A confusing and jarring take on a shaken papacy. Many in the Vatican struggle with their conscience as we recap HBO’s Limited Series The Young Pope Episode 7.
The papacy of Pope Pius XIII has failed. At least that’s what we’re led to believe in the latest installment of HBO’s Limited Series The Young Pope Episode 7. The faith of the faithful has been shaken to its core, and a chink in the armor that is Lenny Belardo (Jude Law) nearly leads to a new dawn of Catholicism.
From the very first scene, we hear the sounds of a soccer announcer saying “How could we let this happen?” over and over again after what seems to be a particularly terrible game. Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando) stands in his lavish home, decked out in soccer garb, lamenting the match loss and the loss of all he holds dear in his service to God. It sets an ugly tone for what becomes a confusing slice of Lenny’s legacy as Pontiff.
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A Mom and Papa Fever Dream
Lenny’s obsession with this parents reaches its peak here. After opening some packages from what’s left of his flock, he sees one with no return address. It’s a piece of a pipe he carries around from his youth, as it’s the one relic from his birth parents he still clings to. This is his sign that his parents want to reconnect with him. The audience is treated to a vision of Mama Lenny crawling forth from the mountain of babies we saw open the series, to meet up with her husband and Pope son in the middle of St. Peter’s Square.
A meeting is arranged, and two very sophisticated-looking people enter the pope’s chambers. It almost seems like a heartfelt reunion until Lenny starts sniffing his mother, much like a hound sniffs at a piece of meat. She, her husband, and Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) are all terribly uncomfortable watching this happen, until suddenly Lenny says this couple isn’t his parents. He remembers what they smell like based on a quote from Episode 6. “Expel these impostors from my home immediately,” he commands. It’s another disappointment for a man constantly trying to figure out his past.
Lenny can’t help but be obsessed with parental figures. He’s seen strolling through the Vatican gardens, pushing Esther and Peter’s little baby Pius around in a carriage. He also sits with them at their dining room table as they watch X-Factor Italia, embracing Pius (and even changing his diaper full of “molto caca”). For someone who is supposed to be the Holy Father, he sure acts like a kid.
We find out later Sister Mary actually set up the “imposters,” and because she possibly feels bad about that, she reignites Lenny’s faith when it’s at an all time low. Just like a good Mother should.
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The Death of the Church
Voiello has a much stronger role in this episode than he’s had in the past few. After the suicide of the young man who was denied entrance into the priesthood, the Catholic Church’s image is at an all-time low. But he has a plan. Turns out, the photos of Lenny grabbing Esther’s boob were not destroyed. He made a copy on a jump drive, as he shows Cardinal Caltanissetta (Toni Bertorelli) in a Vatican garden. All they have to do is leak them to the press. “In 15 days we’ll have a new pope. An adult pope,” he tells Caltanissetta.
Instead of going that route, Voiello and Caltanissetta run to Cardinal Michael Spencer (James Cromwell), discussing Lenny’s strategy for the church as “Sacrifice and suffering to get closer to God.” All the while, Caltanissetta puffs away on an oxygen mask, mimicking the final gasps the church is taking. The three men mull over how to get Lenny to resign, and hope to use Lenny’s distraction with his faux parents as a hinge point towards manipulation. Voiello and Caltanissetta kiss Spencer’s ring, claiming he’ll be the new pope when Lenny is out.
Voiello gets Lenny to sign some papers, which we find out were supposed to be his resignation. Instead, they were loosened up rules for admitting men into the priesthood. Voiello confesses this during a papal dinner, where Lenny switches his plate out for Voiello’s (he’s worried about being poisoned “among other things”). An enraged Lenny asks him why he did it. It’s because the press has been eating the Vatican alive, calling them murderers. Lenny questions whether the church killed the young man. “We didn’t kill him. You killed him,” an emboldened Voiello responds. He saw Lenny’s weakness, and we’re wondering how much he intends to exploit it.
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Farewell, Dussolier
Cardinal Andrew Dussolier (Scott Shepard) has been through hell since the suicide. We find him drunkenly stumbling through an Italian socialite’s cocktail party, where the hostess tries to seduce him. As she unbuttons her frock in the bathroom, Dussolier can do nothing but laugh as she covers back up. After he drunkenly drops his crucifix into the pool and goes fishing for it in his clothes, the party hosts ask a man to drive him back to the Vatican. We’re treated to a terrifying scene where a passed-out Dussolier is raped by the driver assigned to take him home. He’s able to fight him off before being callously dumped near St. Peter’s square. It’s Andrew’s final straw.
Dussolier meets with Lenny in the exact same spot where the young man jumped off the balcony. He questions Lenny’s ability to feel pity, and asks when he’s going to finally grow up. “Never,” replies Lenny, “A priest never grows up because he can never become a father. He will always be a son.” Andrew presses him, telling him he wants to go back to Honduras. He can’t take the guilt over the suicide. “Now he’s dead,” He tells Lenny, to which he replies “Lucky him, he’s going to speak with God.”
We find out Dussolier does leave the Vatican, though we’re not sure if he left on his own volition or was given permission to go. Either way upon landing in Honduras, we see him hug the woman who was part of his holy-threesome in Episode 3. But something’s not right. He ends up in the back of a car with a man who we find out is “the biggest narco around.” The woman he was sleeping with was actually the wife of this drug lord, and he’s not about to let him get away with it.
One of the final shots is the sight of a gutshot (or stabbed) Dussolier being taken out of he car and left to die on the side of a Honduran road.
Next: The Young Pope Episode 6 Recap: The Devil and the Holy See
What’s Next?
We ended on a cryptic note where Lenny just strolls through the Vatican gardens, nodding at nuns and more than likely unaware of Dussolier’s untimely end. The one final shot is a pan down from the Madonna and baby Jesus, to the crying face of a young woman. Who is she? And why does Lenny look so sad to see her?
And according to the preview, it looks like Lenny will finally show his face to the world, on a limited basis. Lenny asks what he can do to restore faith in the church, as it’s been so severely wounded since Lenny took office. The plan of attack? A pastoral voyage. We’re going to see him visit a country in Africa, where he passes by a man casually lying dead in the street. It’s a jarring transition from the clean, ornate cloister of the Vatican.
Sister Mary is seen crying on her bed as Lenny’s trip seems to take a turn for the diabolical again. He straight up says to a group of what appears to be Red Cross nuns that he’s not there to honor the faithful, he’s there “to ascertain their temptations.” What’s that about? We’ll be sure to tune in tomorrow, February 6th at 9:00 p.m. on HBO to give you the full recap.