Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020) s01e03 Episode Script

1
[Magda] Previously on
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.
[Mateo] I saw what you did.
I'm Fly Rico.
You know The Cat? Find me there.
[Peter] Hello, Mrs. Branson.
Why, Dr. Craft! Hello.
[Peter] Would you like to join us?
[Elsa] Where is your wife?
[Tiago] Sister Molly,
I'm here about James Hazlett.
Have you been saved, Detective?
Are you offering?
[Townsend]
The Arroyo Seco is finished.
And with Hazlett dead, we got no one
to build the damn thing anyway.
[Magda] Don't we, though?
A firm with your best interests at heart.
What the people need is a champion
to channel their fear and anger
into something constructive.
Like the motorway.
[Sam] We seen him before?
[Lewis] Sam, you and Anton
follow the Nazis.
- We'll take the kid.
- [gunshots]
[explosion]
ominous music ♪
So, they burned in the car crash?
Oh, yeah. They burned.
But with these inside their skulls.
♪♪♪
Tell you what, Pat.
How about we pretend you never saw these?
Lewis
Just for a few days.
I gotta run something down.
I can't lie on the report.
Who's saying lie?
I'm just saying you temporize.
Lose the report. Take your time.
Go take Jill for a steak.
A favor. I'm asking.
Huh?
somber music ♪
[Lewis crying]
♪♪♪
[speaking Hebrew]
[continues in Hebrew]
[crying]
[background chatter]
[Tiago] So when do you have
to go back to work?
Sunday. They need me for a party.
[sighs]
Ay, Mama.
[Mateo laughing]
I know. He stood there
like fucking Pancho Villa
with a switchblade, like, two feet long.
Fucking cops pissed themselves.
Jesus, those pachuco motherfuckers.
I swear to Mother Mary,
I never seen anything like it.
He was so smooth.
Fucking Fred Astaire.
So now you wanna be all pachuco?
The man has pride, my brother.
When he's not stealing cars.
They had any pride, they would've
stood with us down the street.
Where was Fred Astaire then, huh?
You remember it?
What?
The police? The whole thing?
Not really.
Once the shooting started,
it all went to smoke, right?
I don't remember anything
until the hospital.
You don't remember when you got shot?
No, thank fuck.
You don't know who shot you?
It was probably you,
you sketchy motherfucker.
It was Tiago.
soft music ♪
[sobs]
There
There was a cop down on the ground,
and you were
Holy Mary.
Raul
you were killing them all.
♪♪♪
You were killing them all.
Tiago ran over. He was yelling.
I don't think you heard him.
♪♪♪
[exhales deeply]
♪♪♪
I'll tell you what.
I was a pachuco,
I would slit his throat for what he did.
That is your brother.
You respect him.
You think he wanted any of this?
Jesus Christ.
I'd rather be any fucking thing
in this world than Tiago.
He's not one of us.
He's not one of them.
He's a cop. He's a Chicano.
He doesn't know what the fuck he is.
You want to see hell, mano?
You look in his eyes.
And you be kind.
♪♪♪
I'm tired.
Let me sleep, okay?
Go be a pachuco already.
I just want to see your skinny ass
in those stupid fucking pants.
somber music ♪
[knocks on door]
You up?
Yeah.
♪♪♪
Hey.
How you feeling today?
[breathes deeply]
♪♪♪
[car honking]
[rattling]
I don't know if I want
to be mayor this much.
An ounce of prevention, sir.
After the Rotary luncheon,
where you shall eat a Waldorf salad
and eschew the bread basket,
you have a radio interview
and a Zoning Committee session.
And then tonight, we have our dinner
with Via Hermosa Development,
where you shall have
a small steak and no potato.
Via Hermosa Development?
The motorway, sir.
Our German friends.
[clicks]
[snaps fingers]
[panting]
[Townsend] I must say, all the attention
since the press conference,
feels good to finally get
the recognition I deserve.
As to that, sir,
you're more in the public eye now,
as you say,
so you'll want to mind
your Ps and Qs a bit.
