Greetings fellow Dreadfuls,
Questions that have been asked have been answered, in a truly gripping season finale. This is, no doubt in my mind, the end of a powerful show that we have all come to know and adore, but it was a fitting end. This writing will not be the recap of the final two episodes you may have come to expect from me, but more of a wrap up on the season, and the series.
Thank you to ShowTime for seeing the possibilities, and to the stellar cast and crew, who made the world of Penny Dreadful so compelling and brought us along for the ride.
Thank you also to the creator of this incredibly inventive and original show, Mr. John Logan. Your vision brought the classic characters to life, and merged them seamlessly with characters original to the series. If Penny Dreadful is finished, as it looks very much to be, please know that you certainly have achieved your goals. And in the process, you have done the great writers and poets of the age proud.
To the core cast – Eva Green, Josh Hartnett, Billie Piper, Reeve Carney, Harry Treadaway, Rory Kinnear and Timothy Dalton, let me say that it was amazing to watch the brilliance of your performances week after week and to watch your characters evolve, allowing the fans to become ever more invested. Each one of you deserve the highest honors, in my humble opinion. And to the supporting cast, each and every one of you brought a special something to a story that I believe will attain cult classic status.
And now to the wrap up portion. There were separate and distinct storylines in this season, none of which really intersected with any other until Episode 9 – The Blessed Dark. Each character had to deal with their own personal demons throughout the season in order to come together to defeat Dracula.
For Ethan, this meant coming to terms with his biological father, his Apache father, and his wolfiness. To accomplish this, it was necessary for him to teeter on the edge of the Abyss with Hecate who urged him to turn his back on God and serve her Master. It was not until Hecate’s death that he was finally brought back to his Lupus Dei status by the two men who not only refused to give up on him, but managed to relieve some of the burdens of the stains on his soul.
Kaetenay is revealed as not only Ethan’s Apache father, but also as the instrument of his transformation to werewolf. In an alley, following a fight against the night creatures, Ethan comes to the horrific realization that his curse was given him by Kaetenay. The old Apache explains that he saw in a vision that he was given this gift not so that he could save his tribe, but so that he could transform Ethan into the Wolf of God to save a greater tribe, the tribe of mankind.
Sir Malcolm Murray’s part in the rescuing of Ethan’s soul was to relieve him of the burden of patricide, while still grappling with the loss of his own family. That Jared had to die was a foregone conclusion. Had Ethan been able to kill him, his soul would have been lost beyond redemption. But Jared had to die, and so Sir Malcolm stepped up.
Dr. Seward accepts that there is much more between heaven and earth than she can explain with a diagnosis of mere mental illness, when she catches the frog-eating Renfield in the act of prying into the confidential recordings of her sessions with Vanessa. Whether she has come to believe that she is a reincarnation of Joan Clayton or not, she knows that Vanessa is in danger, that she is somehow connected with the miasmic fog enveloping London, and that she must be found and stopped one way or another. Her part in rescuing Vanessa is in discovering where Vanessa might be, through the hypnosis of a now captured and Bedlam-interred Renfield.
Cat appears at Sir Malcolm’s house in time to help Malcolm, Ethan and Kaetenay defeat the familiars that Dracula has sent to kill them. It is with her factual and practical knowledge of Dracula and his ways that Sir Malcolm is saved from the bite inflicted on him by one of the night creatures. She very much comes into her own as a formidable woman during the confrontation with Dracula.
John Clare’s son passes away, and while he and Marjorie are grieving, Marjorie offers up an ultimatum to him. Take Jack to Dr. Frankenstein and return him to life, or don’t return at all. Perhaps before Caliban became John Clare, he might have done exactly that as his motivation had been to have a companion like him; a position that Lily was to occupy. However, Caliban evolved throughout the series into the gentle and very human man he became, mainly through Vanessa’s acceptance and the gradual return of his memories. John Clare couldn’t allow his son to live the way he himself had lived and suffered as Caliban. So he said a wordless, yet tender and loving goodbye to his son, releasing his body into the Thames, thus also turning his back on the relationship with his wife. It was the right thing, the human thing to do.
