On last week’s episode of “Penny Dreadful” Dorian and Lily rescue a young girl and, Dr. Seward listens to Vanessa’s darkest secrets. Ethan is on the run again, but now he has the help of a witch. While Dr. Jekyll gives a demonstration on one of his patients, we learn the secret identity of Dracula. This week, Vanessa is given a clue to her past.
Reflections
Everything that has happened to Vanessa ties in with her past. And, the fate of her friends is also tied into what happens in the battle between scorpion and vampire. Kaetenay tells Sir Malcolm that Ethan must not give in to the dark side for if he does, evil will overcome the good in the world and all will perish. Kaetenay can only survive if Ethan does. It was nice watching Sir Malcolm intervene when two bigoted cowpokes tried to move Kaetenay out of the ‘whites only’ car. I fear that Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay will have to move quickly for Ethan is slowly becoming bewitched with the wicked Hecate while Rush and the Marshal are busy tracking the Wolf of God.
Of all the characters in this series, it is the monster, Caliban/John Clare that I look forward to seeing. This gentle monster has been having flashbacks to his previous life. He had a family that he cared about, but where are they. I have always liked the scenes that he and Vanessa are in. Their conversations are music to my ears. They seem so comfortable in each other’s presence and I’ve often wondered why.
After witnessing Vanessa on a date with Dr. Sweet/Dracula, Caliban/John Clare goes searching for his family. He can’t reveal himself to them. How could he? They think him dead. His family is destitute without his income coming in and his young son is ill from working in the factory. Caliban watches over them from a hiding spot in the attic.
Vanessa
Dr. Seward has heard Vanessa’s darkest secrets, but the doctor still holds to the false belief that the tales that Vanessa has told her are a confirmation of mental illness. Seward wants to learn the cause of Vanessa’s terrible sorrow. When Vanessa takes Dr. Seward’s hand and sees that the Doctor may have killed an abusive man in self-defense. Is this true? I want to know more about Dr. Seward. While this session goes on, the crazed Renfield is at his desk writing Vanessa’s name over and over while snacking of an unfortunate fly.
When Vanessa meets with Dr. Sweet, our skin crawls for we know who he is. Their walk leads them to a street carnival and the house of mirrors. But they are not alone. One of Dracula’s imps follows Sweet and Vanessa. When Vanessa is separated from Dr. Sweet inside the confusing hall of mirrors, the imp tells Vanessa a clue; the white room. Vanessa is so frightened that she cuts short her date with Dr. Sweet.
Justine
Cleaned and dressed in more fashionable clothing, Justine and Lily enjoy a cup of tea and watch a group of suffragettes protesting for the right to vote. The suffragettes are soon attacked and beaten by the very people who should be protecting them; the police. Lily has plans that surpass what the suffragettes were protesting for. She wants more than equality. Lily wants to build an army of fallen women by using the tools of craft… war… and death. Lily and Dorian plan an initiation for Justine to be part of their special club.
Victor
Victor speaks to the man who, before Dr. Jekyll’s injection, was violent and mad as a hatter. The man is calm and aware of his split personality and we are left to wonder just how he became to be so violent. Jekyll’s serum does not last and the conversation is cut short. But, Victor might know how to make the cure permanent.
Conclusion
Do we have a duel personality within us? Are we both creatures of good and evil as Dr. Jekyll’s experiments suggest? We all carry a part of our animalistic selves in that oldest part of our brain, called the reptilian brain. But one would think that after millions of years of evolution we would have tamed the beast within us….but we only need to watch the news to know that we might be more beast than angel.
We see only evil in Hecate as she kills the rancher and his wife in order to steal horses. Hecate must keep the Wolf of God from coming to Vanessa’s side and that means she must make Ethan as evil as she is.
Lily and Dorian have captured the man who was responsible for raping and selling the very young Justine to evil men. Justine is given a knife and a chance for revenge. She does not disappoint her mentors. They celebrate in an orgy of sex and blood.
Everything that has happened to Vanessa ties in with her past. Dracula’s imp had revealed that Vanessa had met the Master while she was committed at the Banning Clinic. Vanessa convinces Dr. Seward to hypnotize her. While Vanessa revisits, via hypnotherapy, the padded white room where she was treated horrible by Dr. Banning, Dracula kills the imp and feeds him to the other vampires.
While Caliban/John Clare leaves the gold watch and money for his wife to find and use for the boy, we see why Vanessa and Caliban were so comfortable in each other’s company. Caliban/John Clare was the orderly who delivered her food each day. I do hope Caliban/John Clare was as gentle a person to Vanessa while he was alive as he is now.
The web closes around our friends, my little pennies, and everything and everyone is depending on the Wolf to save the scorpion. Will he? Or will the scorpion save the wolf?
Reblogged this on gilbertspeaks.