How's that?
I mean your life is more exposed.
You need to be cautious not to give
your enemies any ammunition.
You need to behave yourself.
I promise I'll eschew the bread basket.
[Beck] Good morning, Councilman.
Getting agitated, are we?
[Townsend] Councilwoman Beck.
To what do we owe the pleasure?
Just a little Transportation
Committee business,
if you don't mind me interrupting
your rigorous health regime.
If you'll excuse us, Miss Malone.
She stays.
That bloody shirt was quite a stunt.
It was very creative.
I swear, I can't turn the radio dial
without hearing your dulcet tones.
One would think you're running for office.
When the people hear an honest voice,
they want to hear more.
And now you think you're gonna get
that road built on the graves
of four dead cops and eight dead Mexicans.
[Townsend] Yes, ma'am.
I call it healing the city's wounds
in concrete and asphalt.
If you think I'm gonna let you
turn the Los Angeles City Council
into your own little Third Reich,
you are sadly mistaken, sir.
I've been knocking down
piss-pot fascists like you
since you were at your mama's titty.
You want a war, honey? You got it.
[clicks]
Oh, and renaming it
the Maynard West Memorial Motorway?
Over my dead body.
Suit yourself.
[piano playing swing music]
[Molly] So I'll go downstage left.
You just keep playing until I hit my mark,
and then I'll say,
"But the Lord doesn't always
make it easy for us, does He?"
Something, something,
something, just keep vamping.
"He can make that climb
to the mountaintop an arduous trek,
so when in doubt, keep listening
for that heavenly choir up above
and remember this."
There may be trouble ahead ♪
But while there's moonlight and music ♪
And love and romance ♪
Let's face the music and dance ♪
That's great, Bob. I have to run.
We'll finish up with the boys tomorrow.
You ought to do
the whole song and the sermon.
I have a fitting with Brent.
[Adelaide] Another fitting?
You want me to look presentable,
don't you?
Well, when will you return?
I've scheduled some things. I
[Molly] Oh, I don't know.
I think he wants to show me
some new designs.
Randolph can drive you.
[Molly] I'll drive myself, thanks.
See you tomorrow.
[Adelaide] Molly Joan.
Randolph should drive you.
Oh, for heaven's sake.
I am thinking of your safety, dear.
No one's going to kidnap me, I swear.
Look, I'll wear the glasses.
I'll wear the hat.
It's just a darn costume fitting, Mother!
[sighs]
Darling, don't worry.
I'll be back soon.
You just keep adding up the money.
suspenseful music ♪
[church bell chiming]
tense music ♪
Well, look at this, Mr. Hazlett.
♪♪♪
Good morning, son.
I'd like a word if I could.
- Over here, thanks.
- What?
Oh, don't ask me. I'm just a worker bee.
My captain wants to see you
down at the station.
Why? Is there something wrong?
It's just some routine thing.
I don't know.
Climb in.
Ours is not to reason why, right?
[chuckles]
♪♪♪
[engine starts]
♪♪♪
[Vanderhoff] Working on your day off.
That's initiative.
How's, um your brother?
He's all right, sir.
Go home, Detective.
We give you days off for a reason.
Yes, sir.
They'll be just as dead on Monday.
I had to learn that.
I worked the Florence Moore case.
Little 12-year-old girl, she was.
Couldn't get her out of my mind.
He cut off her arms and legs and
held her eyes open with wires.
How do you sleep with that?
How do you?
Seconal.
A fuck-load of it.
Top right drawer of my desk.
Anytime.
Now go home.
mysterious music ♪
♪♪♪
Uh, Detective Vega?
Miss Finnister?
Might we talk?
Yes, of course.
Would you like to go inside?
Oh, no, no. Here's fine.
How can I help?
I've been praying for your brother.
I know this week
must have been challenging,
and I'm terribly sorry.
Has there been a service?
No, uh, he recovered.
I mean, he he woke up.
Lord be praised. His works are mighty.
