Penny Dreadful 1.07 “Possession”

As much as I’m enjoying Eva Green as the tortured and possessed Vanessa Ives, this episode continued my frustration with the series. The entire episode circled around the central cast as they nursed Ives while she fought the demon within her from her room at Sir Malcolm’s home. This was the final episode before the season finale and the sense of urgency usually associated with such things just wasn’t there. It was a slow, reflective episode with lots of hand-wringing and repetition.

I just don’t understand the pacing of this series.

Vanessa’s demon took hold during her sexual encounter with Gray (Reeve Carney). Initially, Vanessa played sweet with Murray until it became apparent that the demon was speaking through her, saying things about Malcom and his son Peter that no one could know. After threatening Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) by going all Poltergiest with the furniture, Sembeme (Danny Sapani) steps in with a timely knock upside her head and she is confined to her room.

This same series of innocence, enticement and threat is played out with Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett). By the time Vanessa got to Chandler, I was so frustrated by the sameness of it all that I wanted to punch my television. Honestly, it felt like filler. Besides the few things Ives said to Malcolm, we learned nothing new about any of the other characters during Ives’ rants. It was a spectacular waste of time.

Victor initially tried to explain Vanessa’s malady through psychiatric means but even Freud wouldn’t have been able to psychoanalyze his way past a million spiders crawling out of a deck of tarot cards, so Victor is forced to accept the metaphysical. We did learn one new thing about the good doctor; he’s a junkie. Victor’s arm is riddled with track marks left by an addiction to morphine. It seems a little late in this first season to introduce another point of weakness for Victor. Pacing problems have plagued this series and this is just another example. The fact that Emostein (Rory Kinnear) spent the episode glaring at Victor from across the street (again) didn’t help my outlook either.

This episode wasn’t a complete loss, though. We did get a few surprises.

The demon inside of Ives loves her. He sympathizes with her as an outsider. While pretending to be Ethan Chandler, the demon reveals himself and speaks about being cast out of heaven. Indeed, Ives might be possessed by the devil himself. He wishes to join with her and watch the world burn together. In fact, Ives’ possession might tie into the Egyptian prophecy tattooed across the body of the first vampire we encountered this season. The hieroglyphics spoke of the end of the world and that it just what Ives’ demon intends to bring about.

Our other surprise came from the really real Ethan Chandler. After a priest fails an attempted exorcism (spectacular fail as Ives bites off a piece of his cheek like DeNiro in Cape Fear) Chandler tries to talk Vanessa down.

At the end of the episode, he seems to cast out Ives’ demon, at least temporarily, by pressing Bronna’s (Billie Piper) necklace to her forehead and shouting in Latin. Afterward, Chandler walks off like Alan Ladd in Shane or John Wayne in The Searchers.

Where the heck did that come from? It almost made the previous 50 minutes worth the wait.

I want so desperately to eat my words after the season finale. If they pull it off and surprise me, I will be happy to publicly apologize for these last few reviews.

But I don’t think it’s going to happen.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.