Each week, Joe (@bstolemyremote) and Terry (@gaylydreadful) review an episode of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, alternating between our respective sites — queerhorrormovies.com and gaylydreadful.com.

Spoilers for episode nine…

1.09 “Sing, Sing, Sing”: Tiago and Lewis make bold decisions. Townsend is forced to turn to a last resort. Peter decides to take Tom, Trevor and Frank to the movies. Tiago and Molly go dancing at the Crimson Cat, where they confront the rest of the Vega family.

TERRY

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is either the worst show to watch right now or the most prescient one, Joe. What makes me sad is that the things happening in this fictionalized world of late 1930s Los Angeles are literally happening in the streets today. Demagoguery, manipulation masquerading as religion, police brutality, racism...update the visuals, throw in some new cars and different fashion and the series could easily be set in 2020.

When it hits these notes, it’s a bit hard to watch.

This episode comes with a warning and it’s much deserved because it’s hard watching the police lynch someone on screen, knowing what’s going on right now. The fact it’s juxtaposed with a family celebration, of sorts, just further cements how fucked it all is.

Stepping back, though, Episode 9, “Sing, Sing Sing” takes a night off from policing and sermonizing to bring the Vega family back together, presumably for a one last night of happiness before the inevitable crash happens in next week’s finale. As if fate herself were pulling the family back together, each separated unit decides to go to the Pachuco’s nightclub Crimson Cat for a night of fun. For some, this decision makes sense. But I’ll be honest, after the last eight episodes I don’t know why Tiago (Daniel Zovatto) would willingly step foot in the club he knows his brother Mateo (Johnathan Nieves) haunts. Nor do I know why Maria (Adriana Barraza) would willingly suggest going to the den that represents one of the factions that’s pulled her family away from her.

I’ll be honest, Joe, this family reunion didn’t completely work for me, from the beginning when Maria bumps into her daughter Josefina (Jessica Garza) and her new hair. Immediately, Maria’s shouting, “My heart’s so full seeing you” and very quickly forgives Josefina for joining Sister Molly (Kerry Bishé)’s church. Then Mateo shows up and gets into an argument about how the Vega family is finding pride in different places and begs Maria to just be his mom for one night.

And then Tiago and Molly show up and we get a third, larger fight as the entire Vega family turns on Tiago and Molly with anger and, in Josefina’s case, confusion. On the plus side, we get a hilarious little exchange where Maria keeps yelling, “no ma’am!” to Molly. But on the negative, we get an almost sitcom-level family get together where, by the end of it, everyone is rather copacetic and chill with each other’s decisions. It’s rather obvious at this point that shit is going to go down next episode and this was our brief calm before the storm.

Pride seems to be this week’s motif. Before Molly is even introduced to the Crimson Cat, she marvels at Tiago, telling him, “you have such pride in where you’re from.” She, meanwhile, bemoans the fact that she’s just a girl from Nebraska (hey now!) who grew up in the backseat of her mother’s car and has always just been part of the church. This statement is then taken to task when Tiago angrily shouts at his family, just moments later, that he doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere. Not Chicano enough. Not white enough. Not cop enough. “I’m not anything enough.”

But this drama all feels very manufactured for me, Joe, which is surprising, considering that John Logan wrote this episode and his characters and their dialogue is what I always remember from Penny Dreadful. Am I being too negative, Joe? What did you think of this little family reunion, in an episode about families? Did you like Brian Dennehy (RIP) and his performance as Townsend (Michael Gladis)’s father? And continuing with the theme of family, did Richard Goss (Thomas Kretschmann) and his warning to Lewis (Nathan Lane) and his family work for you?

JOE

I’ll confess that the family drama landed a bit better for me. Part of this may simply be the fact that I spent the first half of the episode realizing how long it’s been since some of these characters have interacted. This first season has all been about the Vega family getting caught in the middle of a war between Magda (Natalie Dormer) and Santa Muerte, so it makes sense to slowly drive wedges and separate them from each other. But considering how integral the familial bonds are, I have missed that dynamic, particularly in this back half of the season.

So when we finally catch back up with each member of the Vega family and the sparks start to fly, it feels like progress. They’re finally laying their cards on the table and perhaps they’ll realize that they’re stronger together and the divisions that have kept them apart are manufactured by external forces. The latter part didn’t come together, and - as you suggested - I’m sure it will all fall apart in next week’s finale, but for now, I liked seeing the family make some kind of amends.

The other reason that I didn’t mind this is because I found the first few scenes of “Sing, Sing, Sing” to be extremely overdone. Maybe it’s Logan’s writing, but Townsend’s meltdown in front of Alex (Dormer) and Lewis’ attempt to crash Goss’ lunch both felt overacted. I haven’t loved Townsend as a character, but I’ve never felt that Gladis was a bad actor. In these scenes, however, both he and Lane come off quite poorly (perhaps director Daniel Attias deserves some of the blame for not reeling the performances in a little).

