"NARRATOR:" "Previously on Penny Dreadful:" "Her gifts make her vulnerable." "They also make her desirable." "MINA:" "Vanessa, help me." "ETHAN:" "What happened to Mina?" "She became embroiled with a creature." "She has become his slave, hovering between our world and his." "They are all about me." "What's your part in all this?" "My part is my own." "MALCOLM:" "I lost a son in Africa." "[IN PETER'S VOICE] Father mine, let me come with you." "I'll prove myself a proper explorer." "Peter loves you, Father." "[ALL GASP]" "Amunet, girl?" "No, much older." "LYLE:" "Amunet was the consort of Amun-Ra, the original serpent prince." "He was sustained by feeding on the souls of others." "I would not tell Ms. Ives this." "Who wants to know they are hunted by the devil?" "[ROARS]" "VANESSA:" "What's happened?" "MALCOLM:" "It came after you." "All a ploy." "But it was Mina who led me to him." "She may be your enemy." "Can you blame her?" "Where's Vanessa?" "I want Mother." "Why do you want her?" "Why does everyone want her'?" "[SHRIEKS]" "But for my transgression, would this have occurred?" "We cannot unmake the past." "We shall live with our guilt, you and I." "VANESSA:" "My dearest Mina, my darling friend." "I began these letters when I recovered from my illness." "At first, I composed them perhaps even; month." "Then weekly, and now daily." "Soon, I will no doubt give up all other occupation and simply write." "The ending of one letter becoming the beginning of the next, an endless ribbon of words." "I write in hope that one day you will answer me, and that everything can again be like it was." "Though I know that can never be." "[LAUGHING]" "I don't remember clouds when we were young." "Were there any, my dearest Mina?" "Just beyond the horizon, perhaps?" "Or was it an seashore and sand castles?" "Such a thought is naive, I know." "But aren't memories always that?" "Let's go in and go terribly far out." "We mustn't." "We'll get in trouble." "You're afraid." "No, I'm not." "Then come in with me." "How far do you think we could swim?" "Far as we want." "Everywhere." "What would we do when we got there?" "Everything." "I think we should go in and go as far out as we can see." "No, we shouldn't." "Will you always be afraid, Mina mine?" "VANESSA :" "Were ever two families closer than ours?" "I don't remember a day that gate between our homes was closed." "Until the day it closed forever." "Hello, Mrs. Murray." "Gorgeous day for the homecoming." "We're all at sixes and sevens." "Children are in the solarium." "Good morning, Mr. Andrews." "Good morning." "VANESSA:" "Good morning." "Good morning, Peter." "God, still at that monkey?" "As much as I try, it just looks dead." "He's not an "it," he's a "he." Give him a name." "Van, he's a stupid dead monkey." "You have to give them names or they'll never come to life." "It's like a witch's spell." "Heh, heh." "This is Ariel from Shakespeare." "MINA:" "You're forever working on things that eat other things." "I think you're bloodthirsty." "I'm bloodthirsty." "She's just ghoulish." "I think Mr. Andrews has the most luxurious mustaches." "I know, he's gorgeous." "And so tall." "I'm sure I'll marry a tall man." "I couldn't love someone stunted, it'd be too embarrassing at balls." "What sort of man will he be?" "Hm." "Over 6 feet at least." "With mustaches he waxes daily and tiny feet for dancing." "Heh." "What about you?" "Anything but one of Father's dreadful solicitors." "[CHUCKLES]" "Then, of course, you're going to marry Peter." "Everyone says so." "I shan't be here to marry you, Van." "Where will you be?" "In Africa with Father." "Are you sure you want to be an explorer?" "Well, I can't be making stuffed monkeys my whole life." "Heh." "[BELL RINGING]" "[DOOR OPENS THEN CLOSES]" "MAN:" "Be careful with those bags." "Father." "Hello, Peter." "MINA:" "Father." "And there's my girl." "Hello." "Ha-ha-ha." "You're so thin." "I can feel your ribs this time." "Heh, heh." "And you haven't worn your hat." "Oh." "You caught me." "The first thing I lost." "VANESSA:" "What was the second?" "My way." "[ALL LAUGH]" "Hello, Gladys." "[SOBBING]" "None of that, dear." "What did you bring me?" "Well, let's see." "What have we got here?" "Now..." "Ugh." "What is it?" "It's a serval." "Genus Leptailurus from the shores of Lake Tanganyika." "How gorgeous." "Thank you, Father." "MALCOLM:" "Now, I'm as hungry as a crocodile." "Have you put on a proper feast?" "[CHATTERING]" "[LAUGHS]" "CLAIRE:" "Did you hear that, Gladys?" "GLADYS:" "I think you should tell Peter." "Yes." "Excuse me." "VANESSA:" "Those festive homecomings I remember most." "They were our true holidays." "My mother and father were always welcome company at your table." "[MALCOLM LAUGHING]" "Your father would return to us with rare gifts and a sunburn." "Now, would