We recall and discuss what we saw in the final episode of the debut season of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels'.
In the final episode of the debut season of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels', we were supposed to get answers to countless questions, find out where the on-screen events were leading, and understand Magda's plan. The authors managed to do some of this, but the finale was rather unsuccessful. Let's take a detailed look at what we saw.
Previous recaps:
Warning: spoilers for Episode 10 of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' ahead
Chaos and Riots in the City
As we expected, the police's demonstrative murder of the Mexican Diego sparked fierce outrage among all the pachucos and Chicanos. Fly Rico's decision not to incite a rebellion against the authorities was all the more surprising, as it risked death or imprisonment.
The Mexicans set off on a peaceful march to retrieve Diego's body and bury it, but Magda intervened. She 'helped' Dr. Kraft's car, which happened to be on that very road, run over one of the Chicanos. Magda, now in the guise of Rio, used this to further inflame the already agitated Mexicans. And then real chaos erupted.
Whites beat Mexicans, Chicanos slashed sailors, and so on and so forth. Even Tiago got caught up in it, saved from the hands of whites by his brother Mateo, who, by Rio's will—who personally killed Rico—became the new king of the pachucos.
The situation could only be stabilized by the introduction of the military and the activation of a curfew.
Molly's Torment
Sister Molly played one of the key roles in the episode. First, she convinced Tiago to flee the country with her, then confessed to her mother that she was unhappy in her role. After that, Molly learned that Hazlett and his family had been killed with Adelaide's direct involvement. This last circumstance drove the girl to attempt suicide. A tragic event, of course, but here the writers lost the plot, and Santa Muerte appeared to the white girl.
Was the love for a Mexican so deeply ingrained in the evangelist that a deity from another religion appeared to her? An extremely strange and controversial script decision.
What About the Nazis?
Formally, Lewis, Tiago, and other members of the tacit resistance to Nazism managed to temporarily prevent the infiltration of German leaders into the upper echelons of Los Angeles power. To this end, Michener even decided to kill the young genius, who not only figured out the rocket but also contemplated creating an atomic bomb. Goss and his team lost what they wanted, but it's unlikely this alone will stop them.
The story of the highway construction also ended disappointingly for one of the warring sides, namely the Mexicans. The road, or as Tiago called it, the 'wall', began to be built. This fact strengthens the position of official Townsend, who is now confident in his invulnerability even in the face of the Germans.
Magda's True Plan
The demon, played by Natalie Dormer, orchestrated a complex multi-step operation, the exact intent of which remained a mystery until the very end. We assumed she wanted to somehow break up the Vega family, bring Dr. Kraft back to solidarity with Hitler, and create chaos in the city.
There is some truth to this, as evidenced by the scene with Kraft, who, despite all his internal conflicts, ultimately gives a Nazi salute, declaring that he is no longer the kind and friendly American he once was.
On the other hand, at the end, Magda personally appears to Tiago, asking him if he is ready for the time when war comes and brother will go against brother. From this, we can conclude that the goal of Magda's entire operation was to bring Detective Vega to a state where he would stop blindly believing in justice and fighting for the truth to the end. And this doesn't seem very convincing. Throughout the season, Tiago was an ambiguous character, tossed from one extreme to another, so choosing a side was more inevitable than necessary.
On top of that, it's completely unclear what Magda found so special about Tiago. Did the episode from the childhood series, when Santa Muerte saved the boy, influence her sister so much that she conceived a grandiose plan centered on this ordinary Mexican?
Season Summary
The idea of immersing the atmosphere of 'Penny Dreadful' in Mexican folklore seemed extremely intriguing and engaging on paper. In reality, we got a mediocre series that rather fulfills a social order of modern American sentiments, with the fight for equality, opposition to overreaching law enforcement, women's empowerment, and so on.
The project's characters, with rare exceptions, turned out to be uninteresting and lacking charisma. The story didn't inspire a desire to get to know the characters better or feel empathy. Of course, there are no particular complaints about the acting; the same Natalie Dormer performed quite decently in four roles at once, and Rory Kinnear skillfully balanced on the edge of a breakdown. But it was the very essence of the characters, their motivation and actions, that didn't evoke emotions, and that's what distinguished the original 'Penny Dreadful' from similar series. And yes, the spin-off's dialogues are in no way comparable to those between Vanessa and Ethan, Vanessa and Frankenstein's monster, Dorian Gray and Frankenstein's bride, or any other conversations from the original project.
Thank you to everyone who followed each recap over the past month. We hope you truly found it interesting.
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