Penny Dreadful “The Nightcomers”

Things are getting really creepy here.  It may be time for another flashback for Vanessa.

So, wait, where did Vanessa learn to use the tarot cards and whatnot?  Well, she did have some training.  After her vision of Mina at Mama Ives’ funeral, Vanessa went looking for answers, and said answers took her to a distant cottage in the countryside where there resided an old witch who was called the Cut Wife due to her practice of helping young women with unwanted pregnancies.  Though she seems to spend a lot of time gathering herbs and such, there is some actual power in the Cut Wife since she manages to freeze Vanessa just outside her gate for about a day.

It takes a little convincing on Vanessa’s part to get the Cut Wife’s tutelage, though.  Like knowing where and how the old woman was basically branded by someone she counted as a sister once upon a time, or maybe something more.  Hard to say.  Eventually it comes out the Cut Wife calls herself a Daywalker, a person who practices magic more or less out in the open and is very careful not to make a deal with the devil or any of the folks who apparently fell with him.  Those who do that become Nightcomers like Evelyn Poole.

Hey, guess who branded the Cut Wife!

Oh, yeah, Evelyn and the Cut Wife know each other.  Evelyn has managed to retain some of her youth, and when she shows up looking for Vanessa, the Cut Wife won’t turn her over, so Evelyn does what any sneak will do:  use her powers to kill the local lord’s cattle, entice him with ideas and really, really rough sexual stuff, and then get the whole village howling for the Cut Wife’s blood.

Wait, why didn’t Evelyn and Vanessa seem to recognize each other at that party from season one?  Oh well.  Never mind.

Anyway, it works.  The Cut Wife, real name Joan Clayton, is burned at the stake.  She was dying anyway.  That happens when it turns out you’re old enough to have gotten a personal deed to your land from Oliver Cromwell.  Vanessa herself is branded and then…everyone goes their separate ways?  Wait, if Evelyn wanted Vanessa, why not take her while she was burnt from that iron cross?

I think I should stop here, since this stuff is just confusing me at this point.