Penny Dreadful 2.10.
Jul. 6th, 2015 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakWell, that was... unexpected.
Huh. Huh. When the big Vanessa versus Lucifer & Evelyn showdown (btw, thank you, show, for making the good choice of keeping him not present via an actor but via the Vanessa doll and speaking with Eva Green's voice, that was far more effective than anything else would have been) happened so early on in the episode, I wondered whether the "Dorian is the second brother" theorists were right after all and that would be the second showdown, but no. Instead, we got the reverse emotional beat from last season, which had the coming together of the group and the Vanessa and Malcolm reconciliation. Here, we get the falling apart post showdown and spreading into different directions, though you could also call the individual plot threads "facing up to responsibility and the truth about yourself".
Most obviously in Ethan's case. Now if he'd been heading to the wilderness I'd have called his "dear Vanessa, must walk in darkness alone" letter self indulgent in the annoying kind of way I once wrote a post complete with poll about. However, Ethan confessing to all the deaths to Inspector Rusk is a different issue altogether, because he is responsible for all those deaths, even if he didn't want to be, and accepting lawful punishment for them which, since he's expecting it to be the death penalty, would also prevent very likely further deaths. Which is a very ethical choice and in line with the Ethan we've come to know.
I can't decide whether there's not a single line or scene to the effect that Sembene's death was what made him draw the line in this way is a good or bad thing for me. On the one hand, it would definitely make Sembene's death all about motivating Ethan, which is bad. On the other hand, the show has been building the friendship between Ethan and Sembene throughout the season, and the fact Ethan doesn't react on screen to the fact he'd killed his friend at all (unless we fanwank that's what finally pushed him into confessing to Rusk) is a dramatic let down.
On the non existant third hand, I am satisfied with Malcolm's reaction to Sembene's death, which does get shown, not just the immediate reaction (btw, the hand above Sembene's face, almost but not really touching had an odd sort of tenderness), but also his decision to take Sembene's body back to Africa. (Which, if you'll recall, is what he didn't do with Peter's body back in the day - as Gladys mentions in this season's opening episode, Peter's grave is empty.)
All of which exists indepedent from the fact that I'm severely let down in my hopes for Sembene surviving as a werewolf, and for Sembene's survival in general. Killing him off now feels gratitious in a "must have one death among the regulars, let's take the black cast member" way. Boo, hiss.
Victor comes to face his responsibility twice, once in the continuing hallucination scene - and note the Lily in his head tells him that when he fondled her dead naked body, it wasn't science, it was abuse, which since this isn't really Lily but Victor's own conscience means he's not deluded enough to not know that - , and once in the scene with the real LilyBronaFemaleCreature and Dorian, when he realises the Lily he fell in love with never existed and was a deliberate creation by his creation, who has become a monster. BTW, I take it that the scene is also meant to set up Dorian and Lily as the s3 Big Bad? If so, they've already failed at biology. When they talked about whether or not to keep Victor alive I wondered whether one would bring up the glaringly obvious - if they actually want "a new master race", they'd need him to make more creatures, since I doubt Lily can physically procreate. Not that I can't emotionally believe her letting Victor alive to live with the horror of what he's done and with the awareness she's always known and rejects him utterly, but then Logan should have resisted giving her the "master race" speech and let her and Dorian just go for plain old world domination by themselves.
Of all the Frankenstein related characters, Caliban turns out to have made the most progress this season, despite the occasional misstep like his attempt at possessive behavior re: Lily two eps ago. As expected, he kills Mr. and Mrs. Putney when getting out of the cage (clearing up what I've been wondering, i.e. whether a Creature is strong enough to get out of there; turns out yes, effortlessly), after they've made it clear they're planning that early 20th century entertainment hit, a grand scale freakshow with many more victims. But he doesn't kill Lavinia, despite her taunts, doesn't speak or talk to her at all, just leaves her behind. He also doesn't use the Putney experience to go on a vengeful rampage on other humans. This is a far cry from the Creature who killed Proteus and Van Helsing for no reason other than his monumental anger at Victor. His friendship with Vanessa, one of the season's most unexpected and endearing twists, continues to bring out the best in him, as he's there for her afterwards. (And thus comes to realise that what he's longed for, the company and acceptance of a friend, is already his, though alas, now it's Vanessa who's caught the "must be alone as to not doom others" bug.) And then he catches up with his Mary Shelley fate of going to Antarctica, in the ice.
