The Monster Squad walk alone into an indistinct future.
Here is our review of Penny Dreadful season 2, episode 10.
Penny Dreadfulbrings a classy denouement of an ending to a suspenseful season.
He offered his throat willingly to the wolf of god last week.
Evelyn Poole (Helen McCrory) brought true living essence into her fully formed fetishes.
The doll that housed the soul of the fallen angel had some life in it.
There was nothing special going on as far as special effects, it was the wood itself.
I was wary to watch her look into them and I knew it was a doll.
Ad content continues below
Know yourself has been a theme throughout the season.
Every episode has at least one serious discussion where the answer lies within a characters true nature.
That thing of theirs that makes them special and yet condemns them to lonely torture.
The father of lies presents the gloriously bright The Last Temptation of Ives.
They are long past housebroken and Ethan and Eva look so happy.
In the family memory room of the Witches castle Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) confronts his sins.
And boy does immortality bite him on the ass.
They were born innocent.
They became monsters because the junkie doctor couldnt get a big enough fix of half successes.
He actually pulled the trigger on his daughter and shell never let him forget it.
There is no horror like family horror.
It is usually reserved for holiday dinners with figgy pudding.
One of those was due to the devils own tongue, but no.
She is in no mood for guilt.
Vanessa opens her response with a growl that comes from the depths of the soul.
It so obviously reverberated with mystic menace even the wooden eyes of the mask looked scared.
And thus began the second conjuration duel of the season.
These are chilling affairs.
Two voices made unearthly and dangerously subterranean.
The scene didnt need the rumbling furniture to give the impression that dimensions were shifting.
The duet of deviltry and divinity had all the menace needed.
There was a real transference between the doll and Vanessa Ives.
Vanessas fingers look porcelain against the dolls face.
She is a scorpion and they have a way of getting under the skin.
The softening of the wolfs face was beautiful.
Here the Ethan werewolf get the chance to to run away before he devours his girlfriend.
Caliban (Rory Kinnear) wasnt made to scream.
He was made to make other scream, and he really wasnt happy with that role either.
Hes a poet at heart and a true appreciator of the arts.
He is offered the chance to spend his days and nights locked away with a veritable library of anthologies.
So many that it makes ones head spin.
Well, Mrs. Putneys head.
Mr. Putney didnt spin so much as splat.
Victor left the blind girl to clean up his mess.
I hope Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) also has a crack domestic team.
Who would think a waltz could be so mephisto.
It will be another generation until the tango puts violence to a sexier beat.
Dr. Frankenstein is the perennial wallflower because he always brings panic to the disco.
Who does he think he is, Puff Daddy on a New Years Date with JLo?
These are true immortals hes tickling with his lead love letters.
The physician is left to heal thy self, but cant even find a vein.
Vanessa goes to the chaotic monster to sort out her own life.
Throughout this whole season, the scenes between Caliban and Vanessa have been the most beautiful.
The scenes are shot more intimately.
They have an emotional nakedness that is avoided in all the other relationships.
Caliban doesnt ask Vanessa to come with him because he needs her to comfort him in his solitude.
He asks because she needs.
He would sacrifice all for her needs.
I dont get why Ethan walks out on Vanessa.
Why does he throw that away to let Scotland Yard inspector Rusk (Douglas Hodge) have his collar.
And put him on a leash all the way to America, no less.
He deserves better than that, and he should know it, being the wolf of god and all.
The monster squad breaks up with touches of It from Stephen King.
I was frustrated by their acquiescence.
Rating:
4 out of 5
