Penny Dreadful 3.01
May. 2nd, 2016 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakMy favourite late Victorian multi crossover is back!
After a somewhat mixed second season, this was a good season opener, catching up with most of the regular cast (minus Lily and Dorian), introducing the seasonal newbies, and setting up some plots. So, let's see:
Vanessa: at the start of the episode, sunk into deep depression, not just over Ethan but, which is a big relief to me, over losing her faith. I have no doubt Ethan means a lot to Vanessa, but if she'd sunk into this state simply because he wrote her a "dear Vanessa" letter (coinciding with Malcolm heading off to Africa), I'd have felt disgruntled over the trope evoked; Vanessa not being the Lady of Shallot. (Speaking of Tennyson, whose death forms the framing of this episode.) Otoh Vanessa's faith has been such a core element of her throughout the entire show that the loss of it at the end of last season does deserve a strong reaction, and Vanessa never does anything by halves.
It also gives us Ferdinand Lyle being the best: so glad he survived this season! Lyle rescuing Vanessa from herself by giving her his stylish gay Victorian version of a pep up talk and referring her to a (female) Dr. Seward who just happens to be a doppelganger of the late Joan Clayton could have been condescending if it had been anyone but Lyle. Who instead makes it heartfelt, especially by confiding how Dr. Seward helped him with his own self loathing and depression.
Now, Dr. Seward: I'm completely on board with the show wanting to bring back Patti LuPone and her chemistry with Eva Green without destroying the tragedy of the Joan storyline. Of course, this being Penny Dreadful, I have to wonder whether she's simply, as hinted here, a descendant of Joan (or Joan's family), hence the looks, or whether the show will play the reincarnation card, which it hasn't done yet, and it's a horror movie trope, too. Either way, Fem!Dr. Seward already comes across as far more competent than her male Dracula counterpart . True, what she tells Vanessa is more what a modern therapist would say than what an early practicioner of psychonalysis would, but hey, who cares if the result is great to watch? Not me. Also I loved her and Vanessa doing the Sherlock scan on each other.
Dr. Seward also has an assistant wearing glasses, and not until the tag scene did I realise who this naturally had to be. But I did realise as soon as the vampires moved in on him. Welcome to the show, Renfield! And of course this leads to the long awaited line concluding the episode. Wisely, the show doesn't give us the man himself yet, but the murmured "I am Dracula" was gloriously chilly and over the top at the same time.
Mind you, not showing us good old Vlad yet might serve another purpose than building up suspense. He could also have a civilian identity, after all. There are still viewers holding out for Dorian as the other brother, and in this episode Vanessa attracts a new (OR IS HE) admirer, Dr. Sweet, who is played byBrian the Ice Truck Killer Dexter's late brother and hence already suspicious. And I love the continuity of bringing back Vanessa's childhood and adolescent experience in taxidermy to connect them.
Her spirits sufficiently lifted for a new beginning, Vanessa cleans up (part of) the house and herself and writes to Malcolm, as we've heard Malcolm writing to her earlier in the episode, which is a comforting nod to my favourite Penny Dreadful relationship still in existence and important to both of them. Naturally, this new start is when Dracula makes his entrance, though thankfully she doesn't know it yet. Irreverent footnote the Vanessa subplot: I still can't believe John Logan wants us to believe Sembene run that big Victorian house all by himself and now Vanessa is the only person in it. Even Miss Havisham (obvious Dickens and specifically David Lean movie version in this episode is obvious) employed servants, Mr. Logan!
Meanwhile, in the Wild West: Ethan's still on his way home as a prisoner when, proving we've now added the Western to our crossover genres, his train gets attacked by a group of bandits hired by his father because of course it does. (At first I assumed the bandits worked for Hecate, who knows all about killing people in trains, but no, they buy into her harmless woman act and later confirm Ethan's statement his father must have sent them.) Thankfully, this particular train massacre leaves Inspector Rusk (and faithful assistant) alive; otherwise I would be severely disgruntled, because I LIKE RUSK. Opponents of the show's (anti)heroes who are not evil or stupid but act out of ethical considerations and with intelligence are always to be treasured. Anyway, judging by Ethan's lack of enthusiasm for the murderous rescue, he still remembers he wanted to atone for all his wolf kills by surrendering himself to Rusk to begin with. Or maybe he's just not keen on seeing Dad.
