“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” these are the words of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, who the episode is named after in the season premiere of Penny Dreadful. Last season, things were left off in a very desolate place with our characters disbanding and going their separate ways. We come back to find what some of these characters have been doing since we last saw them…and I think it’s safe to say that things aren’t well for them…we meet some new faces and that last scene in the premiere was just fantastic and I cannot wait to see how this new story unfolds.
“So we walk alone”…were the last words we heard from Vanessa (Eva Green) last season and one can say this is absolutely true as we see Sir Malcolm’s house looking completely abandoned and everything around is dirty and covered up…Vanessa looks like she has given up looking so melancholic. We see there has been some food delivered to her and begins to drink and eat in haste as there is a knock at the door and it surprises Vanessa… it’s Sir Lyle (Simon Russell Beale) telling her that he won’t leave until she opens the door. She opens it and Sir Lyle is just shocked at how she and the place are looking he even jokes with telling her how he loves what she has done to the place…he brings her the news that the poet Tennyson has died and also that he is sad to see her in this state of ennui. He tells her that he was once in this very state and that a woman saved his life and that he wants Vanessa to go see her. One thing I love about Sir Lyle’s character is that he adds the campy feel to the show, often bringing us the humor in a show that is basically so dark in it’s subject matter like by telling Vanessa that she just needs to fix her hair up a bit, when the truth of the matter is she looks like a complete mess, which he totally sees right through…as Vanessa goes over to Sir Lyle as he consoles her.
We switch over to the New Mexico Territory as Inspector Rusk and his assistant are in the process of extraditing Ethan (Josh Hartnett) to stand trial for the crimes he has committed…they are on a train and this scene totally reminds me of the typical Western films where you know something bad is about to happen…we see Hecate is there as well as a typical passenger on the train. All of a sudden an attack takes place with these men shooting the guards that were guarding Ethan. A man goes over to Ethan and welcomes him home and then knocks him out and takes him away in horses as Hecate sees this happening with a smile on her face.
Now in Zanzibar, Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) is writing to Vanessa telling her that he has buried Sembene and how the land in Africa has changed so much…how tainted it is and that he wants to leave. As he is walking out of the place he was in…a homeless lady approaches him asking for money for her baby and he gives her some money when he’s surrounded by two men and the woman pulls a gun out on Sir Malcolm. A man comes to his aid and Sir Malcolm joins in on the fight…when they defeat them…the man scalps one of robbers and tells Sir Malcolm that old traditions die hard, as he calls him by his name.
Somewhere in the Arctic, Caliban (Rory Kinnear) is on the ship he left on…and there are many dead bodies and a few that are still alive. The captain of the ship and some of crew are starving and are contemplating if they should eat human flesh, but the captain is against it saying that if they die they should die as men and not animals as Caliban laughs in the background. There is young boy and he is dying…the others on the ship want to eat the boy…Caliban goes over to the boy and he starts singing him a song…all of sudden he’s having flashbacks of him singing the exact song to a young boy and he also sees a woman…which we can assume it’s his wife and son. Caliban comes back to reality and kisses the boy and quickly breaks his neck…wishes the men good luck and tells them he is heading back home. Very interesting that Caliban is starting to remember his past…looking forward to seeing more of this.
Sir Malcolm and the mysterious man are having a drink and tells Sir Malcolm that he has been following him for a while now…he tells Malcolm that he still cannot die until he’s served his purpose of “fighting the great demons of the earth and sky” Sir Malcolm says he is done with all of that, he finds out the man’s name is Kaetenay (Wes Studi) and he wants him to come to America, because Ethan needs their help. Kaetenay tells him that if he goes with him…he will tell him his story and Ethan’s…who he considers a son…that the knows he has a further destiny and that their son needs them…and we know that Sir Malcolm is on board with the plan as he sighs. Back in New Mexico, Ethan knows that the men that took him work for his father and the man tells Ethan to cheer up because he is going home as Ethan quietly says good luck with that.