Early as it was, Vanessa's showdown scene, in which she literally came to face herself in more ways than one, was magnificent. (Also, flippant thought: when Vanessa Ives dumps a suitor, she does it with style. Lucifer can now join Dorian, whether or not they're related, in sulking about it.) As mentioned in the last review, I had expected an early defeat, then rallying, then victory, but no. Vanessa's already gone through all the fears and hopes and scares and emerged on the other side, and I loved, loved, loved, that she doesn't even bother with attacking Evelyn but goes straight for the Lord of Darkness himself. "What makes you think I still want that? Know your Master" indeed. 'Twas awesome to behold.
(More dissapointing was that Malcolm and Victor remained trapped in their respective hallucinations until then, because Malcolm snapping out of it for Victor would have been such a great counterpart to his dooming Peter.)
Having dealt with the devil, Vanessa is also not afraid to have sex and getting possessed anymore, but alas, in monumental bad timing, Ethan just that very night has decided to face his own responsibility and surrender to the law as embodied by Rusk. You know, I'm on board with Ethan/Vanessa as a pairing, they have a great rapport, they share important things, they have chemistry, but I don't think their storyline this season has been particularly well drawn or satisfying. Which is unfortunate, because it's to this season what the Vanessa and Malcolm relationship was to the last season, the red emotional thread supposedly coming to a climax in the finale.
And thus Vanessa ends the season having conquered her foes internal and external but at the same time in utter loneliness - she's at last given up on God by burning her cruxific, Malcolm is off to Africa as she hasn't corrected his assumption that Ethan will keep her company (shades of the last Doctor Who finale and the Clara-Doctor-Danny situation!), Ethan's gone, and after getting some of the comfort she sought, she's turned down Caliban's offer of further company because of some conviction of dooming-those-around-me-ness. (This last one really didn't do it for me, though yes, Vanessa isn't aware of "John Clare's" true past and thus sees him as an innocent. She should have gone with him on the Antarctic expedition!)
Downer endings all around, except for Lyle, who to my relief makes it out alive and in good health (and rid of his blackmailer) and Hecate, who ends the season with her mother's song on her lips, departing for other shores, after having set fire to Evelyn's gothic castle and Evelyn's corpse. (I knew there would be fire involved, but I think John Logan couldn't make up his mind as how to kill Evelyn in the first place: on the one hand, Vanessa defeating Lucifer meant all the centuries were rapidly catching up with Evelyn and she started to decompose, on the other, Ethan shows up to tear out her throat. The later perhaps so Ethan would get to do something to an important villain in the showdown?) It would be a very depressing place to end the show, so I'm glad there will be a third season, despite various let downs (SEMBENE) in this season - both because I care about the characters, and because there was still enough good stuff in season 2 in the overall show to make me want more.
Though how the team's supposed to get together again... Vanessa and Victor are easiest, being in the same city (I'm assuming here Victor didn't overdose, and that either Lyle or Vanessa will show up to drag him back into activity again). Since Rusk is travelling with Ethan to the US, my current speculation is that he'll find out about the whole werewolf deal en route or there, and probably some unsavory things about Talbot Senior. I doubt Talbot Senior will let an execution happen, but wouldn't be surprised if he has other sinister plans, and Ethan and Rusk end up teaming up and returning to Britain. Malcolm hasn't got African plans beyond burying Sembene in his home country, so probably will be back in London in a few months. Caliban could be left where Mary Shelley left him, travelling in the ice, minus his creator; in a way, he's completed his arc. But if Lily and Dorian are truly s3's Big Bads (which means Dorian at last will have a purpose on the show beyond dating and sex), I doubt that and think Logan will bring him back, though probably not before mid season. Of Hecate, we probably have seen the last - she's not suicidal enough to mess with Vanessa after having watched Vanessa take on Satan and win -, and that's a relief, because I do want the witches storyline to be over.
