Penny Dreadful “No Beast So Fierce”

So, the series is wrapping up now, and we see the last of Ferdinand Lyle.  The quirky Egyptologist is off to Cairo to study the tomb of Im-Ho-Tep.  And man, it’s too bad they never came back for season four given who that guy is.

But before Lyle leaves, he does give Vanessa a name for a new ally.  It’s Catriona Hartdegen.  Who’s that?  She’s a fencer and a thanatologist, someone who’s studied the various aspect of death around the world.  The nice thing about someone like that is she actually will believe Vanessa when told Dracula is after Miss Ives.  She even gives us more backstory for the Big Bad Drac and where he’s been all this time.  Yes, she does somewhat tie him to the historic Vlad Tepes.  Her advice is for Vanessa to protect herself from the monster anyway she can.

Dr. Seward suggests the way to do that, since Dracula is a predator, is to surround herself with friends and allies.  But, yeah, with Lyle leaving, Sembene dead, Victor missing, and everyone else bumming around the States, Vanessa doesn’t really have any friends.  Seward suggests Vanessa hook up with that nice Dr. Sweet, since any port in a storm, ya know?

And Vanessa does hook up with the understanding, sensuous, passionate Dr. Sweet.  Meaning they have sex.  You’d think that would good news for Vanessa, but then we’d have to forget Sweet is Dracula, so the guy she goes to in order to avoid Dracula actually is Dracula.

Seward’s advice sucks.

It isn’t much better for the others in London.  Caliban goes to comfort his sleeping, consumptive son, and the boy recognizes his father.  Then the kid opens his eyes and sees Dear Old Dad is kinda pale and covered with head scars.  Panicked screaming starts.  Caliban can’t catch a break.

Neither can Victor.  Though he has a tranquilizer to potentially knock Lily out, Lily has gone recruiting.  Lots of angry prostitutes out there, and even a dim asshole like Dorian Gray can have it spelled out for him that he’s basically just tolerated by women like Justine who’d just assume kill all men everywhere.  Dorian does manage to save Victor’s life when it comes out that, surprise surprise, Victor sucks at sneaking into places to kidnap people.  Yeah, Lily isn’t going to let Victor go again, and suggests he may be called upon to, you know, revive her followers if the worst happens.

But the real action happens at the Talbot ranch.  Just before Jared is set to kill his son, word comes that the Marshall and Inspector Rusk are here looking to arrest Ethan.  That leads to world’s most awkward dinner as Ethan, Sir Malcolm, Hecate, Rusk, the Marshall, and Jared sit down while guards hang around.  Jared tells his son to say grace.  He does by making it all about Satan.  The Marshall points out that Jared killed his men, so there will be a reckoning.  Then that idiot turns to pick up his fork and Jared shoots him.  So, you know, dinner is even more awkward.  Sir Malcolm tries to keep the peace, saying he drove his own son away, but there are things Sir Malcolm doesn’t know, and eventually something happens outside.  Guns are drawn, Hecate goes all Nightcomer, and the shooting starts.  Hired guns go down.  Sir Malcolm is saved by Kaetenay since that old guy ain’t dead yet.  Rusk manages to put one in Hecate, meaning Ethan now has one less awful person telling him to do bad things.  Ethan himself takes out Rusk, and then he, Sir Malcolm, and Kaetenay head off for the chapel to deal with Jared.

And that’s when Ethan also remembers he isn’t a totally awful person by refusing to put one in his unarmed father in the family chapel.  Sure, Jared says he’ll never stop hunting his son, but just because Ethan won’t kill the old man doesn’t mean Sir Malcolm won’t.  Remember:  that guy was once James Bond.

Now let’s get everybody back to London to stop that Dracula guy.