Penny Dreadful - 'No Beast So Fierce'

"The invitation said 'don't dress for dinner.'"

Penny Dreadful continues to ramp up the tension as the third season moves towards its conclusion.

In New Mexico, Rusk and the Marshal show up to arrest everyone, and given the logistical problems they accept an invitation to dinner. Talbot harps on the importance of hospitality while Malcolm tries to urge him to reconcile with his son. Talbot insists that Ethan say grace, which he does with a Satanic perversion of the Lord's Prayer. The the Marshal promises a reckoning for his dead men, so Talbot shoots him, and the whole meal really goes downhills from there. Rusk dismisses Talbot's assumption of the upper hand and sure enough, Ethan lets Hecate off the chain and a massacre ensues. Talbot flees as his men are cut down. Rusk takes a bullet, as does Hecate, before Kaetenay shows to finish the last of the guards in the dining room. Hecate dies, the jury is out on Rusk, and the others storm the chapel where Talbot is making his last stand. In the final reckoning, Ethan is unable to pull the trigger on his own father, so Malcolm does it for him.

Back in London, Hyde and Frankenstein recap their plan, while John Clare tries to connect with his sick son and jst ends up terrifying him. Lily and Dorian begin running a series of seminars on the efficient murder of men, with Justine getting way too into it for Dorian's taste. The human hairless cat is also clearly not pleased that Justine, by reminding Lily of all that she was and has lost, is threatening his place in his partner's affections.

"Do make me cut a bitch!"

Justine catches Frankenstein poking about, and drags him in for filleting, utterly ignoring Dorian's instructions unless approved by Lily. He offers Lily his 'cure', but she points out that 'their' happiness was truly only his and that she is quite at home with her pain and rage now, thanks ta. Justine is pretty narked that she decides to let Frankenstein go, feeling that man parts are reason enough for a filleting.

The series has done a bit of a reversal on Lily, hand in hand with revising poor, heartsick Victor into a toxic quagmire of misogyny. At the end of last series she was pretty much 'immortals rule, mortals drool,' but the recruitment of her army of the oppressed seems to have ignited a more idealistic fire in her, now in increasing contrast to Justine's 'kill 'em all and let God sort them out' approach to the Y-chromosome.

"I'm starting to get the feeling that my life might be better without men."

Men get pretty short shrift this week, and the show moves further from its weirdly conservative beginnings as Mr Lyle - on his way to Egypt to kick off Season 4's arc plot - recommends another expert to Vanessa; a trouser-wearing action thanatologist named Catriona Hartdegan, who clearly knows a thing or two about Dracula and is willing to take Vanessa on trust when she says that Dracula is trying to seduce her. She counsels Vanessa to seek company, which sends her to Dr Seward, who suggests that she reconnect with Dr Sweet and give him the chance to choose for himself if he will risk death for her sake. Naturally, Sweet/Dracula is thrilled to bits by this turn of events, and sexy times are had.

From the beginning, Penny Dreadful felt like a show that wanted to be transgressive, but was actually a bit of tame sensationalism. With Season 3 it is finally starting to flex some muscles on its female characters, bringing Lily back from would-be monstrous overlord to immortal militant suffragette, and surrounding Vanessa with strong, female advisers to replace the ersatz family of male protectors who have abandoned her. As a result, this is easily the strongest season to date.