We start off the episode with Vanessa (Eva Green) and Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) at the house and are looking at the room where The Vampire (Robert Naire) had previously appeared and Sir Malcolm is asking her if this is the creature they seek, they are coming down the stairs and Sir Malcolm asks Vanessa if she senses anything and she gets irritated with him, but tells him that she is will try.
Brona (Billie Piper) is in bed coughing her lungs out and with blood around her mouth, Ethan (Josh Hartnett) comes into the room and lays down next to her, she asks where he was all night and he tells her that he went out with Mr. Gray (so what happened with Ethan/Dorian? I wanted to find out dang it!) Brona tells Ethan that Dorian is the devil. She also apologizes to Ethan for the way she acted with him, but he tells her that he deserves much worse. Ethan tells Brona that he loves her with all his heart and she tells him she does too.
Vanessa is sitting at the table with all her cards spread out and is picking different cards and she flips two of them over and she hears Mina whispering to her saying to help her. Vanessa starts hearing screams of people and snarling. She tells Sir Malcolm of what happened, but Vanessa is unclear of what the cards and whispers suggested but think it has to do with a ship and a river train. Dorian (Reeve Carney) comes over and tells Vanessa if she would like to have an adventure and also apologizes for leaving her the previous night.
Victor (Harry Treadaway) is conducting an autopsy on Fenton, then we get a scene with The Creature (Rory Kinnear) at the theater and the lady he has a crush on goes to see him and tells him that she has never been here before and tells him that her blood tube is clogged up and he fixes it for her. She tells him that he has many great books and he says that it passes the time. We find out her name is Maud and tells The Creature about her brother and how he was in accident that messed up his face. He fixes her blood tube and she thanks him and leaves and The Creature just starts breathing rapidly. We go back to Victor and tells Sir Malcolm that the autopsy done on Fenton revealed nothing. Sir Malcolm asks how was it possible for him to communicate with The Vampire and Victor tells him that there is communication that exists, but that we cannot see. Sir Malcolm is looking at all these papers and Victor asks what he is doing and he tells him that he’s going on another hunting expedition and his services will not be required and he leaves. Sembene (Danny Sapani) tells Sir Malcolm that he has been thinking of Mina and tells him if he will be prepared if Mina is different. Because Sir Malcolm still believes that Mina can be saved, but Sembene tells him that some people cannot be saved and if she is one of them what is Sir Malcolm going to do.
Vanessa is about to be photographed for the first time at Dorian’s place. He tells her why she has been never photographed before she says that she heard stories before about some people not wanting to take their photograph to protect their souls from being taken away. Dorian tells her that he prefers paintings that a painting can capture eternity and that he knows about eternity (yes you sure do). She looks straight at the camera and boom photograph taken.
Back at the theater, we see The Creature looking behind the panel like a peeping tom at Maud and she looks to find a gift in her room, it’s a book and her man comes into the room and tells him that she has gotten a love token and he asks her if he has a rival and Maud tells him hardly. We see The Creature sobbing afterwards.
Dorian takes Vanessa back home and she asks him if he has any plans for dinner and he tells her not anymore. Victor is sketching some anatomy parts in his sketchbook he’s looking at these ballerinas across the street and in the sketch he puts, “Subject?” Van Helsing (David Warner) meets up with Victor and they go eat. They are talking and Van Helsing tells Victor that their work cannot control us that they need to control it. Van Helsing asks Victor what compels him and he tells he believes in faith and retribution among other things. Victor mentions a line from Shelley from Adonais, “No more let life divide, what death can join together” Van Helsing is intrigued and tells Victor to tell him his story and he tells him one day my good friend.
Vanessa is all ready to have dinner with Dorian and walks down to where Sir Malcolm is and asks him how she looks, he tells her that she looks beautitful and Vanessa tells him what plans he has for tonight and he tells her he has no plans. As soon as Vanessa leaves, Sir Malcolm and Sembene put on their coats and prepare to leave. Ethan is getting ready and Brona is asking where he is going, but he tells her to get some sleep and to not worry about him. She tells him that it’s best that he doesn’t kiss her anymore and to keep a safe distance, but he still kisses her and tells her it’s too late for that. Brona gives him a medal of St. Jude that she wants Ethan to wear for her and he takes it. Ethan joins Sir Malcolm and Sembene, he asks about Vanessa and where she is but Sir Malcolm tells Ethan that she is not with them tonight. Ethan wants to know what they are about to do and Sir Malcolm tells him that they are going to explore a plague ship. We go back to Victor and Van Helsing and tells him about driving a stake through his wife’s heart and cutting off her head. Back to our trio, Sir Malcolm tells Ethan why he is brooding tonight and tells him that Brona is not well. They arrive at the ship and Sir Malcolm tells Ethan and Sembene that the ship arrived from Cairo four months ago with a foreign disease and that the ship has been quarantined.
