Previously on The Flying Nun, Revisited…
“The Flying Nun is a hip sixties woman named Sister Bertrille from New York and she just began working at a convent in exceedingly windy San Juan, Puerto Rico. She weighs ninety pounds and her cornette is shaped in such a way that makes it aerodynamic when countered with a large gust of wind. She sings songs to children like The Sound of Music and there’s a local sleazy rich jerk named Carlos that Sister Bertrille is always running into whenever he’s about to kiss a woman. She usually gets into some sort of scheme that involves using his vast wealth or losing his vast wealth. The Flying Nun has a warm but begrudging friendship with the Reverend Mother. She’s also a good mechanic, and allergic to Hibiscus. Her real name is Elsie, and she comes from a family of doctors. She’s good friends with Sister Jacqueline, who narrates the episodes, as well as Sister Sixto. And she’s friendly with birds, whether they talk or have crushes on her.”

We’ve had a thirty episode first season to love and enjoy this miraculous universe! Now let’s all settle in and allow season two to begin! Cut to present day!

The Flying Nun IMDb

Introduction –
In the modern day, no concept, TV show or movie is ever forgotten. Everything, no matter how stupid, has a fanbase of some kind and ends up getting a sequel, a revival, or a recap podcast with people laughing at jokes they made five to thirty years ago. Why has the long forgotten Sally Field sitcom, The Flying Nun, been left behind? In a world of police procedurals like NCIS and SVU and CSI and NYPD Blue, I invite you to gaze back with nostalgia goggles at an era of television that wasn’t dominated by letter-based TV or talk show hosts named Jimmy. I invite you to gaze at The Flying Nun!

The Flying Nun, 2.1: “Song of Bertrille”
Hey there! Welcome back! Are you ready for season two? I am, because it’s four episodes shorter. As a special treat we get to see the bit from the intro every week where a board flips Sister Bertrille into the air. This week Carlos’s casino is home to a band called Sonny and the Sundowners, a Monkees style band. It also turns out that Sonny used to go to school with Elsie Ethrington, our very own Sister Bertrille. We learn that she wrote, produced and starred in the Senior Varsity show at her high school. Sonny asks Bertrille to write him a song so she can get money from the Convent. The nuns don’t tell the Reverend Mother of course, they just relieve her of all her chores so she can write. “You always write such good songs for the children” someone says. Like the Chopsticks song, huh? Good grief. She has writers block and goes for a fly to fix it, and and subsequently we are treated to some genuinely beautiful aerial shots.
It becomes very clear once she writes a very lovely ballad for the band that they will distort it into a weird synth concoction. There’s a lovely moment where the Reverend Mother tells Bertrille she knew what she was up to and is angry she didn’t tell her because she wanted to help. We’ve got some great dialogue once they hear the whole weird acid trip of the new song. “But that’s where it’s at!” Sonny says. “But that’s not where I’m at!” Sister Bertrille responds. Heh. The ending is very nice, everyone loves the song the way she wrote it, and you can tell Sally Field is genuinely emotional. It’s the best song they’ve had her sing in 31 episodes.
Episode Rating – 7.3 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 2.2: “The Crooked Convent”
This episode marks the first appearance of Captain Gaspar Fomento, who IMDb reassures me will be a reoccurring character. The actor who plays this policeman has played a policeman in this show before, but this is his big debut as a new character. And it should be mentioned that Vito Scotti, the actor portraying Gaspar, also played “Italian Cat” in the sadly culturally insensitive Disney film, The Aristocats. It was one of my favorites as a kid, but I’m sure you’re aware of the issues that film has. Anyway, let’s get into it. Fomento is a bumbling weirdo who’s constantly getting hurt and making dumb physical comedy choices, as well as a sore loser who suspects everyone at the Convent, with the help of Carlos, is rigging things to steal money just because Carlos gave them a special wheel for a charity event.
The Chief thinks he’s an idiot and a psycho, and he is, one of the stupidest people there has ever been. For some reason the Chief acts like he’s on the verge of a stroke. Fomento gets one of his cops to spy down at the Convent, pretending to be the new Gardener. But he spends most of the day talking to his many relatives on the phone. Sister Jacqueline thinks the gardener Nacio is a horse race caller, and we learn that Sister Jacqueline is a former bookie, it seems. Sister Bertrille flies in public, which you’d think she wouldn’t. Eventually everyone realizes what a dipshit Fomento is, and that he was using a bookmaker who was operating out of the police station, and he is summarily stripped of his rank. I love a weird misunderstanding farce.
Episode Rating – 8.1 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 2.3: “The Rabbi and the Nun”
Sister Bertrille’s aunt is dead, and she’s been gifted groovy clothes, a menorah, and a parasol that leads her to make Mary Poppins jokes. She gifts the menorah to the only Synagogue in town. Soon she finds herself helping Carlos’s bookkeeper and her laundromat owner fiancé have a Jewish wedding at the Convent. Not much is going on in this episode. The man has too much pride and won’t stop gambling and the wedding almost doesn’t happen because he gambles away the honeymoon money. So Bertrille and the Rabbi have to convince the man to gamble again, this time unknowingly with loaded dice. Oh, no. Captain Fomento is back. And for some reason, he’s a Captain again. Because Fomento somehow figures out what’s going on, Carlos ends up in jail, which is what always seems to happen, he gets screwed over by Bertrille. It all ends with a bunch of nuns singing Hava Nagila. So. It was an episode?
Episode Rating – 6.8 Sally Fields

