We have reached the end of this story with our night crew that we have come to know over the past three years…I thought this would be a season finale for Penny Dreadful, like every other time when we reach this point of the show, but alas we get a definitive end…the chapter of this story concludes for our characters. Hence, here we go one last time.
Caliban (Rory Kinnear) is awakened to the sound of Jack wheezing, but suddenly he stops breathing as he goes over to him and is distraught. Truly the Creature cannot have nice things… his happiness continues to get taken away each time. Back at Dracula’s (Christian Camargo) lair, the boy vampire tells him of what he witnessed with Ethan and Kaetenay and the vampires they slaughtered…Dracula says that the Wolf of God is coming for him. Vanessa (Eva Green) comes walking down the stairs and senses that her beloved is afraid…she reassures him that he has nothing to fear and to let Ethan come.
Ethan (Josh Hartnett) wakes up and confronts Kaetenay (Wes Studi) on the fact that he never mentioned he was a wolf. Kaetenay tells Ethan that a vision had been sent to him, that he would get a son that would save all humankind and how he is the one that will save Vanessa. Meanwhile our other group consisting of Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Seward (Patti LuPone) and Catriona…go to see Renfield and the doctor injects him with a type of serum and proceeds to use hypnotherapy on him. Dr. Seward wants to know Vanessa’s location and Renfield tells her that they are going to the dead place.
Lily (Billie Piper) goes to Dorian’s (Reeve Carney) and sees Justine’s lifeless body on the floor, he tells Lily that out of her whole army of women she is the one that remained faithful until the end. Dorian tells Lily that the secret of being immortal is that everyone dies around them, but they will never age and will always be alone. Lily kisses Dorian and bids him goodbye, he tells her that eventually she will return and that he will be here waiting, as he stares at this paintings.
Victor (Harry Treadaway) and Jekyll (Shazad Latif) are arguing, because Victor let Lily go…Jekyll calls him weak and Victor mentions to him that Jekyll has a dark road ahead of him…foreshadowing much? Jekyll bids him adieu and tells Victor that his father has finally passed away and he now has the estate title…Victor says goodbye and calls him Lord Hyde.
Going back to the hypnosis session with Dr. Seward and Renfield…he tells her that he keeps seeing blood and sees Vanessa with his master and how they are in love…the doctor sees a sign finally knowing where Vanessa is and stops the session…they have what they need now. As the crew is leaving they run into Victor…so Renfield was in Bedlam. Sir Malcolm tells Victor that Vanessa is in danger and if he will join them and help and he says yes.
Caliban and his wife Marjorie are mourning their son, telling her that their son will have a proper burial, but she doesn’t want Jack to be buried. Marjorie tells Caliban that he needs to take their son to Victor, so he can bring him back. Caliban is horrified at hearing this and tells her not to ask this of him, she gives him an ultimatum that he either returns with their son alive or to never come back.
The gang has finally reunited and are off to find Vanessa and bring her back. They head off to Dracula’s lair and encounter a bunch of dead bodies hanging all over the place as Dracula greets Sir Malcolm and tells him they are going to feed well tonight. Dracula tells Sir Malcolm that Vanessa is now his and that he has lost her…Sir Malcolm wants to know if he was the one that turned Mina and says yes and that the only reason he turned her was because Mina was supposed to bring Vanessa to him. Those words are what set off Sir Malcolm off and it’s all out war with the vampires and the group as they fight them off. Ethan and Kaetenay join them with Ethan running off to find Vanessa. Ethan finds her and walks towards her telling her to come with him, but tells him she’s lost to the darkness and that she brought all this pain and suffering to the world. Ethan tells her that she is not alone, but Vanessa tells him that her battle must end…that she will never be at peace on Earth and that he needs to let it end, because he has a destiny. Vanessa begs Ethan to let it end, she grabs his gun and puts it in his hand…they have one last kiss and he starts praying and Vanessa joins him in the prayer and shoots her…at this point I was like no this is not happening right now. Vanessa tells Ethan that she sees the Lord and dies…Dracula is choking Sir Malcolm when he feels that his bride has perished…Ethan is carrying the lifeless body of Vanessa in his arms as Dracula leaves. Everyone is at a loss of words at sight they are seeing right before their eyes. The sun begins to come out and everyone is being illuminated by the sun and the fog begins to clear.
Back at Sir Malcolm’s home, Ethan and Victor are with him…he tells them stories of his travels to India and that he has heard how people get reincarnated and asks both men if they believe that something like that can happen to Vanessa. Ethan tells him that would be cruel for her, that she’s at peace now and Victor agrees with him. Victor is about to leave when he asks Ethan if he will be alright and hugs him…my shipper heart! Ethan goes upstairs to Vanessa’s room and just stares at the emptiness of it…it is now night time when Sir Malcolm joins him and tells Ethan what happens now without her? That he wishes he could be anywhere but here wanting to run away. Sir Malcolm tells Ethan that he must find life without Vanessa and find out who he is without her in his life and how much he will miss her. He tells Ethan if he will stay here and he says yes…that Sir Malcolm is his family…my emotions!
We see the ocean as Caliban carries the lifeless body of his son, he puts him in the water and let’s him go. It’s Vanessa’s funeral and Caliban sees them carrying her coffin and is shocked. The gang is at her burial as they start leaving one by one….when everyone leaves Caliban goes to her grave as the scene fades to black with “The End” and thus ends the story.
My post-thoughts:
When I saw those end credits with “The End” my first reaction was like What? This can’t be the end, maybe the end of this story with Vanessa, but thought the show would be returning for a new season…Monday morning we saw that the Penny Dreadful twitter posted a video that it was indeed the end for our night crew.
#ItWasForetold…
The three-season opus envisioned by John Logan has come to an end. #Dreadfuls #PennyDreadful https://t.co/aCKwB5mihx— Penny Dreadful (@SHO_Penny) June 20, 2016
I have mixed feelings about this being the end, while I respect that John Logan had envisioned a three-season story…felt there could have been more to tell. This season we got some great new characters…one example being Catriona or as I call her Catriona the Vampire Slayer…really wish we could have seen more with her character and that she had been introduced earlier in the season…felt she came in too late. Something else that bothered me was how for the most part our night crew was separated throughout the season… I really missed seeing their interactions from seasons 1 & 2. I really would have liked to see what would have happened with the rest of our characters if there had been another season and just the potential of heading towards different directions. Since I know there is a comic book series based on the show…maybe at some point there could be a possibility it will happen in the graphic novel aspect. I will miss this show and the characters…I am still a bit in denial that it’s really over.