of James Ellroy“s “L.A. Quartet”“ fame, or his early work “Clandestine”“, the unscrupulous commanding officer of many of Ellroy“s police detectives who, in the author“s world, was eventually promoted to Police Captain in 1958. The next scene rings a bit false as well, when Lewis Michener ponders what to do next in the case, Lane genuinely acts as if his veteran homicide detective character is on his very first case, and he is at a loss. Maybe it“s the direction Lane gets from Paco Cabezas, but when we see Vega suddenly take the lead by suggesting they might as well check out the church the late engineer was a member of, this feels at best like an attempt to show us that he“s a smart guy, something we“re already aware of, again, and at worst, Michener is undermined as a character by bad acting and poor writing. Anyway, it“s time now to check back with our favorite demon Magda, and the two men she“s beguiled through some elaborate roleplay of her own. For one, there“s Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) who is at his wit“s end like Michener, it would seem. With all the bloodshed, Townsend figures there“s just no way the Arroyo Seco Parkway will be built now. But thankfully, there“s Magda, in the guise of his smart, yet homely assistant Alex who tells him au contraire. After all, we already saw her arrange a meeting between the ambitious, spineless Townsend and Hitler“s favorite architect in America, Richard Goss, who happens to be a secret operative of the Third Reich. Goss wants to see Townsend become the next Mayor of Los Angeles. Thus, Alex must put him on the right track again. She tells him that surely, some political gain can be gleaned from the tragedy of four police officers killed in the line of duty and Townsend is the guy to do just that. All he needs is more confidence and a haircut with a bit of trimming of the old ”˜stache. Alex is both, his Delilah and the Wizard of Oz who gives the Cowardly Lion a medal which he can display as his badge of courage. What the Wizard truly gives the Lion, is the self-awareness that deep inside of himself, there“s always been a brave lion. The Councilman has his own medal, the bloody, bullet-ridden shirt of one of the deceased officers which he brandishes at an impromptu press conference like a shield and a token of resistance. No, the City of Los Angeles wasn“t going to yield to anarchy. Like many real-life politicians, Townsend is apt at creating a bit of fake news. In front of representatives from various branches of the media, Townsend derides the Mexicans who were involved as “animals”“, as he claims, “They fired first”“, which is a lie. By effectively turning the fallen men into martyrs, the Councilman spins the tragedy into a holy war. It“s personal, too. He singles out the man whose shirt he“s holding up, Officer Maynard West, and he puts West“s widow before the newsreel cameras like any demagogue worth his salt would know how to do. As he reaches the conclusion of his speech with his version of Cato the Censor“s famous line “Carthago delenda est”“, only that in Townsend“s case it“s a proclamation that the highway will be built, that it must be built, and that it will be named in honor of Officer West, what he“s demanding and what Cato was proposing are one and the same thing: a city will be destroyed. This scene is downright chilling. Gladis proves once again what an asset he“s to “City of Angels”“. His portrayal of the little politician who has found his path to glory, is spot-on, and the scene is nicely framed. Cabezas and his DP John Conroy push in and frame the shot like he is Charles Foster Kane reborn, though they smartly forego the impulse to use Dutch angles, since the director and his cinematographer must be aware that this shot has been copied a bit too much. Also, because they must know that the script is already heavy on intertextuality.

