Anotaciones: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels Episode 8: Hide and Seek
The episode opens with the funeral of Friar Tuck, Tom’s hamster, that “Frank” killed in the last episode. Maria finds Tom and shows the love she has for the boy. He blurts out that “Frank” killed Friar Tuck just by looking at him and Maria tells him that she believes him, but that he must not tell anyone the truth. Maria also gives her protective idol, the coyote, to Tom. I can only assume this means that she thinks the child is in danger from Elsa/Magda and “Frank” and that Maria is worried about the times when she is not there. The “Old Coyote” or Huehuecoyotl is the Aztec Deity of tricks, storytelling, and music. Huehuecoyotl’s a shape shifter and pansexual god (like Magda). They are also a god that you can appeal to if you are cursed with an evil fate. Huehuecoyotl is a protector and powerful trickster god. Magda’s tendency to call Maria Coyote or Old Coyote reinforces the idea that Maria is more powerful than she realizes and that Magda knows it. Remember the idea of feeling that you have a cursed fate from birth as that idea is woven throughout the episode. According to Wikipedia:
The word “coyote” was originally a Spanish corruption of the Nahuatl (Aztec) word for the animal, coyotl. Coyote mythlore is one of the most popular among Native American people.
Lewis and Tiago talk in the cop bar and Michener tells Vega that they should figure out the connection between Townsend and Miss Adelaide. Lewis observes, “This damn government. It’s like Russian roulette, you never know who’s going to get it next.” I couldn’t help, but stifle a grim chuckle as this is exactly the same situation that Americans find themselves in at the moment.
Townsend bursts into Councilwoman Beck’s office and demands to know who Beck wants to replace him with her recall and she responds that it’s actually a woman and furthermore tells Townsend that all he really has is a family name. Beck expands the idea to say that the motorway is nothing but a way to squeeze people out of Los Angeles and leave only the people that Townsend is comfortable with, “rich white men”. Townsend responds that he has very powerful friends and Beck reveals her ace in the hole. She says, “isn’t that queer.” meaning that she knows or suspects that Townsend is gay. That’s enough to make Townsend draw back and stop issuing threats. While gay nightlife had had a brief heyday during prohibition and between the wars, by 1931, the “pansy” craze of the 1920’s had gone undergound with speakeasies. Townsend rushes back to his office and finds Alex/Magda standing with Lewis Michener in his office. Lewis confronts him and Townsend pretends to know nothing and tells Lewis to get out of his office. As Lewis leaves, he’s followed by Alex/Magda who tells him that he’s right. When he questions her motives, she reveals that she is Austrian and her real name is Mahler. She tells Lewis that she has not spoken with her parents since the Anschluss. Lewis, skeptical, questions her in German and she responds in the same language. He tells her that she should keep in touch, tell her what Townsend is up to, and where to contact him. It’s finally revealed that their station is Hollenbeck, which makes sense because that is the police station that serves Boyle Heights, El Sereno, and Lincoln Heights.
Maria is surprised by the arrival of Josefina outside the Craft home. Josefina wants to talk and Maria assumes that they can work things out, but Josefina has come to tell her that she is going to live at the Temple from now on. Josefina presents The Temple as an opportunity to change her life and her fate. Josefina says she wants more from her life and Maria feels a fundamental rejection from Josefina of who she is and of her people. Josefina says she wants more from her life and Maria responds, “More than a maid.” and there it is. It is the trial of all Chicanos or Mexicanos in California. Do you accept the life path that is already there for you or do you reach for more at the potential cost of rejecting your heritage? What society and your family expect from you or what you feel you could achieve?
A disappointed Maria goes back inside the house and is reprimanded by Elsa/Magda for “talking to Mexicans outside the house” and is told that she never wants to see her do that again. She also informs Maria that Maria has to stay and watch the boys because she and Peter have an engagement. A dispirited Maria agrees and Elsa/Magda smirks her triumph. Elsa/Magda seems to take an especial delight in humiliating Maria with microaggressions. She asks Maria seemingly innocuous questions, how to say lemon in Spanish, or makes seemingly innocent remarks about coyotes, “ugly little dogs, in Germany, we would shoot them.” that are meant to make Maria feel uncomfortable, unwelcome and as a subtle threat. I don’t think that Maria completely realizes that Elsa is Magda yet, but the suspicion is there.
