Penny Dreadful - And They Were Enemies

"So We Walk Alone."

Penny Dreadful concluded it's second season and I like Miss Ives I am feeling bereft.

I will miss our intrepid demon fighters.  It will be a long lonely wait until season three arrives.  Like many of out characters I feel as though I should be walking the wilderness alone with my haunted thoughts.

Is this the punishment they deserve?

Why the self banishment?

For Vanessa, she feels as though the darkness that follows her is a curse she must bear alone.  Mr. Clare did extend his hand to find that distant shore together but Vanessa turned it aside.  I can only think she did so because a heart filled with that much faith in man, God and poetry should not be tainted by her presence.

As in the book, "Frankenstein," the creature has chosen isolation in the distant reaches of the Arctic.  There, he will find no warmth from humanity, the sun or God's creations.  He will be entirely alone without the temptation to connect with his own creator, the love he thought he had or the fetid masses he clung to for companionship.

 As for Ethan, his penance must be served by extradition.  It's not exactly what he had in mind when he turned himself into Rusk.  I think he felt he deserved to pay for his sins and was willing to confess his part in the Mariner's Inn massacre.  He only wished for a quick trip to the rope.

That wish was denied by the greater horror of returning home.    

Ethan must have felt a quick death would prevent him from turning again.  Now, Rusk better hope there isn't a full moon between London and New York.  In choosing extradition, are we to think Rusk has some insight into the nature of Ethan and that of his family?  He did hint at his belief in magic when he first started investigating the subway crime.  Perhaps he won't be too surprised at the fate that awaits Ethan and Ethan will get what he deserves.

Victor's isolation comes at the end of a needle.

His heroin addled stupor will disconnect him from everything and wash his soul of the sins born of his own hand.  

When Victor was in the Witch's "Family room" the spirit of Caliban leaned into him and whispered,

 "Did we ask for this life?"

Victor's greatest sin is his usurpation of  God's power in giving life.  It is compounded by his lack of responsibility for it.   When he shot Lily in Dorian's ballroom it wasn't out of ridding the world of his monstrous creation.  Rather, it was in a fit of jealously on how she preferred 

Dorian to him.  I think he felt the same of Dorian.

How ironic that he can create life but wholly unable to take one here.

Sir Malcolm's banishment come from his responsibility to the man that served him.

 

I was sad to see Sembene go.  His stoic nature was usually the antidote for the high strung antics of his cast mates.   Still, I don't see how he was going to survive Ethan's attack like many viewers would have preferred.

So, Sir Malcolm is off to Africa to bury his friend in the soil he grew up in.  Given what we know of Sembene's sins I wonder if that soil will have him.

Malcolm will eventually make his way back to London.  I can't see he and Vanessa staying apart too long.  Better to share their private hell's together again than alone.

Hmm, waxing ironic again, it's sad that Caliban's words from the previous episode about choosing damnation is better than being alone is right where he finds himself again.

Maybe his banishment is more pure in that he will be utterly alone and damned.  Come back soon Caliban you left Lavinia alive.

As for Miss Ives

 It must have been awfully tempting to risk damnation.  

Everything she wanted was so perilously close.  

 

Just one kiss away.  

   

Instead, her banishment consists of her self exile from God.

How bereft she must be to turn her back on God.  I think, as she alluded to earlier in the episode, she feels her soul is hers alone.  Not even God can lay a claim on it.

I don't see how that can be true but it is the way she feels right now and it will be interesting to see how she will be able to carry on in life feeling this way.

Caliban couldn't rescue Vanessa as I had hoped.  Maybe he will return to save her soul.

So let's wrap up.

What I didn't Like

This new race of the damned or the dead that will begin with Dorian and Brona.  The whole Dorian story line never really fused with the rest of the show.  We came close when Dorian threw his Ball and everyone finally came together.  Alas, it did not stay that way.  

Sadly, we spent too mush time with Dorian and Brona to finish this last episode.  This seems to be the set up for next year's plot line and I felt it detracted from the rest of the episode.  I'd rather of spent more time with Vanessa battling Madame Kali and Lucifer.


What I did Like

"Know your master!"

Vanessa really is set apart isn't she?  Perhaps she really doesn't need God.  Can she really live on with a soul that isn't part of Heaven or Hell?

Is she truly the only citizen of the demimonde she lives in?

You had to love how she crushed Lucifer's plans.  His defeat revealed how hollow his promises truly are.

Our little Scorpion lives to fight another day.  Is she so powerful that she turned the tables on Lucifer and possessed him instead?

 

Thank goodness Mr. Lyle made out alive.  He may own the deepest soul of them all.

Hecate lived to see another day also.  It looks as though she will return for next season.  I'm fine with that.  Maybe she will travel to America in search of "Mr. Talbot."  Mark that down as a prediction.

Ah, I know what I will do during this off season from Penny Dreadful!

Ferdinand Lyle confessed he was in need of friend.   I'd love to shopping with him and pick out some silken finery.  ;)

(While we're there, we can pick up some sensible shoes Miss Poole!)

The Best Part of Them All

 

My favorite part of the episode was the time shared between Vanessa and her Mr. Clare.  I have to admit it became rather dusty in the room when they spoke.  Lyle may have the deepest soul but these two certainly possess the souls most adrift.

In this scene, they cried out for each other and we wept along with them.  Will they ever find peace?

And lastly, the most gut wrenching part was when Caliban imparted to Vanessa, "No matter how far you have walked from God he is still waiting ahead."

Hopefully next season we can walk that path together and find out.