Lenny’s love letters are actually improving his image to the public, but he still is an ass with respect to the issues of abortion and gay people in the church. Note to Lenny: it is 2017, get off your high horse and get with the times.
Lenny, being the Pope and all, has quite the busy time: meetings with heads of state, debriefing with members of the Vatican (Guiterrez, Sofia, etc) and of course, dealing with the monster of the year, Archbishop Kurtwell. Which leads us to an exchange between Lenny and Guiterrez. Guiterrez revealed what we pretty much suspected: he is a homosexual. And Lenny is an ass because he wants to more or less classify gay people with child molesters. This is SO WRONG. Again, it’s 2017 and I like everyone but Lenny needs to seriously freaking take a seat and chill out. Perhaps it was my mental telepathy or my annoyance at the whole scene but lo and behold – Lenny appears to be softening up a bit. After all, he’s such a nice, concerned Pope that he sent Guiterrez to deal with all that sordid crap with Kurtwell. Oh yes, and Lenny knew that Guiterrez was molested as a child. Wow, talk about being compassionate, eh?!
There’s a bit about Lenny being pursued by Cardinal Marivaux – there’s been a religious event that needs tending to. Some teenager in Guatemala named Juana Fernandez is being seriously considered for a canonization. Being Christmas and all, and the season of perpetual hope, Lenny hems & haws about going to Guatemala to actually see the children who were supposedly cured by Juana. However, plans have been known to change and that’s what Lenny does. He bales on Guatemala and heads on down to Venice. And the whole issue with Lenny not wanting to perform a mass while actually showing his face to the public….well, another official of the Vatican, Cardinal Aguirre, informs Lenny that the people – you know the ones he’s constantly going on and on about how he loves them, serves Christ for them, blah blah blah? Well, good news for you Lenny: the good people want you to do a mass and they want to see your face while you preach the good word. (Okay, not going to lie here: I find Jude Law extremely attractive, so as a woman, I have no issues seeing him perform his holy duty). It would certainly raise Lenny’s popularity a bit.
Tomasso is bestowed a Cardinal’s hat. This is a pretty big deal and then there’s Cardinal Ozolin. Remember him? The fellow who went to Alaska…..well he was told to go, at any rate. It seems that Ozolin has become quite aged – especially his hands. Lenny delivers some smooth line about rough hands resembling Jesus Christ’s hands (rough and torn, just like 
when the poor man was nailed to the cross).
And pretty much the moment I was waiting for was, um, a big LETDOWN. I wanted to see the streets run with Kurtwell’s blood. He needed to be stripped of all his earthly possessions and he needed to be given the sentence of capital punishment (but that’s just one viewer’s opinion). How is Kurtwood dealt with? With pretty much a slap on the wrist. This really bothered me. I mean, hey! Let’s just send off some child molesting priest somewhere remote, because the very cold weather and remoteness of it all will be sure to cure him of his depravities. I was so upset over this huge, GROSS blunder in judgment. Once again, a monster has escaped proper justice. I was cringing the whole time.
Lenny ends up doing his religious duty: he goes to Venice and performs the public mass for the people. This was brought about by an encounter with Voiello and some vague revelations about his parents…and why they haven’t bothered to contact him. Lenny delivers a tour de force performance during the mass and has everyone enraptured with it. In fact, Lenny is so convincing at being so devout and reverent that he has a moment where he looks out into the crowd. See anything interesting, Lenny? He literally ends his mass off with a dramatic performance (fainting? or dying?) and staff is frantically buzzing around him. What’s that in the clouds, Lenny? A bird? A plane? The big guy himself? Will Lenny live? What will happen with Juana Fernandez? And will Kurtwell get his just desserts? Will Lenny meet up with his parents? What’s next for him, sainthood? What? Just, what? Alas, we hope for a Season Two to tell us. But, for now, we were delighted to spend time with Lenny Belardo…excuse me, Pope Pius XIII.
