Josefina and the Holy Spirit Spoiler Free Preview
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels episode 4
Ahead of tonight’s new episode it’s time for our spoiler free look at episode 4 of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels – Josefina and the Holy Spirit. Keeping this one spoiler free is going to be hard, so this might be a little shorter than previous.
TRIGGER WARNING: This episode contains scenes of sexual abuse. Please bear this in mind when watching the episode.
Synopsis
Tiago (Daniel Zovatto) scours Sister Molly (Kerry Bishé)’s beach house for clues, leading to disquieting revelations. Councilwoman Beck (Christine Estabrook) proposes an alternate route for the Arroyo-Seco motorway, infuriating Townsend (Michael Gladis). Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear) invites Elsa (Natalie Dormer) to a party at his home, inflaming the suspicions of his wife Linda (Piper Perabo). Lewis (Nathan Lane) asks the gangster Benny Berman (Guest Star Brad Garrett) to help battle the growing Nazi menace in LA. And after Josefina Vega (Jessica Garza) has a harrowing encounter with the police, Mateo (Johnathan Nieves) seeks retribution with his new Pachuco friends as Josefina pursues spiritual enlightenment with Sister Molly.
Trailer
Well. Where to begin with this one? First of all, while there has been some violence and sexual content thus far in PD:CoA, this episode takes everything up several notches. And it is unflinching in its portryal. At least twice I found it uncomfortable to watch. That being said, given we are almost at the halfway point of the series things are really starting to heat up.
Making deals
Lewis turns to a gangster for help. Said gangster is played by a guest star in a role so far from the one he is most known for that I actually had to go check it was him because I doubted myself. Lewis explains what he thinks is going on with the Nazis in LA, but Berman doesn’t seem to be interested. I liked that this plotline came full circle at the end of the episode, albeit in a surprising fashion as it linked up with a scene from the very start of the episode.
Josefina and the Holy Spirit
What happens to Josefina in this episode was harrowing. This did NOT go the way I anticipated from the episode title. Given her family’s connection to Santa Muerte I expected Josefina to follow her mother’s footsteps. What actually happens surprised me. I cannot wait to see how this one plays out. Especially as it’s another tie binding the two sides of Tiago’s life. It also has devastating repercussions for both Josefina and Mateo. Neither of them are going to be able to come back from what happens to them in this episode.
Tiago’s family life is already fraught, given his status as a detective, and what happened with Raul in episode 1. Things do not get any better for him in this episode as he discovers what Mateo has been up to at the Crimson Cat.
Re-route the Motorway
The councilwoman who took a run at Townsend last week has been scheming behind his back, proposing an alternate route for the motorway. We saw last week what happens when Townsend doesn’t get his way, and he takes a similar route this week but with shocking consequences. I’m just going to say this to my fellow Shadowhunters fans watching this for Dominic Sherwood – You are NOT prepared for this week’s episode. I know you’ve been waiting for this, so I will confirm that Kurt speaks this week. But that’s all you are getting out of me.
Party Time
Elsa and her ‘son’ attend the party Dr Craft has thrown for his son. Elsa meets Craft’s German friends and manages to have them all eating out of the palm of her hand with one Beer Hall song. She also meets Craft’s wife Linda who tries to warn her away. Sadly her efforts are futile because Elsa knows all to well what she is dealing with. Craft finally gets what he has wanted for a few weeks too, no doubt that’s all part of Elsa/Magda’s plan.
Later that night, at a sleepover for the children, the horror elements come back hard. I want to give serious credit to the child performers this week. Santino Barnard has a supernatural ‘otherness’ about him as he tells his fellows a horror story by torchlight. I’d also like to give Julian Hilliard a hug. Between his roles in The Haunting of Hill House and this I feel like he’s probably done enough horror to last him several years!
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels episode 4 – Josefina and the Holy Spirit airs tonight at 10/9c on SHOWTIME. It’s available to stream now via their website or the app.