[bus approaching]
You should get your bus.
I'm fine.
[chuckles]
I don't do this a lot.
Buttonholing policemen at bus stops?
I mean, get out by myself,
in my trousers, no less.
This your day off?
That, sir, I never have.
There's always work, isn't there?
There are so many poor souls.
It's hard to leave them behind.
They just stay in your head.
My captain recommended Seconal.
Nembutal's better.
Do you ever wish you were someone else?
I mean, someone else entirely?
Like an Arab sheikh?
No, like a normal person
who never heard of Nembutal,
who could walk through the market
and buy things, just like everyone else.
Not such a freak.
You're not a freak.
Oh
That I am.
I was raised to be,
all around me, the other snake-handlers
and con men and me,
singing my heart out,
little Sister Molly.
Sometimes you just want to be Molly.
Do you always want to be Detective Vega?
Don't you sometimes just want to be
[laughs]
I'm sorry. I don't recall your first name.
Santiago. Tiago.
Yeah.
Sometimes, I wish I could just be him.
As I remember,
he was a decent man once upon a time.
Then I'll call you Tiago.
I've taken up enough of your time.
I'm sorry. I just wanted to
Wait.
How would you like to be someone else,
just for today?
[engine revs]
Yeah, I thought about college.
Maybe a football scholarship, right?
Don't I look kind of like
a tailback to you?
- Where are we?
- Hmm?
Oh, yeah. This is good.
ominous music ♪
♪♪♪
Come along, son.
No.
Don't be a goose.
No.
Ow! Oh!
[grunting]
What did I do?
[groans]
You have a nice dinner on Monday?
That Italian place
with your German friends?
Add a couple of Japs,
you got a regular Axis there, huh?
Why don't you tell me about it?
They'll kill me.
Hell, son,
what do you think I'm gonna do?
I just kidnapped you, broke your teeth,
kicked the fuck out of your nose,
and now I'm gonna throw you
off this cliff
where the damn coyotes will eat you.
- I swear to God, they will.
- [spits]
Go ahead.
It would be the best thing
that happened to me all week.
♪♪♪
So tell me about it. I'm a cop.
I'm here to serve and protect.
[laughs]
Come on. Don't make me hurt you.
I had about the worst week
of my life, too.
And believe me, when a Jew says that,
it fucking means something.
Do you know what's going on
in Germany now?
Oh, surely, you jest.
You ever heard of a man
named Wernher von Braun?
[sighs]
Educate me.
[distant whooping]
[calliope playing]
[people laughing]
[man] Three shots?
All right, you got three shots.
[bullets clanking]
Three more, you get a Popeye.
You want a Popeye?
Mm.
What girl doesn't?
♪♪♪
[bullets clanking]
You are pretty pleased
with yourself, aren't you?
[both chuckle]
Enjoy.
[imitating Popeye]
[laughs]
He's precious.
light music ♪
[indistinct chatter]
It was just after my seventh birthday.
We didn't get to go many places,
but my dad managed
to scrape up the bus fare
to bring us all out here.
I swear, it was like
the Arabian Nights for us.
We couldn't afford to go on the rides,
but that didn't matter.
My brother Tomas and sister Gina
were alive then.
That was the best day of my life.
♪♪♪
What happened to them,
if you don't mind my asking?
Cholera.
It was all over el barrio.
We all got sick.
Some of us got better.
I'm so sorry.
♪♪♪
[chuckles]
suspenseful music ♪
[buzzes]
Uh, Laura, has Mrs. Branson arrived yet?
No, sir, but Mrs. Wayne is here early.
You tried Mrs. Branson at home, ja?
[Laura] Yes. No answer.
Shall I send in Mrs. Wayne?
Uh, please.
Uh, no.
Cancel my appointments for the day.
Sir?
Ja, for the whole day.
Thank you, Laura. That will be all.
[sobbing]
Frank?
What's wrong?
Where's your mother?
Are you all right here?
[sniffles]
Mrs. Branson, it is Dr. Craft.
