Penny Dreadful 1.05

[selenak]

In which we get Vanessa Ives' backstory.



Alas, she's not a walking Mummy, but I'm still holding out for her to be an avatar/reincarnation of an Egyptian goddess. The horror trope she does cover/embody, though, is that rare thing - popular in Victorian sensation novels and dread in real life. I'm not sure Wilkie Collins created the "sane woman gets locked up in an asylum" trope, but he definitely popularized it with "The Woman in White", and it's been a reliable hit ever since. (Last year I read the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters which is Neo Victorian, and sure enough...) I may be flippant, but let me tell you, it's a trope I find deeply frightening, far more so than vampires, because not only did it actually happen then but it's one of those things still possible. (For men, too. Google "Gustav Mollath" for a recent example in my part of the world.) What makes it doubly creepy and effective in this particular case is that the episode avoids making Vanessa's parents malvolent, or the doctor treating her, or the nurses. None of them wishes to harm her or smirks about her helplessness, and the asylum in question doesn't double as a dungeon in dark colours or is dirty but is in modern, bright colours and downright sterile. So you have a couple of people putting Vanessa through horrible abuse in the sincere conviction that they're helping her, and that's the worst kind of horror.

Leaving Victoriana behind, we're also covering 1970s horror (the era that produced both The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby), and that's the part I'm somewhat uncertain about because when a horror series tries to invoke the devil himself as a regular opponent, it's almost certainly doomed to fail. See also: Being Human, the fifth season of which tried to pull it off and failed because the guy in question actually didn't do much differently from previous villains, only in some cases less efficiently, and that's just not on if you have built him up as the ultimate dread. Therefore, I think it's best to leave the actual devil out of it and stick with lesser demons and Egyptian gods. Or evil vampires, for that matter, overused as they are. Anyway, that's why I'm hoping Vanessa's childhood Catholicism is misleading her in identifying the entity in question and it's not good old Lucifer but the Egyptian God two eps previously introduced.

This is the first episode which is almost exclusively set in the past, the opening shot of Vanessa writing her confessional autobiographical letter to Mina (a very Victorian novel device, that) and the ending shot of Vanessa putting the letter to the others aside. I'm glad they chose this format instead of coming up with a distracting present day subplot requiring Vanessa to space out and have flashbacks in between, which would only have taken screentime away. This show has gorgeous visuals - the child Vanessa in the labyrinth - which associated Alice in Wonderland for me, though maybe it's just the Victorian child in her white dress visual - , Mina and Vanessa on the beach at the end. And visual language, too: Vanessa's "putting mirrors behind the eyes" speech. And it's about symmetry: not just the Mina and Vanessa imagery but the way in which we get two sets of parents, but Mina's mother and Vanessa's father hardly have any lines.

Is he Vanessa's biological father, though? As soon as the affair between Malcolm and Claire (Vanessa's mother) was revealed, it occured to me that Malcolm may have been talking literally, not metaphorically, when he said "you are the daughter I deserve". I also wonder whether Peter figured that out, hence him not wanting to kiss or romance Vanessa despite liking her. Of course, Peter could have simply been a) gay or b) asexual or c) just not into Vanessa romantically. But it's not a Victorian sensational story unless we get some Unexpected Illegitimate Relations, and when all was still well between the families, Malcolm did treat both girls with equal affection (hugging them both simultanously, talking to both etc.). At any rate, Vanessa's mother is the one having conversations with her daughter, doing the arrangements with the asylum, later nursing Vanessa etc. I also wonder whether Mr. Ives is still alive because I'm curious whether or not Vanessa has independent means. Her parents come across as wealthy, which as their only child she would have inherited, but if her father is still alive, and considering she doesn't have a non-supernatural job, then she's probably financially dependent on either him or Malcolm or both right now.