Trivia: this finale had some great visuals to do with white, from the obvious - Vanessa, Ethan and the kids in an Victorian idyll when Satan tempts her with a dream version of herself - to the ironic - Dorian and LilyBronaCreature in white Ruritanian uniform and dress dancing, then with the red blood trailing from them.
In conclusion: s2 was too meandering and inconsistently written to rival season 1, but a sophomore slump doesn't mean one can't recover in s3: see also, Elementary. In the meantime, I hope someone will write a Vanessa and Caliban travel through Antarctica AU, but I doubt it, because Caliban isn't popular.
Huh. Huh. When the big Vanessa versus Lucifer & Evelyn showdown (btw, thank you, show, for making the good choice of keeping him not present via an actor but via the Vanessa doll and speaking with Eva Green's voice, that was far more effective than anything else would have been) happened so early on in the episode, I wondered whether the "Dorian is the second brother" theorists were right after all and that would be the second showdown, but no. Instead, we got the reverse emotional beat from last season, which had the coming together of the group and the Vanessa and Malcolm reconciliation. Here, we get the falling apart post showdown and spreading into different directions, though you could also call the individual plot threads "facing up to responsibility and the truth about yourself".
Most obviously in Ethan's case. Now if he'd been heading to the wilderness I'd have called his "dear Vanessa, must walk in darkness alone" letter self indulgent in the annoying kind of way I once wrote a post complete with poll about. However, Ethan confessing to all the deaths to Inspector Rusk is a different issue altogether, because he is responsible for all those deaths, even if he didn't want to be, and accepting lawful punishment for them which, since he's expecting it to be the death penalty, would also prevent very likely further deaths. Which is a very ethical choice and in line with the Ethan we've come to know.
I can't decide whether there's not a single line or scene to the effect that Sembene's death was what made him draw the line in this way is a good or bad thing for me. On the one hand, it would definitely make Sembene's death all about motivating Ethan, which is bad. On the other hand, the show has been building the friendship between Ethan and Sembene throughout the season, and the fact Ethan doesn't react on screen to the fact he'd killed his friend at all (unless we fanwank that's what finally pushed him into confessing to Rusk) is a dramatic let down.
On the non existant third hand, I am satisfied with Malcolm's reaction to Sembene's death, which does get shown, not just the immediate reaction (btw, the hand above Sembene's face, almost but not really touching had an odd sort of tenderness), but also his decision to take Sembene's body back to Africa. (Which, if you'll recall, is what he didn't do with Peter's body back in the day - as Gladys mentions in this season's opening episode, Peter's grave is empty.)
All of which exists indepedent from the fact that I'm severely let down in my hopes for Sembene surviving as a werewolf, and for Sembene's survival in general. Killing him off now feels gratitious in a "must have one death among the regulars, let's take the black cast member" way. Boo, hiss.
Victor comes to face his responsibility twice, once in the continuing hallucination scene - and note the Lily in his head tells him that when he fondled her dead naked body, it wasn't science, it was abuse, which since this isn't really Lily but Victor's own conscience means he's not deluded enough to not know that - , and once in the scene with the real LilyBronaFemaleCreature and Dorian, when he realises the Lily he fell in love with never existed and was a deliberate creation by his creation, who has become a monster. BTW, I take it that the scene is also meant to set up Dorian and Lily as the s3 Big Bad? If so, they've already failed at biology. When they talked about whether or not to keep Victor alive I wondered whether one would bring up the glaringly obvious - if they actually want "a new master race", they'd need him to make more creatures, since I doubt Lily can physically procreate. Not that I can't emotionally believe her letting Victor alive to live with the horror of what he's done and with the awareness she's always known and rejects him utterly, but then Logan should have resisted giving her the "master race" speech and let her and Dorian just go for plain old world domination by themselves.
