30 COINS S2: Final Episodes | Review

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Episode 7 – “The Two Cores” 

The brief opening shot takes us back to Peru. If we got this right then, the showdown happens there? How do all the key players get there? Paco, thanks to Merche, is now in the hands of Barbrow, so they’ll be present. The plan is to use him as bait to lure Elena and the sacred book there, but can she just jump on a plane? And then there is the ghoulish Vergara & Santoro, back from the dead, are they just getting on a plane too? I guess we should just let episode 7 play out, right?

After the titles, we see Laguna, Salcedo, Haruka, Antonio, and the rest of the escaped citizens of Pedraza walking the road. Laguna is out to reunite with his wife and return home. Salcedo explains that it is just not that simple; they’ll be hunted down. But Antonio explains not to worry as the sky will open up soon and the evil will not be able to survive God’s gaze when it does.

Later on in the episode, Antonio is still ranting but what he says is crucial; he is still explaining what is to happen. He says, “When the resuscitated translate the black book, it will all be clearer. They’ll go to the desert and read between the lines to find the nucleus where the saucers are hidden.” Now, we don’t know what the latter half of that proclamation means at this juncture, but the former part is clear to us, right? It also seems that the majority of this episode surrounds Laguna and company as surely Antonio’s words won’t play out until the final episode.

The team is also able to learn, via some computer hacking, that the second nucleus in the master plot (thus the title of the episode) is a location not too far from them. It takes some convincing of Laguna, who just wants to get back to his wife, to get them all on board to pursue the matter and literally on a bus to Barcelona. The place they seek is a huge computer bank and they find it. Of course, they do, and Salcedo recognizes one of Barbrow’s men at the supercomputer. They are where they need to be. They are ready to play their part.

But what of our other characters? We find Paco being challenged by Barbrow in his mind and Merche trying to reconnect with him physically. Neither encounter lasted long and Merche certainly knows where she stands at the end of their brief exchange. Elena is found wandering around Rome lost with what to do next. The resuscitated Vergara & Santoro are on a flight to Rome in a rather odd series of scenes as they try to cover up their decaying flesh from onlookers. Eventually, Padre & Elena meet at the airport. Elena hands over the book and follows orders to fetch a getaway car by any means necessary. As she flees the scene Barbrow’s men rain a hail of bullets at the dead men; dead bodies for which the bullets give no sting. Santoro gets the book to a bathroom mirror a gets some poor bloke to turn its pages as he memories the pages and a sequence of numbers found within. It, of course, will be some special code that matters later.

Next, they are off to the Vatican to pull favors in order to see the Pope himself. Vergara needs the Pope’s staff, as depicted in the etchings in the sacred book. In one of the most dramatic scenes of the series, played out in the Pope’s bedchamber, Vergara takes the staff in hand! And with that, they are off to Peru! It seems that the whole team is fitting pieces of the puzzle except poor Paco. The next episode is the final showdown.

Season 2 Finale – “The Eye of God”  

We’ve been building up to this. Thanks to our peek into the Black Book of the Mad Arab we know basically what Padre Vergara needs to accomplish in Peru. Exactly what is supposed to happen at the supercomputer in Barcelona is unclear. Is it supposed to distribute evil’s wrath across the globe? Exactly how is the team to stop that from happening? Well, it must all fall into place quite dramatically as only Álex de la Iglesia can give it to us.  

Whoa, this episode is going to be brutal! Even before the title credits play a member of our team is down and permanently. The team in Barcelona is making its way through tunnels at the supercomputer and finds themselves facing a massive cooling fan. Sole, the younger character with powers showcased in Season One Episode 2, is able to slow the fan for the others to slip past it except she tires of the energy expended and the last person does not make it past the fan – a key player is dead, but they have to keep moving. When they reach their goal, they find a huge quantum computer and it is on a countdown to crack a code and once that code is cracked, a launch sequence is to begin.  

In Nazca Peru the trio, now blended in with the crowds there, gaze upon a display showing the famous Nazca Lines. Santoro notes they look like a circuit board and Vergara notes a spot where many of them converge. They need to find that spot on the topography and call upon the staff, which is hidden in a golf bag by the way, to play a crucial role somehow at that juncture point. Piece of cake with all of Barbrow’s cohorts milling about and he himself looming nearby, right?  While Vergara struggles to get to his key position, Santoro & Elena are able to find methods to get them into the inner circle – the group that is to survive Armageddon. They are suited up in spacesuits and taken below ground where they stand with Barbrow; Merche, her child Nico & Paco are there as well. Paco has been mesmerized by Merche to be compliant with what transpires.  

 

 I don’t want to reveal all that transpires, of course, but it involves Barbrow and his selected few (30 of them, naturally) boarding an ancient spaceship capable of slipping into another dimension and to safety. Oh man, Iglesia is throwing everything at this, isn’t he? Okay, we are forced to ride this baby out to its wild conclusion. Elena discovers Paco is in the gathering as Merche makes sure she, Nico & Paco each get one of the Coins – there is no survival without one. The spaceship will launch when the computer in Barcelona gives the launch code, but we know a party is in place to thwart that from happening.  

So, simply put – Salcedo and the team will halt the computer which will halt the launch; the 30 Coins were meant to placate God to look the other way as Barbrow slips away; Vergara has the Pope’s staff to attract God’s gaze and/or magnify his gaze and Barbrow is defeated…. 

BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENS!  

Barbrow succeeds with Elena, Paco, Santoro, and Merche aboard. Angelo appears to Vergara and tells him to follow them. The Padre rises into the sky and finds himself…in an alternative Pedraza! He sees alternative citizens including Antonio and Merche but some things are indeed not quite the same, including a spaceship crashed in the forested valley below.

30 COINS is not over; a third season is planned. Let’s hope Zaslav lets the series continue. Let’s hope you enjoyed HBOWatch’s look at Season Two of 30 COINS! 

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