Once again I have been given the opportunity to contribute to Terence’s blog by writing the recaps this season for this new show from Showtime.
-The show takes place in Victorian London and we open with a mother and child sleeping, the mother wakes up and all of a sudden she is hearing these strange noises and gets taken away by something. The little girl wakes up and is asking for her mother, she opens the door and screams at what she sees. Let the credits roll.
-A young woman (Eva Green) is praying in Latin and she sees a spider crawling around the cross she’s kneeling to, she starts hearings voices and all of a sudden the spider is crawling over her and it seems she is channeling these voices that she keeps hearing kinda like she is being possessed by them.
-We see a Wildwest Show taking place and see a young man (Josh Hartnett, how have I missed seeing him on my TV screen) performing in this show and Eva’s character is there watching him. Next scene we get is of Josh’s character having sexy times with this random woman that was at the show. After they have done the deed the woman is asking him if she will see him again, but tells her that the show is heading to Paris. She also tells him, “Perhaps you would like to know my name?” He just laughs because he clearly doesn’t. Next scene Eva’s character approaches Josh’s character we find out that his name is Ethan and Eva’s character lets him know that she needs help for some night work. That she needs a gentleman with the expertise with firearms for dangerous endeavors. Ethan doesn’t look interested, but she starts reading him saying that he’s a man more complicated than he shows. Ethan tells her that if she gives him one smile that he will say yes, she does and gives him a card where to meet her. He asks her, “You have a name?” she says, “Yes” and walks off (gotta say I’m loving the dialogue of this show).
-Ethan goes to meet Eva’s character and she’s impressed that he has arrived on time, he says “I never keep a lady waiting” and she replies, “Very wise” (just love all this dialogue) they go inside this opium den and a man walks over to them (Timothy Dalton) and tells Eva’s character if he’s the individual and asks Ethan if he brought his firearms. Ethan wants to know what they are doing here and tells him they are looking for someone and tells him to not be amazed at anything they see and to not hesitate. We find out the man’s name is Sir Malcolm and that someone very dear to him was taken. All three walk over to these other three individuals and one of them is speaking to Sir Malcolm in Arabic and the other men are surrounding them ready to attack and they do. Sir Malcolm starts fighting them and Ethan joins him, Eva’s character is hearings the echos of a girl and goes off to look for her. She goes into a room where there is blood and bodies all over. She approaches a girl on the floor and has two fang marks on her neck, Sir Malcolm and Ethan come to join her and sees that the girl lying on the floor isn’t who they are looking for. Out of the pile of bodies some sort of creature (looks like a vampire) starts coming after them and Sir Malcolm stabs him on the chest and dies. Sir Malcolm tells Ethan that the night is not over and they need his help.
-The trio heads off to a place where Sir Malcolm tells Ethan that this is a place where the resurrection men play their trade, basically a whole lot of surgeons practicing on dead bodies. They go to see a young man (Harry Treadaway) who is engaged in his research. They brought along the body of the creature that was killed at the opium den, but the young man is not interested until Eva’s character pulls the white sheet and he sees how odd the body looks, in it’s appearance he examines the body and is intrigued. He opens the chest of the creature and inside they find hieroglyphics and he says Egyptian? Ethan astounded is like, “Who the f___ are you people? Both Sir Malcolm and Eva’s character want him to meet them again.
-The next day, Ethan goes to see Sir Malcolm and he walks into his home and is approached by Eva’s character, who finally we learn that her name is Vanessa. She greets him and she sits on a table with some cards in front of her. Ethan tells her if she is a spiritualist and she tells him that maybe and tells him if he has ever heard of the Demimonde, which is a half world in what we know and what we fear, a place in the shadows rarely seen but deeply felt. She starts spreading the cards around the table and tells him that he is a man of great violence and hidden depths. Vanessa tells Ethan that Sir Malcolm’s daughter was taken by one of those creatures they killed last night. She tells him to pick a card before he leaves and he picks the Lovers card. Ethan decides to leave because he doesn’t want to be part of this. After he leaves Sir Malcolm walks out and tells Vanessa what happened like was he tempted, she tells him that Ethan was intrigued and Sir Malcolm says that he will be back, but that for now they have an appointment amongst the dead things.
-People are reading the paper and we see a headline with, “Is Jack back?” (Jack the Ripper) because in a previous scene there were a bunch of mutilated bodies. Sir Malcolm and Vanessa head to the Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiques, where they met Mr. Lyle and then want him to translate those hieroglyphics, he tells them its hieratic script and that it reads as blood cure or blood curse and he tells them both if there are more of these because he wants to see them but not here, he mentions to Sir Malcolm and Vanessa that the source of the writing is from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
-We see that Ethan is looking at the covered bodies being taken away and hears that people are mentioning that Jack the Ripper is back. Sembene (Danny Sapani), who works for Sir Malcolm brings over a package to the young doctor they had previously met and it’s suit and an invitation to the Explorer’s Club, where he goes and talks to Sir Malcolm. The doctor goes to the place where Sir Malcolm is already waiting for him , they talk some and the doctor tells him, “There is only one goal worth for scientific exploration and that is preparing the tissue that separates them from life and death.
-Ethan is standing outside Sir Malcolm’s place, Vanessa is looking at him through the window. Ethan is indecisive of what he wants to do and he leaves. Sir Malcolm starts hearing a woman’s cries and voice and he’s surprised when he sees a girl and calls out to her Mina? And she’s like that creature now and she disappears.
Vanessa is praying in Latin, and all of a sudden she is shocked at what has happened because the cross is turned upside down and a bunch of spiders are crawling all over. The doctor is at home and we see he opens another room to his place and leads to a lab that he has set up. We see there’s a body and also the sound of electricity and fizzling, the doctor is trying to turn on the machine, the whole thing shuts off he turns one if his lamps and we see that the body he had there has disappeared. The doctor is looking around when he spots the reanimated person and is walking towards him. The doctor starts crying and the reanimated person touches his tears and then touches his own face to where his eyes are. The doctor tells him, “Can you hear?” and the animated body just smiles at him. Last scene we get is the doctor telling the reanimated person, “My name is Victor Frankenstein”
So guys what did you think of the premiere? What about the premise of the show? If you have any questions or comments, you know what to do below.