Peter Craft goes to visit his wife Linda at the asylum with custody papers and Linda complains about her roommate from Bakersfield. It’s not something that I can provide a link to, but Angelenos have long made fun of Bakersfield. It’s a city in Kern County along the 5 Freeway just before you head into the mostly agricultural Central Valley. It’s looked on as a place filled with “hicks” or country folk. So when Linda mocks her roommate by saying she misses her cows, she’s complaining about the asylum, but also the quality of the people in it in a very privileged way. Linda continues and begins to mock Peter and let him know that she is coherent and wants revenge. She alludes to her family, her father, and the legal process of a divorce. She talks about waiting out the time in Reno which was the custom of wealthy women seeking divorce. She has no interest in him or the children, she just wants to rub her freedom in his face. Her one last sally is to let him know that she looks forward to spoiling his reputation as a good family man by revealing exactly who he really is. Peter retreats in low key terror.
Tiago arrives at The Temple and Miss Adelaide’s office. Like Townsend, Miss Adelaide pretends to have no knowledge of Goss’ “politics” and has probably already been warned by Alex/Magda of the oncoming threat of exposure from Michener and his partner. When Tiago tries to press her about Goss, she offers to show Tiago a baptism. She also tells Tiago that Molly likes “a thrill” and intimates that that is all that Tiago is to Molly. She says that Molly has had so many lovers and that he is just the next one. She also reveals that Josefina is now one of Molly’s followers by showing Molly’s baptism of his sister.
Townsend and Kurt arrive in an alley together to an underground club. While the area of Los Angeles isn’t specified in the scene, back in the 1930’s, there was a scene of gay and lesbian clubs located where the Sunset Strip stands today. Back then it was an unincorporated area called Sherman where the LAPD had no jurisdiction and the LA Sheriffs Department had no real interest in enforcing “vice” laws. Back then being gay or lesbian was not only illegal, but even, as I have mentioned before regarding Pachucas, cross dressing was illegal.
However, this was still a time when homosexuality was a crime punishable by prison. Dressing in drag could lead to six months of jail time. And on the streets of LA, the paparazzi was intent on outing Hollywood “degenerates.” The LAPD’s Vice Squad came down hard on the gay community and drag performers.
“I think female impersonators in the 1930s were particularly offensive to the police, and Jimmy’s Backyard was raided several times,” said historian Lillian Faderman. “Usually it was the female impersonators who were carted off.”
Such clubs were very popular and frequented by movie stars like Marlene Dietrich.
While at the club, it’s made very clear that there is a true romantic relationship between Kurt and Charlton and that Townsend’s adoration of Kurt is reciprocated. Charlton asks Kurt to kill Councilwoman Beck and Kurt admonishes him that he doesn’t work for Kurt and warns him that murder would take the innocence that Kurt is obviously attracted to in Charlton away from him forever. The scene, where the music is provided by the singer and actress Patti Lupone - as she sings the romantic standard Stardust, is touching and reminds us that romantic love is not limited by sexuality.
Sister Molly is found helping Josefina dye her hair. Molly tells Josefina that there’s no need for her to stay away from her family, that the Temple does not require that. Josefina reveals her reason for wanting to separate from her family. Like Maria suggested, Josefina wants to break away from the future that seems to await her as a mother and a maid. She fears that if she stays, she will marry and never have a chance to become something different. Molly accepts this and asks why Josefina chose to dye her hair red. Josefina says that her brother Raul had a poster of a Gibson Girl with red hair. It’s not specified, but I believe that the image on the poster is Evelyn Nesbit, the celebrated model and Gibson Girl.
Evelyn Nesbit was a redhead and a famous beauty who had a tragic life and was raped as a 16 year old by the architect Stanford White. White was 47 at the time. Her unstable husband Harry Kendall Thaw shot White for what he had done to Nesbit publicly at Madison Square Garden resulting in the first trial of the century. Thaw was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He wasn’t that much better than White, but he was obsessed by what White had done to E. Nesbit who he probably considered his property.
