Chandler arrives with Sir Malcolm and Kaetenay in a deserted, dark, and foggy London (what we don’t see is if there are any other passengers to react to this). Large groups of rats are scurrying about the dock, frogs are coming out of drains in swarms, and we later find out roughly seven thousand people have died. They walk all the way to Murray Manor, and once there Chandler (very symbolically) finds a dead wolf hung from the ceiling in Vanessa’s room. Vanessa of course, isn’t there. Sir Malcolm finds a woman in the parlour he mistakes for Vanessa, but is actually a vampire who immediately bites him. Chandler is also overcome by similar night creatures, and along with Kaetenay and Catriona Hartdegen, is able to overpower them. Catriona manages to gain their trust, but I’m a little suspect of her character and how significant a player she’s become in so short a period of time. There’s definitely more to her than she’s letting on. Sir Malcolm demands a gun to kill himself, which Kaetenay seems more than willing to comply with, but Catriona stops him and instead cauterizes the wound rather painfully with a hot poker. With Catriona to look after Sir Malcolm, Chandler leaves to find Vanessa. When Sir Malcolm comes to, he questions Catriona and there even seems to be a bit of weird flirting. Seward arrives after having her own encounter with Renfield. She caught him with Vanessa’s recording and figured out he was a servant of Dracula. Renfied who’s taken to eating the frogs, wrongfully assumes Seward isn’t killer before she beats him up and imprisons him in what looks like Bedlam. That’s where she takes Sir Malcolm and Catriona, intending to “rip” Vanessa’s whereabouts from his mind. Renfield seems especially attracted to Catriona but she manages to intimidate him enough. Again, there’s definitely something going on between her and the vampires, almost as though she’s a new female Van Helsing.
In what may just be a few doors down, if Seward and company are in Bedlam, Frankenstein is readying his experiment on Lily. This crew seems to hardly notice what’s going on in London, though that may be because they’re underground the whole time. But it still seems very disparate. Lily attempts in vain to seduce Dorian one last time and then insultingly refers to Jeckyll as an “assistant”. Both he and Dorian leave, he rather reluctantly when Frankenstein idiotically agrees to Lily’s request they be left alone. And moments after they’re gone she asks for some water, and in the moment their hands touch she attempts to strike. Honestly for such a great mind, Frankenstein makes a lot of really dumb calls, but you could say it’s his emotions driving him. Because of this, Frankenstein finds it difficult to go through with the plan, exactly as Jeckyll seemed to fear. Lily claims she would rather die than become what he will make her, and calls out what he actually did to Brona Croft and what he initially made Lily into. It’s Frankenstein hearing for perhaps the first time, an objective account of his transgressions. She then recalls how Brona had a daughter called Sarah and tells the story of how she was mistreated and beaten by numerous men, and she’s very emotionally moved by it. She tells one specific event in great detail which clearly effects Frankenstein. Harry Treadaway’s quite good in this scene, and so is Billie Piper. Even though Lily’s emotion feels overplayed, that strikes me as the intent. We don’t know whether Lily’s genuine in this breakdown, or if she’s acting a part merely to get Frankenstein to free her. Once she ends it by saying her daughter died alone, Frankenstein predictably lets down his syringe and unchains her saying “it is too easy being monsters, let’s try to be human”. More surprising though is that she doesn’t use this to overpower or attack him, she merely kisses him and leaves. So it’s possible she was genuine, which would be a bit anticlimactic, but she also may have plans for him further. This whole plot point, though ably performed, is lacking in pay-off to a season-long arc to get Lily there, and so for now I’m a little disappointed in it. Perhaps Jeckyll’s reaction will change things, and with any hope lead to a Mr. Hyde appearance in the finale.
