WARNING: The following contains spoilers for 30 Coins Episode 3, "The Mirror," now airing on HBO.
As much as Farther Vergara thinks he's doing right in HBO's 30 Coins, he's one of the show's biggest problems. As he hides out in Pedraza, he doesn't realize the Judas coin taken by Elena is drawing malevolent spirits into the small Spanish town.
It's part of the Vatican cult's plan to seize all the coins and harness the ultimate divine power. Admittedly, Vergara isn't a villain, he's just lost his way as a priest and somehow can't find the courage to fight back or make it right. But in "The Mirror," viewers get to see his dark side unleashed, and it turns the place upside down.
Vergara's called in by mayor Paco and Elena, the town vet, to investigate a magical mirror that has the Gospel of Judas in its reflection, but it's not existing in the real world. As much as Elena doesn't like him trying to cover up possessions and monsters recently, she knows only he can figure out this apocryphal problem, so they leave him to spend the night.
Paco's hidden cameras in the room, though, and they discover his reflection standing up in the mirror. When they confront it the next day, the evil Vergara asks to speak to his real self alone in a private session. Vergara removes the cams, but it goes awry when the kid whose exorcism he botched in the past, Giacomo, appears. It's unclear if this is really Giacomo's corpse, but after explaining that he'll never forgive the priest, he pulls him into the mirror as the dark Vergara steps out.
This evil spirit wants the coin from Elena, but since he fakes being the priest, she quickly suspects something's off. She knocks him out outside her clinic when she realizes the animals are getting aggressive towards him, but while she and Paco rush to the mirror to go in and save the real priest, dark Vergara begins manipulating the town. He has control of their minds, holding a ghoulish night sermon where he tricks them into thinking Paco and Elena are false prophets.
He then leads an uprising where the townsfolk burn the clinic down and seek both out to kill them. Luckily, once the real Vergara's rescued from the mirror -- a portal to the Vatican -- the dark priest disappears. When they all get back, the town doesn't remember much, but they can tell that the mirror has left a mark on the citizens. They're worried if others have been turned to sleeper agents, and not even Vergara can guess as to the imprint his demonic counterpart left on these innocent pawns.
Starring Eduard Fernández, Megan Montaner, Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Macarena Gómez, Pepón Nieto and Manolo Solo, 30 Coins airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and is also streaming on HBO Max.