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The Young Pope

Poor Esther has been charged with seducing the Pope. This might not seem like the most disagreeable task – halfway through this episode of The Young Pope, which is all about beauty, The Pope remarks upon how handsome he is – but she is being blackmailed into it by Cardinal Voiello. He knows that Esther (Ludivine Sagnier) has previously had an affair with the Pope’s secretary, and gently threatens to expose her unless she can help lure the Pope into a career destroying scandal.
The Pope doesn’t seem entirely averse to this idea. On a walk together, he tells Esther that she reminds of him of his one and only girlfriend, except that she is much prettier. He also tells her that she must give her beauty as a gift if she wishes to conceive a child (Esther and her husband are infertile.) However, when Esther tells the Pope that she knows who she would like to make a gift of her beauty to, the Pope advises her to tell those thoughts only to God.

And that thing about the Young Pope wishing to create a sense of mystery by being wildly elusive? Well, that seems to have been somewhat forgotten about during this episode (as, alas, does Sister Mary). The Pope baptizes the children of various dignitaries, creating one humorous episode where he assures the couple that their adopted child looks just like them. He then goes on to meet with the Prime Minister of Greenland, who presents him with a hilariously large halibut.
This falls well in the realm of Papal duties, but I don’t recall any episodes where Banksy remains famously elusive until the Prime Minister of Greenland comes to town, at which point he is readily accessible to her entire staff.

Speaking of her staff, the Pope wonders why some of the priests seem more entranced by one of her handsome male associates than the lovely Prime Minister herself. He surmises it’s because they’re gay, prompting him to once again remark upon how disgusting homosexuals are.

Boy, does the young Pope ever hate homosexuals.
It is frankly bewildering that the Pope advanced this far in his career, supposedly without anyone knowing his views, when he cannot see anyone he even supposes is gay without exclaiming that homosexuality is disgusting. This seems like it may create real consequences for the Church. When Cardinal Voiello comes to the Pope to tell him that they should investigate a pedophilia scandal in New York, The Pope suggests they should go farther. Cardinal Voiello agrees, saying they should be expelling anyone from the Church who commits pedophilia. One imagines he does this because, while he is an underhanded man who aspires to be Dick Cheney, he is also not morally bankrupt. The Pope says that he meant that they should expel all homosexuals in the church. This horrifies Cardinal Voiello, though he is heterosexual (the conversation is amusingly framed in front of the state of a naked woman the Cardinal confessed to having lustful thoughts about in a prior episode).

Again, this seems like a reminder that, by modern standards, Cardinal Voiello is a more decent man than the Pope. Cardinal Voiello remarks that pedophilia and homosexuality are two very different things, and that, moreover, perhaps two thirds of the clergy is gay. The Pope replies that both homosexuality and pedophilia are equally unacceptable according to the dictates of the Catholic Church. His plan is to pardon all of the homosexual priests, and then expel them from the church.
This results in the vast majority of the priests suddenly recounting their sins with women to the Papal confessor in very specific detail. Ultimately, the Pope decides to send Cardinal Bernardo (who does not wish to go to New York!) to investigate the pedophilia case. The Pope is forever sending people to places they do not wish to go.
Cardinal Voiello goes to visit Ester once more to reiterate to her that she must seduce the Pope. She remains reluctant, stating the she might be able to make him change his ways on account of his respect for her. Cardinal Voiello replies, “I was about to laugh but I stopped myself because I have a certain class.”
Meanwhile, that night, while the Pope is just trying to enjoy a cigarette, he sees what may be a new adversary on the television. A local man claims to see the Virgin Mary, be afflicted with the stigmata, and be able to heal people by touch. Not surprisingly, he’s attracting hundreds of visitors. He’s asked The Pope for advice on what to do with his powers, but says that if he doesn’t hear from him, he’ll form a new church.

That night, the Pope passes by Ester’s house as she makes love to her husband in the window. Given the passionate fervor of his invocation, however, it seems not as though he is a disinterested man hoping for the best for the couple, so much as an extremely interested man who wishes for a justification to keep watching Ester have sex.
And if it seems a little surprising that a Pope just gets to wander about watching people have sex, well, just remember that this is also a show where kangaroos roam the Vatican grounds.