Not that he has only one in the offering. Or one rescuer. In Malcolm's subplot in Sansibar (btw: if he came there after burying Sembene, does this mean Sembene was from Tanzania originally?), he encounters another of the season's new characters, who the internet tells me is spelled Kaetaney and who is played by Wes Studi (which is a relief because he's a Native American, and Victorian setting or no, we're many decades past POC played by white actors on tv). Who between bailing Malcolm out of a mugging and scalping one of the would be muggers tells him Malcolm can't die yet because it's his job to fight monsters some more, and also to rescue Ethan. Whom he calls his almost son, while saying Ethan is also almost Malcolm's son as well. Good lord. Even for an American, this is a bit much with the Daddy issues? And yet, I'm cautiously entertained: Timothy Dalton and Wes Studi play off each other well as grizzled old veterans, it's about time we got an actual Native American character after Ethan's hinted at/mentioned past of killing them was brought up several times. I stand by the old speculation that he got turned into a werewolf by one of them in retaliation, and this is what Kaetaney means when he says Ethan is almost his son. Meanwhile, Malcolm getting a road trip (and ocean trip) with an US Werewolf (Native American edition) to finally rescue a sort of son and restore him to Vanessa is the kind of plot I can get behind if he can't be with Vanessa and/or resurrect Sembene.
Speaking of travelling: the Creature (I'll stop using the name Caliban, and am not using John Clare, either, because I'm pretty sure he'll rename himself this season as well), having reached his Shelleyan fate in Antarctica, finally experiences what Proteus and Lily already had, i.e. a memory of his pre-Victor life. And, it appears, identity: though I bet if/when the Creature finds the woman and child from his brief flashback showcasing Rory Kinnear without makeup singing to a child, it will be a case of "can't go home again". (At a guess, the kid at least will be dead; he already looks sick in the flashback, and my guess is Human Rory Kinnear committed suicide upon his son's death, and that's where Victor the resurrectionist helper got the body from.) And while we're at dead children, John Logan evidently likes the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, because he gives the Creature a Caprica Six moment. Otoh it could also be an allusion to both the novel Frankenstein and the James Whale movie, both of whom have the Creature killing a child, but I'm going with Caprica Six, since he doesn't do it in malice and after having a sentimental moment about the child before that.
Of course, the Creature killing a doomed to freeze child is downright mentally healthy compared to what his creator is currently up to. Victor Frankenstein: finding ever new ways to fail. His solution to Lily's revelation that she's set on a course of world domination and evil Overladydom now isn't, say, asking Vanessa for help (whose state he doesn't know about). No, he drafts an old study buddy from university, Dr. Henry Jekyll. (And who else was in their class, I wonder? Dr. Moreau?) Penny Dreadful's version of Dr. Jekyll turns out to be a half-Indian (Indian Indian, not Native American Indian) young man with a chip on his shoulder who has instant homoerotic tension with Victor, which is good, because it's been a while since someone had. Unfortunately, he also shares Victor's moral compass. (Of course he does; he's supposed to be Jekyll. ) So when Victor explains he needs his help to destroy Lily (leaving morals aside, drafting a fellow mad scientist for this actually makes sense because Victor created these beings as immortals), Jekyll's counter suggestion is to drug her into being Victor's docile fantasy woman again. Colour me appalled but not surprised when Victor said yes. Incidentally, this as a test case of Jekyll's famous drug/potion is a neat twist, since it's meant to produce not a monster but an Victorian Angel In The House, but the very act (changing a woman's identity into what a man wants her to be) is as monstrous as deliberately creating an evil alter ego of yourself. Not that I expect it to work in the way these two intend; not on Lily, anyway, but Jekyll will probably end up drugged by mistake and hence release Hyde. I don't think either Universal or Hammer did "Frankenstein meets Mr. Hyde"? My money, as far as cage matches go, is on Lily. (Or the Creature formerly known as Caliban and John Clare, if/when he comes back. )
In conclusion: Victor, at this point the only help I can see for you is Vanessa turning you over to Dr. Seward who then makes you write "I shall not make living OR dead beings into my fantasies" a hundred times each evening before providing some direly needed therapy. But feel free to fill the show's m/m quota by having sex with Jekyll in the meantime. You two deserve each other.
