뿅!

“Tell me when you really wanted to kiss me.” Beatrice covers her mouth and coughs, caught red handed. “I thought you wanted to by the window and I was too embarrassed to admit just how soon it was for me.” She turns, fully facing Ava now. “I’ll let you get away with the lie this time, but only because you’re so endearing.” She bumps Beatrice’s shoulder when it doesn’t seem like she’ll say it, “Come on, tell me.”  “When you stumbled in St. Dunstan’s.” “You wanted to then?” “Without a doubt.”

She is clothed with strength and dignity. With optimism she faces the days to come.

Themes

Ava wakes into a new day. She reaches with her hands, unable to retrain the emotions coursing through her at the realisation that, yes, she is alive. She is alive in more ways than she has known for a long time. She is incapable of hiding her joy as she smiles fully, squeals loudly and jumps to reach the ceiling. 

“He’s into me. He busted in like he was gonna slay a dragon to save me.”

Ava’s attempts at love are naive, but there’s a hint here for later when JC actually does face a ‘dragon’ and runs away rather than save her, unlike coughBeatricecough. Don’t blame him though because same.

Now that @alms4oblivion has pointed out that Vincent is incredibly obvious about his Tarask knowledge, the story is, at least in my eyes, starting to play out very differently. He is purposefully telling them everything they need to hear on purpose. So, instead of chasing Mary’s ‘alleged’ mercenaries, he subtly encourages them to focus on the bigger picture and keeps them divided and away from his trail.

This art piece behind Beatrice and Vincent depicting Jesus in his rock-hewn tomb cannot have just been coincidence. There are elements foreshadowing Adriel and his predicament from the very beginning. Just like the son of God, sealed away behind a massive stone wall with Roman guards at the entrance, Adriel lies behind two dura thick walls of stone under the Vatican.

Alms strikes again with their keen eye! In the previous episode, a poster on Ava’s room wall showed her interests in the neural link wheelchair. And sure enough, the moment she walks into Arq-Tech she can’t help but gush about a Wired article on Jillian Salvius.

The entire scene between Cardinal Duretti (church) and Kristian (science) points out the great chasm between the two organizations. Interestingly enough, Ava appears to be the ‘bridge’ they so desperately need and talk about. I would also like to point out that Kristian willingly and unironically calls himself a corporate whore and then later he’s Adriel’s—I digress. Also, *snaps fingers*, the gurls are fighting!

What was that? Vincent, are you speaking to someone?! Those lips are moving! The show plays a lot with our perception. We assume Vincent is having a covenant with God, but of course we now know exactly what is happening. Vincent is speaking to Adriel through his Divinium tattoos. Earlier as well Kristian mentions that his sources in the Vatican have been helpful in finding the Divinium artifacts for Arq-Tech, then, the scene cuts to Duretti arriving at Cat’s Cradle. We’re being played with. Just like Ava is.

I’m sure this one has been talked about in the past, but just in case there are new viewers around that haven’t caught it yet. A lot of famous painters have depicted ‘Christ Carrying the Cross’ from El Greco, Bosch and Titian. It is the pivotal moment in Christ’s procession through the Old City of Jerusalem towards his crucifixion. Symbolically it foreshadows Ava’s path to death. Her Via Crucis—Way of Suffering. The arduous journey she must face to meet her fate.

God is in her midst. She will not be shaken. God will help her at the break of dawn.

Themes

The opening sequence sets the themes of the story right away. Not only does it set its location—Andalusia, Spain, but its visual language. Liturgical imagery and music follow the camera as it delves underground to the church’s secret crypt to a…dead girl? Something feels off, doesn’t it? The saints appear to be witnessing the events alongside the viewer. Agony and sadness depicted upon their visage.

Our protagonist, Ava, lies before a stained glass image of Arch Angel Michael. A warrior stuck between the battle of good versus evil. He bears his halo, sword and shield. Clever. The tone is serious when it needs to be, relatable and fun when you begin to catch on. It plays with your initial assumptions and leaves you scrambling to catch on; Sister Frances lies in front of  a member of the clergy and the monk pulls out his cellphone as if it's routine and part of his every day.

We’re introduced to the OCS by watching them skitter across a courtyard, they’re quiet, covert enough to go undetected. And then they break through the crypt doors with a bang! and the pacing of the story begins. Characters, motivations, relationships and consequences are established. 

Shannon’s “Don’t trust…anyone,” catches your attention and then everything springs into chaos.

Ava is headstrong, resilient and too sharp for her own good. Her first instincts are survival. She runs, but that doesn’t stop her from discovering the world that has been within arms reach. If only she could. So she touches the columns of the church before leaving, scrapes her fingertips against it. Feeling the cold, rough stone for the first time in years. The composition of the shot establishes what has made it possible. Ava has come back to life through divine intervention. A literal walking miracle.

“Hi, Ava,” Ava says upon kissing her reflection on a shop window. A journey of self-discovery starts with those words. Not only does Ava have to acclimate to feeling and moving again, she needs to sort herself out mentally and emotionally as well.

Ava is insanely self aware of what has happened to her. To a degree of course. “...but you can’t blame me for being confused. There’s gotta be a reason this is happening. Someone did this to me. And that someone must have answers.” Then, the scene abruptly cuts to Vincent climbing the steps of the church where the end events of his mechanisms have just taken place.

Interesting choice here to have a poster of George Orwell’s 1984 in Ava’s side of the room. A story in which a person is stripped of their freedoms and constantly watched by an omniscient presence. A reference to Ava’s oppression at the hands of Sister Frances. It’s kind of funny in a way, Ava’s subtle middle finger to the nun.

Ava’s pull to the ocean comes from the need to seek peace. The repetitive sound of waves crashing onto the sand. Soothing. The sky above riddled with stars. Endless. Ava stands before the vastness before her and bursts into life. Screaming at top of her lungs and sprinting as fast as she physically can. As she falls on the sand, her hand runs through it. There’s a sense of catharsis as she cries, taken aback by the gift she has been given once again. This time with a silent vow to not squander it. 

The song that plays is Message To Bear - They Ran. 

When we talked about where we'd go

Never thought of how, how we'd run

As Mary’s motorcycle revs through the quiet streets of Antequera—an hour or so from the city of Málaga, we get our first glimpse of The Cat’s Cradle. Where both Renaissance and Gothic styles exist. It’s hidden away and obscure, another nod to just how covert the OCS and their sect is. In the following scene Ava makes this remark, “Institutions. I hate them, you know. They… they focus power in one direction. And everyone under them is just abused,” foreshadowing some of her actions later in the season.

Father Vincent's end monologue and accompanying montage of the dangers the heroines are about to face are as real in this world as two people overdosing on the floor of a club, “How should I say this? If I told you that demons are real. They are within us…”. The quote leaves viewers with a sense of dread, of true unease, as Ava is seemingly unaware and unprepared of the upcoming dangers.