While Victor and Henry prepared to make Lily into the perfect woman, Lily called them out on the criminality and inhumanity of what they intend to do. When the two are unmoved, she requests some alone time with Victor. Henry leaves to do his rounds, giving Lily the opportunity to make an impassioned plea to Victor. She tells him the story of Brona Croft, whose infant daughter Sara died, alone, on one of the coldest days of the year while she was out prostituting to make money for food and coal. Lily begs him not to take the memory of her daughter away. Where her fire and logic failed to sway him, her story touches Victors’ heart, rescuing him from his obsession. He releases her.
Henry is upset with Victor for letting her go. All Henry can see is that a perfect test subject is lost to him because of Victor’s soft-heartedness. Victor, however, has been brought to the realization that the science is not all, and tries unsuccessfully to impart that to Henry. Henry determines that though the partnership is at an end, his work will continue and he will be recognized for it some day. This day has not been a total loss for him, as he has received news that his hated father has passed away, and so he is one step closer to the aristocracy that he so desires to be an accepted part of. Victor bids adieu to Lord Hyde.
Lily returns to Dorian’s house, where she finds it devoid of the women, and Dorian standing over Justine’s body. Justine chose to die rather than to return to her old life, and Dorian tells Lily that she would have been proud. Dorian’s eloquent speech about the pitfalls and consequences of immortality convinces Lily that there is nothing here for her anymore, and so, grieving over the death of yet another child, she bids him farewell, leaving him to his empty and passionless life. He calls after her that she will be back, but somehow I just don’t see it.
Sir Malcolm, Cat and Dr. Seward run into Victor in Bedlam as he is leaving Henry’s laboratory, and the four band together to find and rescue Vanessa. They meet with Kaetenay and Ethan in Chinatown, and quickly lay plans for a two pronged attack against Dracula and his familiars. As Sir Malcolm and his group enter the front door of Dracula’s lair – an abandoned slaughterhouse – Kaetenay and Ethan approach from the subterranean levels. Things always look darkest before the dawn, and this scene is no exception to that rule.
Dracula tells Sir Malcolm that Vanessa is where she wants to be, and that he and his companions should leave while he will still allow them to. Sir Malcolm almost appears to be tempted by the offer, and then Dracula overplays his hand. He informs Sir Malcolm that the single purpose for which his daughter Mina died, sweet meat that she was, was merely to bring Vanessa to him. Sir Malcolm tells his companions that it will be an honor to die alongside them, and they lay about themselves furiously with their various weapons, killing the familiars as they sweep over them in a seemingly never ending tide. Ethan and Kaetenay join the fray, and while Dracula is overseeing the battle, Ethan slips away to find Vanessa.
Vanessa, first pursued by Lucifer and bringing him to heel only to fall prey to his brother, waits for Ethan in a candlelit, circular and almost temple-like stone walled room. She knows that it will end in blood, as it always was meant to. And now her motivation for accepting Dracula becomes clear. She was unable to defeat him, and so has put herself into a situation that can only be resolved by her death. She knew that Ethan would never be able to kill her if she had not become the Mother of Evil that she was prophesied to be. She knows that the battle will never end as long as she exists, and so to save herself and the world, she appeals to the Wolf of God to remove her from the End of Days equation. And though Ethan clearly doesn’t want to, though he at first feels that she can be saved as he was, he sees the logic in her argument. Together, in the light of love and the light of God, they end Vanessa’s tragic story.
The fog lifts, the sun breaks through, and Dracula, defeated, vanishes.
Bound together by their grief, Ethan and Sir Malcolm affirm that they are family.
John watches from the shadows as Dr. Seward, Cat, Victor, Kaetenay, Sir Malcolm and Ethan stand at Vanessa’s graveside. As they leave one by one, until only John is left, we hear his voice quoting William Wordsworth ’s Intimations of Immortality. And then, before the end credits roll, a black screen containing two simple words appears. The End.
What did you think of the season and (probable) series finale, Dreadfuls? Do you still think there are more stories to tell? For myself, although I did think so prior to these two episodes, I have changed my mind. Like Ethan, even though I didn’t want it to end, I see the logic. The show has gone out on a high note. Thank you, Readers, for travelling with me on this incredible journey.
**UPDATE: It’s Official! This was the series finale. Here is John Logan’s statement.**
In case you missed it, I recently interviewed a member of Penny Dreadful’s Season 1 supporting cast – Mr. Kidd, played by Julian Black Antelope . The interview can be found here.
Stay tuned to Skatronixxx to join me for other shows that I will be reviewing in the upcoming season.
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The Gripping Season (Series?) Finale!
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