Penny Dreadful Reviews: "Grand Guignol"

          The finale to season one of Penny Dreadful certainly surprised me. I wasn’t expecting it to take the turns that it did and I respect it for that. Though I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was disappointed I didn’t get more out of it. Yet it still met and surpassed expectations in other regards. In any case it’s a curious finale, a decent one and it’s worth discussing.
          After discovering Mina is being held at the Grand Guignol, the team prepare to rescue her. However at the Grand Guignol, Caliban manages to completely ruin his chances with the woman he’s fallen for by being too impassioned, and heartbroken he returns to Frankenstein. Though Frankenstein considers killing him and even comes close, they start working together to create Caliban’s mate. Brona dies sending Chandler into despair at the worst of times, as a couple Pinkerton agents show up, sent to England by Chandler’s father to bring him home. Sir Malcolm and Vanessa butt heads with the latter confronting the former on how far he’ll go to save Mina, in particular to the extent he’d sacrifice Vanessa for her. And it all leads to a showdown at the theatre as the gang arm themselves to enter a vampire nest on what may be a fight they cannot win.
          The resolution or at least partial resolution to Caliban’s story was something you had to suspect would happen at some point. Rejection is a defining aspect of the character’s nature after all. It’s not enough to see that all the actors and crew shun and insult him at every turn, but it’s still tragic to watch him blunder so badly at romance, and being a Gothic story of course it comes off as rapey. But what I didn’t expect was for Caliban to return to Frankenstein after the ordeal. In fact I thought he might become even more brutal in his impatience. But then, Frankenstein has no more friends outside the main cast for Caliban to kill and I don’t think this is quite a Game of Thrones-esque show where a major character could just be killed out of nowhere (no one but Frankenstein even knows about Caliban). Even so I thought Caliban might do something more extreme. Instead he just waxes more poetic and self-pitying. That being said the scene where Frankenstein puts a gun to his head while he’s lamenting is pretty well performed by both actors. Maybe something new will come of it next season, but I wanted a little more out of their conflict for now.
          From the rest of the characters we got a few snippets. Madame Kali showed up for what seemed to be an inconsequential scene but most likely isn’t, and all we got of Dorian was a visit during which Vanessa broke relations off with him -meaning we’ll have to wait a season to see what his Picture looks like unfortunately. Otherwise there’s just a lot of build-up to the grand climax. I like the tension between Sir Malcolm and Vanessa in the lead up as Vanessa seems to discover his true feelings about her as a pawn, which in addition to his many attempts to use her to get to Mina create quite the rift between the two. I love the slow build to the Grand Guignol. The mood is really allowed to set in and you feel the suspense as everyone assembles and make their way to the theatre. Dracula and his minions seem to be living Phantom of the Opera style there and of course the team awakens them. And the battle with the vampires is a superbly executed scene, the action choreography being both tense and fun, and most of the cast gets to show off. Sembene once again proves to be quite the badass, but Chandler and even Frankenstein get some great moments as they fend off a horde of vampires. Sir Malcolm takes on Dracula himself and I was surprised how relatively easy it was to kill him. But it was a great death scene and in the end, Dracula wasn’t the important figure, it was Mina. “What Death Can Join Together” hinted that Mina may be lost forever and we see that here when she takes Vanessa hostage. Vanessa as we suspected is who Dracula wants and wants for his bride. This scene with a demonic Mina threatening Vanessa as the rest of the team seem powerless is another that feels right out of a real penny dreadful, in how extreme the situation is, but yet you can take it with enough seriousness to sympathize with the characters. Eva Green, Timothy Dalton, and Olivia Llewellyn are exceptionally good here. But of course with how fascinating and still mysterious a character Vanessa is, we knew she wouldn’t die and so in a surprising move for him, Sir Malcolm kills Mina to save Vanessa in spite of what he’d said earlier. The combination of Mina being too far-gone and Sir Malcolm’s comment episodes ago that Vanessa felt more of a daughter to him than Mina sometimes, must have had an affect. I was pretty pleased with the outcome. Even though it puts an end to the earlier tension and distrust between the two characters, it was a pretty stunning choice. It’s just a shame we had to lose Mina Harker (though maybe I’m just saying that because I like her in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

          And thus we have our resolution to this season but still a few lingering threads that do a great job of heightening interest in the next. Brona seemingly passes away against all odds (though narratively speaking, I mean very good odds). However by the end of the episode, Frankenstein and Caliban are now working together and they’ve chosen her body to be Caliban’s mate. So I’m very interested what will become of her character once she’s reanimated as the Bride of Frankenstein. I wonder if she’ll reject Caliban too, just like in the original movie. Will she have a new convincing accent?
          The other big development we have going into next season concerns Chandler. As I predicted, it turns out Chandler is literally an American werewolf in London! The reveal comes when after everything, losing his lover and fighting off a ton of vampires, Chandler is confronted for the second time by the Pinkerton agents trying to take him back to America. Angered by their persistence, he turns into a wolf-man and mauls them. This more or less confirms that Chandler was responsible for many of the attacks seen in the cold opens of a couple episodes and alluded to in others. Maybe Chandler really was Jack the Ripper! I’m also interested in where this will go.
          The episode and season end on not so much as a cliffhanger as I’d have thought, but more an open question. It’s quite interesting, Vanessa after everything she’s been through seeks out a priest and asks for an exorcism (the amateur one performed by Chandler I guess wasn’t enough). In short, she wants to be normal and the priest who’s a little suspicious in how he seems kind-of okay with the idea she may be possessed, asks her if she wants to be normal. We don’t get an answer but I have a feeling she’ll respond in the negative. Eva Green’s too good a performer and her character too interesting as she is to become normal.
          While I thought the ending would be a bit grander -I actually was hoping like “Demimonde”, it would lead to everyone winding up at the Grand Guignol and some massive attack would take place (I’m still shocked Alun Armstrong didn’t die) -but the climax we did get at the theatre was still pretty good. Particularly I expected more out of the Caliban storyline, but hopefully that will pick up in season two with Brona being resurrected as Caliban’s mate. I’m quite excited for season two, the characters and environment still has me intrigued even if Dracula is out of the picture, and the developments that will be expanded on there look promising. There weren’t as many frights as I anticipated this season so I hope that picks up as well. Here’s hoping Penny Dreadful continues to grow better, stranger, and more entertaining in the coming season!