John Paul III is a bad pope.
We’ve been dancing around this conclusion for a while, as The New Pope makes it increasingly clear that John Brannox doesn’t really know what he’s doing. By the end of this episode, John Paul III has allowed himself to be fully manipulated by the grotesque conspirators, gotten rid of the most competent person in the Vatican, and, uh, embarrassed himself on live television. The rest of his crew isn’t doing so hot either—Sofia’s perception of her husband has totally shattered, Spalletta has been partly exposed, and Voiello is in exile with Don Mimmo and Girolamo.
I know I’ve spent a lot of time this season talking about the failings of John Paul III, so let’s talk about why he’s a bad pope. Part of the answer is that he’s intensely focused on reputation and perception, issues that he ultimately has less control over than the actual policies and dictates of the Vatican. Though he claims that reputation is a “petit bourgeoise” concern, Brannox confronts Spalletta about the cardinal’s interest in younger women specifically because it will make him (Brannox) look bad. In his big televised interview, Brannox claims that he is interested in “evil,” though he says little about how he plans to combat it—and throughout the season, it’s seemed like he only really took an interest in handling the abuse in the church because it felt like something he was supposed to care about.
More to the point—rather than planning or rehearsing or figuring out how to announce his interest in priestly marriage (remember that?), Brannox asks Danny if he thinks that his (Brannox’s) parents will be watching the interview. His mind is constantly elsewhere, trapped in his childhood stasis instead of being directed outward toward the faithful—or inward, toward God. And in this episode, we learn the cause of that stasis, or at least one of its symptoms: opiates. Brannox tells Danny not to give him his box—and, midway through the interview, he starts to slump over, in the beginning stages of withdrawal.
It’s unfortunate for Brannox that Spalletta, of all people, is the only one who actually knows what’s going on. Spalletta is a sort of half-assed manipulator here, capable of putting himself in a position of rare authority and power but totally unable to perceive the potential complications of his actions. Yes, he has the pope on the ropes, but he has also created a situation in which the entire papacy might come crumbling down around him—taking him and his allies along for the ride. Voiello would never.
Admittedly, Voiello’s plotting also backfires in this episode. He first attempts to alert the pope to the machinations of Spalletta, Tomas, and the Italian finance minister—caught with an underage girl by Sofia. This should, in theory, give him the leverage he needs to get back in the pope’s good graces. But instead, paranoid and in thrall to Spalletta, the pope asks for Voiello’s resignation. This scene feels archetypal, floating above the rest of the scheming in the Vatican: Voiello in all black, Brannox in all white, a primal conflict between steel and porcelain. It’s almost tragic, especially as Voiello deflates throughout the conversation. (He adores giving orders.)
If we had any doubt about what sort of man Voiello is, the episode spends some time showing us what he does when he has nothing left to lose: he helps people, like a sour Mary Poppins. Voiello ambushes the nuns, using the intelligence he gathered on them to help solve their problems—several reassignments, a fake orphanage for the baby, an oncologist appointment for the abbess, and so on. He also gets to take after Lenny, assigning Hernández to Kabul—where there are no priests committing sexual abuse. This is just a delightful double acting scene by Silvio Orlando, who manages to play funny, sad, righteous, and put-upon, all in the span of a minute or so. He is easily the MVP of the season so far, and I cannot express enough how much I want him to get more work after this.
Voiello also tries his best to be a decent person in his workplace interactions with Sofia, who is undergoing a sort of crisis of faith. At the beginning of the episode, Sofia receives a visit from an enigmatic, incredibly creepy priest with an eyepatch and pet cockroaches living in his sleeves. As bizarre as this man is, he gives her good advice: Sofia follows Tomas, eventually finding the entrance to the secret cocaine bunker, a thing that exists on this show. Voiello has a hard time expressing sympathy since Tomas is a layperson, but the collegial relationship he has with Sofia makes his exit from the Vatican all the sadder.