After a somewhat mixed second season, this was a good season opener, catching up with most of the regular cast (minus Lily and Dorian), introducing the seasonal newbies, and setting up some plots. So, let's see:
Vanessa: at the start of the episode, sunk into deep depression, not just over Ethan but, which is a big relief to me, over losing her faith. I have no doubt Ethan means a lot to Vanessa, but if she'd sunk into this state simply because he wrote her a "dear Vanessa" letter (coinciding with Malcolm heading off to Africa), I'd have felt disgruntled over the trope evoked; Vanessa not being the Lady of Shallot. (Speaking of Tennyson, whose death forms the framing of this episode.) Otoh Vanessa's faith has been such a core element of her throughout the entire show that the loss of it at the end of last season does deserve a strong reaction, and Vanessa never does anything by halves.
It also gives us Ferdinand Lyle being the best: so glad he survived this season! Lyle rescuing Vanessa from herself by giving her his stylish gay Victorian version of a pep up talk and referring her to a (female) Dr. Seward who just happens to be a doppelganger of the late Joan Clayton could have been condescending if it had been anyone but Lyle. Who instead makes it heartfelt, especially by confiding how Dr. Seward helped him with his own self loathing and depression.
Now, Dr. Seward: I'm completely on board with the show wanting to bring back Patti LuPone and her chemistry with Eva Green without destroying the tragedy of the Joan storyline. Of course, this being Penny Dreadful, I have to wonder whether she's simply, as hinted here, a descendant of Joan (or Joan's family), hence the looks, or whether the show will play the reincarnation card, which it hasn't done yet, and it's a horror movie trope, too. Either way, Fem!Dr. Seward already comes across as far more competent than her male Dracula counterpart . True, what she tells Vanessa is more what a modern therapist would say than what an early practicioner of psychonalysis would, but hey, who cares if the result is great to watch? Not me. Also I loved her and Vanessa doing the Sherlock scan on each other.
Dr. Seward also has an assistant wearing glasses, and not until the tag scene did I realise who this naturally had to be. But I did realise as soon as the vampires moved in on him. Welcome to the show, Renfield! And of course this leads to the long awaited line concluding the episode. Wisely, the show doesn't give us the man himself yet, but the murmured "I am Dracula" was gloriously chilly and over the top at the same time.
Mind you, not showing us good old Vlad yet might serve another purpose than building up suspense. He could also have a civilian identity, after all. There are still viewers holding out for Dorian as the other brother, and in this episode Vanessa attracts a new (OR IS HE) admirer, Dr. Sweet, who is played by
Her spirits sufficiently lifted for a new beginning, Vanessa cleans up (part of) the house and herself and writes to Malcolm, as we've heard Malcolm writing to her earlier in the episode, which is a comforting nod to my favourite Penny Dreadful relationship still in existence and important to both of them. Naturally, this new start is when Dracula makes his entrance, though thankfully she doesn't know it yet. Irreverent footnote the Vanessa subplot: I still can't believe John Logan wants us to believe Sembene run that big Victorian house all by himself and now Vanessa is the only person in it. Even Miss Havisham (obvious Dickens and specifically David Lean movie version in this episode is obvious) employed servants, Mr. Logan!
Meanwhile, in the Wild West: Ethan's still on his way home as a prisoner when, proving we've now added the Western to our crossover genres, his train gets attacked by a group of bandits hired by his father because of course it does. (At first I assumed the bandits worked for Hecate, who knows all about killing people in trains, but no, they buy into her harmless woman act and later confirm Ethan's statement his father must have sent them.) Thankfully, this particular train massacre leaves Inspector Rusk (and faithful assistant) alive; otherwise I would be severely disgruntled, because I LIKE RUSK. Opponents of the show's (anti)heroes who are not evil or stupid but act out of ethical considerations and with intelligence are always to be treasured. Anyway, judging by Ethan's lack of enthusiasm for the murderous rescue, he still remembers he wanted to atone for all his wolf kills by surrendering himself to Rusk to begin with. Or maybe he's just not keen on seeing Dad.
Not that he has only one in the offering. Or one rescuer. In Malcolm's subplot in Sansibar (btw: if he came there after burying Sembene, does this mean Sembene was from Tanzania originally?), he encounters another of the season's new characters, who the internet tells me is spelled Kaetaney and who is played by Wes Studi (which is a relief because he's a Native American, and Victorian setting or no, we're many decades past POC played by white actors on tv). Who between bailing Malcolm out of a mugging and scalping one of the would be muggers tells him Malcolm can't die yet because it's his job to fight monsters some more, and also to rescue Ethan. Whom he calls his almost son, while saying Ethan is also almost Malcolm's son as well. Good lord. Even for an American, this is a bit much with the Daddy issues? And yet, I'm cautiously entertained: Timothy Dalton and Wes Studi play off each other well as grizzled old veterans, it's about time we got an actual Native American character after Ethan's hinted at/mentioned past of killing them was brought up several times. I stand by the old speculation that he got turned into a werewolf by one of them in retaliation, and this is what Kaetaney means when he says Ethan is almost his son. Meanwhile, Malcolm getting a road trip (and ocean trip) with an US Werewolf (Native American edition) to finally rescue a sort of son and restore him to Vanessa is the kind of plot I can get behind if he can't be with Vanessa and/or resurrect Sembene.