Whether or not Malcolm is Vanessa's biological father, though, their relationship just got revealed as even more twisted, between her secretly observing him and her mother having sex serving as her awakening into adulthood and the Please-Don't-Let-This-Be-The-Actual-Devil taking Malcolm's form to have sex with Vanessa, which she immediately realises but goes along with anyway. Conversely, real Malcolm projecting his own guilt on Vanessa at the start of their last conversation but taking her in as his fellow fighter when she gives him the "you weak, vainglorious man" speech which Timothy Dalton in the interview I linked some weeks ago said was his favourite quote from the show. Methinks two people are looking for punishment in each other as well as someone to help Mina. And then there's the great ending, revealing that Vanessa doesn't believe Mina is retrievable but that her way of saving Mina will be to kill her.

Speaking of Mina: considering adult Mina on the beach mentions being married to Jonathan Harker the lawyer now before revealing she's just a projection and in the power of "the Master" , I assume in this universe the events of Dracula more or less happened in totem except for the ending, or conversely Dracula resurrected afterwards, as he's wont to do in other media, and reasserted his power over Mina. And/or she joined him for reasons of her own. Also: Vanessa seducing Mina's first fiance out of a mixture of wanting keep Mina for herself and wanting to be the first one to have sex (which triggers a series of all too real life horrors for herself), makes me wonder, this show being this show, whether vampirized Mina will skip the proxy man and will just go for having revenge sex with Vanessa.

Lastly: having Sembene talk to Malcolm in his own language is all very well, show, but a) let it last longer than two sentences and b) subtitle it if they exchange more than "Miss Ives is at the door and wants to talk to you" information. Mind you, I expect that we WILL get the long overdue Sembene characterisation and dialogue soon, because this episode deliberately left it a mystery what exactly happened to Peter in Africa. So I expect we'll get another flashback episode soon, detailing not just how Peter died but why Sembene is with Malcolm right now. I also haven't forgotten that Vanessa told Victor and Ethan Malcolm won't go back to Africa last episode, and seemed pretty certain about that, for which there has to be a reason.

Comments

[d_generate_girl]

I loved everything about this episode, even though it was SO hard to watch at times. I think the scene where the Devil/something demonic appears to Vanessa as Malcolm, quoting Keats, was probably my favorite scene in the entire show. I am VERY curious to see what comes of Vanessa's promise to kill Mina, if need be.

[selenak]

Your icon makes me nostalgic for Justin and Iris - in the first season, of course. I loved them a lot.

The Vanessa and Entity scene was awesome, true, plus Eva Green and Timothy Dalton have fantastic chemistry. (*works on theory whether only Bond actors are worthy of Eva Green, thinks of Brosnan, discards theory*)

re: Vanessa's promise, on another show I would write it off as something that will not come true, but in this one I think it might. Though of course we have no way of knowing whether Vanessa herself will remain in possession of her own free will. Then again, there was a heavy emphasis on choice in the scene with Not!Malcolm, and Vanessa has already spent time robbed of her freedom in her backstory, so on the whole, I'm optimistic on that account, i.e. that Vanessa will retain free will and ability of movement in the present and thus that her choices will be hers.

BTW, Vanessa not believing that there will be a cure for Mina explains her relative lack of interest in Not!Renfield and Victor's first attempt at de-vampirization. If she believed this to be the only way to save her friend, she'd presumably be more interest in staying around to see whether it works than to explore London, but she thinks this attempt is doomed anyway...

[d_generate_girl]

I was having *such* Carnivale flashbacks this week, with the insane asylum and demon!Malcolm having the Black Eyes of Doom and speechifying like Justin. I liked them in S1, true, but I have a lot of affection for large swathes of S2 (particularly the entire Iris/Dolan firestarter switcheroo).

Oh my god, their chemistry was amazing, and I particularly loved Dalton's lapses into a singsong, slightly Welsh cadence. It makes such perfect sense that Vanessa's demon appears to her in the shape of the man who has defined a great deal of her sexual identity.