Of all the Frankenstein related characters, Caliban turns out to have made the most progress this season, despite the occasional misstep like his attempt at possessive behavior re: Lily two eps ago. As expected, he kills Mr. and Mrs. Putney when getting out of the cage (clearing up what I've been wondering, i.e. whether a Creature is strong enough to get out of there; turns out yes, effortlessly), after they've made it clear they're planning that early 20th century entertainment hit, a grand scale freakshow with many more victims. But he doesn't kill Lavinia, despite her taunts, doesn't speak or talk to her at all, just leaves her behind. He also doesn't use the Putney experience to go on a vengeful rampage on other humans. This is a far cry from the Creature who killed Proteus and Van Helsing for no reason other than his monumental anger at Victor. His friendship with Vanessa, one of the season's most unexpected and endearing twists, continues to bring out the best in him, as he's there for her afterwards. (And thus comes to realise that what he's longed for, the company and acceptance of a friend, is already his, though alas, now it's Vanessa who's caught the "must be alone as to not doom others" bug.) And then he catches up with his Mary Shelley fate of going to Antarctica, in the ice.
Early as it was, Vanessa's showdown scene, in which she literally came to face herself in more ways than one, was magnificent. (Also, flippant thought: when Vanessa Ives dumps a suitor, she does it with style. Lucifer can now join Dorian, whether or not they're related, in sulking about it.) As mentioned in the last review, I had expected an early defeat, then rallying, then victory, but no. Vanessa's already gone through all the fears and hopes and scares and emerged on the other side, and I loved, loved, loved, that she doesn't even bother with attacking Evelyn but goes straight for the Lord of Darkness himself. "What makes you think I still want that? Know your Master" indeed. 'Twas awesome to behold.
(More dissapointing was that Malcolm and Victor remained trapped in their respective hallucinations until then, because Malcolm snapping out of it for Victor would have been such a great counterpart to his dooming Peter.)
Having dealt with the devil, Vanessa is also not afraid to have sex and getting possessed anymore, but alas, in monumental bad timing, Ethan just that very night has decided to face his own responsibility and surrender to the law as embodied by Rusk. You know, I'm on board with Ethan/Vanessa as a pairing, they have a great rapport, they share important things, they have chemistry, but I don't think their storyline this season has been particularly well drawn or satisfying. Which is unfortunate, because it's to this season what the Vanessa and Malcolm relationship was to the last season, the red emotional thread supposedly coming to a climax in the finale.
And thus Vanessa ends the season having conquered her foes internal and external but at the same time in utter loneliness - she's at last given up on God by burning her cruxific, Malcolm is off to Africa as she hasn't corrected his assumption that Ethan will keep her company (shades of the last Doctor Who finale and the Clara-Doctor-Danny situation!), Ethan's gone, and after getting some of the comfort she sought, she's turned down Caliban's offer of further company because of some conviction of dooming-those-around-me-ness. (This last one really didn't do it for me, though yes, Vanessa isn't aware of "John Clare's" true past and thus sees him as an innocent. She should have gone with him on the Antarctic expedition!)
Downer endings all around, except for Lyle, who to my relief makes it out alive and in good health (and rid of his blackmailer) and Hecate, who ends the season with her mother's song on her lips, departing for other shores, after having set fire to Evelyn's gothic castle and Evelyn's corpse. (I knew there would be fire involved, but I think John Logan couldn't make up his mind as how to kill Evelyn in the first place: on the one hand, Vanessa defeating Lucifer meant all the centuries were rapidly catching up with Evelyn and she started to decompose, on the other, Ethan shows up to tear out her throat. The later perhaps so Ethan would get to do something to an important villain in the showdown?) It would be a very depressing place to end the show, so I'm glad there will be a third season, despite various let downs (SEMBENE) in this season - both because I care about the characters, and because there was still enough good stuff in season 2 in the overall show to make me want more.
