Holy War
Episode 6 of 30 Coins begins with Elena contacting Manuel, who’s currently hiding in Syria. He immediately picks up the phone and warns her against Fabio and the other priests. They know about the coin and what’s happening and he warns her, telling the girl to remain vigilant. He refuses to join her though… as the scene cuts to show that actually it’s actually Fabio on the other line, impersonating Elena and accurately portraying her voice. Back in town, Paco puts on a brave face and greets all the different residents as the red carpet is rolled out and the town try to get back to normality. Midway through greeting those in attendance, he takes Merche aside and admits he’s struggling to keep it together. In the wake of everything that’s been happening, he’s struggling. Merche dispassionately tells him to keep it together. Eventually Paco takes to the stage and decides to improvise, giving a pretty half-hearted greeting and leaving the stage after admitting as much that he doesn’t want to be Mayor anymore. Meanwhile, Laguna comes under fire from his superiors who arrive, curious about what’s been going on around town. Given all the strange occurrences, including suicides, fires and deaths, these two female officers from Madrid are going to take over. Well, this brings them up to see Jesus, with Laguna heading out into the fields to greet him first. Laguna tells the farmer to lie, keeping what he’s done a secret and not to disclose that a dead man was wandering around. Unfortunately when the other officers arrive to greet him, Laguna shoots himself in the face with a shotgun. Jesus’ funeral goes ahead, prompting Laguna to drown his sorrows at the bar over what he witnessed. The Madrid investigators look into this case in more detail, turning their attention specifically to Paco and his messy love triangle. This is only made worse when they ask him directly about his “intimate” relationship with Elena – which he refuses to elaborate on. Meanwhile in Syria, Manuiel works as a priest, comforting those in need until he’s greeted by one of his contacts. He warns Manuel not to give into fear as that will attract his enemies. He also mentions an attack on the Pope, which brings up the subject of the Relics. Apparently the power emanating from these sacred objects protected the Pope but if their enemy gather all 30 coins, that protection will be gone. It’s imperative that he keeps his head down, as he heads back to Syrian hospital. Snatching up vials of painkillers, Manuel passes out on his bed. When he awakens, he finds himself in an eerie, spooky dream with numerous different people facing away from him. Just like a real dream, this scene suddenly changes and cuts. Now Manuel is in a butcher’s where he finds Elena down one of the aisles. After confirming she’s the real Elena, seemingly caught in the same dream he is, Manuel learns what’s happened to the coin. Elena reveals how she’s thrown the coin away and no longer has it in her possession, This is obviously not good and as the dream spirals out of control, Elena awakens after seeing Fabio’s smiling, snarling face. In the morning, Manuel continues to do his normal duties at the hospital but guards arrive and take him away. In fact, they throw him straight into a deep hole thanks to his beliefs and leave him to rot. Meanwhile, one of the priests arrives at a care home and greets a man named Mr Antoine. After putting a necklace around his neck, the man seems different, entranced in some way. He punches one of the carers and walks out the front door. This, it seems, ties back into those early moments in episode 1. All throughout this episode, Elena lives the high life with Roque in Paris, having sex and drinking wine. Unfortunately her time on cloud 9 comes crashing down when she uncovers a shocking discovery. Roque presents a ring box but instead of an engagement ring, brandishes the same gold coin she tried to get rid of in the dam. It’s found a way back to her. All hell breaks loose. Elena rushes away from the table, phoning Paco and telling him about the coin. Antoine shows up with a gun, desperate for that very same coin. In the ensuing skirmish, Roque is shot dead while Antoine is stopped by an officer ripping the necklace off from around his neck. Manuel faces a death sentence of his own though, as the Syrian translator admits he didn’t translate anything Vergara said. However, he and two other prisoners are due to be executed at dawn the following day. Given the irony of Fabio’s words last episode about suffering, Manuel’s faith is certainly being tested here as he mulls over his next move in the darkness. As he awaits his fate, Manuel is bathed in darkness. Meanwhile, Antonio awakens with a start as he prepares for a new priest arriving in town. The two officers from Madrid find him though and now we get the lowdown on what’s happening. The priests obviously want the coins but originally sent the spider to scare Elena and Manuel into submission. When that failed, they used the missing girl and eventually decided to kill them. However, their conversation is interrupted when Antonio somehow senses the new priest arriving. And just like that, this priest waltzes up to town, ready to work.
The Episode Review
30 coins delivers an intriguing episode this week, one that juxtaposes the horrors lurking inn the shadows of this Spanish town with the surface level horror in Syria. The idea of religion causing wars is something that’s been around since before the Knights Of Christ and way back during Ancient Greece. Here, this idea is used beautifully to show the horrors of wars fought for religion and Manuel’s conflicted feelings over God allowing this to happen. As Fabio himself said last episode, God likes his subjects to suffer. We also get some clues over what’a happening with the coins and the unstoppable man from episode 1 too, as these necklaces seem to give an immunity to its wearer who becomes entranced. As this Holy War starts to heat up, this episode feels like a proverbial deep breath before the nightmarish plunge into more horrors to come.