Over in the Esther plot, things are also… bad. At first, it seems like Esther is in fact in the best position of any of the main characters, negotiating a ridiculously lucrative deal to service a group of other men who have similar disabilities to Attanasio. This leads to a distinctly Lynchian scene of Esther dancing for the assemblage of young men, taking their gaze (and the camera’s, and ours) and sending it through a kaleidoscope of weirdness. On one hand, Sorrentino does depict the men with less of a horror vibe than he has in the past few episodes. On the other hand, that’s a low, low bar—and it only really happens because Lenny’s ghost shows up. Eventually, Attanasio’s mother cuts Esther loose—she’s getting too old to please her son and his friends, and they can find African girls for cheap. (Also, Attanasio’s mother strongly implies that she has an incestuous relationship with her son.)
Esther responds the way any normal person would… by strangling her. It’s a moment of pure brutality, which is shockingly rare for this show. Sorrentino just sort of lets it happen—there’s no drawn-out shots, no room in the editing to let us luxuriate in the scene, just a woman’s life being wrung from her neck. Esther, it seems, is now at the lowest point of any of the characters—though she has, perhaps, found salvation in the Lenny cult, finally arriving in Venice as she probably should have done at the beginning of the season. And the rest of the world is about to receive Lenny’s grace as well: Not only are his breaths counting down steadily toward zero, he appears in his spectral form to, it seems, resurrect Attanasio’s mother, responding to Esther’s last minute prayer and freeing her from sin. If that’s what he can do with a flick of his finger, what’s going to happen when he wakes up?
Stray observations:
- The opening credits this week confirm that the nuns’ Sofi Tukker dance is in fact diegetic, which rules.
- Voiello wants Sister Caterina to name her baby Angelo, even if it’s a girl. Voiello is the best.
- I didn’t have time to get into this here, but I’m interested in exploring the nature of class as part of why Brannox is such a bad pope—he has no concept of financial crimes, or any of the institutional realities the Vatican faces. It makes for an especially interesting contrast with the orphaned Lenny Belardo. (Even though both of them grew up in idyllic mansions.) Thanks to Sarah Jones for bringing this up—you can hear us talk about it on this week’s Papal Bull if that sounds appealing to you!
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This had to be the most densely and complex interweaving of stories than any episode of Young Pope and certainly The New Pope. But the subplot with Esther and her embracing of “sainthood” was so damn great. Yes previous episodes with her being with Attanasio was intentionally shot to be somewhat a horror, we were experiencing it through her eyes. But in this episode the contrast paid off so beautifully because after the first bolts of lightening, it instantly became so undeniably moving. Then the gut punch of the mother so threatened by “love” potentially between her son and Esther, ends it because she is the only one who can be loved by her son. “Sex has no value, because it lives and dies in the present. But love doesn’t, love is dangerous because it looks to the future”That may be the most impressive writing this show has delivered. Brutally cynical, but so goddamn true.
Agreed. Great line, great episode.
Thank you for confirming to me what an excellent line that was. I was like “was that my favorite line ever from this show or am I just super stoned?” Turns out both can be true.
I don’t know, Esther’s storyline still seems the most questionable of the season. And with Attanasio’s mother now going with, “We can hire cheap African prostitutes instead”, it even retroactively stopped making sense: if professional prostitutes are an option now, why didn’t she hire one of them to begin with? Why paying Esther that absurd amount? You don’t even need to go cheap to spend much less and avoid all the drama.
The mother was likely not telling the truth which is how I immediately interpreted the dismissal. She witnessed the intimacy between Attanasio and Esther and it triggered her. Plus there was something contemptuous the way she spit out “Cheap African prostitutes” clearly with a deliberate racist tone, thinking that would salt the wound of her revenge.
