Penny Dreadful - S01E08 Grand Guignol (2014)

Review

Vanessa confirms she knows where Mina has moved to post "plague" ship, which ties the first season together as it's the Grand Guignol, which has been quietly prominent all season. Over at the playhouse that dripped blood the Creature Caliban misconstrues a kindness shown to him by one of the actresses and gets his arse booted out of his home, which naturally leads him back to Doc Frankenstein's lair to see what might be on the slab. Luckily for Caliban the Doc has acquired just the right body to make the creature a mate, which isn't going to sit well with Ethan Chandler when he eventually learns the Doc was a bit premature in acquiring a suitable body. Man is this aspect going to rock in season two.

Sir Malcolm purchases a new invention, an automatic pistol that can stop an elephant for that night's assault on the Grand Guignol. While in the gun shop he runs across an old acquaintance named Evelyn, aka Madame Kali, who we last saw at the séance where Vanessa went all demonic. I don't think this is a chance meeting by the way, spadework going in for season two is my call. Oh and guess what, Ethan runs across a couple of Pinkerton men who have been tasked with bringing him back to the States and his father, unfortunately for the pair Ethan shows a bestial nature that came as something of a surprise. The episode culminates with the Scooby gang taking on the vampire crew at the Grand Guignol; Sir Malcolm is called upon to do something drastic as the assault looks like turning into a disaster.

I'm somewhat surprised that they closed out the Mina storyline this season, for mine it appeared to have a couple more seasons in it. Surprisingly things were a lot easier for the Scooby gang than expected with a couple of surprise twists that had me bouncing with joy. Firstly Sir Malcolm does what we didn't expect while intriguingly informing Mina that he already has a daughter; has he come to terms with Vanessa and forgiven past transgressions or at least realised that Vanessa may not have been completely in control of herself at the time? Equally we learn the head vamper wasn't the Master, cool we have the big bad hovering in the background for a command performance in a future season. I was also happier than a baby in a topless bar when the head vamp was taken down and this took the wind out of the sails of the rest of the nest, one of those at times forgotten vampire lore things - kill a vampire and you dispatch it's off spring. Actually just as well Sir Malcolm tooled up for festivities as it looked like the rest of the Scooby gang were rapidly taking a starring role on the dinner menu. I still think the vampire chicks bare an unhealthy resemblance to the Wraith from Stargate Atlantis, but let's not brood over minor elements of an otherwise excellent first season.

The season finale raises as many new questions as it answers

Now I did have one teeny wheeny problem with the episode, and it was all to do with Ethan Chandler. Seems Ethan has a touch of the wolf about him, which had been alluded to a number of times during the first season. When the Pinkerton dudes attempt to waylay him Ethan goes all lupine and delivers something of a spanking to his pursuers. If he has his wolverine powers on standby why didn't he flip the switch as things hit the fan in the vampire lair later in the episode? Minor grip, and it may well get explained in a later season, but it nagged away at me as the end credits rolled. The other problemo for mine was whether or not Ethan, while howling at the moon, has left a trail of bodies behind him as seen in previous episodes. Clearly Ethan is meant to be our square jawed hero, the character harkens back to Quincey P. Morris from Bram Stoker's Dracula, ergo he can't be taking toll of London's under classes in rampant style. Now that's a quandary for a later season, assuming the writers haven't forgotten about the weight of scenes dedicated to building up the issue.

Doctor Victor has been forced to re-assess his opinion of his creature Caliban and we learn exactly why the good Doc was bonding with Ethan over at the gun range in the previous episode. Caliban has reached a new low ebb with the kindness of an Actress being misinterpreted. Without a place to stay he has returned to the Lab in a pretty despondent state, his tale of woe is enough to curb Victor from taking desperate action, something we expected to happen after the murder by Caliban of Van Helsing in an earlier episode. Victor goes so far as to acquire a future "mate" for Caliban, unfortunately this involves smothering the ailing Brona Croft, which is no doubt going to come back to bite the good Doctor on the arse next season. So yes finally some movement at the station in terms of the Frankenstein sub-plot, which no doubt has some dark twists ahead. Actually have to admit the whole Frankenstein thing isn't really a highlight for mine, but what the hey, let's see where it might lead.

Naturally we get some Dorian Gray hijinks as Gray seems enamelled by Vanessa, and who can blame him given that corset. For her part Vanessa appears to want nothing to do with 50 Shades, but can't resist the elicit nature of it all. A lot about Gray to be revealed of course, am looking forward to how they tie that in with the evolving and twisting plot points, and of course we must have a date to view a certain portrait that has me at least frothing at the mouth for the unveiling.

Sir Malcolm finally confesses he has no intention of journeying back to Africa, and who can blame him considering the Dark Continent has taken his son previously. Not quite sure how this revelation went toward defining the character, but would imagine it's been written out of the script to ensure we have Timothy Dalton's complete and undivided attention through season two. There's still quite a bit to learn about Sir Malcolm, we already know he has a dark side - don't all the characters in Penny Dreadful but I would imagine there could be a few more disclosures that bring into question Malcolm's character.

As the curtain comes down on the first season of Penny Dreadful I'm pretty much happy with the eight episodes it comprised. Excellent acting, with Eva Green stealing the show, superb production values, and an eye to period authenticity, television doesn't get much better than this. I've got a number of questions with an eye to season two, and have my fingers crossed that we have more fictional period characters introduced as the next season rolls. Full marks for season one however, though it did drag on occasion with a few episodes positively glacial in pace.

Grand Guignol was a satisfying conclusion to the season with the major plot arc, Mina turned vamper, sorted. No doubt the Victorian Scooby gang will have a lot more on their plates in coming seasons, but I reckon you can't go wrong with Vampires and the eventual clearing of a major nest to get a new series underway with. Bring on season two, based on this episode it's going to be a ripper!