Penny Dreadful - 'Memento Mori', 'And Hell Itself My Only Foe' and 'And They Were Enemies'

The Man.

So, just a quick zip through the last three episodes of Season 2 of Penny Dreadful ahead of its return for a new run next month (by which I mean next week.)

'John Clare' gets mad with Frankenstein, while Lily starts acting oddly. She gets into a fight with Clare in which she lapses into Oirish and babbles a lot, dropping in somewhere that she wants to live forever and rule the world. Naturally then, she's going to go and see Dorian Gray again. Meanwhile Dorian's lover finds his hidden portrait. She declares her love for him anyway and he poisons her, because he's a dick.

It's been a tough day.

Lyle does a face turn and explains the whole mystical shebang: Two brothers rebelled against God and were banished; one to Earth to be the Master Vampire, the other to Hell to be the Devil. Both seek for the Mother of Monsters (but not Lady Gaga) to restore their power and assail the gates of Heaven itself, plunge the world into a second darkness, unlimited rice pudding etc, etc.

Sir Malcolm is afflicted by enchantment and tries to kill Frankenstein, who has made a pretty good shot of that himself with his drug addiction, but Sembene pushes him into a shuttered up ballroom and shouts at him to 'know yourself'. Which he does, and immediately goes after Evelyn Poole single handed for rewenge.

He gets captured.

"I love what you've done with the place."

The remaining team summon Ives and Chandler back from their retreat to mount a rescue mission, but Chandler warns against a night raid since a) the Nightcomers are more powerful then and, b) reasons. Vanessa agrees, but then goes off alone (since that always works so well,) while Chandler is getting a creepy, bad magic booty call from Hekaty-poo, who tells him he is destined to stand at the right hand of Lucifer and she is so into that.

Thus the attack is on for the night of the full moon.

Sembene promises not to let Chandler hurt anyone else. They have a touching bonding moment and god damnit they're going to kill Sembene, aren't they!

They raid goes off poifectly: Sir Malcolm and Frankenstein are tormented by the ghosts of their mistakes, Lyle gets Mirakuru lifted by a Nightcomer and Chandler and Sembene are locked in a stairwell as the moon rises. Sembene insists that Chandler not kill himself, because he is chosen by God, and Chandler wolfs out and kills him.

"Ladies."

Vanessa confronts Evelyn and gets chatted up by Lucifer, working through the vent dummy of Vanessa herself, which fair play is creepy as fuck*. He calls her 'Amaunet', harping back to that Egyptian link from Season 1, which would also make him Amun, the Hidden One; probably not quite the same one as in Sleepy Hollow, although you never can tell. After all, if Sleepy Hollow and Bones share a continuity, practically anything is possible. Despite a bit of the old Black Mercy where Lucifer offers her a happy, normal life with Chandler in exchange for her soul when she dies. She tells the Devil to spin on it and crushes the dummy's face.

That's right, Chandler. Fluttershy is disappointed in you.

Evelyn tries to murder Vanessa, and Hekaty-poo releases Chandler, presumably hoping to dispose of her mother and Vanessa in a twofer. He rips out Evelyn's throat, but stays his hand from killing Ives. Oh well done, Chandler; and where was that spark of humanity when you were eating Sembene's throat? Oh, I know, I know, he wuvs her, but frankly having basically confessed that Sembene was a true friend and one of the few he had ever known... In My Little Pony that would have counted for something**.

Frankenstein tries to get Lily to come home and she laughs him off, so he shoots her and Gray. This does not go well, but they leave him alive because he's contacted for Season 3/to wallow in his own failure.

Season 3's big bad: The White Tie Supremacists.

Clare is betrayed by the blind girl who seemed to like him and locked up to be an attraction at the waxwork's new freak show. After brooding for a bit, he rips the doors off his cage, kills the showman and his wife and sneaks past the blind daughter, leaving her to find the bodies.

Sir Malcolm takes Sembene back to Africa. Chandler turns himself in to be hanged, but instead is deported back to America. Vanessa goes off to brood somewhere. This is the kind of misery you can end on when you're confident of a third season.

Penny Dreadful season 2 remains a sordid, weirdly sex negative confection, but is a massive improvement over Season 1. Once more, Vanessa's backstory provided the most interesting single episode, but the arc plot was better and more coherent and the Nigthcomers less head scratchy than the vampires who apparently sleep at night and their inexhaustible supply of blonde goths. And hey, Dorian Gray is finally involved in the actual plot. On the downside, they pulled an Agents of SHIELD on us and killed Sembene. My cynical side expects him to be replaced with a chirpy, cockney soldier.

* And in this show, fuck is always creepy on some level.
** You know you're a dad when you find yourself comparing everything to My Little Pony.