First time caller, long time listener here: it is a strange feeling to come to terms with what we’ve been shown all season: Brannox is a bad pope, a drug addict, and an emotionally-stunted, self-centered child. He is weak. What I love is the way this revelation was made a slow burn. It’s like discovering that someone you once thought you could love is a sociopath, or that what you thought was enigmatic is actually real internal confusion and immaturity. I also really appreciated the scenes with Esther, only because it made me imagine what it must be like to be a man who wants but cannot —truly cannot—have access to a beautiful woman. It must be strike deep into one’s manhood at an existential level. As a woman, I appreciate the opportunity to think of this, to know it is a possibility—it is a new point of view I otherwise wouldn’t have had access to. Even if it is not accurate, it is still a new empathetic pathway of sorts.
Thanks for another great write-up.The first scene with Sofia and the super creepy priest was one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve sat through in a long time. Holy shit.
yeah, but it felt way too over the top for me. too many weird elements with the asparagus+ the flan tapping (??)+ roach+ eye patch+ finger licking (barf)
*That* was super Lynchian to me.
I have to agree about Silvio Orlando. He’s tremendous and with each episode feels more like the beating heart of the season, while Brannox and Sofia complete the trifecta (I hope we get lots of Lenny in the last 3, though). I still don’t really know what the core theme of this season will end up being, but I’ve been loving every minute of it. Very different to TYP structurally but still has the same empathetic and human core to it.
Not to be reductive about Sorrentinis truly glorious batshit vision, but this episode and the whole season so far have struck me as Lynch by way of Hideo Kojima. This episode I found pretty hard to follow and particularly dreamlike, Essence in particular
This did indeed seem to be an episode in which the dangers or
dark-side of “love” were explored. For example, Leopold Essence (J. David Hinze)
with his cryptic clue for Sofia Dubois (Cecile de France) to
“Follow the love.
That’s where you will find failure”
sews the seed of doubt which leads her to discover
her husband’s transgressions while ‘whore-to-saint’ Esther (Ludivine Sagnier) is
shown that following the love can put you out of a job and drive you to break
yet another commandment.I was blown away by my own reaction to Essence, feeling almost violated
simply by watching the scene. Powerful stuff brilliantly acted. This was the
most fascinating episode so far for me as it raised multiple questions, only
some of which can be formulated in language.I’m loving this show.
I did not know that I needed to see the abbess getting her groove on, but I did, and I wish for more. That was an awesome scene. Also Voiello understands that you do not anger the nuns, and he had a very kind solution to all of the problems that they had, he also was showing them respect which is what they wanted in the first place.
“It’s unisex” Voiello is perfect
What accent, or maybe more accurately, affectation, is Malkovich employing in this production? It doesn’t sound English as much as it’s like fey-mumbling- root canal patient. His ability to deliver the soliloquies – amazing. The accent? Not so much.
And they could stand to just pick up the pace a bit on everything – the dialog, the story progression, the intros and the outros. Everything does not need to be languid all the time. I get that it’s “arty”, but it just moves so slow. If I watch The Outsider and this in succession I have to get up and move around to maintain focus.
agreed about his accent/affectation – but now as opiates are confirmed (thought as much in the beginning) it all makes a lot more sense as to that choice!
I feel like I may have missed it, but was it noted that the mother superior had cancer before this episode?
I cannot express enough how much I want him to get more work after this.Well, Silvio Orlando is a big deal in Italy, his career spans 30 years and 50 films, he’s got tons of awards from international festivals and Italian film institutions. Glad he’s started to be appreciated oversea too (although, I’ve gotta say, his English is still pretty clunky).
Catching up on watching, it kind of got away from me a bit but! just here to say was opiates/heroin obvious to anyone else?? From the second they first showed the box at his bedside table when introducing him I was like yep okay there’s drugs in there. The way Malkovich talks as Brannox also makes a lot of sense as to the opiates!
Sofia receives a visit from an enigmatic, incredibly creepy priest with an eyepatch and pet cockroaches living in his sleeves.The Devil himself? Classically a human with a defect (the eye patch). He also walks weirdly. This leads to a distinctly Lynchian sceneBut everything about this subplot is so… Argento. Foremost the interior of the lawyer’s villa, but the entire strangling scene and the concept of rich families with horny deformed sons too.