Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
The second episode of The Young Pope —aptly titled “Second Episode,” btw— begins, in traditional HBO style, with a sex scene. A young woman and man are in bed. The woman says that she loves the man, the man insists she does not. The identity of the woman isn’t revealed yet, but she does pose the fundamental question of the episode, which is “what does it mean to love? And how can we ever know if we are loved?”
Following some exquisite shots of Vatican city that juxtapose the modern with the eternal – nuns playing soccer! Popes on iPads! – we return to Sister Mary, surely the most important figure Lenny knows. In a flashback to learn that Sister Mary has raised another orphan, Andrew. While Sister Mary told Lenny to refer to her as Sister Mary, not Ma, she told Andrew to refer to her as Ma, never sister Mary. He’s entered the clergy as well, and is now Cardinal Dussoleir (Scott Shepard). He’s come to visit Sister Mary, though he devotes himself mostly to good works and claims that Vatican City “smells like incense and death.”
The two seem to have an easier, friendlier relationship than Sister Mary has with Lenny. We see Mary joking with him. When he tells her that she hasn’t aged, she replies, ”I should have followed my instincts and broken open the alms box and spent all the money on a good plastic surgeon.” But then, if we learned anything in the last episode, it’s that Lenny despises friendly relationships.
He certainly doesn’t wish to do anything to invite a feeling of friendship or intimacy with the public. When confronted with Sofia (Cécile de France), the Vatican’s head of marketing, he makes it clear how little he wishes to be seen (he also tells her one of his signature terrifyingly mirthless jokes that hinges upon how he once had a clergyman exiled to Alaska). She shows him plates that the Vatican gift shops could sell with his image on them. The Pope does not like this idea, explaining that he has no image as he is God.
The Pope refuses to be depicted on anything, or even photographed. He’s not motivated by humility – he just knows it’s a good PR move. He notes that he’s following in the extremely successful tradition of artists from Salinger to Kubrick to Daft Punk. He aspires to be as elusive as a rock star.
Cardinal Voiello and Sofia both seem able to see the advantage to this. However, it juxtaposes oddly with the speech for his homily written by Cardinal Voilelllo that Sister Mary helps rehearse with him. The speech preaches that God is love and that, as Saint Augustine said, if you wish to see God, you can see him all around you, in the faces of your neighbors. It’s a really heartwarming speech. It’s really nice, the nicest thing we’ve heard so far. It also begins with a joke about Lenny’s lateness – and we know that Lenny only uses jokes to terrify people, so it seems immediately unnatural that he would ever say this. It’s feels as though he could never say it, because it is a very friendly, uplifting speech.
Much more natural is Lenny’s demeanor during his first meeting with the Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy. After finding the Prefect concerned that he will be a very conservative Pope, Lenny asks if the Prefect is a homosexual. The Prefect replies that he is. Lenny draws away, visibly disgusted. It’s a good reminder that someone can drink Cherry Coke Zero and know who Daft Punk is and still not be the least bit progressive.
Meanwhile, other members of the Vatican become suspicious that Mary is exerting too much influence over the Pope. Lenny is told by the papal confessor that some fear that they act as one, to which Lenny replies, “a woman will never become the pope” and tells Sister Mary to refer to him not as Lenny but as “Your Holiness.”
Lenny subsequently tries to make his former mentor, Cardinal Michael Spencer, the new Prefect for the Congregation of the Clergy. The Cardinal turns him down, claiming that he should have been Pope himself, along with a few harsh words for Lenny.
If God is love, Lenny isn’t God. He goes to see Sister Mary – who is wearing a fantastic shirt hat reads “I’m a Virgin – But This Is an Old Shirt” to complain about how he was orphaned and how, “No one loves me. So I’m prepared for every kind of vileness.” Sister Mary, who has been nothing if not loving, promptly slaps him and says, perhaps drawing from the homily speech Lenny was presented, that she sees Christ’s reflection in him.
Maybe she should have really let him call her Mom.
Lenny finally gives his homily. Just as the dream sequence in the first episode showed him asking what have we forgotten and then replying, “to masturbate! To use contraceptives! To get abortions!” so this speech begins with him asking the attendees, “What have we forgotten?” However, he answers the question by declaring, “We have forgotten God! You have forgotten God. You have to be closer to God than to each other. I am closer to God than I am to you. I will never be close to you…I have nothing to say to those who have even the slightest doubt. All I can do is remind them of my scorn and their wretchedness… he isn’t interested in us until we become interested in him exclusively.”
He does this speech shrouded in almost total darkness, until someone shines a light on him.
Lenny leaves declaring that he doesn’t know if his people deserve him as the rain begins to fall on the square. Cardinal Voiello is seen clutching a disabled child, whispering “Forgive me for all the wrong I’ll have to do to save the church.” If, as it seems increasingly clear, Lenny is the villain of the series, Cardinal Voiello may be its hero.
We’re all prepared for every kind of vileness.
Jennifer Wright is the author of It Ended Badly: 13 of the Worst Break-Ups in History and Get Well Soon: The Worst Plagues in History. Follow her on twitter @JenAshleyWright.