I also found the pay-off a bit underwhelming: while it’s great seeing Dennehy in one of (if not the) last roles, Townsend Sr is basically everything we expected. Not that we’ve had a great deal of build-up; if anything, Townsend’s inferiority complex regarding his father has only come into play in the odd errant line here and there. Still, the moment Townsend enters his father’s office, it’s pretty clear how the encounter will go. As a sidebar, I did think it was amusing how both men assume the other has incorrectly pegged the future (motorways vs aviation) when in fact they’ll both be proven correct!

As for Lewis’ scene with Goss, it has the same kind of anticlimactic feel. While I enjoyed seeing Lane bite into another gruff encounter, he comes in far too hot and heavy (over what...his car?!) when we already know that Goss has an ace up his sleeve. The fact that this scene plays out for so long, too, just seemed odd - it needed to be trimmed down. I get that its purpose is to reinforce that Goss should not be underestimated, but...do we care about Lewis’ family, whom we’ve never met?

So yeah, I much preferred the Vega family drama and the subversion of deathly expectations as Brad Garrett’s Jewish mobster Benny makes a welcome reappearance in time to hustle MIT student Brian (Kyle McArthur) to a new, safe location. Which thankfully also means that Lin Shaye’s Dottie lives to play Mah Jong another week, Terry! Of course, that means the other expected development - Diego’s murder by the police in front of Lewis - does come to pass.

Turning it back to you, Terry: you suggested the central theme was pride and I don’t disagree, but I think “games and power plays” is another one. This week felt like a lot of strategic game play as everyone jockeys for position in advance of the finale. Speaking of moves: what did you think of Elsa (Dormer) and Maria’s staredown? Will Tiago pursue Fly Rico (Sebastian Chacon) or Mateo next week? And, if there’s anything else to be said about Diego’s murder, do you think it will fulfill Townsend Sr’s ominous declaration of “Mexicans rioting in the streets” that has been hanging over the entire season?

TERRY

I’m glad you mentioned the overacting, Joe, because I did scribble down in my notes that Lewis turned into a drama queen with an “oh she angry!” comment. Him drawing the swastika with his own blood seemed rather writerly and not in keeping with the no-nonsense Lewis. Ditto his encounter at the fancy restaurant with Goss. And it’s funny that you mention Townsend’s childish meltdown in front of Alex because it almost made me feel sorry for Magda/Alex. He’s a petulant rich white kid who’s never faced adversity, outside of his father’s ire, and has been able to use his privilege to hide his queerness from the world and here he is in full white boy meltdown.

I loved how petulant Elsa was, knocking the orange juice over and then staring Maria down. I live for those moments. I do wish that story would do something, though. We had a step forward last episode and learned a bit more about Peter’s familial history (again with the Pride, or lack thereof, theme) and then this episode they...almost make it to a movie? If it weren’t for the fact the show used their bumper-to-bumper traffic pattern to show how miserable driving in LA is before transitioning from them to Tiago and Molly walking down the street, they could have been completely excised from this episode. From this season, almost.

I do think Diego’s lynching will be the inciting incident for most of next episode’s tension. Depending on when the body is discovered, I could see the action immediately continuing from this episode, with our heroes and villains out for a night on the town that’s about to become explosive. I also think this will be the test that Magda has initially set out: Will Tiago be forced to choose between police work and his family and heritage? Will the brother versus brother threat that’s also hung over this entire season play out?

Will Raul ever...do anything?

But what about you, Joe? Next week is the finale and while it’s been a season of ups and downs, I’m curious how you think things will play out? Do you still think Maria won’t survive the season? What’s going to happen with Brian and Dottie? Will anyone finally make a move against Councilwoman Beck (Christine Estabrook)?

JOE

Ha! I love that we had the same thoughts about Magda. I turned to my husband during that scene where they’re stuck in traffic and asked “do you think she resents having to live all of these boring human lives?” Like, SHE’S A GOD and she has to spend time stuck in LA traffic just to go see a damn Robin Hood movie?!

Honestly, though, there just doesn’t seem to be a ton going on in this episode. It’s not unexciting to watch, but it doesn’t play like a traditional penultimate episode - the scenes are too long and surprisingly little happens. Aside from utilizing those 104 dancing extras again, “Sing, Sing, Sing” is a bit of a bust.

As for next week, I’m desperately hoping for fireworks. I expect at least two fatalities: Councilwoman Beck and either Dottie or Maria (but maybe both!). I expect Kurt (Dominic Sherwood) to choose love & Townsend over Goss.

In a redux of the first episode, I think Raul will sacrifice himself for one of his brothers (though whether it’s Mateo or Tiago, I’m unsure). And in the final scene, Sister Molly will need to make a choice about staying with the Temple or run off with Tiago, possibly after her mother is revealed to have ordered Hawlett’s death.

And presumably something will happen with Dr. Craft? I don’t know - like you, this whole storyline feels like it could have sat on the sidelines. Even if the Krupp munitions angle somehow winds up connecting to Brian’s rocket, Rory Kinnear’s entire subplot feels like the black sheep storyline of this first season.

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, Terry. We’ll find out when we hop back to QueerHorrorMovies for the final time this season for “Day Of The Dead.”