Knowing that the seventh episode is named "Possession" is not giving me hope for a Vanessa in keeping of all her free will. But as you've said, there's the whole emphasis on choice and how dearly Vanessa holds it.

YES. That explains her entire reactions in "Resurrection" and "Demimonde". She really doesn't think there's any hope for Mina.

[lonelywalker]

Doesn't the presence of Van Helsing in this series negate the idea that the plot of Dracula has already played out? Unless he's just being coy, in the way that Victor isn't telling everyone about the Creature.

Malcolm certainly has a world of issues regarding his kids: the way he's adopting Victor and/or Ethan as the son/s he wanted Peter to be, the way he characterises Vanessa as his daughter when she may or may not actually be (I think they both know this is at least a possibility, even with the UST).

I don't think Peter had figured anything out, or was capable of seeing his father as anything more than a hero figure. But even apart from being coded as queer, he'd grown up with Vanessa being like a sister to him, which usually makes romantic attachments problematic.

By the way, has it ever actually been said that Malcolm's wife is dead? I assume she has to be.

And I agree absolutely regarding Sembene. There have been lots of nice hints about him being a badass and there being much more to him than "manservant", but there are only three episodes left... But wait, why did you say it's a mystery what happened to Peter? I thought we knew he got cholera and died (although there was something about Malcolm leaving him?).

[selenak]

I think they both know this is at least a possibility, even with the UST.

*nods* I don't think either of them knows for sure, or wants to know. (Unless of course Malcolm didn't start his affair with Claire until after Vanessa's birth, then he at least would know.) But you know, this episode makes me want to rewatch "Seance" because now I wonder whether Malcolm thought Vanessa was playing games with him during the seance or was possessed - she didn't say anything that she wouldn't have known even without the demon - , and yet the aftermath, where he comes home and finds her sleeping and silently pulls a cover over her is perhaps the only tender action we've made him see towards anyone (adult) (and of course he does it when she's sleeping and doesn't know, I don't think he'd be gentle towards her when she's awake).

re: Malcolm's wife: I assume she's dead, too, though she may have simply kicked him out of the country estate post Peter's death and Mina's whatever-she-thinks-happened-to-Mina. But "dead" makes me sense to me.

re: Peter's death - the reason why I think there's still a mystery is that the demon-in-Vanessa taunted Malcolm with it, and I think the guilt Malcolm feels goes beyond a general "I shouldn't have taken fragile Peter with me to Africa where he could get cholera". Mind you, his "the reason why I wouldn't take you to Africa is precisely because you remind me of my son and are important to me" to Victor has an underlying "so I don't want you to do die there as well", so maybe it is just that general guilt. But I'm willing to bet SOMETHING happened beyond that. Also, we don't know yet how Malcolm found out about Mina - via Van Helsing? At any rate he knew something had happened to her before Vanessa told him. Oh, and: Malcolm saying to Vanessa that he always feared his family would be destroyed BY HIM also is fascinating.

But even apart from being coded as queer, he'd grown up with Vanessa being like a sister to him, which usually makes romantic attachments problematic.

True, and it's so rare a story takes that into account. And I loved that the series emphasized he did love her (brotherly), being the only one to visit her and not accuse her of anything during her worst time, that this affection wasn't regarded as unimportant just because it wasn't romantic.

[lonelywalker]

Someone at the AVClub also suggested the idea of Vanessa just putting on a performance at the seance - I think this is pretty unlikely, given the table smashing and so on, plus the Egyptian (?) and I assume some of what she said as "Peter" was something Malcolm had actually heard, or that Peter had written to him. In any case, I don't think Malcolm thought she was messing with him.

I thought that the issue with Peter was both "I took him in the first place, knowing it was dangerous in many ways" and "I left him / didn't save him" - as Malcolm apparently left Peter somewhere and went off adventuring and naming mountains. But yes - where did he collect Sembene, why did Sembene come back with him, and why will Malcolm never go back? You have to wonder if there's anything supernatural about Malcolm himself, now, or if he was well-acquainted with supernatural occurrences long before anything happened to Mina. (I have been pondering the promo pic of Malcolm with blood on his shirt.)