Speaking of travelling: the Creature (I'll stop using the name Caliban, and am not using John Clare, either, because I'm pretty sure he'll rename himself this season as well), having reached his Shelleyan fate in Antarctica, finally experiences what Proteus and Lily already had, i.e. a memory of his pre-Victor life. And, it appears, identity: though I bet if/when the Creature finds the woman and child from his brief flashback showcasing Rory Kinnear without makeup singing to a child, it will be a case of "can't go home again". (At a guess, the kid at least will be dead; he already looks sick in the flashback, and my guess is Human Rory Kinnear committed suicide upon his son's death, and that's where Victor the resurrectionist helper got the body from.) And while we're at dead children, John Logan evidently likes the rebooted Battlestar Galactica, because he gives the Creature a Caprica Six moment. Otoh it could also be an allusion to both the novel Frankenstein and the James Whale movie, both of whom have the Creature killing a child, but I'm going with Caprica Six, since he doesn't do it in malice and after having a sentimental moment about the child before that.
Of course, the Creature killing a doomed to freeze child is downright mentally healthy compared to what his creator is currently up to. Victor Frankenstein: finding ever new ways to fail. His solution to Lily's revelation that she's set on a course of world domination and evil Overladydom now isn't, say, asking Vanessa for help (whose state he doesn't know about). No, he drafts an old study buddy from university, Dr. Henry Jekyll. (And who else was in their class, I wonder? Dr. Moreau?) Penny Dreadful's version of Dr. Jekyll turns out to be a half-Indian (Indian Indian, not Native American Indian) young man with a chip on his shoulder who has instant homoerotic tension with Victor, which is good, because it's been a while since someone had. Unfortunately, he also shares Victor's moral compass. (Of course he does; he's supposed to be Jekyll. ) So when Victor explains he needs his help to destroy Lily (leaving morals aside, drafting a fellow mad scientist for this actually makes sense because Victor created these beings as immortals), Jekyll's counter suggestion is to drug her into being Victor's docile fantasy woman again. Colour me appalled but not surprised when Victor said yes. Incidentally, this as a test case of Jekyll's famous drug/potion is a neat twist, since it's meant to produce not a monster but an Victorian Angel In The House, but the very act (changing a woman's identity into what a man wants her to be) is as monstrous as deliberately creating an evil alter ego of yourself. Not that I expect it to work in the way these two intend; not on Lily, anyway, but Jekyll will probably end up drugged by mistake and hence release Hyde. I don't think either Universal or Hammer did "Frankenstein meets Mr. Hyde"? My money, as far as cage matches go, is on Lily. (Or the Creature formerly known as Caliban and John Clare, if/when he comes back. )
In conclusion: Victor, at this point the only help I can see for you is Vanessa turning you over to Dr. Seward who then makes you write "I shall not make living OR dead beings into my fantasies" a hundred times each evening before providing some direly needed therapy. But feel free to fill the show's m/m quota by having sex with Jekyll in the meantime. You two deserve each other.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2016-05-02 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-02 10:11 pm (UTC)I still can't believe John Logan wants us to believe Sembene run that big Victorian house all by himself and now Vanessa is the only person in it.
Oh my god, I know. I just don't believe that - day labour existed! Between Malcolm's piles of money and Van's inheritance, they SO have the money to acquire discreet servants.
In Malcolm's subplot in Sansibar (btw: if he came there after burying Sembene, does this mean Sembene was from Tanzania originally?)
As me and a few others on TVTropes have already complained, this makes ZERO SENSE. Sembene's scars are Wolof/Senegalese in origin, according to Danny Sapani and the official Art of Penny Dreadful book. Senegal is in West Africa. Zanzibar/Tanzania is an island off the coast of East Africa. (It also can't be "German-controlled" at this point in history, either.) So either Logan/the producers cannot do geography, or Malcolm went to Senegal and buried Sembene and then wandered across the continent to Zanzibar, or Sembene was born in Senegal, but considered himself East African and lived somewhere in Kenya/Uganda.