Maria is making popcorn while the boys listen to a radio program that seems to be a horror based story. The name of the program isn’t mentioned, but I think it might be based on Lights Out, one of the earliest radio shows that was a horror program. The setting of 1938 would mean that it was the version of the show with the creator Arch Oboler at the helm. Lights Out was created by Wyllis Cooper, who Oboler had great respect for, but is best known for Oboler’s tenure. Oboler was Jewish and a noted anti-fascist. Oboler realized early on that the time slot of the program and lack of oversight meant that he could work in whatever themes he wanted. Yes, this means that Lights Out and Oboler were antifa. A number of artists have said they have been influenced by Oboler’s work, namely Rod Serling, François Truffaut, and Don Coscarelli.
“Frank” taunts Maria with her status as a maid that derailed her original desire to become a nun. As a Chicana, I can attest to this being a constant fear for Chicana women. Even now as an actress, the majority of roles that I am asked to audition for or that I have performed are maids, prostitutes, and “spicy sexpots”. It speaks not only to a common fear, but the way Chicana and Mexicana, and Latina women are perceived which leads to the roles that they are pushed into by society and the entertainment industry. “Frank” says to Maria, “When you were a little girl in Mexico, did you dream of cleaning toilets for the rest of your life? You wanted to be a nun?…No more nun, just toilets to clean. Couldn’t you just scream?” mocking her feelings of loss and regret at the life that she never had. He unhinges his jaw in a parody of a massive scream. There can be no mistaking “Frank” as a supernatural and evil creature for Maria.
Why all the references to toilet cleaning? Do you wonder why this keeps coming up as a way to humiliate Maria and take away her power? How do you control someone and their ambitions in life? You steal their dreams and their hope. You condemn them to a life of manual labor and servitude. You deny them the dignity of choosing how they should be perceived. You tell them that they are only good enough to be servants, brood mares, or prostitutes. I’ll give you a classic example that is simple to understand. Have you ever heard the story of Cinderella?
The girl went out to her mother’s grave every day and wept, and she remained pious and good. When winter came the snow spread a white cloth over the grave, and when the spring sun had removed it again, the man took himself another wife.
This wife brought two daughters into the house with her. They were beautiful, with fair faces, but evil and dark hearts. Times soon grew very bad for the poor stepchild.
“Why should that stupid goose sit in the parlor with us?” they said. “If she wants to eat bread, then she will have to earn it. Out with this kitchen maid!”
They took her beautiful clothes away from her, dressed her in an old gray smock, and gave her wooden shoes. “Just look at the proud princess! How decked out she is!” they shouted and laughed as they led her into the kitchen.
There she had to do hard work from morning until evening, get up before daybreak, carry water, make the fires, cook, and wash. Besides this, the sisters did everything imaginable to hurt her. They made fun of her, scattered peas and lentils into the ashes for her, so that she had to sit and pick them out again. In the evening when she had worked herself weary, there was no bed for her. Instead she had to sleep by the hearth in the ashes. And because she always looked dusty and dirty, they called her Cinderella.
You deny them role models with authority and agency in films and television. You beat down their self esteem by denying them opportunities to achieve their career ambitions. You tell them that their destiny is the mop and the toilet brush, even on screen. Indeed, there is nothing wrong with being a maid, but why can there not be other options? It is done to many different peoples. Intelligent and powerful Black men and women cast only as gang members or drug addicts. Strong and resilient Indigenous men and women as drunks and prostitutes. The stepsisters fear competition and must tear the other down. Every time they mock the girl, they feel better about themselves. More powerful and secure because, ironically, they have no real sense of self worth, because they never earned what they have. They don’t have to. They are told by virtue of their birth that they are special. Assured of their position and their place in the hierarchy, they live to destroy that which they fear. They fear what they don’t have the strength to become. They fear a beautiful and accomplished woman or man who dreams of having more and making their own way in the world. They have to handicap the competition.
Lupe Ontiveros spoke four languages and didn’t have an accent, but you wouldn’t know that from the roles she was forced to play. She played a maid 150 times. She continued playing the maid because those were the roles that are offered to her. What could her career have been if the short sighted people in the industry had been willing to see her any other way? If they had judged her by her intelligence and character?
If they had taken the time to see her beauty and talent.
