Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Recap/Review: Penny Dreadful's 3x06: No Beast So Fierce

This week's episode took something of an interesting turn as a family dinner spectacularly went to hell, Vanessa met a new ally and Dorian showed signs of regretting his own allegiances.

Written by John Logan
Directed by Paco Cabezas


Letting The Wrong One In: The good news for Vanessa is that most of her allies will actually be back by next week. However in this episode alone, Mr Lyle informed her he was heading to Egypt (I detect a plot for next season) while also putting her in contact with a new ally (more on this person in a bit). Both the new ally and Dr Seward told Vanessa that she needed to bring people closer to her rather than push them away. Vanessa actually took this advice on board by hooking up with Dr Sweet/Dracula in his museum and now I'm feeling horribly conflicted by this storyline. I know Vanessa should put a stake in the guy's heart and that he's totally evil but Christian Camargo's take on the character has been one of the best I've seen in recent years. I actually don't want to lose the character by season's end.


Tumblr Feminism, 19th Century Style: If you think I'm mocking feminism with that heading, I'm actually not but Lily's whole crusade and Justine's more militant 'kill all men' take on the thing makes it very hard to completely sympathise. I get that Lily is recruiting women like herself to the cause - vulnerable, abused, degraded etc but her actions are eventually going to result in innocent people actually being murdered and while even Dorian is starting to realise her plan is too flawed, it's not a good sign. That being said, Lily probably should've killed Victor when she had him in her clutches because his obsession with trying to cure her just keeps growing and I don't like that Jekyll and now Dorian perhaps are going to enable him even more so.


Bye, Bye Papa: Ethan's father, Jared managed to last all but two episodes before being taken out by Malcolm. While a part of me would've been fine with Ethan carrying out the deed in the church, it's nice that by next week we'll be out of America with him and Malcolm and back to London. This plot has certainly had it's moments and the dinner scene with everyone was some quality tension but it's also nice that this storyline is coming to a conclusion. Hecate bit the bullet in this episode courtesy of Rusk, who may or may not have survived the episode too but either way, this plotline is coming to an end.


Fencing Lady: We lose one female character (and sadly not Justine) but we gain another. Lyle's friend - fencing lady, Caitriona Hartdegan was introduced rather swiftly in this episode as Vanessa watched Caitriona best a male opponent, give some more information about Dracula and then offer Vanessa some sound advice on keeping her allies close together. Caitriona got enough scene in this episode for me to make a positive impression and if we can't have any more of Lyle for the time being, then I'm happy with her presence and let's be honest, Vanessa could do with some more female friends.


Flashbacks Time: The good news is that Caliban returned this week. The less good news is that he has yet to remember his past with Vanessa and both characters have yet to meet each other this season. We did however get some lovely and tragic scenes between Caliban and his son but other than that, nothing really advanced too much here I'm afraid.

Next week, Vanessa and Ethan reunite and Lily finds herself being betrayed by both Dorian and Victor.

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