Mrs. Branson?
ominous music ♪
Oh, my God.
Ja, raise your chin
just a little bit for me.
Now, hope this doesn't smart too much.
[snickers]
"Smart."
You are so American.
Mr. Branson, you know,
he cannot keep his temper down.
Frank makes him angry.
I send Frank outside, so he does not know,
but he knows.
♪♪♪
You may, uh, lower your chin. Thank you.
It was so silly today.
Frank is having hardship
in school, you know.
He does not fit in with the other boys,
with the Jews.
They punch him and call him names.
Mr. Branson tells him
to fight back, to punch them.
[scoffs]
I tell him no,
Frank is too small for that.
You know how ill he is.
That boy breaks my heart.
He's all I have that is mine.
This place, this house,
it is America.
What is that to me?
It'll get better.
When I first came here, after the war,
oh, it was very hard.
[chuckles]
But I found my friends,
my German friends.
Now, you will allow me
to introduce you to them, I hope.
You are so good to me.
And you know, my boy, Tom,
is having a birthday party this Sunday.
He is, I think, Frank's age.
Will you come?
Bring Frank, and he will have friends.
Do say you'll come, yeah?
It will mean the world to Frank.
Well, then it is done.
All better.
You will, uh, keep, please,
the bandage on until tomorrow.
No, no.
Not in Mr. Branson's house, no.
Uh, I I'm sorry.
Please.
If you would be so good as to have us,
then Frank and I would like very much
to come into your house on Sunday, bitte.
suspenseful music ♪
[engine starts]
♪♪♪
[bell chiming in distance]
[birds chirping]
[waves crashing]
Back to the real world for us, Captain.
I don't think he's a captain,
just a sailorman.
In any case, you'll have to take him.
Oh, he's yours.
I spent two good nickels winning him.
You conned that poor man out of him.
You ought to be ashamed
of yourself, Detective.
I can't bring him home, Tiago.
And someone so jaunty
has no place in my house.
soft dramatic music ♪
Please, please take him.
♪♪♪
Now you make sure
he's always got lots of spinach and, uh
he's got plenty of tobacco for his pipe.
music intensifies ♪
♪♪♪
Let me drive you back to the station.
I think I want to stay here for a while.
I just want it to last a bit longer.
What?
The second-best day of my life.
[chuckles]
♪♪♪
[Richard] You can imagine I'm confident,
the complexity of the arrangements.
It's meant to obfuscate,
and does so commendably.
So, the money goes
through Via Hermosa Development
and then to my campaign?
Through various
charitable organizations first,
but the details are of no matter to you.
I like details.
Hmm. I hesitate to bore you
after such a fine Chateaubriand.
Go on, bore me.
The details are not of your concern.
Via Hermosa?
Spanish name's a little cheeky,
considering we're gonna tear down
their neighborhood.
It means "beautiful street,"
and what will be more beautiful
than your admirable road,
your golden pathway to the future?
And that bloody shirt,
not to mention dragging
that poor widow up
Really, sir, your audacity
knows no bounds.
Fortune favors the bold, right?
Oh, entirely.
And your audacity is truly
as Herculean as your appetite.
Thank you for the dinner, Mr. Goss,
but we have a busy day ahead.
Hold on, Alex.
Councilwoman Beck's pretty much
opened fire on me and the motorway.
She's hated me from day one.
We need to do something about her.
As in?
Fucking do what you do.
Unleash your flying monkey
and kill the bitch.
So, you want us to assassinate
a member of the city council?
[Townsend] Yeah, that's what I want.
Don't forget who's running
this show, fellas.
Without me, you've got nothing.
It's my fucking motorway,
and if you don't like it,
you can shove your Via Hermosa
all the way up your Via-fucking-ass.
tense music ♪
Would you like to rephrase that?
Let me think about it.
Fuck off, cunt.
♪♪♪
If Councilwoman Beck becomes an obstacle,
we will handle her in our own way,
not with your grotesque simian notions.
Now, you, sir, must recall
one salient factor.