Timothy Dalton and Wes Studi play off each other well as grizzled old veterans...I stand by the old speculation that he got turned into a werewolf by one of them in retaliation, and this is what Kaetaney means when he says Ethan is almost his son.
Team Occult Murderdads, yo. I loved their scenes - totally agree with you and John Logan that Dalton and Studi together is just acting gold. I also loved that Kaetenay took precisely none of Malcolm's "no new worlds to conquer" bullshit. I love the idea of Ethan getting turned in retaliation, and considering that in history, Kaetenay was a powerful warrior and second-in-command of Geronimo, it seems that Kaetenay could have had the pull to do it.
(And who else was in their class, I wonder? Dr. Moreau?)
According to Logan, we can't have Doctor Moreau because he can't get the rights. Doctor Sweet is his way of getting around copyright.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-03 03:32 am (UTC)Nitpicky because having been to Tanzania several times, the Serengeti, to be precise: No, it isn't. I mean, Zanzibar is, but Tanzania isn't, Tanzanzia is the country Zanzibar today (as since the 1960s, but not before) belongs to on the continent.
re: German-controlled, very true that it wasn't. Since the episode gave us a precise date with Tennyson's death, we know it's set AFTER the Heligoland-Zanzibar-Treaty, which means all the things Malcolm is complaining about are due to the British Protectorate.
I love the idea of Ethan getting turned in retaliation, and considering that in history, Kaetenay was a powerful warrior and second-in-command of Geronimo, it seems that Kaetenay could have had the pull to do it.
Oh, Kaetenay was a historical person? (Or at least is named after one?) That's intriguing. Can't wait for more of their scenes together.
re: Vanessa's inheritance, I'm so glad the episode finally gave us something definite on Van's financial situation. I.e. that she has her own money (and plenty of it), and is thus financially not dependent on Malcolm but staying at his place because she wants to.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-03 09:25 pm (UTC)Kaetenay was a historical person? (Or at least is named after one?)
Potentially! If you Wikipedia "Chiricahua" (the subset of Apache Kaetenay says he is), and look under "Notable people", you'll find Ka-ya-ten-nae (also spelled a few different ways, including "Kaetenay"), husband of the warrior Gouyen, both of whom fought alongside Geronimo. The historical Ka-ya-ten-nae was taken prisoner by the US Army in 1886, so presumably our Kaetenay escaped some tragic end there.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-03 01:31 am (UTC)I have to say that I was down with this because TV therapy generally bears no resemblance whatsoever to real therapy, so I was quite interested to see something that actually does resemble a particular type of real therapy. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is or isn't, because that is a time period of therapy-history I'm a little shaky on. 1892 is when Freud was just beginning to create his work, so I don't think anyone else would necessarily be aware of it, though of course she could easily simply happen to know him the same way everyone knows everyone on that show. However, she's not doing psychoanalysis, or at least that was not psychoanalysis in that episode. It was more like behaviorism with a dash of Sherlock Holmes.
Also, so thrilled when Lyle knocked. When you are having that much of a nervous breakdown, you NEED a fabulous gay Jew in your life. I adore Lyle and loved how sweet and genuinely helpful he was with her, and his very insightful parallel between their situations - they are different and need to accept and embrace that, not hate themselves for it, despite what society says.
I am hoping the characters won't stay separated, because I love how everyone plays off each others. (Except Caliban, he can go bugger off on his lonesome forever. I'm so bored of him and his emo. Everyone else's emo, I enjoy. Not his.)
I liked that they are maybe attempting to make up for their terrible misuse of Sembene by introducing more characters of color who hopefully with have their own stories. I liked the actors and their interplay with their counterparts/buds. Dr. Jekyll as half-Indian is a really interesting idea with powerful thematic resonances that hopefully will be handled well. I liked the actor and his chemistry with Victor, whom he needs to stick in a shower, detox, and then have some rehab sex with. They were getting awfully handsy. Also loved Malcolm and Kaetaney, those elderly badass Daddy figures.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-03 03:42 am (UTC)I liked that they are maybe attempting to make up for their terrible misuse of Sembene by introducing more characters of color who hopefully with have their own stories.