Though how the team's supposed to get together again... Vanessa and Victor are easiest, being in the same city (I'm assuming here Victor didn't overdose, and that either Lyle or Vanessa will show up to drag him back into activity again). Since Rusk is travelling with Ethan to the US, my current speculation is that he'll find out about the whole werewolf deal en route or there, and probably some unsavory things about Talbot Senior. I doubt Talbot Senior will let an execution happen, but wouldn't be surprised if he has other sinister plans, and Ethan and Rusk end up teaming up and returning to Britain. Malcolm hasn't got African plans beyond burying Sembene in his home country, so probably will be back in London in a few months. Caliban could be left where Mary Shelley left him, travelling in the ice, minus his creator; in a way, he's completed his arc. But if Lily and Dorian are truly s3's Big Bads (which means Dorian at last will have a purpose on the show beyond dating and sex), I doubt that and think Logan will bring him back, though probably not before mid season. Of Hecate, we probably have seen the last - she's not suicidal enough to mess with Vanessa after having watched Vanessa take on Satan and win -, and that's a relief, because I do want the witches storyline to be over.
Trivia: this finale had some great visuals to do with white, from the obvious - Vanessa, Ethan and the kids in an Victorian idyll when Satan tempts her with a dream version of herself - to the ironic - Dorian and LilyBronaCreature in white Ruritanian uniform and dress dancing, then with the red blood trailing from them.
In conclusion: s2 was too meandering and inconsistently written to rival season 1, but a sophomore slump doesn't mean one can't recover in s3: see also, Elementary. In the meantime, I hope someone will write a Vanessa and Caliban travel through Antarctica AU, but I doubt it, because Caliban isn't popular.
no subject
Date: 2015-07-06 09:29 am (UTC)I haven't watched yet, and don't know when I shall, but it has been a pleasure to talk this season with you!
no subject
Date: 2015-07-06 02:27 pm (UTC)Given that Caliban is what, two years old at most, I'd say he's definitely redeemable, despite his bloody deeds in the past. (Btw, there's the neat symmetry of Vanessa's comfort scenes with Victor last ep and with Caliban this ep, and the fact that she calls Victor a "beautiful monster" and Caliban "the most human man I've ever met".)
ETA: And it's been a pleasure chatting about the show with you as well. Now a loooooong hiatus is upon us....
no subject
Date: 2015-07-07 12:55 pm (UTC)Speaking of Lily, she actually does mention that Victor might still be useful to her and Dorian, so the seed for "Daddy, make us undead minions!" is certainly planted.
Our viewing group is convinced that Malcolm taking Sembene to Africa can only mean that Sembene comes back in some form. I hope John Logan realizes what he has done here, that's not a fitting ending for the character.
I'm very glad that Lyle survived, and I noticed that we have three horrible daughters, who got to live as well, not least probably because their parents are responsible for their horribleness in various degrees (like with Caliban, I think Victor bears some responsibility for what Lily does, not least given the way he treated her, but running around and murdering people for fun is still on her.).
no subject
Date: 2015-07-08 03:04 pm (UTC)Re: Sembene, the thing is, Zombie!Sembene would be just about the worst way to bring him back. Mummy!Sembene would have the advantage of letting him keep his mind, but I'm not sure how Malcolm should swing that, though perhaps he knows some embalmers in Egypt... but I'm not optimistic, now that Logan missed out the chance of werewolf!Sembene. :(
no subject
Date: 2016-09-20 09:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-09-20 07:14 pm (UTC)