Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Recap/Review: Penny Dreadful's 3x03: Good And Evil Braided Be

Back a bit more of a structure here. I'm gonna try and do these reviews Wednesdays from now and while this was a slower episode, it certainly wasn't lacking a good reveal or two.

Written by John Logan
Directed by Damon Thomas


Tapping Into Memories: Oh Vanessa. This episode really wasn't her week, was it? Thanks to Dracula/Sweet's overzealous minion, Vanessa was put on high alert that the Master is out to get her once again and this week when she wasn't screaming at Seward over her past supernatural encounters, she was getting the good doctor to tap into some old memories. We saw the padded cell but more importantly, we also learned that Vanessa and John Claire/Caliban actually have a past connection too. I really liked that reveal. It wasn't predictable and it feels like it makes sense too and with Caliban back in London, it can only lead to some great scenes in the near future.


Retracing The Past: With Vanessa unlocking some memories, it was actually fitting that Caliban upon returning to London started to do the same as well. I've said it in past blogs that Caliban works better away from Victor and delving into his past (losing his family etc) certainly has propelled him better as a character. His plotline seemed to move a little better but I'm more interested in seeing how he and Vanessa will deal with their own past once they see each other again.


Bloody Justine: Quite literally as this episode treated us to a bloody threesome between ingenue Justine and killer power couple Lily and Dorian. I'm liking their little 'taking over the world' storyline and so far they're not actually harming anyone undeserving either. The parallels between Lily and Justine as well as the commentary on oppression, feminism and suffragettes are far from subtle but they are effect and do work well within the narrative. I also find it interesting that in some ways, Dorian is essentially sitting back and watching Lily run the show as well.


Kill First, Question Never: Hecate is still a bit of a divisive character for me. As much as I like Ethan (and I really do), I find her obsession with him a little too stalkerish for my liking and while it doesn't seem like Ethan is deliberately enabling her, neither is his actively trying to distance himself from Hecate either. On the plus side, she's proven to be handy in a fight and with Malcolm and Kaetenay taking an eternity, I guess Ethan really does need someone in his corner. Unfortunately, it's obvious that Hecate seems more interested in bringing Ethan to her own level than actually helping him though.


Showing Some Hyde There: We didn't get too much with the lovely bromance between Victor and Jekyll this week but we did get to see Victor questioning the guy that Jekyll helped make sane from the previous episode while Victor also got to see the tiniest flash of Mr Hyde as well. We're only three episodes into the season so I can understand why we're not seeing Hyde in full form just yet but I hope when we do, it's genuinely explosive now that Once Upon A Time have also gotten in on the Jekyll and Hyde action as well.

Next week, Vanessa's finding herself being tempted by a certain someone.

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