'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Episode 2: A supportive woman becomes the perfect infiltrator in 1930s LA
Spoilers for 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Season 1 Episode 2 'Dead People Lie Down'
Los Angeles in 1938 was perhaps not the best time to be a woman, but if you're the immortal, shapechanging manipulator Magda (Natalie Dormer), there's no better form to take when one wants to be an invisible manipulator driving men to their doom. It's a trick so nice, she's done it thrice.
What Magda's ultimate motivations are have not been made clear - but then again, who truly knows the mind of a goddess? What we do know for sure is that Magda does not want to influence events directly - she much prefers pushing men into chaos on their own. As a woman of the time, she's essentially invisible while still holding incredible influence over the mortals of LA, because being a woman back then meant that nobody looked at you past the mask that society needs you to wear.
Sister Molly (Kerry Bishe) shows just how necessary those masks can be - despite being the idol of millions, she can count on one hand the number of people who know the real her. The person everyone knows is someone who doesn't exist. Unlike Madga, however, Molly hasn't found a way to make that work in her favor.
It's Magda's Alex form who perhaps illustrates this invisibility best. Toned down, plain, she somehow manages to pull off strong, bold opinions by having those opinions bolster the ones deeply held by Councilman Charlton Townsend (Michael Gladis) himself. The manipulation is not subtle - it doesn't have to be. A man like Townsend would never believe a woman had any influence over him whatsoever. Despite her being responsible for driving him to extreme action, Townsend will believe the entire thing was his idea, and what's more, he needs to double down on it. Alex, for her part, gets to smirk in the background as Townsend does exactly what she told him he should do.
Her role as Elsa seems to be the opposite of that. A glamorous damsel in distress, catching Peter Craft's (Rory Kinnear) eye with her leg placed just so. She's anything but invisible to him, but all Craft can see is the persona she's constructed for him. She allows him to be the hero. She manipulates his dreams and desires. Her dream self reacts with pure joy when he takes control. She makes him feel like a man by making herself appear like a weak, submissive, grateful woman. She is everything that men wanted a woman to be at the time, and in becoming that woman, over, and over again, the men she manipulates never even realize they're being played.
As a shapeshifter, Magda could appear as anyone. We've seen her turn her own flesh into a full-functioning (if somewhat eerie), autonomous human child. There's no real limit to her abilities. She chooses to be a woman - not a powerful goddess, commanding her followers, but a woman, helpless, at the mercy of the men around her. She puts on a mask of subservience, and in that, has more power than direct influence could ever have given her.
The next episode of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' airs on May 10, on Showtime, at 10 pm ET.