It would appear awfully strange, and it does just that upon first viewing, that Detective Michener should reference a certain film when discussing the case of the murdered Hazlett family with his partner Vega, and in another scene we see two little boys on the beach re-enacting one of the most pivotal sequences from the same movie with their toy soldiers as actors and a sand castle of their own design as set piece, especially when one considers that this Gary Cooper vehicle would be released to cinemas in 1939, one year after these events take place. The boys are the sons of pediatrician Dr. Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear), to whom were also introduced in the premier episode. Craft is an immigrant from Germany who is very conflicted. On the one hand, he“s ashamed about his accent that gives his heritage away, but then, he“s also a member of German American Bund which he uses to promote the idea of isolationism. He seems like a carrying, yet somewhat stern father, but he“s unhappy in his marriage. Then there“s Elsa, a young woman from Germany whose little son Frank is one of his patients. But unbeknownst to him, the blonde Elsa, who seems to have so much in common with him, least that she is unhappy in her marriage, isn“t real, and neither is her boy. This is Magda again who cannot only shape-shift, but who has the ability to create a separate entity from her body. The picture that is mentioned in the two scenes is “Beau Geste”“, which is a movie about the three Geste brothers who serve together in the French Foreign Legion. The time is shortly before the First World War and the main narrative takes place at a French stronghold in the desert. Once the brothers and their comrades come under attack from enemy troops, the Arabs, it soon becomes apparent that their cause is lost. With more and more men dying in the siege, here is an idea. The remaining men prop up the dead soldiers behind the parapets to make the Arabs believe that their number is legion and that there“s just no way that they“ll be able to invade the fort without greater casualties to themselves. The film is based on a novel by British writer Percival Christopher Wren, whose very detailed description of the life in the Foreign Legion and North-Africa gave rise to the idea that the author had to have been a member of this elite military corps at a point in his life, when in fact there is a case to be made if he ever served at all in any militaristic capacity, in the Legion or otherwise. Further, Wren looked at history rather than coming up with the trick that is in the center of his book. During the 17th century, with the Austrians expecting an attack from the invading Turks, the army created life-size puppets, dressed in military uniforms which they put on display on the walls that surrounded their city. Legend has it, that the sheer number of enemy combatants they“d have to confront struck fear into the hearts of the cowardly invaders that they beat a hasty retreat. Bravery and cowardice are also brought up in a different context in the same episode. But that Logan should choose “Beau Geste”“ is interesting. In Detective Michener case, the reference serves two purposes. Michener refers to “Beau Geste”“ while discussing the Hazlett case with his partner Detective Vega. There is the staging of the murder victims. The family members were found naked, and they had their faces painted with DÃa de Muertos makeup. And there“s a message written with blood and in Spanish, “You take our heart. We take yours.”“ Clearly, this must mean that this was a ritualistic killing, meant as retaliation from the Mexican community with Hazlett“s company responsible for the construction of the highway that would ultimately destroy their neighborhood and livelihood. Only Michener isn“t buying it. He feels this must “a big con”“. Thus, viewers learn that there is more to the case and that our detectives are on to it, and when we see how the little wheels inside Michener“s head suddenly click into place like clockwork, the writer tells us that Michener is actually a smart cookie, which makes the scene in which he was asking Vega for directions even more jarring. Yet the potatoes and meat are with the second scene and this is where Logan and his two actors, and even the three kid actors, truly excel. It“s at the beach that Dr. Craft meets Elsa and her son again. In fact, her son, who“s at the same age as his own children, offers him the perfect pretext to invite them over to where they are sitting. While the grown-ups go for a walk to do some talking, Frank joins Peter“s kids. After one of his sons has explained to Frank that most of the toy soldiers “are dead”“ since they are re-enacting the siege of the fort in “Beau Geste”“, Frank takes one of the figures and puts it flat onto the sand of the tower of their castle, while observing that “dead people lie down.”“ This is a subtle, but very eerie gesture. Talking to Peter, Elsa reveals her sad backstory to him. She confides in him that when she and her sister had no food in Berlin after the war, there were all these men in uniforms who could offer them what they needed. Without so many words, she implies that the situation forced her to prostitute herself in exchange for sustenance. Now, she is trapped in a marriage that should also provide her with everything, also love, but like with Peter“s own marriage, this is not the case. Ultimately, Elsa“s backstory is fiction, as we know as viewers. It“s a fiction within the context of the fiction that is the story of “City of Angels”“, because that“s what this show is, a fiction. This goes a long way to explain why the buildings we see are so pristine and do feel like movie sets. This is a fictious world. It is a pulp world that follows its own rules. We aren“t watching reality; we are reading one of those cheap magazines that offered us exciting thrills in a world that wasn“t real. The Shadow wasn“t real. He only existed in the context of the narrative that chronicled his adventures. In his world, his adventures and his whole world was real, and thus, as