Dorian meanwhile goes back to his house; and the problem with this scene in particular going on is the state of London. In Bedlam, you could conceive they just aren’t aware, but when Dorian returns to find Justine and the other ladies still all there, it’s incredibly out of place given the main idea the city’s supposed to be in darkness and despair. Dorian orders them all out, but Justine stands up and asks where Lily is. Dorian reveals his treachery in taking her to Frankenstein, and getting ahead of himself, claims she’s already been tamed. Justine refuses to believe it but Dorian presses the point. She stabs him with a kitchen knife, but it appears she was not fully aware of his immortality. Nor were the other ladies, none of whom perhaps took literally Lily’s diatribes on them being immortals. In Justine’s shock that this doesn’t phase him, I half-expected Dorian to respond “I’m curious, after killing me what is it you’re planning on doing next?” Instead Dorian tells her to go back to her old life (again not considering that given the state of things that’s not really possible). When she says she’d rather die, Dorian kills her by snapping her neck, just to remind us he’s not a nice guy.
In the only subplot that takes into account what’s going on in London, Caliban is dining with his family who are remaining indoors until the fog lifts, unsure when that will be. Caliban’s trying to be optimistic by promising to move them back to their old apartment and find a job perhaps as an undertaker given the recent influx of dead bodies. But Jack is getting ever more sick, coughing up blood now. And as if this storyline couldn’t get any more Dickensian, Caliban promises they’ll spend every Sunday in Kensington Gardens, in true Bob Crachit forlorn hopelessness. He also makes a suggestion they go to the coasts or up north to escape the pestilence. It’s nice to see people who genuinely love Caliban, and for its misery, it’s not a bad counter to what’s happening in the more prominent storylines. There is no way Jack is living through the next episode though.
Finally Chandler, in looking for Vanessa, seeks out Frankenstein at his home. When he doesn’t find him there, a little vampire boy offers to take him to Frankenstein. Chandler in a less characteristic act of gullibility, follows him right into a vampire trap in Chinatown. Dracula appears and confronts him, somehow sensing his love for Vanessa as well as the fact that he too, is a creature of the night. Chandler makes clear he’s come to save Vanessa, which prompts Dracula to summon his minions. Essentially Chandler has to fight these mini-bosses before taking on Dracula who’s still in the vicinity. He turns into Wolf-Man and begins slaying vampires. At this point you may have noticed one character awkwardly disappear without any mention. Well in the middle of this fray, he returns and in a development I probably should have anticipated at some point, it turns out Kaetenay is a werewolf too, and he comes to aid Chandler in his fight. The make-up on Wes Studi’s not bad as well. However the episode abruptly ends here, and though a bit of a twist, it’s not as narratively significant as the writers would want.
So in hiding Vanessa, “Perpetual Night” managed to sidestep some of the things I was worried about going in. Nevertheless and despite the dreary gothic atmosphere, it’s not all that good. True it has some very good moments, the performances in the Lily-Frankenstein plot were great, and there was some interesting showcasing of this climate, as well as some terrific visuals. The action scene at Murray Manor is thrilling enough and Kaetenay’s reveal I thought was really cool. But a couple of the subplots were a bit awkward given the larger scope of the episode, and there are still a few more hints than there are definitive answers, particularly with regards to Catriona, Seward, and obviously Vanessa. The major plot threads feel more like set-up for the finale than anything else. And going into the finale I have a lot of expectations. This season and even Penny Dreadful as a whole, has promised a lot to deliver on. Where are they going with Vanessa? Are they handling her turn into a vampire well? How will they defeat Dracula? What will be the fate of Chandler? Or Kaetenay? (okay, he’s probably going to die, but it’s going to be a great death) Is Seward’s resemblance to the Cut-Wife going to be a big thing? What about Sir Malcolm; will he have to do to Vanessa what he did to Mina? How’s Caliban’s story going to end? Or Dorian’s, Frankenstein’s, and Lily’s? Will we see Mr. Hyde?? There’s a lot that needs to happen, and a lot to wrap-up, and this episode in not giving us much, is putting all the more pressure on that finale. I’m very much hoping it will surprise.
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