Back in London, there is a man walking the streets and everyone is staring at him calling him all sorts of names, because of the color of his dark skin. He is looking for Victor (Harry Treadaway) and knocks at his door. We find out the man’s name is Dr. Jekyll (Shazad Latif) and things just got more interesting! Victor thanks him for coming because he had no one else…he’s also looking rough around the edges and Dr. Jekyll notices all the needle marks on Victor’s arms. We find out both of them were students together and Victor mentions to Jekyll…how he has been working with their old work of reanimation and it has been a success…he tells Jekyll that he has conquered death and created monsters.
Vanessa arrives for her appointment and seems nervous…the secretary greets her and tells Vanessa that Dr. Seward will be with her shortly. When Dr. Seward (Patti LuPone) walks in Vanessa is shocked, because she looks exactly like the Cut-Wife…she even mentions to her that they’ve met before…that she knew someone named Joan Clayton and Dr. Seward tells her that Clayton is her family name. Now something that has me wondering what if this is Joan and she’s come back…it could be possible with a show of this element. Dr. Seward reads Vanessa like a book and basically diagnoses her to such a great accuracy…I am so happy to see Patti as a series regular this season…you just know that this is going to be an interesting relationship between these two women, because both of them seem intrigued by one another…Dr. Seward tells her that she will see her tomorrow, but she tells her to break the cycle and do something new that she has never done before.
Victor is showing Jekyll his laboratory and he asks Jekyll that he needs help with killing Lily. Jekyll tells him he can’t do that and murder someone. Victor tells him that he remembers the anger that Jekyll used to have before, but he tells Victor all that has changed and he has learned to tame the beast inside of him and how now he has been working on the neurological chemical reactions of the brain. Jekyll knows that Victor really doesn’t want to kill Lily, but that he wants to love her and tells Victor what if he were able to tame and domesticate her…that makes Victor think and he tells Jekyll yes to do it, but if it fails that they need to destroy Lily once and for all.
Vanessa is walking as a man and boy seem to be following her…the boy appears in front of her and asks if she would like to get a death ribbon because of Tennyson’s death…Vanessa stares at the boy since he looks very pale…he mentions to her that it is anemia and as she walks away the young boy tells her to savior this day and calls her my beloved…which stops Vanessa and looks at him. Vanessa sees a building and walks towards it…inside there’s an exhibition of different species of animals, that is where she meets Dr. Alexander Sweet (Dexter’s Christian Camargo, who I did not recognize at all until I saw the end credits and saw his name and had to go back) who is a zoologist and the director of the place. There seems to be somewhat of a spark between them, he notices how she seems focused on the scorpion in the glass container (as we know the importance/symbolism it has for Vanessa…since it is her sigil). Vanessa asks the doctor what his favorite animals are in this place…he tells her the broken and shunned creatures, because someone has to care for them and she smiles. She goes back home and we see a glimmer of hope in her as she starts uncovering the furniture and opening the blinds and starts cleaning around the house. She starts writing to Sir Malcolm and tells him that she wasn’t being honest with him in her previous letters, because she wasn’t doing well and didn’t want to alarm him. She mentions maybe it was because she left her faith or her faith left her and maybe that was the reason she felt that way, but that now she signs off with hope and love.
It’s nighttime and Dr. Seward’s secretary is leaving the office and takes some money…he is heading off in search of a prostitute and finds one…they go somewhere private and all of a sudden someone grabs her and knocks her against the wall and kills her and takes the secretary. The secretary wakes up scared at some abandoned building and we see the same man and boy from earlier that Vanessa encountered and clearly these two are vampires…and more vampires are surrounding the secretary…when they hear someone coming and everyone hides. The voice of that person asks the secretary for his name and says it’s Renfield…the voice wants him to look at him and Renfield is terrified…he wants him to tell him about Vanessa and that he will learn more about her and inform him and open her secrets to him. The voice tells him to give him his neck and blood…Renfield is crying and then we hear the voice say that is name is Dracula…and fade to black.