Monday, June 20, 2016

Penny Dreadful: "Perpetual Night" Review


Penny Dreadful | "Find Vanessa" Official Clip | Season 3 Episode 9

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Fogs, frogs, and feedings. By Matt Fowler

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Heading into this, it wasn"t fully clear if Penny Dreadful was burning off both the penultimate episode and the finale for Season 3 in one night or if the finale itself was to be considered a two-parter. Given how short "Perpetual Night" was though - clocking in at less than 45 minutes - I guess I"d have to say the answer fell into the two-parter category.

Not that the ending wasn"t cool - with Ethan wolfing out on Dracula"s vampire minions and then the reveal that Kaetenay was also a werewolf (explaining his snake venom survival!) - but the episode did feel a bit short-sheeted, as if it were missing that final scene or two to drive things home. Maybe even a scene with Vanessa to put more of a solid stamp on it.

Mostly, aside from Victor allowing Lily to go free, "Perpetual Night" was about bringing everyone (except John Clare) together in a crusade to save Vanessa. And that meant Catriona and Dr. Seward both arriving, separately, at Sir Malcolm"s place at opportune moments - Seward to help provide answers through Renfield and Catriona to help annihilate attacking vampires.

So just as everyone came together to rescue Sir Malcolm last season, a team"s been assembled to topple Dracula"s dark hold on London. Which the show actually went through with, the whole End Times scenario. Seven thousand dead in one week, huh? Does this mean most everyone"s now indoors? Fled the city? And will this fog of pestilence remain only in London or is the fate of the world actually at stake? I have a few questions as this is the biggest Penny Dreadful"s gone with its apocalypse scenario.

Billie Piper"s impassioned, tragic speech about Brona"s dead daughter was a true episode highlight. Because there had to be a reason for Victor, this late in the game, to let Lily go. So there had to be a story sad enough to reach him, and us, and the tale of a baby freezing to death because her w***e mother got knocked out by a violent client was absolutely devastating.

The Verdict

A short, quick review here for a curiously short penultimate episode of Penny Dreadful, I"m afraid. I applaud the show"s choice to go full pestilence-apocalypse, but I still have questions about it. Perhaps they"ll be addressed in the finale. I mean, I once had questions about Kaetenay and some of them got answered right at the end of this one. Though, did anyone else notice how Wolf-Ethan was also surprised by the Kaetenay reveal? Did he know know his Apache father was a wolf too?

Editors" Choice

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/20/penny-dreadful-perpetual-night-review

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