Penny Dreadful

Season 3, Episode 1

Episode Title: The Day Tennyson Died

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

 

The first episode of the season starts with a recap of the last season, where we see the different paths that the characters took. The opening credits start to roll and see new images added in the credits.

In the first scene, we see Sir Malcolm’s townhouse abounded; the letters are piled up at the entrance, every curtain in the house is close, the kitchen is filled with dirty dishes, and everything is covered in dust. Vanessa wakes up from a couch that she was sleeping on, dirty and with only a nightgown. It’s morning and she walks to the service entrance in the kitchen for the delivery of food, and starts to eat from it on the floor. While eating there is a knock on the door, and Mr. Lyle’s is heard asking to speak to her. At first, she doesn’t want to talk with him, but after some persuasion from Mr. Lyle, he manages to convince her of going to see a lady doctor that helped him before. He gives her a card and tells her that he would make an appointment for her.

In a train traveling through the territory of New Mexico, in America, Ethan is being transported to the American authorities by Inspector Rusk for the Mariner’s Inn massacre. The Inspector Rusk and his assistant leave the cart to go eat, they walk through some cart, and without knowing it, they walk by Hecate who is following them to America. A group of men in her cart get up and start to kill the American officers that are escorting Ethan. When they get to Ethan they welcome him home, and hit him with a gun knocking out. Inspector Rusk and the other men are able to get in the cart before they kill Hecate, but the train stops and the group of bandits leave with an unconscious Ethan by horseback.

Later on, Ethan wakes up when the group of bandits stop to rest. The leader tells Ethan that they work for his father and that he was to see him. Their job is to take Ethan back home.

In Zanzibar East Africa, we find Sir Malcolm writing a letter to Vanessa. In the letter, he tells her about the funeral for Sembene, and how the land has lost its adventure to him. When he leaves the bar, he is attacked by robbers, but he is able to fight back with the help of a man. After the bandits are dead, the man takes the scalp of the woman that try to kill Sir Malcolm, and tells him, “Old traditions die hard, don’t they, Sir Malcolm?”

In a different bar, Sir Malcolm thanks the man by paying for drinks, but the man tells him that he doesn’t drink spirits. The man is a Chiricahua Apache and has been following Sir Malcolm for a while, waiting for him to return from Sebene’s funeral. When asked why, he replies that Sir Malcolm won’t die until he fulfils his purpose that is “To fight the great demons from earth and sky until you are dead.” The man presents himself as Kaetenay and he wants Sir Malcolm to go with him to America because Ethan Chandler needs their help. Kaetenay tells him to be true to himself and do his job and save Ethan that is like their son.

In a desolated ice land, the boat where John Clare (the Creature) was traveling, is stuck in the ice and only a handful of crew members are alive. The cold doesn’t seem to affect John Clare, but the other people and a child are slowly dying. A crew member is trying to peruse the other to kill the child mercifully before he dies from the cold and eat him and the other dead, but the captain prefers to die that be animals. The crew member tries to kill the child, but John Clare stands in his path and doesn’t let him get through. John Clare goes to the child and starts to sing a lullaby to him, while singing has a memory of his past life before he died. In the memory, he leaves a woman and a child, and he is happy singing the same song to the kid in the memory.

John Clare asks the captain how long does the child has left, and when the captain replies a few days, John Clare kisses the boy’s forehead and breaks his neck. With his memory and a new purpose, he gets up and leaves, wishing the men luck. When they ask him were his going, he replies, “home.”

Back in London, a man of Indian descent walks to the apartment of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. He is curse and insulted by many people while he walks in the streets, but he doesn’t pay attention to them. When Victor opens the door, he calls the man for his name, Dr. Jekyll. Victor looks worse than ever, he still does drugs, and seems to have stopped taking care of his hygiene, Dr. Jekyll comments about this, and ask what he needs him for. Victor tells him about his work with reanimating creatures and his lost love. He starts with how he arrives to London and the events regarding him creating Lily. Victor shows Jekyll his lab, and ask him to help him kill Lily. Jekyll refuses and instead wants to help him with his addiction; Victor recalls the vicious side of Jekyll and mentions that side could have helped him. Instead, Jekyll recalls the gentle side of Victor that truly wants to have Lily love him instead. Jekyll proposes a different solution with his chemicals and would give Lily back to him. Victor accepts with the condition that if they cannot tame Lily, they will kill her.