[selenak]

Oh, I don't think Vanessa was playacting, either. But I did wonder whether Malcolm might have thought she was; you make a good point re: the things she said as Peter, though.

Give us the Sembene flashbacks already, show!

re: the blood - could be generic to indicate on the promo pic this is a gory show, i.e. nothing to do with Malcolm, just using Dalton as the best known actor plus blood - but then again, could also be that Malcolm also occupies a horror trope. Allen Quatermain - who'd be the obvious Victorian explorer analogue - isn't one, though I do wonder whether we'll get She Who Must Be Obeyed at some point (probably not this season, though). There's Jekyll and Hyde whom we haven't yet covered on this show, but Malcolm isn't exactly repressing his urges, so he wouldn't be a good match.

[lonelywalker]

I was just looking at the promo pics - which of course, as you say, may mean nothing more than the marketing department wanting things to look cool. All the characters have blood on them in some way - Brona's bloody handkerchief, Victor's bloody hands, and Sembene's bloody knife all seem pretty straightforward. Dorian's been bitten by a snake and Vanessa by a scorpion. Ethan has blood coming out of his glove. And Malcolm has blood coming from the ruby pin on his cravat. Maybe a comment on Malcolm's search for wealth / fame ending in blood? Or, indeed, coming from blood?

I saw somewhere that Jekyll & Hyde will show up at some point, but I think only next season. Going back to the promos, the "there is some thing within us all" would suggest there's something going on with Malcolm too, even though Brona, Victor, and Sembene are all, so far as we know, regular humans. Albeit with peculiar extracurricular interests.

[jesuswasbatman]

I had not managed to keep track of what Vanessa was saying "as" Mina when possessed and had assumed that the show was going with the cliche of modern works deconstructing Victorian patriarchy and implying that Malcolm had abused Mina.

John Logan is American and might not be aware that the scene in the maze, for British people over twenty, would immediately arouse memories of the notorious "child stumbles across mother having adulterous sex and is psychosexually screwed up for life" scene in The Singing Detective. (Which led to Dennis Potter's very elderly but still living mother suing Mary Whitehouse for slander and winning when Whitehouse claimed that the scene must have been autobiographical.)

[selenak]

By now I feel I must be the only Penny Dreadful watcher who didn't think Malcolm had abused Mina before this episode cleared up that he hadn't. Honestly, it never occured to me during watching Seance and I was very surprised when so many other people thought he had. But yes, it's become a cliché of deconstructing the Victorian patriarch and since Malcolm is a Victorian patriarch being deconstructed, etc. Anyway, I'm glad John Logan didn't go that way. Malcolm isn't exactly lacking of guilt and flaws otherwise. (And then some.) But incest and/or pedophilia aren't among them.

Re: The Singing Detective, I never watched it, so I wasn't aware of this, either.

[jesuswasbatman]

I would strongly recommend watching it, as it's a brilliant serial and a major influence on lots of later Anglophone TV.

(Content warnings - the overall tone is somewhat misogynistic in places, although it's very obvious that this is the subjective PoV of the protagonist who has very unhealthy attitudes to women and sexuality. Also there are some gruelling scenes of extended psychological cruelty to children.)

Having now rewatched the seance scene with the subtitles on

[jesuswasbatman]

I think what made people go to "Matthew sexually abused Mina" was the reference in possessed!Vanessa's speech to "her" bleeding when Malcolm had sex with her, which implies loss of virginity. Which would have led most people to go to the incest place, but I think in the light of later revelations was a deliberate but meaningful misdirection. Because the actual implication there I think is that Malcolm was Mrs. Ives's first time, implying that Vanessa's actions were a full-scale recapitulation of the previous generation and that Malcolm and Mrs. Ives were already lovers before her marriage. Which would for me support the theory that Matthew really is Vanessa's genetic father.