'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Episode 7 Review: Maria steals the show as she sees her family in danger
Spoilers for 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Season 1, Episode 7 'Maria and the Beast'
After the last episode's tightly-contained narrative taking the show's quality to new heights, 'Maria and the Beast' takes things back to the status quo - stellar performances that are increasingly undermined by the series' scattered plot. There is a lot to enjoy this episode, in individual moments, but overall it's hard to tell just what anything on this series is leading up to or why it's happening at all.
Maria Vega (Adrianna Barazza) finally gets her due as much of the episode's spotlight is on her. The many moving pieces of the show are just starting to come together, enough for Maria to see just how much her family is at the heart of things. She can see that Madga (Natalie Dormer) is tearing her family apart, having now seen her in at least two guises, she is not afraid to stand up to her or even the goddess she worships, Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo). We've seen Maria face-off with Magda thrice now - first in Magda's guise as Rio then as a pettily racist Elsa and finally, as Madga herself and she hasn't blinked once.
Increasingly, it's looking like the elder generation are the real heroes of the TV series. Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) continues to fight the Nazis for all he's worth, now pulling Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) into his investigation. The delightful Dottie Minter (Lin Shaye) gets more screen time this episode and it's obvious that she's been criminally underused - though in all fairness, the series cannot handle any more main characters.
As Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear) continues to convince himself that he is a good man after having his wife committed so that Elsa can move in, the series heaps another side-plot on its already full plate. While Frank Branson (Santino Barnard) plays an effectively creepy child, it's hard to understand why so much importance is given to his story, this late in the game. In fact, Craft himself still has no connection to the rest of the series besides his tenuous rapport with Maria.
The series appears to be finally pulling its disparate pieces together, as the Nazis meet with Adelaide Finister (Amy Madigan), Craft has a heart-to-heart with Maria and Beverly Beck (Christine Estabrook) closes in on Alex's shady background. The show is still holding its cards frustratingly close to the chest, even as a confrontation between Madga in her true form and Santa Muerte is filled with enough vague references to inspire more questions than it answers. Madga's endgame remains opaque, making 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' a brilliantly produced and performed series that is unfortunately too meandering to get too invested in.
The next episode of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' airs June 14, on Showtime.