Yes, that had occured to me, and I hope so for both Kaetaney and Jekyll. Given Jekyll is his own Victorian novel (and hence story), and I was just told Kaetaney is based on a historical warrior, I'm cautiously optimistic. And really hope they won't both be dead by the end of the season (though Jekyll might end up fully Hyde all the time, because that's how the story goes).
no subject
Date: 2016-05-03 09:09 pm (UTC)I admit I didn't get the Renfield thing until he said the name, but it seems to fit wonderfully!
I love Vanessa dearly, but it just cracked me up that after Seward basically told her that she falls for dark, mysterious and dangerous men because they make her unhappy, she walks straight into a place featuring a dark, mysterious and fairly likely dangerous man who sounds a bit like he has taxidermic versions of all his former crushes in his cellar, and promptly looks extremely interested. Someone wasn't listening careful enough.
I was thrilled to see Lyle again, but sighed mightily over Hecate also being back. I wish she'd get her own spinoff, seriously.
Kaetenay and Malcolm teaming up to save their kind-of-son from his evil biological Dad might shape up to be one of my favourite storylines this season. Although if they kill Kaetenay, I will throw things.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 03:45 am (UTC)You don't want to become the Victorian Norman Bates, Victor. You really don't.
We wondered if their headmaster was probably called Moriarty.
LOL. I can see that, though Moriarty taught maths, didn't he? Not that it's mutually exclusive with being a headmaster, it's just that a budding career as the Napoleon of Crime usually is time consuming, and one imagines easier to accomplish when not burdened with administrative work for an entire school as well.
Anyway, yes to the boarding school shared, but Jekyll also says that Victor
dumped himhasn't seen him in five years, which means shared university as well. It has occured to me that while this Victor presumably isn't Swiss like the original, he theoretically could be, and was sent to England for education (maybe after his mother died?) - which is of course what a lot of the Indian upper class did with their offspring during the late Raj (Gandhi and Nehru both are cases in point, public school then followed by university). Young Jekyll and young Frankenstein could have bonded over being regarded as foreigners as well as over science.Vanessa and her taste in men: well, yes, but Rome wasn't built in a day, etc. :)
Better adjust yourself to Hecate, I bet she'll be with us for the season.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 09:39 am (UTC)Hmm. Maybe just their maths teacher then. :) I could still totally see him encouraging amoral thinking wherever he finds it, and he should be able to bond with difficult and overly intelligent young boys.
Victor maybe being Swiss: makes sense. And the timing for him attending boarding school right after his mother's death works, too, since his father probably just gave up all pretense and send him away (another reason for little Victor to feel angry and abandoned, and maybe bond with another kid who might feel similar).
I'm really interested in Jekyll's background. His parents should have been well off, that much is clear, and your speculation about him being an upper-class son send to England for education makes a lot of sense. *Fingers crossed* for some flashbacks here.
Hecate: *sigh* Well, I guess there is room for improvement? She can't stay a mean girl teenage witch forever, one presumes.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 01:13 pm (UTC)His parents should have been well off, that much is clear, and your speculation about him being an upper-class son send to England for education makes a lot of sense. *Fingers crossed* for some flashbacks here.
Flashbacks would be nifty. There's another reason why I suspect something like this, and it's that after we've done Dickensian London and the poor last season, and this season go abroad in several plot lines, exploring the ramification of Empire would fit thematically. And the Raj is still what most people think of when hearing "British Empire in the Victorian age". Exploring it not through a British character who goes to India or is born there (as Rudyard Kipling was), but an Indian character who goes/had to go to Britain as a child and is partly motivated by what he found there and how he's treated would be great. Plus: they evidently deliberately cast an actor with this specific ethnic background, and I hope it's not just to make up for how they treated Sembene. So the omens are that Jekyll's background will be relevant to the story.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 07:34 pm (UTC)It's Penny Dreadful, so she definitely can, but we still have hopes. ;)
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 02:59 am (UTC)My prediction re: Dr Jekyll. He is already dosing himself with a "docility potion". That is what he meant by controlling his anger. Mr Hyde is/will be the rebound effect he experiences when he *misses* a dose.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-04 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-05 12:55 am (UTC)I wonder if Dr.Seward survives the season - are we allowed to have live non-evil female characters beside Vanessa Ives?
If Dr. Jekyll is the real name, that means, I guess, his mother is an Indian, while his father is not, or maybe he is adopted? anyway, I guess a tragic backstory is there.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-05 05:10 am (UTC)Anyway, I bet we'll get more background on Jekyll.
no subject
Date: 2016-05-07 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-10 06:52 pm (UTC)