WiC Watches—Penny Dreadful: City of Angels season 1
By Dan Selcke
(L-R): Daniel Zovatto as Tiago Vega and Nathan Lane as Lewis Michener in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “How It Is With Brothers.” Photo Credit: Warrick Page/SHOWTIME.
Episode 6: “How It Is With Brothers”
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels drills down on some of the conflicts it’s been setting up for episodes now, and gets results. This episode didn’t have any shootouts or chases or murders or sex scenes — it’s just people in rooms talking, and it’s one of the better episodes so far.
The best part of “How It Is With Brothers” focuses on Tiago and Michener trying to crack Diego, the one member of Fly Rico’s team caught fleeing the scene of Officer Reilly’s murder. Diego knows that Mateo is Tiago’s brother, and knows that Tiago is trying to figure a way to spare Mateo the blame by pinning the crime on him.
Tiago is in an impossible position as he tries to get Diego to confess to something he didn’t do, even though Diego has leverage over him. It can’t last, and eventually Tiago flips out and holds a gun to Diego’s head, demanding he confess. It’s only when Michener learns what’s happening that he finds a way through the situation, even if it’s a horrible one.
He levels with Diego: Diego is going down for the Reilly’s murder, and for the murder of the Hazlett family: the chief wants a scapegoat and everyone wants to find a way to quiet the growing unrest in the city. The only choice is whether he wants to go to prison a rat who tried to wriggle out of it by narcing on his friends after getting beaten bloody by corrupt cops, or as a notorious gangland hero who struck a blow for the little guy. Diego chooses the latter, Vega and Michener look like miracle-workers who got the kid to confess without beating it out of him, and the city is saved. Happy ending?
Obviously, it’s weird to call it that. Every person involved in this story is acting badly, including our heroes. Diego is more than willing to pin the Reilly’s murder on Diego even though he’s the least dangerous person in Fly Rico’s gang, and Lewis is willing to lie to wrap this case up. But he wants to do that because the alternative — turning Diego over to cops who are even more corrupt, and who will beat him to within an inch of his life, if not past that — is even worse, and if he survives he’ll still go to jail.
This is standard noir stuff: there are no heroes and everyone is compromised. But it doesn’t mean we don’t feel connections to the characters. The best scene is when Tiago breaks down and tells Lewis what’s been going on. Daniel Zovatto does his best work in the role yet, showing us Tiago’s intense vulnerability as he turns from a cop with something to prove to a man desperate to protect his brother, even if it means betraying the system he’s sworn to uphold and if Mateo may be too far gone to save — the scene where he rejects Maria is painful, and has me worried that the season is going to end in blood and tears for the Vega family.
Tiago even lashes out at Lewis, the one person still trying to help him, but Lewis still comes through and protects him…at the sending an innocent kid down the river…but of course, he was a member of the gang that killed Reilly so he isn’t entirely innocent, either. It’s a tangled web that John Logan should be commended for weaving so well over the past several weeks. I haven’t always known where this show was going, and got frustrated with it in its slower moments, but this episode had a richness it wouldn’t have had otherwise.
“How It Is With Brothers” also hits a chord with anyone watching the news right now, as its straightforward with its portrayal of police corruption and brutality all the way down; even Lewis’ way out is just corruption with good intentions, and hopefully some good outcomes the characters can pull out of the fire. But somehow I doubt things will end rosily for anyone.
(L-R): Kerry Bishe as Sister Molly and Amy Madigan as Adelaide Finnister in PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS, “How It Is With Brothers.” Photo Credit: Warrick Page/SHOWTIME.
We get some movement on other plotlines. Sister Molly’s mother talks her into giving up her relationship with Tiago. Like everyone else on this show, Molly is morally compromised. Councilman Townsend and Kurt spend an idyllic day on the beach…or at least it is idyllic until Kurt breaks out the racial slurs. Is Townsend getting through to him with his talk about Los Angeles welcomes outsiders? “L.A. doesn’t care who you are when you arrive. It only cares about about who you make yourself into.” That’s some pretty rhetoric, and it’s directly opposed to Kurt’s views about the superiority of whites over all other races, but it doesn’t seem very realistic. I predict tragedy for these two as well.
And finally, Doctor Craft at last ends things with his wife Linda, whom he’s having committed. See what I mean about there being no heroes on this show?
Also interesting is that Magda is barely in this episode, in any of her forms. It makes me wonder once again if this show shouldn’t have just been a straightforward drama without any of the supernatural elements, but I suppose we’ll see Logan goes with it in the home stretch.
Ultimately, “How It Is With Brothers” draws its strength from its strong character drama, looking hard at a world where the only way to be a good person is to be corrupt in the right way.
City of Bullet Points
- More hard-boiled noir dialogue: “Can’t a mother just do something nice for her girl?” “Depends on the mother.”
- Fly Rico is another character who ends up being only out for himself, although we could have seen that one coming. “He got caught because that’s who he is,” he tells Mateo of Diego, “and you got away for the same reason.”