The depths of how far Evelyn will go becomes revealed.
What They Say:
Verbis Diablo – Vanessa seeks solace with Sir Malcolm; Dorian Gray meets an intriguing woman; Rusk seeks a survivor; Hecate hunts down a prize for her mother; Ferdinand reveals Verbis Diablo’s backstory.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Returning to the world of Penny Dreadful after the break between seasons was both wonderful and difficult. It took some time to reconnect with the characters and their stories, some of which had ended, others which were just beginning, and seeing the way they were being dealt with individually and then coming together with the return of Malcolm to London hit all the right notes. Admittedly, it’s a bit forced to bring them all together, sans Dorian Gray at the moment, but it has the kind of feeling that you get with these stories that are all about bringing a group together to face larger events. And while there may not be much visually different with the current threat of the Nightcomers, at least when they reveal their fleshy selves, there’s a lot to like with their presentation when they’re alone and completely living in the time period and how it all works. There’s a really disturbing elegance to it all, especially with the brutality of it that we’ve seen so far.
With Vanessa, she was in an interesting position throughout the first season in that even as bad as things got, and how far down the rabbit hole she went, she still had some sense of self and stability amid it all. But here, with what she’s going through now, she’s been pushed over the edge and is hurtling downward so fast that she’s falling apart at a fantastic pace. it’s good to see her hitting the bottom like this and finding it difficult to really hold onto anything, but she does find some comfort in the form of Malcolm as his presence and words do help more than she might have realized. What’s interesting is that Malcolm takes her to where he finds a kind of peace of his own, going down under the city where there’s rampant cholera from the homeless that live there. Seeing those in these positions, the awfulness of it all, it’s a reminder to be thankful for what you have to be sure. Malcolm helps out here, and has Vanessa work with him a bit, and it is useful, but that sense that he does it to make himself feel better and to believe that it makes him a better man certainly says something about him.
With Victor and Caleb, their story has certainly taken quite the dramatic turn now that Brona has “awakened”, albeit in a form that has her not anywhere near a hundred percent. Caleb is excited to begin a life with her, but he’s practically rushing her to fly when she’s not even able to sit upright just yet. He wants to fill her with poetry while he knows she must learn to eat. Victor at least has some experience in this after Proteus, and you can certainly understand why Caleb is so intent on having someone like him in the world that he can truly feel proper with. Part of what will come back to bite Victor is that he wants to do right by her after Proteus, but by keeping Caleb away so that he doesn’t rush things, it’ll create a stronger bond between him and Brona. Victor, for his part, does do some good work to try and bring her to a proper level and work through the emotions and feelings she has, and he also gives her the new name of Lily to help represent her resurrection.
Amusingly, it’s down in the tunnels here after Malcolm leaves that Vanessa ends up spending time with Caleb, who has his own reasons for being down here regularly. There’s some good minor philosophical dialogue between the two that helps them to suss out their own senses of self, defining who they are, and while it may feel like it’s a little force, it’s a decent bit of exposition. For Caleb, it continues to paint him in a way that really makes him more realized in a way, with a sense of self that belies his outward appearance to be sure, and humanizes him in other ways. There are people that bring such concepts into the lives of others in how they talk, and while Vanessa has been exposed to much, someone like Caleb with his very different worldview certainly isn’t something that she’d get elsewhere. And that does make an impact.
Dorian Gray was absent at the start of the season, but he returns here and hopefully with a more interesting role this season. Here, he’s simply enjoying looking at a picture in the marketplace as the world moves around him, but he becomes engaged in discussion with a woman named Angelique that comes to try and woo him through some amusing dialogue, particularly blunt dialogue, and you almost have to think she overplays her hand in trying to draw him in. With Evelyn working her plan and setting her girls out there to go after what they want for their master, this has an interesting approach to it and I have to wonder if she’s using Angelique in some way, especially since we also see Evelyn herself inserting herself once again into Malcolm’s life while he’s out shopping for a bauble for Vanessa. Watching how she uses her abilities to make an impact on him without his being aware is truly disturbing.
There’s some interesting turns as it progresses, with what Dorian discovers with the woman that had approached him not being what he thought she was, and the way Evelyn is continuing to get closer to Malcolm. The time at the gun range makes it clear that she is far more than he thought, and that already had him thinking she was hiding quite a lot, but her marksmanship definitely hits him in a certain way considering his experiences. This season is certainly laying the various intricacies out well with a lot of things going on and seeing the smaller movements and wondering how they’ll connect is definitely engaging. Ethan’s time exploring some of the older sides of what’s going on with the demonic language that’s now surfaced, that has him showing once again that he is definitely a lot smarter and more well read and learned than he lets on. It comes out at such odd times that it can be positively unnerving.
The whole event turns into a puzzle of sort as it progresses, coming up with an array of “National Treasures” that have the devils language written on it. With so many very different types of pieces that it was written on, it’s like a puzzle in trying to figure out how to put it all back together and then understand it. It’s fun in that this piece of it has brought Ferdinand back into play as he helps them, but he’s also been drawn into things by Evelyn herself and has ended up pledging his loyalty there to her, which is no surprise considering the threat she represents. She has such a hold over how his life could crumble that it makes a great impact in seeing how she toys with him and how he tries to hold onto some semblance of maintaining his composure.
One chilling sequence in this episode has it focusing on Hecate as she’s looking for a babe as a prize for her mother. This takes us to the underground where we see the couple and child taking the subway as she follows along, quietly and stealthily, until she can transform into her Nightcomer self and kill the parents. It’s quick, cold and brutal with that weird mix of sexuality to it through the costume design for the Nightcomers that’s truly unnerving. Where it becomes even more so is when the baby is brought back to EVelyn later and he sacrifice begins in the chamber filled with dozens of creepy looking dolls that watch on. It’s a sequence that may certainly disturb a lot of viewers, with what’s extracted and all, and then to have it placed into one of the new dolls and stitched up just takes it to a whole other level of creepiness, especially as she speaks the devil’s language.
In Summary:
Penny Dreadful brings out scenes from time to time that makes you question whether you should really be watching it because of how disturbing it is. The end sequence here definitely is one of those with Evelyn and what she does in order to deal with Vanessa. There’s once again a lot of moving pieces here as the overall story is being told and each of the components has their moments as you can see parts of how it might all come together. I was glad to see Dorian make it back and I was weirdly glad to see a scene involving the subway. The creepy factor is definitely ramping up here overall, but it’s also balanced by some very human moments, from Vanessa and Caleb talking to the way Victor is working to help get Brona on the right path. Good stuff all around, but it’ll leave some disturbing memories.
Grade: B+