a fiction within fiction, Elsa“s story might very well be real as well. There is also a fiction within the world of “Beau Geste”“ which mirrors what is happing here to a tee. For one, the book and the film are named after one of the Geste brothers (portrayed in the movie by Gary Cooper), but it also means “beautiful gesture”“, though it is used in French with the understanding that it describes something that is futile and of no consequence in the end. Through a flashback sequence we learn that Beau Geste had originally enlisted to escape prosecution. It would appear that he“d stolen a valuable sapphire from the women who served as a caretaker of the brothers, the only item of material value in her possession. It is when she“s forced to sell the gem, that Beau takes it. Only when Beau dies, do we learn the truth. His theft was a con. He was well aware that his surrogate mother had already sold the sapphire many years prior in order to support her foster children. Yet she had a duplicate made, which she now intended to sell as the real deal, because like with Elsa, there was no food in the house. Beau“s beautiful gesture is his attempt at protecting her from a crime. It“s he who pulls off a con, so she doesn“t have to. But in the end, this avails him nothing. While there is still no food, he dies in a foreign country. Though he is able to fool the Arabs with the bodies of his dead comrades, he dies anyway, and he dies lying down. Further, the movie itself is con of some sort, since it is a scene-for-scene remake of an earlier adaptation, albeit a silent movie, released in 1926 starring Ronald Colman. Logan is aware that his double reference is out of sync with the “real world”“ when he has Peter read a copy of Margaret Mitchell“s epic historical novel “Gone with the Wind”“, published in 1936. The book is brought up later in the episode again, when four characters have a Quentin Tarantino-esque discussion about who should be cast as Scarlett O“Hara, and if Scarlett, in the fiction of the novel, was a virgin, and if, in the context of the characters fictitious world, this would mean that the actress needed to be a virgin as well. In fact, “Beau Geste”“, the Gary Cooper remake that is, has gained some notoriety since it was replaced during an unannounced test screening in favor of another film, namely the movie adaptation of “Gone with the Wind”“ (also 1939). When Else tells Peter that she dreams of a better world, a place she could sail to with her son, the destination she envisions is “Tahiti”“. But she isn“t talking about a real place, not at all, and Peter understands this. They are both building their own fictional narrative, thus when she asks him where he might go, as she senses his loneliness, Peter pauses for a moment, but then he gives her the answer that indicates that they are both on the same page with this story, he acknowledges that he has understood the subtext of the text they are writing: “Ja, I think Tahiti for me, too.”“ And in all fairness, Paesano“s score is pitch perfect. It is not evocative of the period this is set in, because in real life there is no score that accompanies us while we talk, not now nor in the past, this is the music you hear in films that are a bit nostalgic and are about doomed, forlorn matters of the heart. And when Elsa and Peter fall silent and look at the beach and the Pacific and beyond, as the composer hits all the right notes, Dormer and Kinnear make us believe. John Paesano score actually resembles Michael Nyman“s score for “Gattaca”“ (1997) in spirit now, a film that is also about escape, with water as a central metaphor for birth, freedom and rebirth. We buy it all, but like Detective Michener, we know that like “Gattaca”“ is about false identities, this is all a big con. We“re not in 1938 in the same way “Gone with the Wind”“ is not a book about the real history of the American South. Elsa is not who she says she is, and even before he knows this himself, Peter Craft is not the man he thinks he is. The Wizard of Oz made the Lion realize that he had courage in him all along. Alex made sure, that Townsend would finally become aware that there was courage in him as well. Still, under the guise of his assistant Alex, Magda also showed him that there was something else that lurked deep in his heart. This is the moment when the ambitious, mid-level bureaucrat discovered that he was not just a small man, but an evil man. Magda, in the skin of Else is there once again when the episode makes us observe Peter as he is making love to his wife Linda (Piper Perabo). The scene is uncomfortable. Peter“s on top and he“s looking down on Linda who seems fully clothed, and she can“t stand his gaze. She won“t give in to any shared intimacy on this level, not spiritually. Then her hair slowly changes from brown to blonde, and as she faces him and looks at him, it“s Else who is with him. With a smile she gives Peter all he has ever wanted; she sets him free. Peter cuts loose, and Elsa only spurs him on. With her, he doesn“t need to hold anything back, with her, he can be himself. There is violence in him, brutality, and still she is there with him all the way. When he climaxes, Elsa“s face is flushed with a sense of triumph. Perhaps she was there, or she was only in his head, but as we cut, there is Linda in bed, smoking and telling him that she feels embarrassed by him and his actions. With a quick “Ja, sorry”“ Peter acknowledges her ever so briefly, but as the camera pans closer on his face as he“s sitting on the edge of their bed in the semi-dark room, we can tell that he isn“t sorry. At long last, he realizes this as well. We can tell that he“s done with apologizing, that the time when he was willing to act like a milquetoast is over. He is through with the pretend play. This is Peter“s rebirth. Else has rewritten his script, and from the looks if it, he is fine with that. Elsa didn“t even have to say a word to him when they were having intercourse, imagined, yet real, since “Dead People Lie Down”“ isn“t about whispers or words. This episode is about silent gestures.