A clean and spooked Vanessa goes out to the appointment with the Alienist (like a psychotherapists) that Mr. Lyle recommended. She arrives to the location and the man from the front desk takes her to the doctor’s office to wait for her. Dr. Seward walks out of a closet and Vanessa is surprise to see that the doctor looks a lot like her old friend, Joan Clayton. Dr. Seward explains what an alienist is and the fee for their sessions if she takes the case, and starts to analyze Vanessa’s actions. She is cold and professional to Vanessa, and continues to explain how their sessions will go, and that Vanessa was sick, but can get better. Vanessa tells Dr. Seward that they have meet before, and that she looks like her friend Joan Clayton. She accepts Vanessa as a patient, Vanessa replies that she didn’t even asked what was wrong. Instead Dr. Seward tells her that she is unhappy and it’s caused because she lost something and because of that she stopped caring about herself and her appearance and health; all that creates a cycle that continues and continues. She expects to see Vanessa the day after tomorrow, and gives homework, to do something outside her everyday routine.

Vanessa leaves the doctor’s office and walks down the street thinking about her session. A boy stops her to sell her rose, as everyone is mourning the death of great poet Alfred Tennyson. She stares at the boy face, as he’s more pale that normal, the boy explains that he has anemia, and leaves with and odd message. Without noticing Vanessa arrives at the museum, and decides to enter. In the zoology department, she meets the zoology director Dr. Alexander Sweets, he shows her the exhibition that there are, and the animals that other people don’t like to see. They talk until Dr. Sweets is needed and she gives her name before he leaves.

Feeling better and a little happy, Vanessa return to Sir Malcolm’s home and starts to clean. She washes the dishes, cleans that floors, and all the house. While she works, we hear the letter she writes to Sir Malcolm where she tells her about her illness, and the Ethan’s absents. She mentions that her missing faith might be another reason for her illness, but believes she has starts to get well, and the monsters are gone. When she finishes cleaning, Vanessa lights a cigar and walks to her window; as the day is ending she resists one of the poems of Alfred Tennyson.

Once the doctor’s office closes, the secretary of Dr. Seward leaves and takes some money with him. Later we see him buying the services of a woman, and when starting to have sex with her against a wall in an alley, a mysterious force takes him away.

The episode ends with the secretary being confronted by voice in a warehouse surrendering him with pale people, among them is the boy that sold the rose to Vanessa and the young man that was following her all day; the voice that wants him to spy on Vanessa during her session with Dr. Seward. It’s revealed that the secretary’s last name is Renfield, and begs the voice that spear his life. The voice tells him that his names Dracula.

“Beat, happy stars, timing with things below,
Beat with my heart more blest than heart can tell,
Blest, but for some dark undercurrent woe
That seems to draw–but it shall not be so:
Let all be well, be well.”  Maud; A Monodrama Part XVIII, VIII

 

The first episode of the third season of Penny Dreadful is out. Because of work and finals, I’m behind the recap and reviews of this season, but I’m still going to do all the season this summer and try to catch up. It was very interesting to see how the characters practically went down the hill after the events of last season. Most of them are in a bad mind state, and others are just simply in a bad position in life. I liked how the writers were able to bring back Patti LuPone, the actor that play the Joan Clayton, and make Vanessa seek her help again. It finally happened, and the Creature is getting glimpses of his past back. It seems that he had a wife and kid before he died, the question is now, how did he died in the first place? Another addition to the story is Dr. Jekyll, for those who don’t know him; in his story Dr. Jekyll creates a serum that causes him to change form and personality. While we haven’t seen his alter-ago Mr. Hyde, I hope we are able to see it this season. Ethan is going home one way or the other, and it looks like a trail of dead bodies would mark his way, not all killed by him, but by all the people that seem to want to see him home. Now that we are in North America, we also meet a new character called Kaetenay. Who knows of Ethan’s past and what he is, but with the help of Sir Malcolm wants to save him before he turns to the “dark side.” The third season is starting and it with an old great evil has come back for Vanessa, it might harder to save her from Dracula this time. What did you think of The Day Tennyson Died? Tell us in the comments.