Every time the pounding drums and eerie horns play out the title theme to this series my blood races in an unexplainable fashion. As the Biblical imagery spelling out the significance of the pieces of silver runs during the title credits, I set myself up for an unpredictable adrenaline rush. This Spanish series does not disappoint and “The Mirror” is the best yet. Here is a look at 30 COINS, episode three.
Which one is the faux-Father?
Episode 3: “The Mirror”
Debut date: MONDAY, JANUARY 11 (9:00-10:05 p.m. ET/PT)
Elena (Megan Montaner) and Paco (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) discover that a local mirror is haunted. When Father Vergara (Eduard Fernández) spends the night investigating the mirror’s trickery, he risks getting swept into its deathly portal.
I’m stuck in the trap of just wanting to tell you everything that goes down in this awesome episode but then that would spoil it, right? At first it sounds like a hokey trope – a mirror that is a portal to either suck you in or let a demon step through. Well, both happens here as the picture above confirms. Elena & Paco are told by villages that a mirror in their place shows reflections of things not visible. They check it out for themselves to discover a huge mirror in the dining area. They quickly find what does not belong in the reflection. It shows a book on the table and yet there is no book on our side of the glass. It holds strong relevance when they read the spine of the book – “The Book of Judas.”
Father Vergara is called in front of it to ascertain what it is all about. He holds an overnight vigil in front of the mirror and evidently the truth of the matter reveals itself for his own image begins to talk back to him. We all know what his likeness is after and it hopes to torment Father V. out of it; thus, prompting the ghoulish one above. I won’t reveal just who the demon is but he pulls Vergara through the mirror and the Father’s likeness steps into our side replacing him.
He is a baaad man!
The swap goes undetected by Elena & Paco as the evil walks among them. The false Vergara offers them a nice little dissertation on the finer points of Good and Evil and boldly explains to them the Evil that is in pursuit. He tells us the enemy is the Cainites, a sect that embraces with no remorse all aspects of life including the deadly arts. They will commit evil to achieve their ends as Judas did in his betrayal; they will commit evil to obtain the 30 Coins. With that declaration, the enemy is established and in their midst.
Elena, in a sly manner, determines that the mirror-Vergara is evil and she and Paco flee to the mirror to check on the real Father, but he is gone. With their attention elsewhere the evil one plays mind games with the simple folk of Pedraza and rally them to ransack the veterinary clinic in search of the coin. The search is on for the coin and for the real Vergara. Elena & Paco, using another sly tactic, are able to get onto the other side of the mirror and discover it to be a portal and not the only one for there are images of other locales around the world that can be accessed by a mirror. They finally find the Father. He is beyond
WATCH this scene to reveal the faux-Father
one of those mirrors and before the Cainites. They reveal the Coins they already have and request Vergara to surrender the one he has before they offer him as a blood sacrifice. They quickly learn that Elena has it, not him as Vergara makes a bold dash through the mirror portal smashing it along the way. They quickly get to Pedraza and smash that mirror too. The portal is closed, the mirror-Vergara is no more and the danger is diverted once again. But the Cainites are exposed and the threat is very much real for the little town. So, at episode’s end Elena throws the Coin into the river…but this story is far from over as we will see when we look at episode 5 next time.
I could not adequately capture the suspense and intricacies of this excellent episode. If you are not watching 30 COINS than you are missing out on a well-done tale. More to come on 30 COINS, Monday nights at 9:00pm and on HBO & HBO Max.