You're an odious tub of guts
of which I'm making use.
You have a singular gift
for repellent rhetoric
and putrid demagoguery.
I'll give you that.
But then you, in turn, must allow me this.
I speak for Adolf Hitler.
I speak not for tonight,
but for the next thousand years.
And when the Wehrmacht
is marching down Sunset Boulevard,
you will either be at our side,
or under our boots.
Now, which is it to be, little monkey?
♪♪♪
Excuse me. I'll say good night.
Now you've done it.
I'll be dealing with that
for the next week.
You know what he'll do now.
Let him sneak a chocolate malt.
They're all fat in Berlin anyway.
Jesus, you should see Goering.
If it were only a malt.
You know what?
You fuckers aren't as smart as you think.
Charlton, sir, hold on!
Hold on. Come on, let's get a drink.
Let's get lousy drunk
and spit in their eye.
♪♪♪
[engine starts]
foreboding music ♪
[glass shattering]
[upbeat Spanish music playing]
[background chatter]
[laughter]
♪♪♪
[overlapping chatter]
♪♪♪
[man whistling]
[crowd whooping]
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[crowd cheering]
Brother of my heart,
you gotta meet the queen.
Nobody sits with me
unless they kiss the ring.
Oh, hey, Reina, meet little Mateo.
Call me Rio, baby boy.
[Magda] You cut it up good out there.
Yeah, you know.
Dancing is great.
This is that flash motherfucker
I told you from the hospital.
Stood there toe-to-toe
with fucking Reilly.
Didn't say spit.
How's your brother, man?
Good, good. He's home.
Fucking cops, right?
Shot him in the fucking head.
[Rico] What took you so long to come here?
It was last week we parlayed, huh?
Uh, I had to work nights, you know?
Dude, work's for saps and gringos.
When you gonna grow up?
[laughs]
And you're here, man.
Holy Mary, please do something.
[band plays swing music]
You and me.
Let's go.
♪♪♪
Don't fuck it up, baby.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[rhythmic clapping]
[crowd whooping, whistling]
♪♪♪
[whistle blowing]
[crowd clamoring]
What the fuck is this?
You come in The Cat?
Hey, Zorro. Sorry to break up the fiesta,
but every one of you is breaking curfew.
- What curfew?
- Oh, didn't you hear, Miss
Or whatever the fuck you are?
City's got a curfew now for you folks
as of about ten minutes ago.
So take your albino dyke
and your pretty faggots
outside to the paddy wagons.
Youse all going to jail, amigo.
[grunts]
[all clamoring]
[Rio laughing]
[shouting]
suspenseful music ♪
I'm Popeye the Sailorman ♪
I'm Popeye the Sailorman ♪
I'm strong to the finish ♪
'Cause I eats me spinach ♪
I'm Popeye the Sailorman ♪
[sighs]
[Rico] Sorry sons of bitches
cut my suave threads.
Sometimes the cops bring razors
to slash up our clothes
so we're not pachuco anymore, right?
Baby, I'm pachuco stark naked
strutting down Wilshire.
But you're white.
Bite your tongue.
My parents are from Sevilla, in old Spain.
I was born in Mexico
and moved to LA when I was three,
so, yeah, I'm not really a spic.
I'm a dago.
[Rico] They coming into The Cat now?
Holy Mary, what the fuck next?
Next, they shoot us down
like Belvedere Heights way.
[Mateo] That's what it was.
They were shooting us down like dogs.
They would've used fucking tanks
if they had them.
- Don't think they don't.
- Brother, when are we gonna get active?
- We have to fight.
- Fight who?
- Who you got?
- The cops? Los gringos?
What more do you need, Rico?
They come into our neighborhood,
they come into our club, they beat us up,
they put us in jail for jack shit.
And what do we do? How do we fight back?
We sit there stealing purses
and jacking cars.
Where's our pride?
We gotta get our piece
of that American dream.
- That isn't for us.
- That's exactly for us.
You take what you want.
You make your way up.
