30 Coins – Season 1 Episode 2 Recap & Review

Ouija

We begin episode 2 of 30 Coins at the Vatican as the Pope contemplates his next move. While he does, a battered and bruised Paco speaks to Elena about what she witnessed, including looking over the coin that Carmen was very obviously after.

Elena’s next target takes her to Roque, a man who originally ran against Paco in the previous election. They sit together in the bar as Paco shows up and immediately causes tension between them. Roque claims to have good informers but before he can elaborate, a phone call sends him away. In fact, Paco quickly gulps down his coffee and leaves too.

Meanwhile, Santiago’s son Ricardo steals some alcohol from behind his bar and takes off to a secluded graveyard with a bunch of his friends. Together, they drop a Ouija board on the ground and begin calling forth spirits. The shot glass immediately starts moving around, spelling out Giacomo and Gaeta. It then spells out “I am here.” which happens to be the final curtain call as all the candles go out. One off their own, Sole, disappears.

A manhunt gets underway to find the child but Ricardo seems to be the biggest suspect right now. Things taken an even more unfortunate turn for him though when his Father learns pills were found on Antonio’s possession. Outside though, the officers admit to Paco that there’s been no evidence or anything that would hint toward a violent scuffle.

Elena brings Roque with her while they go talking to the parents and children involved with the Ouija game. When she learns about the Giacomo name, she does some research online and realizes this could be in reference to the child Manuel exorcised in the past.

There’s also references to Elena dabbling in a Oujia game of her own, contacting a spirit called Chuqui in the past. Whether this has any bearing on the story here though, remains to be seen.

Paco joins Merce and together they unveil the plaque on a new hospital. However, an enraged Martin shows up brandishing a shotgun demanding to know where his daughter is. Paco holds him and tries to comfort the Father.

That evening the kids all begin messaging each other but out of nowhere, Sole suddenly sends a text sporting a random jumble of words and sad face emojis. When she then rings Vane, Sole tells them they need to do the Ouija again as it’s the only way to bring her back.

Well, the kids join together but this time Elena oversees them, courtesy of Elvira’s invitation. The shot glass moves around the board, telling them all that it’s Sole communicating and she wants to speak to Elena. Elena initially refuses but when she touches the shot glass, Sole returns but clearly looks possessed. Elena meanwhile, struggles to shake off frightening images of three priests.

Sole immediately heads in to see Manuel who apologizes for what happened in the past. Only, she’s been sent to talk and deliver a message. That simply reads: “Give us back what is ours.” As Sole leaves, she hears whispering voices as Martin shows and helps his daughter. While out walking, Sole tells a random bystander that they’re going to die… and they do an hour later.

The town is rattled and both Paco and Manuel discuss what this means for their town. Elvira messages Sole and the two sit together as the latter admits that what happened to her isn’t normal, contemplating whether she’s possessed or not. Apparently she can now see the aura of people, in different shades of white, blue, red and black.

This understandably freaks Elvira out. She approaches Elena and tells her that Sole believes he’s going to die. And just like that, this man leaves a flower shop and is involved in a nasty accident.

Back home, Sole is involved in an accident of her own when she’s found hanging from the rafters. She claims “they” are punishing her and sees Manuel sporting a strange black/red aura. That evening, Manuel receives a message from Sole through the TV, both of which clearly after the coin he possesses.

When Sole rips open her own mouth with a knife, Manuel agrees to take her to the spot holding his coin. Elena’s house is the hotspot and as Elena and Roque rock up, Sole seizes her opportunity and stabs Roque numerous times in the back.

Manuel does his best to try and get through to her while Elena snatchers up the coin. All hell breaks loose as the roof flies off and Sole starts to lose control. Manual tells her to think of her Mother, which seems to do the trick. Everything eventually returns to normal (or as normal as things can be, anyway.)

As we cut across to Antonio, he speaks to a strange shadowy figure and addresses it as “Your Eminence.”

The Episode Review

30 Coins delivers another compelling slice of horror as the attention turns to the usual McGuffin in these horror shows that causes so many problems – the Ouija board. Whether Elena’s mention of Chuqui holds any weight going forward remains to be seen but it’s immediately clear now that spirits are pulling the strings over what’s going on, especially with Antonio.

And what is up with that baby? This still hasn’t been explained but I’m sure we’ll see more of this in the coming episodes. So far though 30 Coins has been a compelling horror, with a lot of moving parts and plenty of mystery to boot.

The show is pretty atmospheric too and feels like a mash-up of The Exorcist, The Outsider and other slow-burn thrillers of its kind. It’s good so far so we’ll have too wait and see what happens next