Picking up where we last left off, Chandler the wolfman is thinking about leaving London after his recent attack in a bar and while confiding this with Vanessa, their coach is attacked by albino bald women who speak to Vanessa in what’s later revealed to be the verbis diablo (the devil’s language). It frightens Vanessa stiff to the point she doesn’t bring it up until she can speak with Sir Malcolm. Frankenstein meanwhile is working to bring to life his third reanimated body in Brona and while they wait for a storm, Caliban gets a job at a wax museum that’s trying to rival Madame Tussauds. Furthermore Madame Kali is revealed to be some kind of witch with her own coven who’s promised Vanessa to the devil. Geez, first Dracula, now the devil -Vanessa can’t catch a break!
This episode re-immerses you in the world very well. It rather quickly makes a point of its demonic themes with supernatural creatures, plenty of imagery and dialogue, and of course Vanessa herself. After the attack you’re wondering with Chandler what it was that got her so spooked. Probably it’s related to her experiences with possession that we saw in “Closer Than Sisters”. Mainly though I think it’s the implication that’s the most intriguing. Last season Lyle discovered she’s being hunted by the devil and while in the context of that season you might think he’s referring to Dracula, this season seems to confirm it’s literal. Though the witch-creatures that attacked them weren’t that interestingly designed. Despite Chandler’s insistence multiple times how different they are from the vampire servants last encountered, these albino naked monsters are fairly close. Really all that seemed missing were the fangs. Chandler for the time being is staying in London but I wonder when his wolfman condition will next manifest itself. I’d like a little more than just a bunch of references to it in cold opens and newspaper headlines.
The storyline concerning Frankenstein and Caliban is a little more interesting. Caliban finds a new job (a poor one though at only sixteen shillings a week) and I think this wax museum could provide an interesting environment for him. David Haig from My Boy Jack is his new sympathetic employer (his wife less so), and his fascination with grisly murders and recreating them in wax is sure to play a part later in the season. His emporium is actually pretty impressive though, I wouldn’t mind touring it. Like the theatre troupe it seems a very fitting place of work for Caliban, being surrounded by artificiality again, this time in the forms of wax figures easily identifiable with himself. Though with the introduction of Haig’s blind daughter working alongside him, I worry this might go down the same route as last season with Caliban again suffering romantic tragedy. But hey, at least that means he may lose interest in Brona’s corpse, which may be good news to Frankenstein. How creepy was that scene? Frankenstein fondling Brona’s dead naked body. I’m curious how far they’ll go with this, the possibility of Frankenstein being sexually attracted to his own creation. With Brona coming to life at the end of the episode (in an overly dramatic scene that like with every incarnation of Frankenstein, is pretty much just turning down a bunch of levers), it’s an idea that could prove for some uncomfortable yet fascinating drama. Especially once Chandler inevitably finds out what they’ve done with his loved one.
Sir Malcolm and his wife at Mina’s funeral was a very well done scene, not only performance-wise but in the atmosphere. You could just feel the sorrow and dread hanging over them as they mourn the fact both their children have died before them. Even better though was the reintroduction of Madame Kali. That long pan-shot through her mansion was great, with the distant singing of an Irish song as we eventually came upon the bathroom and the reveal of her sitting in a bath of blood with a woman’s dead body on the floor. Not only is it a really impactful image but the build-up is done wonderfully, with the right amount of suspense and I like to think an intentional homage to Tales from the Crypt. The subsequent scene with her “daughters” was okay, though may have been trying a bit too hard to be both horrifying and slightly erotic. The killing of that one girl though was pretty shocking, as was some of the talk about the devil. The end scene is Kali chanting to the devil to come for Vanessa while simultaneously showing Vanessa praying in Latin to ward him off, and Kali’s servants repeatedly appearing behind her. I don’t know if they’ll pick up on this specifically next episode or if it’s just there to make the ending stand out. Either way, the pairing of these two character scenes was good if a little too obvious, but Helen McCrory isn’t as convincing with the over-the-top chanting as Eva Green is. I think her character’s going to be doing a lot of things like that so hopefully she’ll get better at it.
“Fresh Hell” is definitely Penny Dreadful as we know it, with it’s dark ideas, violence, and ambiguously moral characters. Though I don’t think it sets the scene as well as the original pilot did, I do think it leaves you curious enough for what’s going to happen this season. It feels like a new story being told rather than a continuation of the last, which is a television trope that has its pros and cons, but I’m optimistic; and ready to see what the devil has in store for Vanessa, as ridiculous as that may sound.
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