You use your brains. You use your nerve.
No one's gonna give us anything,
Rico, so we make them.
First, we make them look.
Then we make them scared.
We are pachuco.
We are Chicano.
We are Aztec. We are spade.
We are wop. We are dago.
We are chink. We are queer.
We are everything they fear!
And we go out dancing.
tense music ♪
Easy now, mamita.
You're gonna scare our baby boy.
She's right.
What does a Chicano have?
His skin.
♪♪♪
Let me tell you skin, ese.
Minute I was born,
I was thrown out like garbage.
Mother's a stone junkie.
Daddy who the fuck knows?
Shit, I did everything
to survive this city.
I stole. I whored.
I ate the white man's trash
right outside his restaurants.
♪♪♪
Then one day I meet this man,
Papa Pachuco from Juarez.
He gave me this.
Now I wear this skin
with pride, with style,
and I ain't gonna throw it all away
on some crazy war with gringos
we never gonna win!
- So, we do nothing?
- How do we beat them?
How we gonna do that?
We make Los Angeles bleed.
Ninety years ago, you know what this was
where we're standing right now?
It was Mexico.
It's our city, Rico.
We found it. We made it.
We built it. We take it back.
Before we hit the trenches,
let's get this boy fly.
When skies are cloudy and gray ♪
They're only gray for a day ♪
So wrap your troubles in dreams ♪
And dream your troubles away ♪
Until that sunshine peeps through ♪
There's only one thing to do ♪
Wrap your troubles in dreams ♪
Thanks for coming, partner.
Get my friend one of these, Sammy.
Use the Rose's, not that domestic crap.
- You like a gimlet?
- Never had one.
Thank God you met me. You're so sheltered.
You'll like it.
Fights off scurvy, too, so that's a plus.
So
[sighs]
I'm taking a couple of days off.
Oh, okay.
I haven't used any vacation time
in about, well, never.
So I figure I'm due.
Where are you going? You leaving the city?
Fuck, no. I hate leaving LA.
But I gotta bury
this pal of mine named Anton.
He's got no one, no wife or anything,
'cause he's a miserable cuss.
So I figure I'll do it.
That's good of you.
Oh, yeah.
Me and all the wailing Jews.
It's gonna be a riot.
Right? Ambrosia, my friend.
When you die and go to heaven,
this is what you drink.
No fucking scurvy in heaven.
[both chuckle]
Oh, by the way,
Sister Molly was fucking Hazlett.
It's all in there.
Temple records and real estate contracts
from his office.
So he buys this love nest,
in Malibu, no less,
but he uses church funds,
so it's tax-exempt.
He goes to a lot of trouble to hide it,
so I figure he doesn't want
the dragon mother to know.
And why is that?
So he can fuck the daughter
as the waves roll in.
I told you she's a fraud.
- You don't know that.
- Of course I do.
Only reason men hide anything
is for money or for pussy,
and Hazlett had plenty of money.
Take the valise.
You run it down and tell me I'm wrong.
Looks like we got a new suspect, partner.
Oldest story there is.
Cherchez la femme.
tense music ♪
Hey.
You didn't really believe
her spiel, did you?
I still do.
Well, grow up.
It's a wicked old world.
[scoffs]
And it's only got you and me to save it.
slow jazz music ♪
Ahh!
Make it two more, Sammy.
There may be trouble ahead ♪
But while there's moonlight ♪
And music ♪
And love and romance ♪
Let's face the music ♪
And dance ♪
Before the fiddlers have fled ♪
Before they ask us ♪
To pay the bill ♪
And while we still have the chance ♪
Let's face the music ♪
And dance ♪
♪♪♪
Soon ♪
We'll be without the moon ♪
Humming a different tune ♪
And then ♪
There may be teardrops to shed ♪
So while there's moonlight ♪
And music ♪
And love And romance ♪
Let's face the music ♪
And dance ♪
Dance ♪
Let's face the music ♪
And dance ♪
Let's face the music ♪
And dance ♪
tranquil music ♪