Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (1×02) Dead People Lie Down Review

For our last review of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, click here.

Synopsis: Raul Vega lies on the brink of death as his brother Mateo meets the charismatic Pachuco Fly Rico. Tiago and Lewis’s investigation leads them to the temple of the radio evangelist, Sister Molly Finnister and her formidable mother, Miss Adelaide. Councilman Townsend and his cunning assistant Alex capitalize on the discord in the city to further their political goals. Peter Craft has a chance encounter with Elsa at the beach and his sons meet her unnerving boy, Frank. Lewis and his old friends investigate clandestine Third Reich activities. (Showtime)

It’s only normal that after the dynamic season premiere that the next episode would take a step back. While the first episode did a decent job at establishing the setting and most of the characters, this episode throws in a few new ones in Kerry Bishé’s Sister Molly and Eduardo Conrique’s Pachuco Fly Rico. However far they go remains to be seen. Otherwise, there wasn’t much in terms of movement here other than pointing the finger at the Germans which isn’t really a shocker but there has to be more going on here.

Dead People Lie Down started off in the hospital with the rest of the Vega family huddled around the recently shot Raul Vega (he would have to be taken off the respirator in a matter of days). Mateo saw what Tiago did so his position in the family (at least according to him) depended on whether Raul lived or died. Meanwhile, the main concern of Captain Vandenhoff (Brent Spiner) was for Tiago and Michener to solve their latest case which took them to the temple of Sister Molly. However, Molly’s controlling mother Miss Adelaide (Amy Madigan) wasn’t the most forthcoming. Tiago and Michener split up to divide and conquer which mostly led to Tiago watching Molly perform on stage (there was a connection there).

Tiago caught up with Molly later. She claimed to not have a relationship with the murder victim. Molly was nothing like her public face though she was aware of who and what she was and what the idea she represented meant to people (though some thought she was more than what she was). All she wanted to do was help people but she couldn’t help everyone. She started her mission at a very young age with her mother guiding the way ever since (she also put an end to their conversation). They did not share the same religious beliefs. Meanwhile, Michener and some of his friends investigated the victim’s construction office. They saw our same German friends, Richard Goss (Thomas Kretschmann) and his younger associate. The split up to follow each of them with Michener and Dottie Minter (Lin Shaye) following the younger man and Anton Chevic (Bill Smitrovich) and Sam Bloom (Richard Kind) following Goss. However, Goss was the latter group followed a little too closely and therefore those friends got killed for their trouble.

The mysterious woman was still pushing Townsend towards the Germans to build his motorway by using it as a symbol, appealing to his massive ego which eventually won out. Meanwhile, Dr. Craft ran into the mysterious woman at the beach and bonded some more. He’s clearly in love with her which is clearly her plan but it’s unclear where that is going. Also, racism is still very rampant as Mateo tried to stand up for himself against a group of cops (pissed at him because one of their friends got shot by a Mexican) but was eventually saved by Rico.

The episode ended with Maria Vega praying to Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo) as she often did to help Raul. She eventually manifested herself and propped up Raul who confronted his mother.

So there’s the Germans, the temple, and the mysterious woman while a pompous city official fans the racist flames. What will all this add up to? Do we even care to find out?

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.