[For Penny Dreadful “Ebb Tide” or any other recaps on Fetchland, assume the presence of possible spoilers.]
Showtime Summary:
Ebb Tide. Kaetenay has a vision of impending doom; Vanessa discovers an awful truth.
“Ebb Tide” feels the way it sounds, the show is pulling away from us even as we cling to it with a needy ferocity. Just like with a wave against the shore, we can’t make season three of Penny Dreadful last forever. This is one of those episodes where you’ll keep wondering what the hell these characters are doing. The questions Why? Why? Why? will race upon the hamster wheels of your grey matter. There is one bright star of hope, though, and it arises in the most unexpected place. Our beloved Creature finally finally gets a little love in his life at last and it almost makes up for all the rest of it… but not really. It’s par for the course with Penny, we suppose and the episode does grant us the favor of mucho information. Catriona provides an encyclopedic truckload of facts about Dracula, including that, in his human form, he can be killed like any other man. But it’s not that part which piques the interest of Vanessa. She realizes when Cat tells her Dracula is known for “dwelling in what’s called The House of Night Creatures,” that her beloved Dr. Sweet is the dragon Dracula. Only after this revelation does the part about being able to kill him in human form seem significant to her.
There’s a touching scene between Vanessa and The Creature, whom she knows as John Clare, where she tells him people are better than you think and he looks at her a bit sideways in reply asking, “Do you believe that?” to which Vanessa says, “Almost,” thus perfectly summing up their conundrum. All these two characters really want is to be loved. Thus they decide together to dare to believe they deserve love. Mainly they make this choice because, hey, can they be any lonelier than they already are? Unlikely. It works out for “Mr. Clare” at least. He goes to his wife, Margery and tells her his whole dang story for real – the truth. Funny thing about it is how he describes Dr. Frankenstein, making the mad scientist sound like the ultimate bad parent, “He created life but had no care for its nurturing,” which is both fitting and ironic. We all know such parents walk among us in everyday life but never would have thought to relate them to Victor Frankenstein before The Creature points out this apt similarity. In the end, our Creature finds warmth and welcome with Margery and his son, Jack. Finally, he’s home, accepted, and loved. We’re happy for him and would be satisfied with this as the end to his Penny Dreadful character arc. Please no more pain for our beloved Creature. Thank you.
It’s Dorian who mentions the “Ebb Tide” of the title within a shockingly unexpected scene. He’s just finished telling Lily how terrifically BORING he finds her army of prostitutes. They are such a clatter in his ears with all their cutting off bad men’s hands then clamoring and clawing at each other to mess up his grand estate. Oh dear, aren’t women with power so tiresome? Clearly they must be tamed – drugged even. So, that’s exactly what Dorian does. After his lecture series on how tedious he finds Lily’s vengeful revolution, that “owed” favor he warned Victor Frankenstein about springs into action. Right there on the moonlit cobblestone street, Frankenstein and Jekyll suddenly sweep Lily into a carriage headed straight for Bedlam. She’s to be drowned in “proper lady” drugs until she behaves her damn self. But we hope Lily escapes instead and then takes her dual betrayers down hardcore. Dorian and Victor deserve her vicious wrath. In fact, we hope Justine finds the way to finally kill Dorian and meows all the while, clawing his gorgeous movie star eyes out for good measure. Jekyll, on the other hand deserves more story. We hardly got to see him this season, so let him live… for now.
The episode opener for “Ebb Tide” gave us a glimpse into Brona’s past as she visits the grave of her daughter. So, now we know her agony runs deeper than just the “bad” men who abused and used her. She’s been broken a long long time. There at the gravesite, Brona makes a promise to another mother of a dead child. It sounds eerily similar to her rants and raves with the prostitute army and we realize that Brona has always been this way deep down, desperately seeking vengeance. It wasn’t her death that did it. Like Vanessa, Brona has a lengthy past of heartbreak and anguish.
Meanwhile Ethan, Kaetenay, and Malcolm head back to London as fast as they can on a mission to save Vanessa and thus the world from the End of Days that will follow if Vanessa succumbs to Dracula. Ethan’s doing it for love and Malcolm for the sake of duty. Kaetenay, though, has a vivid vision of the horror overtaking Vanessa and subsequently the world. He’s the real hero of this story; the world’s iconoclast and visionary. The one who sees it all but remains fearless and true.
In the final scene Vanessa confronts Dracula and he admits the truth. In fact Dracula claims he’s always told the truth and certainly, in his own eyes, that’s the case. She says he’s twisted and that she won’t serve him. Then Dracula calls her the Mother of Evil and says he wants to serve Vanessa, not the other way around. All he wants is her. In this world, they’re both different, ugly, exceptional creatures and will never be accepted and loved by others. Dracula says he doesn’t want to make Vanessa good or normal. He loves her for who she truly is. Now it’s time for her to stop trying to be what everybody else wants her to be, he says. Just be yourself and be with me. You will never be alone again, he says. Dracula asks if she accepts him and she says, “I accept myself,” so, then he bites her neck and the episode ends as Vanessa’s voiceover tells us about the end of days and the night creatures emerging, the air will be pestilence, such is our kingdom, etc. She’s succumbed, it seems. But there is the whole business Catriona brought up about Vanessa needing to be a spy. So, maybe she’s playing double agent. Vanessa has certainly played that game before. It’s a little telling that he asks if she accepts him and her only reply is about herself. Perhaps she is just spying… unless Vanessa really is the Mother of all Evil. That detail has always been up for debate.
Next Sunday night, June 19th, is the two hour finale and we’re set up for a radical showdown on all sides. Ethan, Kaetenay, and Malcolm will fight Dracula while Brona deals with her duo of betrayers. We have compiled a fetchland fantasy for the season three throw down that follows. First and foremost, Dorian reaps the mighty ass kicking that finally kills him doornail dead. It would be best if Justine dished it out. Secondly, we really must see Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde. How have we sat through an entire season with this classic character and not witnessed this wonder yet? It’s an outrage. Lastly, please grant us a grandiose, macho, swordfight, beatdown between Ethan and Dracula over Vanessa’s heart. She’ll be devastated no matter who wins but we know at this point she’s still pissy with Ethan for abandoning her so will likely be rooting for Drac at least initially. The real riddle, though, remains who Vanessa kisses after the dust settles and if that’s the one she would have chosen to win. The coolest ending would leave the climactic death blow Vanessa’s choice. We’d like that best. Funny thing is, both guys are hellbent so she’s pretty screwed either way – typical Penny Dreadful style.
–Katherine Recap
