'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Finale Preview: Season 1 ends with pachucos rioting and martial law declared
We are already at the end of the run for season 1 for 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' but it doesn't feel like it. After treading water for most of the season, things are just picking up pace with the Nazis' alliances revealing the full extent of their plans in LA. And already, it is almost over and we will have to wait for the next season to air.
For now, we know that the Nazis are backing Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) to make him mayor as he builds roads barrelling through the city settlements belonging to the 'unwanted races'. First, it was the Mexicans, next he will be targeting Bunker Hill with "the spades". How long before he starts targeting the Jews on the command of his Nazi overlords?
Wherever he builds roads, Miss Adelaide (Amy Madigan) will follow, building branches of her ministry using the star power of Sister Molly (Kerry Bishé) to rake in the money from the Temple's expanding congregation and also helping to fund the Nazis and Townsend's operations.
Meanwhile, Magda (Natalie Dormer) has amped up the stakes getting her hooks into Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) as Alex and slowly working on Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear), as Elsa, so that he reclaims his Krupp family's legacy of building arms for Germany. In this week's episode, Elsa urges Peter Craft to be "who he is" and we see him handling, what looks suspiciously like, the Iron Cross medal, which means he is certainly thinking about his family's legacy.
In last week's episode, we saw Diego (Adan Rocha) being lynched by police officers responsible for his transfer. In the trailer of episode 10, we see Magda as Rio talking up a storm inciting the pachucos in the Crimson Cat night club, over his lynching. We see Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) worriedly tell Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) that his "family is here" and Lewis tersely tells him to "get them home". Violence will be brewing with the pachucos on a warpath after the death of one of their own.
We see Mateo (Johnathan Nieves), who now considers himself to be one of them, shrug off Tiago's grip to follow his "new family". So we can assume that the fragile peace we saw built in last week's episode will be broken pretty quickly since the pachucos will be baying for blood. The trailer also shows Fly Rico (Sebastian Chacon), Mateo, and Rio leading an army of pachucos down the streets of LA. We see scenes of all-out fighting on the streets of LA and martial law being declared. The official synopsis states, "Townsend celebrates the rise of his political fortunes" since his appeal lies in divisive politics.
The synopsis also states that "Peter Craft, Elsa and the boys will be trapped amidst a riot". This means that Peter, who has till now been very respectful of Maria Vega (Adriana Barraza), might start sharing Elsa's misgivings about Mexicans. Meanwhile, Tiago will despair about the future of his relationship with Molly in between a race riot saying, "this town will never leave us alone," to which Molly will suggest disappearing together. But can they leave their ties to church and family behind? Sister Molly also seems to be a recipient of bad news in the trailer as she says in a shocked whisper, "what have you done?" and we see Miss Adelaide running, obviously distressed by something. Will Tiago do something to incite such a reaction from both mother and daughter?
Another thread that will be explored in the season finale is the fate of Brian (Kyle McArthur), the genius scientist, and Dottie, his adorable minder. We see them have a close shave from being gunned down by Kurt (Dominic Sherwood) after Lewis arrives at the nick of time to whisk them away with some help from the gangster Benny (Brad Garrett). In this week's episode, Brian will be in danger again since "Lewis and Tiago rush to protect him", according to the episode brief.
But we can also expect a few moments of reprieve in this tense finale as the Vegas celebrate the 'Day of the Dead'. Will Santa Muerte finally make a decisive move against Magda in the finale moved by the Vega family's prayers?
'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' finale airs on June 28 on Showtime.