Vanessa and Dorian are having dinner and they start conversing about Dorian liking the ritual of the church that he loves the whole idea of it, Vanessa mentions if he doesn’t feel the tremors around them…the hidden music. Both go back and forth flirting throwing words at each other, Dorian saying to endure uniqueness to be different and powerful.
Van Helsing tells Victor if he knows of the word Vampire, he tells him no and then Van Helsing proceeds to show him a Penny Dreadful title called, “Varney the Vampire” (Which let me tell you this completely reminded me of that scene from The Lost Boys, where Corey Feldman’s character gives Corey Haim’s character a comic about vampires). Van Helsing mentions that these vampires take the blood of the living and it has transformative effects, that they are the dead or the walking dead.
Vanessa and Dorian are at his place and she is looking over all this paintings and tells him that there are no landscapes or still-lives that all of them are portraits. Again both of doing their flirting with each other and then Dorian asks for permission to kiss her neck, but she tells him to just do it and not ask for permission, he kisses her neck and then proceeds to also lick it.
Back to Victor and Van Helsing, who are walking and Victor asks him if he has experience with these vampires and he says that he does. That these vampires are like a pack of wolves, that they stick near in the same place. Victor asks him what is it that these vampires want and Van Helsing tells him that he doesn’t know that maybe survival or conquest. Van Helsing speaks something in German and translates it, “For the dead travel fast” Our trio is on the ship and are finding all these white haired women asleep, Sir Malcolm is searching for Mina, but doesn’t find her, but we get a glimpse of The Vampire asleep. Victor and Van Helsing are still walking and having conversation and Van Helsing is telling Victor that he is young still and that could astonish the world. All of a sudden The Creature comes walking towards them and grabs Van Helsing and snaps his neck ( I was like Nooooooo!!!!) Victor is distraught and The Creature tells him to do what he is supposed to do for him or else he will keep doing this to all the people that he is close to. Back to the ship where these vampire brides all wake up and start attacking Sir Malcolm, Ethan, and Sembene and a fire gets started they kill all the vampire brides and all of a sudden from across The Vampire is looking at Sir Malcolm and then we see Mina (Olivia Llewellyn) with him and she yells at her father to help her and screams for him. Sir Malcolm tries to go to her but Ethan and Sembene stop him and the Vampire disappears with Mina.
Vanessa and Dorian are in bed kissing and it’s about to get kinky because he pulls out a knife and she grabs it from him and cuts him and she licks where she cut him. They are having sex when everything goes slow motion and it focuses on Vanessa and she hears the voice of the demon telling her, “Hello child, I’ve been waiting…what games will we have now?” Terrified she gets up and leaves Dorian.
Sir Malcolm is distraught after what happened and Ethan tells him that they will find Mina again, but Sir Malcolm doesn’t believe they will because he questions Ethan response to him. Ethan tells him basically to man up and tells him, “There are things that you can’t control…battles that we lose…but there are people that we trust” Ethan tells Sir Malcolm that they need Vanessa and Sir Malcolm asks if he trusts her and he tells Sir Malcolm yes he does. Dorian is walking naked to his hidden chamber where he has the huge painting and we can see he has all these cuts on his body from the knife play earlier. He keeps staring at it and his wounds start healing. Sir Malcolm is sitting down when he hears Vanessa come in and is about to tell her something when he turns around to see her looking horrible and we can see that she is possessed again because she starts levitating and spinning around and Sir Malcolm just looks flabbergasted.
This was a great episode, really enjoyed it. Love how all these characters are working together and it’s great seeing them interact with each other. And love knowing that many of these characters have this backstory already from the books I’ve read like Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Frankenstein, etc. so love the little things that John Logan throws out there to the viewer. We only have two more episodes left before the season is over, and it looks like next week it will be another great one.