| “ | All of you, stop! I will not have this from you, from anyone. My whole life, I've been disappointing people. I don't believe in God. I don't believe in Santa Muerte. I don't join the union. I join the force. I'm not Chicano enough. I'm not white enough. I'm not Catholic enough. I'm not cop enough. I'm not anything enough! But what I am is Tiago Vega, and the woman I love sits here. You can turn your backs, you can walk away right now, but this is who I am. | ” |
| — Tiago | ||
Sing, Sing, Sing is the ninth episode of the first season of Showtime's Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and the ninth episode of the series overall.[1]
Synopsis[]
In danger, Tiago and Lewis must make bold decisions. With Townsend at the end of his rope, he’s forced to turn to a last resort. Spurred by Elsa, Peter decides to take Tom, Trevor and Frank to the movies. Lewis oversees the prison transfer of Diego Lopez as Tiago and Molly go dancing at the Crimson Cat, where they confront the rest of the Vega family.
Plot[]
Lewis and Tiago quickly run down their list of enemies and come to the conclusion that it most likely was a Nazi agent who shut up Michener’s car with a gun. Despite the fact that he had roped Tiago into helping him get to the bottom of this operation the Nazis are running in Los Angeles, Lewis doesn’t take Tiago with him to investigate further. Instead, the older detective goes alone to a restricted club to challenge Goss himself.
At City Hall, Charlton looks at the construction plans he had for the new motorway. He remarks how it could have been so beautiful. He remarks how it wasn’t just going to be road, but it was a vision. Alex tried to reignite the fire in Charlton, but he already feels like there’s no point. Now, Beverly looks to be getting her way when it comes to the motorway. Nevertheless, Alex reminds her boss that he still has four days, but Charlton doesn’t think it is worth it because everyone hates him. From the Chicanos,to the City Council and right down to the voters. His tirade leads him to blurt out how he is a fat, hateful man, who nobody will ever love. Alex tries to cheer him up by saying that she loves him and she has no doubt that Kurt loves Charlton too. Alex continues by saying that the voters will love him again because Charlton will give them that beautiful future. She reminds him that the destiny of Los Angeles depends on Charlton playing that last card he has left. Thus, Charlton must go see his father.
Meanwhile, at The Craft residence, Maria is doing the dishes while eavesdropping on the conversation that Elsa and Peter are having. Ultimately , he admits that he didn’t stop to think about what all these changes would do to his boys. He continues by saying that what he did was selfish . That’s on top of bringing in Elsa and Frank shortly thereafter. Now he believes that they shouldn’t have rushed and instead waited for a more appropriate time. Elsa, for her part says Peter is a good and true man, and that starting today, they will be a happy family like all the others. The two of them ultimately decide on going out as a family to the movies.
Elsa points out that a Robin Hood film is playing in theaters and it can be a special treat for Tom. Peter is elated and he goes out to tell his son. Once it’s just her and Maria, Elsa purposefully drops her orange juice and makes Maria clean it up. Elsa calls herself a silly girl and, but Maria tells her that she doesn’t think Elsa is a silly girl. Elsa asks Maria what she thinks she is, and Maria answers bluntly that when she knows the answer to that, she will tell Elsa. She warns Maria that when she knows the answer to that, it will be too late. The two women stare at each other intensely with neither one looking away. Elsa states that she wishes the two of them could have been friends. But not backing down, Maria tells the other women that she might as well have been howling at the moon.