It turns out the engagement that Peter Craft and Elsa/Magda have to attend is a meeting of the German-American Bund. Peter and Herman argue about the purpose of the Bund. Peter, surprisingly, seems to be against the hard line of Hitler and “purification” aka elimination of the Jewish people that Herman is arguing for. Peter makes the point that the German people are not ruled by emotion and Elsa/Magda makes the point that Hitler is not actually German, but Austrian. The group seems unsettled and fractured by this disagreement.
Tiago and Molly argue about Josefina becoming a part of The Temple and in opposition to Miss Adelaide’s suggestion that Tiago is a new toy for Molly. Molly insists that she needs for their relationship to be real indicating that her feelings are genuine.
Elsa/Magda and Peter fight in the car on the way home. She insists that Peter needs to be the strong man that she wants and he responds by telling her the reason why he doesn’t want to succumb to the full Nazi agenda. He tells her that his family name is actually Krupp. The Krupp Corporation was an arms manufacturer and the heir and head of the corporation during World War II was Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach of Essen, Germany. He was a Nazi and worked in collaboration with Hitler and the Nazi regime to supply them with all the armaments used to wage war against the rest of the world. He and his company used slave labor from the concentration camps and he was convicted of crimes against humanity in the trials that followed Germany’s defeat. It’s actually difficult to find the names of the Krupp family, probably because of the shame and disgrace of Alfried Krupp’s actions, so I cannot say if Peter Craft/Krupp is based on an actual heir of the Krupp family, but I can say that Alfried’s heir Arndt Von Bohlen und Halbach famously waived his inheritance and rights to the company after his father’s death. Peter’s reasoning was as a medic in World War I, he was repelled by the family’s business because he saw the wounds that the company’s weapons inflicted on the soldiers and it haunted him. Like Alfried’s heir, he refuses to further be involved with those weapons of war and slaughter.
Maria washes the dishes and sees the water turn an eerie red and hears the scream of Tom. She finds the Craft boys and “Frank” staring at each other and “Frank” demanding “What’s that?” of Tom who is holding the Coyote talisman that Maria gave to him. Suddenly it is LIGHT’S OUT and by the time Maria grabs a flashlight, all of the boys are gone. Maria searches through the darkened house and comes face to face with “Frank”. She then hears Tom’s screams and runs searching for the boy upstairs. Maria finds Jose, her deceased husband, who tells her that he is sent by Santa Muerte. He tells her to leave because the beast is too strong. This reveals to Maria that the specter is not her husband, but is the trickery of Magda. The specter goes up in flames and suddenly Maria is back where she started, in the kitchen — washing dishes with the tea kettle whistling, and “Frank” knocks the kettle over and places his hand directly on the flame and begins to scream.
Elsa/Madga tries her best to force Peter to fire Maria, but he proves not so easy to manipulate. She once again tries to imply that he’s not man enough for her and that she needs Peter Krupp. Peter instead gives Maria a raise and does not hold her responsible for what happened. He tells Elsa/Madga that if she wanted Peter Krupp, here he is. He is a man who will not be manipulated. Elsa/Magda has finally met up with someone who does not respond to her suggestions. Good work, Peter.
There’s banging on Tiago’s door and he rises to find out who it is. It’s Lewis who barges in and sees Sister Molly in Tiago’s bed. Tiago and Lewis talk outside and find that both Townsend and Miss Adelaide have the same map of the Via Hermosa/Goss of the motorway in their offices. It’s obvious to them both that the objective of the alliance of Townsend, Miss Adelaide and Goss is about the Arroyo Seco. Tiago replies that what it is really about is the future of Los Angeles and they decide to make a midnight visit to the Via Hermosa office to find out why. Lewis warns Tiago again, and for the last time, that he shouldn’t keep secrets from him. He asks if Molly knows about her mother and the Nazis working together and Tiago insists that she does not. You can tell that Lewis is not so sure that is true and Tiago admits he doesn’t know for sure either. Suddenly, there’s a burst of machine gun fire and Tiago and Lewis are forced to take cover. It seems that someone has decided to try and take the detectives out. There are some obvious suspects, but who exactly it is is not revealed. They almost certainly were firing Tommy guns though.
Hide and Seek was written by Latin American actress and playwright Tatiana Suarez-Pico and directed by the returning director from last episode, Sheree Folkson.