After the whisper and the bang with which the premier episode of “City of Angels”“ opened and ended, the show“s sophomore outing is all about wordless communication. No bang, no words, no whisper. As in the original version of “Beau Geste”“, you speak with your body, your hands, your face and your eyes. Like in the silent era of movie-making, messages are conveyed with mere gestures. But unlike with silent films, since this is not our time period nor the time period of these characters, these are small gestures. There isn“t even a scream. When Mateo Vega visits the canteen of the hospital where his older brother is kept alive, he has a run-in with Officer Reilly. The man, who unbeknownst to Mateo spat into the face of his other brother, wants revenge. His partner has lost an eye in the confrontation, and now he is here to take it out on a Mexican, on any Mexican. He doesn“t know that this is Vega“s brother, nor would he care. While he is backed up by other officers, he presses his thumb into Mateo“s left eye. He wants to make him scream, but Mateo doesn“t give in. He has no scream for Reilly. With Reilly getting agitated even more by the young man“s refusal to yield, there is suddenly a noise that he and his fellow officers know all too well. It“s the sound of a stiletto switchblade opening up. There is a young Mexican who is dress in t-shirt and the vest and long pants of a business suit, and just from his look and the reaction of the men we know what he is. He“s Pachuco. Despite his relatively young age, Fly Rico (Sebastian Chacon) isn“t disrespected, not even by a racist bigot like Officer Reilly. Rico is connected to the subculture made up of Chicanos and Mexican Americans who make their own rules, especially in Los Angeles. But Reilly can“t help himself when the tells him with a sneer: “There“s four of us, pal.”“ Rico stays in control of the situation the entire time. He is aware that he has power, lest he never raises his voice. He simply replies: “There“s a city of me.”“ Mateo gets saved, but we are left to wonder at what cost. Fly Rico tells him that because he didn“t scream “You“re Pachuco, maybe.”“ There“s another actor who doesn“t scream. When Detective Vega discovers the room in the hospital where the Mexicans are at, those from his neighbors who were killed during the confrontation with the police, and who are just heaped onto each other on a few beds, Daniel Zovatto doesn“t have one line of dialogue, yet he expressed so much with his face as if he were a matinee idol of the silent era. Yet his gestures are much smaller, his face tenses up slightly, his chin quivers, yet he expresses so much. Acting is reacting, and this is where Zovatto truly shines. His acting is so controlled, so reduced that it takes a second viewing to catch it all, and there is more you“ll discover this time. At the heart of “Dead People Lie Down”“ there“s a second performance that“s equally subtle and once both actors are moved together, you discover something amazing in all this silence. As the two homicide detectives follow up on the connection of Mr. Hazlett to his church, the Joyful Voices Ministry, the viewers must act as their own detectives. Sure, we get what the show is saying. This seems like the kind of spiritual place a former science fiction writer might built out of nothing, and we are even treated to a scene in which we see office clerks handling tons of money that come in via donations as if we are shown a clip from a Martin Scorsese movie about a Las Vegas casino in the 60s. But this house is not set up around a gospel-pushing snake oil salesman with tinted glasses and raven-hair, a Jim Jones style Colonel Kurtz who“s seen “the horror, the horror”“, and who is here so save us like Fly Rico did with Mateo. Instead there is Sister Molly, a young blonde woman who believes in her calling and who knows how to enthrall her live audience and the listeners on the radio with a mix of swing renditions and folksy tales this side of Andy Griffith in Elia Kazan and Bud Schulberg“s “A Face in the Crowd”“. There aren“t any zealots to be found. This church is a business and James Hazlett was one of their money men. All of this will come into play, also Molly“s mother, Adelaide Finnister (Amy Madigan), who“s dressed in black and who comes across more like a power agent, a watchdog and a stage mom all rolled into one. The focus is on Molly, however. Kerry BishÃ© is a solid actress (she was very good in “Halt and Catch Fire”“), but this is career turning performance, and her chemistry with Zovatto is off the charts. The first time we meet Sister Molly, it“s through his eyes as she prepares for her