Lewis tries to get into the private club where Richard Goss is playing golf , but the maître d'hôtel doesn't let him in. Even after Lewis flashes his LAPD badge to try to get in that way. The maître d'hôtel still does let him in by saying that this club is restricted to members only. He still walks in, and sees Richard Goss having dinner with two other men. He asks if the other man minds if he joins, but doesn’t wait for an answer and instead sits down. Lewis asks Goss how Adolf is and if they have invaded any countries lately. Lewis then turns to the other two men and asks them if they knew Mr. Goss works for Adolf Hitler. Goss asks the other two men to excuse him and Lewis reports by saying that they can go grab a copy of Mein Kampf at the gift shop. The two men leave and Lewis sips on some wine. Goss seems thoroughly unimpressed with Michener‘s bravado, and points out that Lewis has grossly overplayed his hand. Lewis tells Goss that he knows who the other man is, and what he is doing, and that he knows Goss tried to kill him. He proceeds to taunt Goss into killing right there in the club, by taking out his gun and putting on the table. Unsurprisingly, Goss doesn’t take the bait and instead says that it is always such theatrics and drama with Lewis’ people. Lewis then tells Goss to spare him the speech, and proceeds to tell him how he knows all about the Via Hermosa development, Councilman Townsend over at City Hall, Sister Molly’s Temple, and that place in Topanga. He’s about to say more, but Goss interrupts him by saying that he knows Lewis is hiding Brian Koenig. He vows to find the young college student and proceeds to mock him (and all Americans for that matter) for leaning too heavily into dramatics.
Instead, Goss reveals that he knows all about Michener‘s family history, which Goss has taken to knowing intimately as leverage. As mentioned by the Nazi agent, Lewis has a son in Glendale, and a daughter with multiple kids of her own back in New Jersey. Lastly, he goes on to tell Lewis that he will one day look at this trip into the lion’s den and weep for all he knows and he has lost. Lewis then retrieves his gun and tells the Nazi agent that it is not the lions he has to look out for, but roaches like him.
At the beach, Tiago tells Molly that Lewis is worried about him, and has asked that he stay out of sight. Molly mentions how that makes Lewis the best man to have as a partner. Tiago goes on to say that come Monday there will be a ceremony, where he and Lewis will get citations for the Hazlett case. Molly congratulates him, but Tiago doesn’t look thrilled. This, Molly changes the topic and says that the two of them should go somewhere. She is sick of not being able to go out in public with Tiago, and that everything they do to hide their relationship feels like they’re prisoners.
Meanwhile, Charlton pays his industrialist father Jerome, a visit, who ends up utterly dismantling his son’s one last hope to salvage his political career, and his beloved motorway. Jerome reveals that rather than a motorway, he is looking to the skies with aviation as his new business venture. Jerome tells his son that he already owns most of Mines airport over in Inglewood and the land around it, and now he’s working on a bond issue to add more runways and terminals and make it the central airport for all of Los Angeles. He proudly declares that when the war comes, the military is going to be pouring a fortune into aviation. Thus, all that technology will be trickling down into the private sector. So after the war, Jerome deduces that planes are gonna be bigger, cheaper, faster and will be flying longer routes, nonstop from LA to New York right over all those motorways.
When Charlton begs for help from his dad, Jerome tells him that he has already lost. That unless the Mexicans start rioting, and killing a bunch of white folks, Beverly Beck has run the table. Which inevitably means she will get her route for the motorway, and by extension gets Charlton recalled. Charlton however states that if Jerome supports him, he could win. But Jerome makes one thing inescapably clear. The reason he isn’t supporting Charlton isn’t because he is fat, ugly and queer. Rather, it has to do with the fact that Charlton is weak, and he never backs a losing horse.
Elsewhere, Lewis pays Benny Berman a visit to his new home in LA. Benny, while sipping on some tea asks Lewis if this new place of his makes him look nouveau riche. Lewis bluntly says that fuck yes it does. He then cuts to the chase and tells Benny he needs his help. Benny warns him that once he makes him his friend, it’s for life. The two shake hands.
Meanwhile, Maria gets off the bus and a couple steps ahead is Raul sitting and tells his mother that he doesn’t know if the motorway is all bad. That maybe it will do some good because people will be able to get to work faster. Perhaps business will come in, like how it is around the train stations. But Maria counters by saying that it could also kill the whole neighborhood. She laughs and explains that ultimately, it doesn’t matter because the plan now is to move the motorway to the canyon. They walk home and Raul asks his mom how was works. Maria exasperatedly mentions that the Craft house is cursed. She explains how she tried to help, but now doesn’t know what more she can do. She ultimately decides that she'll pray tomorrow to decide on what to do. Raul then tells his mother that he was thinking of going back to work. He explains that he just hasn’t felt the same since the accident. But it's like he has some kind of purpose now. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know what that purpose is. Maria decided that the two will dress to the nines, and have a night out.
