Penny Dreadful

Season 2, Episode 02

Episode Title: Verbis Diablo

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar

The episode starts with Vanessa going to Sir Malcolm’s room, the next day, to tell him that the witches were in her room and disappeared last night. She asks him if she is becoming mad, as she doesn’t find peace in her own home or the safety of her friends.

In Victor’s lab, he and Caliban are seeing over the new Brona. At the moment she cannot speak, but as Victor has improved his experiment, he hopes that she will learned quickly as Proteus did. Once Caliban leaves, Victor seems drawn to Brona, he tells her his name and she repeats it.

To help Vanessa feel better, Sir Malcolm takes her to the Soup kitchen in the tunnels, where people with Cholera are. Later, it seems that one of the men that was sent for Ethan, survived the attack, and the new detective goes to see him with the intention of questioning him, but the doctors tell him that it is not so probable that he would ever speak, as there is not much of his face left.

Brona now called Lily, is starting to understand and speak better with her accent changed. She gets emotional as she cannot remember more. Meanwhile, Victor tells her that they are cousins and she had an accident.

In the Soup Tunnels, Vanessa meets John Clare (Caliban) and has a conversation with him about heaven and hell, and if there is an afterlife. When Vanessa doesn’t believe that he doesn’t think in an afterlife he quotes, “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” When Vanessa is leaving, she tells him that he has beautiful eyes.

We see Dorian Gray sitting in a restaurant courtyard where he meets a woman called Angelic. As she sees the photo of Vanessa, she asks him who she is, but Dorian doesn’t reply. Dorian seems to like her, but when she offers to show him her room he declines. Before leaving, she says to him “stay young and beautiful, Dorian Gray, it suits you.” Later on, he learns that Angelic is actually a man.

While looking for a present for Vanessa, Sir Malcolm encounters Evelyn while shopping in a perfume store. As he helps her choose a new scent for her, she bewitches him. Back in Sir Malcolm’s house, Mr. Lyle joins the Vanessa team to help them learn Verbis Diablo. While in the house, Mr. Lyle finds Ethan charming and flirts with him. The museum has some artifacts that will help them learn the language and Mr. Lyle is happy to supply them with the help of Ethan.

Later on, we learn that Mr. Lyle is a spy of Evelyn’s, and is telling her everything that he hears. The episode ends with Evelyn making a puppet that looks like Vanessa with the heart of an infant that Hecate killed.

What an interesting episode, don’t you think? I liked that Vanessa and Caliban finally met, and that we saw a heartbroken Dorian. I believe that the man that survived Ethan’s attack may also turn into a werewolf. I can see that Victor is having feelings for Brona, let’s see how that plot develops. Penny Dreadful is using the old tales about Witches killing newborn babies for magical purposes. I found the last scene with Evelyn, quite disturbing, she uses the darkest of magic, it even gave me goosebumps.

What do you think of this season so far? Do you think this was a very dark episode? Tells us in the comments.