live performance which is broadcast from their ministry. Molly, who thinks nobody is watching, is completely focused inside of herself. She is relaxed and tense with concentration at the same time. When she is called by an announcer to the microphone, she even seems a bit timid, like a little girl who heeds the call of her mother, and in way, she does just that. But once the curtain is lifted and she stands in front of her live audience with her voice about to be carried over the airwaves to millions of listeners we suspect, a switch is flipped, and Sister Molly puts on her stage persona. Armed with a swing song and her pastoral calling she rocks the house like a latter-day Elvis. Molly even knows how to use the mic-stand like a pro. This is Sister Molly “in the battle with Satan armed with but a smile and a song.”“ Little wonder that Detective Vega is a bit smitten. It“s quite understandable that he is only too eager to search her out when even Michener suggests that he ought to learn about Hazlett“s job at the ministry. As the plot would have it, an opportunity presents itself on the same day since Molly works as a volunteer at a soup kitchen the ministry operates. And wouldn“t you have known it, once Vega takes off his jacket, he blends right in with the men who unload the trucks that bring in the produce from the local farms. Vega is not one for games, he is an honest cop, and thus he introduces himself to her as one of the detectives working the case while she is doing the dishes. He encounters a different Molly, a young woman who seems more than embarrassed by all the hoopla her mother has created around her person, something she“s been exposed to since she was a girl. But she“s also a deeply religious woman who has accepted her calling after having been carted around the revival circuit since she was four, “sooner or later the faith just found me.”“ Both actors emote with their faces, and they exchange lingering, curious looks that feel well earned, and as with Elsa and Peter, what they are talking about is not what they are actually saying. They talk about Hazlett and the ministry, but this is also a meet cute and both are interested. There is one false note, though, and since BishÃ© acting is as reduced as Zovatto“s, we can only assume that Cabezas either doesn“t trust his actress or his audience, or both, when Molly moves a strand of hair from her forehead while looking at Vega who has his back turned to her as he picks up some plates for her. Yeah, we already got that Molly finds Vega attractive since BishÃ© was acting her heart out for the last five minutes. In a way Cabezas“ ill-informed choice, or his failure to tell his actress not to do this if the gesture was her idea after all, contradicts Logan“s script which is excellent, since when Vega asks her why she is not outside where the people who stand in line can see her, she simply replies: “It“s quiet back here.”“ Molly is still a very controlled person, this is what she has known her whole life, and there are only very subtle hints to what she“s really thinking. Though a gesture like this might be required on the big screen in the silent era when everything had to be large, and many actors came with a background in stage acting, on the small screen it“s bang where you only want a whisper, if even that. But other than that, both actors are wonderful. And this is only their first round as we soon learn. As things often go when two people meet in the afternoon who really hit it off with each other, you“ll find them talking well into the night. This feels very organic, considering the nice energy both actors bring to their performance and the undeniable chemistry. They“re still in the kitchen, but since we are several hours later, everybody else has left. It“s DP Conroy who makes a rather peculiar choice now. He uses a green background light. There is a slight green tinge in the scene between Peter and Elsa in his bedroom, which is immediately dispelled once he“s with Linda again. Between Vega and Molly, the green light is even more pronounced. As these conversations will go between two individuals who are interested in each other, the subject matters become more personal. Molly shares an intimate experience, which rings true. A mother asked Molly to visit her son who was in a hospital and in an iron lung. She told the boy“s mother: “I can“t heal people”¦ that“s not within my power. But she begged.”“ All she could do was pray for the boy and with him. “I think he saw through me”¦ The dying have a special grace. I think he saw straight into my heart.”