Penny Dreadful - 'A Blade of Grass'

"Miss Ives; how do you feel about bottle episodes?"

We're almost to the middle of the season, which means it's time for Vanessa Ives backstory theatre (traditionally a strong point of the show,) and this time we're also doing a bottle episode.

Vanessa plumbs her memories of the asylum where she was committed following her breakdown, to experience the gamut of Victorian mental health treatments - force feeding, hydrotherapy and so on - in the care of the rigorously scientific Dr Banning and a kindly orderly who will one day be transformed into the murderous juggernaut we currently know as John Clare.

The episode begins with John - for want of a better name; he isn't allowed to give one for reasons of protocol - trying to persuade Vanessa to eat, and we see the relationship between them begin to evolve as his kindness wears down her walls and he begins to fall in love with her. He tells her of his family and his son's sickness, which requires him to work in such a cruel place, and it is clear that he believes in the methods of the doctors even if he doesn't understand them. Still, he warns Vanessa that if she doesn't act as if she were 'normal', she will be subjected to trephination, a procedure even he recognises as crude.

"So, you feel you are under attack?"

Then, as she begins to tell John her story, things get weirder. Dr Seward tells her that she is not able to pull her out of the trance, and John is possessed by Vanessa's tormenting angel. Dubbing himself Lucifer he strikes at her with barbs and accusations and professions of love. Then another arrives, a presence which also manifests as John and clearly overwhelms and terrifies Lucifer; the presence of Dracula. This is a terrific moment, with Rory Kinnear compelling as the two vast presences, the lords of spirit and flesh, and Eva Green once more turning in a powerhouse performance, by turns repulsed, enthralled, cowed and finally, triumphantly defiant. Moreover, the fact that Lucifer cowers in the presence of his flesh-bound brother - Dracula claims that Lucifer has become nebulous, deprived of belief - sets aside any nagging worries that going from fighting the Devil to fighting Dracula would be a step down for our protagonists.

While Patti LuPone provides admirable support, this is Green and Kinnear's show, and provides considerable substance for Vanessa's next meeting with John Clare. As for the other characters... Well, who knows; there are no subplots at work here, just a tour de force two-and-a-bit character bottle drama which maintains the standard of past backstory episodes.

Damnit. I think I might actually like this season of Penny Dreadful.