At the police station, Lewis tells Dottie that he will be done in a couple of hours. Dottie says on the end of the phone to not worry about her and Brian. She explains to him that she is currently teaching Brian Mahjong. Lewis advises her to not start betting since Brian’s a math genius. Dottie states that no one takes Mrs Minter’s little girl to the cleaners.
At The Crimson Cat, Raul and Maria arrive, and Maria persuades Raul to dance with her. Raul bumps into a red headed girl who when she turns around ends up being Josefina. She is self conscious about her new hairdo, but Raul tells her that she looks beautiful. Mateo arrives at the club accompanied by Rio and Fly Rico. He goes over to greet his family and introduces his fellow Pachucos to them. Fly Rico compliments Josefina saying her hair is killer and takes her to the dance floor. Mateo tries to give his mom a kiss, but she is still cold towards him. Mateo explains that they all find their pride in different ways. He holds her and asks if she can be his mom for one night. That they can fight tomorrow. Maria tearfully admits that she worries about Mateo out there in the city without her. The two decide to put their differences aside at least for tonight.
On the dance floor, Josefina and Fly Rico are dancing to some samba, and Fly Rico is quick to point out that Fina has her brother’s moves. Without missing a beat, Fina tells Fly Rico that she also has Mateo’s back.
Back at Dottie’s place, she tells Brian that for all his smarts he is lousy at Mahjong. Eventually, Dottie asks Brian about how his equations are coming along. Brian casually mentions that he has figured out the equation for the rocket. But now, he is working on something else; something much bigger. Outside, Kurt watches Dottie and Brian from a nearby window . He takes out his gun and is about to break into the house, when he hears an engine puttering. As a result, he steps away from the door and hides. The person who arrives ends up being Benny who is going to escort Brian someplace safe.
Meanwhile, Tom asks his father if they’re going to be late because he doesn’t want to miss the cartoons. Peter promises that they won’t be late. Eventually, Peter tells his sons that when he was younger, they didn’t even have movies. Trevor laughs and tells his dad that he is so old.
On the streets of Los Angeles, Tiago tells Molly that his sister Josefina was born in Belvedere Heights. But his family was over in Sonoratown when he was born off Alameda street. All of them in a tiny little room. No bathroom and no hot water. He explains that the reason they all love the house so much is because their parents worked like miles and saved every penny so that they could move. Eventually, they too arrive at The Crimson Cat. Tiago states that the place is a mob scene, and no one will even notice them.
Inside, Rio takes in the whole place and watches Rico and Fina dancing, then Raul and Maria sitting down. She is the first to see Tiago and stares at him for a while. Tiago eventually sees his family is also at The Crimson Cat. Molly asks to meet Maria as it's only fair since he has met hers. Eventually, he relents and takes her to his family. Molly tries to be honest with who she is and how she met Tiago, but Tiago stretches the truth. Telling his mom he met her through work and that she works in public service. Unfortunately, while Tiago is off getting drinks for everyone, Maria realizes who Molly really is. She gets angry and tries to make her leave, but Tiago hears it and tells his mom to show his girlfriend some respect. Molly tried to give them some space, but Josefina and Mateo ended up back at the table too. With pretty much everything out in the open, the Vegas make peace with one another. Tiago even goes to Mateo and tells his younger brother that he loves him. Tiago asks if the two of them can talk sometime and Mateo accepts as the two brothers hug it out.
Cast[]
Starring[] |
Guest Starring[]
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Trivia[]
- At the end of the episode, the episode is dedicated to the memory of the late actor Brian Dennehy, who died on April 15, 2020, of cardiac arrest due to sepsis. [2]
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