The Cardinal Voiello (Silvio Orlando) comes up with a plan to involve the young pope, Lenny (Jude Law), in a scandal. As the viewers remember, Voiello blackmails Cardinal Gutierrez (Javier Cámara) and a young woman, Esther (Ludivine Sagnier), to compromise Lenny. Although they both have the pope's trust and believe in his decency, Voiello threatens to reveal their secrets if they disobey.
The rumors about Lenny's inappropriate relationship with Esther spread, which makes the young pope even more determined to start the revolution in a rotten place: the church. He's caught in Voiello's trap, when Esther comes to to see the young pope and experiences a miracle. Voiello and his assistants have photos of the young pope with his hands under Esther's blouse. Although Lenny demonstrates inappropriate behavior in that particular moment, he strives toward sinless life, saying to Esther: "I renounced my fellow man, my fellow woman, because I don't want to suffer, because I'm incapable of withstanding the heartbreak of love." He reveals that all priests are unhappy, addressing these words to Esther, as he knows he could be happy loving her. "It would be wonderful to love you the way you want to be loved, but that's not possible, because I'm not a man. I'm a coward, like all priests." The speech seems to impress Voiello.
A series of flashbacks tell a story about Lenny's friendship with Andrew Dussolier (Scott Shepherd), as the viewers see them as little boys running away from the orphanage to find their parents. In the present, the young pope comes to see his old friend and they decamp to the city for the whole night, as they did in the old times. They find a woman, seemingly a prostitute, who says they look like a couple of priests. The encounter goes mysterious, when she claims she has proof of God's existence: "Your eyes, sir. They are proof of the existence of God," she tells Lenny. Later, as Lenny and Dussolier are having burgers from the truck, the pope proposes a position for the Prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy. They share memories about the orphanage and their escape.
When Sister Mary (Diane Keaton) comes to Voiello, worrying about the young pope's disappearance, she's introduced to the physically disabled boy, Girolamo, whom Voiello considers to be his best friend for never criticizing him. Voiello tells Sister Mary he knows how to destroy the pope's legacy, repeating Lenny's words addressed to Esther. He gives the evidence of the pope's misbehavior to Sister Mary. In the morning, when the pope and Dussolier are back in the church, Sister Mary meets them and says no one knows about their disappearance. Although Lenny is empowered by his desire to transform the policy of the church, he's still vulnerable, as the viewers see him coping with the recurrent dreams about his parents. The only miracle he needs is to see them again.
Later, Lenny shows his power in exposing Gutierrez's alcoholism and betrayal of his trust. Although he forgives the cardinal, Lenny suggests Gutierrez should stop drinking, as the pope is still sending him on the mission to resolve Kurtwell's case about child abuse in America. "And I, not Voiello, am the most powerful man of all," Lenny warns the cardinal. Gutierrez seems to be unable to cope with the pressure, intimidated and exposed bay someone whom he pledged to serve. Lenny goes further when he talks to Voiello about threatening people to get the pope's secrets. Will you step at nothing, Eminence? How far are you willing to go?" He knows about Voiello's intrigues, and he assures these machinations won't work with him, because he's a young pope, "a politician far cannier". Voiello's pledges to the pope are interrupted by the news that papal tiara was delivered from Washington.
With the tiara on his head, Lenny is ready to give his speech for the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. His preparation for the event is accompanied with "I'm sexy and I know it" beats which are well match for the ritual. The ceremony is impressive enough, with Lenny, eyes-closed, moving through the crowds of silent cardinals. "Knock, Knock," he starts his speech, pointing out that from now on the church is closed for anyone but God. His agenda is to revolutionize the church's relations with outside world. "I want fanatics for God, because fanaticism is love. Everything else is strictly a surrogate," he stresses the importance of being mysterious and prohibited for part-time believers who are needed to be in absolute love and total devotion to God. The same is addressed for the cardinals whom he wants to be blindly loyal to the imperative. The pope doesn't expect the cardinals to be polite or well-mannered, as he says: "I don't expect any applause from you… What I do expect is that you will do what I've told you to do." The final sequence shows Tonino Pettola (Franco Pinelli) who learns he shouldn't attempt to negotiate with the powerful pope.
"The Young Pope" airs on HBO, Sundays and Mondays at 9 p.m.
Reach Staff Reporter Mariia Kovaleva here.
Annenberg Media