After an opening episode that literally lit a fire under the asses of other horror shows (hellfire, that is), 30 Coins now ploughs into the second episode of its sophomore season without showing any signs of slowing. It’s precisely that breakneck pace that singled it out from other genre shows and I continue to marvel at how director Alex de la Iglesia manages it virtually every single episode.
However, the real challenge thus far hasn’t proven to be maintaining the rapid fire insanity rather than trying to expand the show’s canvas, having it expand across the world to the point where even Hell itself is a semi-regular location.
To do this, the show has had to ditch its three main leads into something of a holding pattern while the peripheral characters get their time in the sun; but while faces such as Merche, Laguna, Antonio and Salcedo are getting more screen time than ever, what does this mean for the power trio of Elena, Paco and Vergara?
Once again, we start with Vergara in Hell as he walks through a party of twisted beasts to have an audience with the demonic Angelo who shows up in a posh tuxedo while sporting a giant tentacle for a head! However, it seems that the sliver tongued devil wants to ask a favour of his nemesis as a new player is rising who may be a threat to both Hell and Earth.
While noticably absent from the last epidode, we finally call in on Merche, who has impressively fallen on her feet since the fall of Pedraza. As she is now in possession of one of the fabled 30 coins, lanky Cainite, Lagrange, has been spoiling her rotten in the hope that she simply give the piece up if given enough refinery, however, even the lure of muscular himbos can’t sway Paco’s former wife when she reveals that the coin has given her powers of telekinesis. After splattering said hunk, Merche claims that she couldn’t give the cursed bit of loose change away, even if she wanted to – but later on she has vivid dreams of her ex-husband who promptly starts bumping hips with an Elena who gets rapidly more pregnant with each thrust.
In the real world however, Paco’s care for a still comatose Elena has reached obsessive degrees – although, in his defence, someone did strap a dried up foetus to her belly in an attempt to kick start some ungodly pregnancy – but when he starts having full-blown meltdowns and tries to repeatedly flee the hospital with the unconscious ver in his arms, it doesn’t look particularly rational.
However, even with a conspiracy busting union forged between the two groups of Haruk and Salcedo and Laguna and Antonio, the forces of evil are on the move – but with the arrival of billionaire, entrepreneur, cult leader Christian Barbrow, Hell for once might not be the biggest threat.
So, to begin, I feel I really have to spend a little more column space gushing over 30 Coins’ vision of Hell which proves to be nothing short of diabolically resplendent. Sort of sitting somewhere between the upper class sex parties of Eyes Wide Shut and the flayed creatures of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser if seen through the peepers of Guillermo Del Torro, I genuinely don’t think I could possibly tire of the time we spend in this nether world. The Cenobite style creatures (one of whom is played by skinny-limbed legend Javier Botet) are naturally awesome, but lurking within the more refined members of this orange-tinged nightmare are such outlandish visions as what looks to be a mewling, skinned bear with human hands and Angelo himself sporting a huge, writhing, Lovecraftian tentacle for a head. The point of the scene is simple: Hell needs Vergara’s help for a simple and unnerving reason – there is someone worse out there.
That someone is Paul Giamatti’s Christian Barbrow, who we get to spend a little more time with this episode. Essentially an L. Ron Hubbard meets Jeff Bezos type who has designs on ending the world simply because he “doesn’t like it very much”. He has no interest in ruling it, no interest in changing it into something “better”, he just wants to wipe it out completely and his single-mindedness even has the malevolent Angelo worried. Giamatti is obviously having a ball, and plays Barbrow as if he’s a Bond villain of biblical proportions, crushing birds to death in his bare hands to prove a point and utterly unfazed when face to face with the likes of Hell’s main guy. While the actor hasn’t had to veer into sheer, gonzo mania yet, it’s no doubt on the way and I can’t wait until it does.
Also taking her bow is a alarmingly empowered Merche, who is being showered with gifts from the eager Lagrange and now that the scorned woman has an opportunity to live the life she feels that she’s owed, she isn’t fooled a bit by the generosity of the Cainite. In fact, the fact that her coin has given her superpowers when no one else has displayed any is interesting and considering she kills a guy in full view of the public by levitating him high above the ground before dropping him like a bad habit. This is a woman who not only knows her worth, but she has the power to get it and even after she is seemingly sated by being granted a child to mother, she still refuses to relinquish the coin which costs the unfortunate Lagrange a few fingers. Of all the plot points so far, Merche’s is the most unpredictable – despite owning a coin and hanging out with the Cainites, I wouldn’t technically label her an out and out villain just yet. Yes, she’s somewhat blinkered and selfish, but if we’re in the act of flinging mud, Paco was going behind her back, so I believe the jury’s still out as of yet.
Elsewhere, the episode wisely condenses the twin plot points that sees Haruka, Salcedo, Laguna and Antonio to all team up in record time and while it means that Antonio’s gift for visions are spelt out a little clearer, the fact that they’re utterly unfocused means that everyone will need to pitch in. But they should get on it soon, because we now also get the hugely creepy revelation that RNUK is using experimental drugs and bleeding edge VR technology on the poor townspeople in order to build a virtual picture of the fall of Pedraza as to narrow down who made off with the remaining coins. As inhumane conspiracies go, this one is a fucking doozy.
Finally, we settle on poor old Paco, and I have to admit, his not-so gradual, Elena-based mania is possibly the least appealing thread of the episode as his constant brawling with staff and spiraling paranoia tends to get somewhat repetitive. However, while his plans to smuggle his now pregnant sweetheart out under the guise of a dead body gets progressively more bizarre as it goes on, it’s spliced in with Elena fleeing through Hell vainly trying to find a way out. While she ultimately manages it (who’d have thought that it would something so simple as being messily torn in half by demons) and awakens in the real world, Paco’s mental state and her biological issues (demon pregnacy!) will no doubt cause her no end of pain. Just how we like it.
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