“ When she says, that she wanted him to be with God, that she “wanted him to die”“, the reaction shot on Vega“s face reveals so much with so little. Zovatto“s face reveals how his character wishes he could carry Molly“s burden for her. The green light around them is now almost overpowering as the green bleeds into the key light that surrounds the actors who sit across from each other. This gives the impression that both are in a tank of water, an aquarium, or that they“re out in the open sea at night. Vega now shares that his brother is dying while he has trouble to hold back the tears he“s kept in for so long. He tells her that they“ll will have to make the decision to take him off the respirator which in effect means that his brother will suffocate while his brain functions shut down. Molly“s question is to be expected: “Do you pray for him?”“ It is then that Vega reveals to Molly that he does not believe in God. When Molly asks, “Are you sure?”“, Vega opens up about the loss of his father, a scene we witnessed during the first few minutes of the pilot episode when Magda scorched the field Vega“s dad and other farm hands were working on. This was when young Tiago Vega saw Santa Muerta, (Lorenza Francesca Izzo Parsons), “the holy angel who guides us peacefully to heaven”“. With his brother on the edge, what Vega needs to do, according to Molly, is to “help him find grace. But find it in yourself first.”“ Like before, Daniel Zovatto appears to be doing little. For a second the muscles around his eyes tense up, but he and BishÃ© are in perfect sync now. This is when she opens up to him. “When that little boy looked up at me, I couldn“t find that grace in myself. So, how could I help him?… He died two days later. I had to do a radio show that night. And then I went home and cut my wrists.”“ Either be design or in an eerie coincidence, this scene brings the movie Gattaca to mind once again. Like “Beau Geste”“ and “City of Angels”“, this is also a movie about brothers. There is Vincent, the brother who is not really part of society since he was conceived naturally, and Anton, the brother who has all the benefits of modern science, yet still, in one crucial moment, during one of their many competitions that usually find Vincent beaten by Anton, it“s the weaker brother who pulls ahead and who saves his sibling from drowning. But when the brothers meet as adults and Anton challenges Vincent for a rematch, he learns that this wasn“t a fluke. Vincent always knew how to beat his sibling. As director Andrew Niccol tinges the water with a green light, with both of the young men struggling against the waves of the ocean, Vincent reveals how he did it: “I never saved anything for the swim back.”“ This is also what Molly tells Vega. In order to save someone, you“ve to save yourself first, and you must go all in. This is why she failed initially. She wasn“t yet ready to save nothing for her way back. Molly got lost, the pain got too much. She didn“t cut herself to commit suicide, but to let the pain out. Vega has to go all in. He needs to believe that Santa Muerta is real. His mother does, and this is where we end this episode. While Vega and Molly arrive at the point, they must arrive at to have a future together, some well-deserved levity to break the tension from their mutual confessions, Maria Vega is back at the hospital where she does what Tiago cannot do. She prays. Again, her candles get blown out, and when she looks up, her oldest son“s bed it empty. Unbeknownst to her, the angel for the dead is standing right behind her. Yet Maria doesn“t see Santa Muerta“s, as she now discovers a trail of blood on the floor. She turns her head, but there“s nobody behind. As she looks straight ahead again, there“s Raul right in front of her, and he“s about to touch her face. We have now reached the end of the episode. Sure enough, we get a seemingly required jump-scare that even comes with a musical sting courtesy of Paesano, but this feels rather incidental. Clearly, serialized storytelling demands its cliffhangers, but with powerhouse performances, from Zovatto and BishÃ© especially, and from Dormer, Kinnear and Gladis, we are in good hands. There might be too many characters, but with the addition of BishÃ©, the show didn“t only get some much-needed energy boost and a new focal point, but our main man, Detective Vega, has found his awakening. It does pay-off to wait for certain things. And as more gets revealed, there are many dark secrets to be discovered that lurk in the hearts of men.

Rating for this episode: 4 out of 5.

Photo Credit: Justin Lubin/SHOWTIME.

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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.