Penny Dreadful wrapped up its terrific second season last night with a subdued but spectacular finale. While I’ve seen some on the internet criticizing the episode because the fight between Vanessa, the Nightcomers, and Satan himself reaches its climax about twenty minutes into the hour, what some people appear to be missing is how brilliantly “And They Were Enemies” ties the entire second season together. Despite how disparate many of this year’s storylines seemed to be at times, Penny Dreadful‘s Season 2 finale was incredibly satisfying way on a thematic level, as each character faced his or her darkness and decided to atone for it or embrace it.
Penny Dreadful has always been a series about individuals dealing with their inner demons (and in the case of Vanessa, these demons can sometimes be literal), but the show’s second season took that idea to a new level. The powers (or curses, depending on the individual) of all the characters caused them to look within themselves and examine who they truly are; they focused deeply on the sins that they have committed throughout their lives, and whether or not they could continue to live in the darkness or if they had to rebel against it in some way, cleansing their souls or ensuring that they could never do harm to others. This led to a more somber, reflective final episode, especially in its second half, but the exchanges between all of the characters and the gorgeously shot final images of the season packed more punch than any demonic fight ever could.
Each installment of this season of Penny Dreadful built beautifully to the final moments of “And They Were Enemies.” Throughout Season 2, Sir Malcolm has felt the guilt of his children’s deaths, and then his wife’s death; with the loss of Sembene, he travels to Africa to ensure that he’ll be able to provide the “proper man” an equally proper funeral, a way of honoring his friend but of also atoning for his inability to give Mina, Peter, and Gladys any type of solace before they left this world. Similarly, both Ethan and John Clare also find themselves traveling at the end of the finale, as Ethan turns himself in for the mass murders he had been accused of before discovering that he’s been extradited back to America, while John Clare appears to have arrived at the Arctic Circle to keep away from those who do him harm and, thereby, bring out the worst side of him. Both men come to grips with the darkness that lives inside their souls and choose to not run away from it but survive with it; they understand it is a part of them, but they do not allow it to overtake their minds and actions.
And Ethan and John Clare’s reactions to their inner demons couldn’t be more different than the behavior of Lily and Dorian, who fully embrace the evil inside themselves, taunting Victor when he arrives at Dorian’s home and gleefully promising to extinguish the mortals that inhabit London. They envisioning the city as a place where only supreme, immortal beings such as them can live. Viktor’s interaction with the duo is the cause of his spiral; unlike Ethan and John Clare, Victor doesn’t take any type of action to battle against his more destructive and dangerous impulses and instead succumbs to them, injecting morphine into his finger when he can no longer find a usable vein in his arm, an attempt to escape from the truth that he created a real monster by bringing Lily to life.
And then, of course, there’s Vanessa, who openly tells Lucifer himself that she knows exactly what she is, before destroying the life-like puppet of herself that acted as Satan’s vessel. In “And They Were Enemies,” Vanessa never tries to hide from the true darkness within her, but she doesn’t let it fully engulf her like Lily or Dorian, either. Instead, she uses it as a tool, a means of rescuing herself and her friends from Poole and the Nightcomers, and it’s that balancing act that makes Vanessa the most impressive and dangerous of all of Penny Dreadful‘s characters; however, it’s also what guarantees that she’s left by herself at the episode’s end.
“We walk alone,” Vanessa says in the closing moments of the finale, but really, it seems to not be a “we” but an I. She’s the only person able to control her darker nature and wield that power as a force for something neither good nor evil but self-sustaining. In the end, Penny Dreadful Season 2 was about self-exploration and realizing one’s true identity; Vanessa finally came to understand who she is throughout these ten episodes, an isolated victory in a world still filled with so much loss, an achievement that she could not share with anyone for it is she who walks alone towards whatever unknown challenges await her.
[Photos via Showtime]
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