The Flying Nun, 2.4: “The Return of Father Lundigan”
Two things. One, Father Lundigan was the psychiatrist who thought all the nuns were insane back in season one episode six, and he’s returned to become even more insane, according to Sister Jacqueline, but he’s played by a different actor this time. And Sister Bertrille has a toothache, but has no interest in getting it fixed. The dentist’s wife is giving birth, yet insists he waits until she’s nearly at the end to leave his patients and be with her. Bertrille is such a difficult patient that the dentist hypnotizes her. He accidentally hypnotizes the Reverend Mother too. Carlos is there for his own check-up. He insists that the dentist do tricks and make the Reverend Mother act like Bertrille and vice versa. He says he’ll do one trick and snap them out of it. His wife giving birth surely won’t interrupt this terrible idea they’ve had, yes?
I’m not a fan of this Father Lundigan, nor was I a fan of the last one. This one has a very sassy affectation and acts like an idiot. Anyway, it is wonderful to watch Madeleine Sherwood act like Sister Bertrille. She is a wonderful actress. She tries to fly in front of Lundigan when he snaps them into their trance. This idiot, this weird lispy idiot (He apparently spoke this way to poke fun at his closeted homosexuality, so basically he played into stereotypes so as not to leave himself open to societal ridicule and hateful comments. It makes sense, and I’m not one to say it was unnecessary or over the top in an offensive way, but still.), continues to shit on everyone’s fun with his stupid misconceptions of how life works. Sally Field gets to do her best Reverend Mother impression, acting all uptight and stroking her temple, while Sherwood does a complete 180 with her excellent, wacky performance. Lundigan leaves to see Bertrille fly by the plane again, after the Reverend Mother almost tries to fly. Oh by the way I liked this but the plot felt very problematic.
Episode Rating – 8.6 Sally Fields For Madeleine Sherwood alone

The Flying Nun, 2.5: “The Convent Is Condemned”
Fomento is back. I dislike his character the most. He does have some good lines though. This week: “There is no such thing as small crimes. Only small criminals.” While Bertrille goes about collecting for an old clothes drive, she encourages Fomento to investigate a non-crime at the Casino rather than retiring as Captain. He hates that he can’t use his criminology training, so he arrests everyone at the Casino. This drives Carlos to accept an offer to move his Casino to a new city, now that he’s sick of Sister Bertrille. This all leads, inevitably, to Bertrille avoiding being truthful to Carlos, and partially destroying the Convent so the eager Fomento condemns the building. In the end it is declared as a monument or whatever, Fomento’s police force of two is cut in half, leaving him, and he swears to be diligent, only to fall through the floor. It’s a bit of a retread, and Carlos has had the edges sanded off him somewhat.
Episode Rating – 6.9 Sally Fields

Here we go! Season two has begun! I’ll see you next month when the wackiness continues, and they’re certainly leaning more into the sitcom aspects this time around. It appears the endless void I’ve saddled myself with has become slightly less frustrating… for now.