anyone like to hear about my encounter with the cannibals'?" "Yes." "MALCOLM:" "Yes?" "Good." "VANESSA:" "But rarest of all were his tales of adventure." "I'm sure much edited for our ears." "MALCOLM:" "We suddenly heard a cry:" "[SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]" "VANESSA:" "Peter's eyes would light up." "Such a marvelous future he imagined alongside his father." "[WHISPERING INDISTINCTLY]" "MALCOLM:" "Before we knew it, we were tangled up in ropes and nets, there they were." "Shouting, waving their spears, chanting, "Nyame!" "Nyame!" "Nyame!"" "Nyame means "meat." WOMEN:" "Oh!" "Flesh." "Food." "Us." "ALL:" "Ha-ha-ha." "CLAIRE:" "That's awful." "[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]" "Shall we begin?" "VANESSA:" "But for all our kinship, my Mina, we were not completely alike." "The mysteries of my Catholic Church were alien to you and your family." "Had I been older, I would have seen more." "Beneath the laughter, beneath that great, easy outpouring of conversation." "It wasn't tension exactly, was it?" "Not amongst two such congenial families." "No." "It was more a tremor of something." "Like words hollered down a bottomless pit that come back occluded and more complex." "Adulthood, maybe." "And on that terrible night, that night it happened, did anything particularly important happen at the dinner?" "No, not that I recall." "[WOMAN LAUGHS]" "Honestly, I thought I was going to find you and Peter around the next comer, playing some trick on me." "[WOMAN PANTING AND MOANING]" "[PANTING AND MOANING]" "My mother." "Your father." "More than the shock, the sinfulness, the forbidden act, there was this:" "I enjoyed it." "Something whispered." "I listened." "Perhaps it has always been there, this thing, this demon inside me." "[MALE VOICE WHISPERING INDISTINCTLY]" "Or behind my back, waiting for me to tum around,." "[WHISPERING STOPS]" "[SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]" "VANESSA:" "I didn't tell you what I saw." "How could I?" "There was no need for you to grow up so fast." "Tomorrow, we should go into town." "Yes." "VANESSA:" "You couldn't have endured it." "Or so I told myself." "Perhaps I was just cherishing the secrecy of it as a hidden sin." "But in me, there was a change." "I marked it from that night in the hedge maze." "Perhaps it was always there." "Little acts of wickedness." "Harmless, of course." "Something any girl would do." "I told myself it was no more than mischief." "But I knew it was more." "Of course I did." "♪ Cold blows the wind to my true love ♪" "♪ And gently drops the rain ♪" "♪ I have never had but one true love ♪" "♪ And in greenwood he lies slain'" "VANESSA:" "And as we grew up, and you grew lovelier, it was no wonder to me that you met your gentleman first." "Or than he had luxurious mustaches." "Such a gallant young officer." "What a handsome couple you were." "Found you." "[ALL LAUGH]" "Have some tea." "Thank you." "Thank you." "VANESSA:" "It was the season of Peter's inadequate beard." "I watched your courtship with Captain Branson flourish." "[BOTH SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]" "All the stratagems of advance and retreat." "I always thought of myself as the stronger one." "But here, you were so valiant." "How could he not be conquered?" "[LAUGHING]" "I think you set your future at that table." "He spoke of India and suddenly I saw you going." "When would I see you again?" "Isn't India so terribly far away?" "What would I do?" "Marry Peter?" "God, how I envied you." "Perhaps I even hated you." "How was it possible that you, always so meek and obliging, were to have this greatest of adventures before me?" "[VANESSA  MINA LAUGHING]" "You would know love, you would know a man's touch while I, the courageous one, knew nothing of life." "Mina, my dear." "[BOTH SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]" "Of course, he's a fine man." "I've no doubt of that." "He'll make a proper husband." "But I hate to think of her out in India with all that heat and those filthy wogs." "VANESSA:" "What do you think Africa will be like?" "Oh, God, Van." "Don't mention that." "Every time I try and talk with Father about it, he shies away." "Maybe you shouldn't ask anymore." "It's all I've ever dreamed about." "You know that." "My father and I off on an adventure, blazing some daring new trail." "Perhaps..." "What?" "Perhaps then, I wouldn't be such a disappointment to him." "I was never the son he wanted." "Always ill, never good at games." "A disappointment." "He needed someone more like..." "Me?" "[CHUCKLES]" "You'll be all alone when I go." "Mina in India, me with Father." "That'll be sad for you." "But I suppose" "[GRUNTING]" "Oh." "The minister's coming at 7 and Mother wants us there." "You know how she is about time." "VANESSA:" "If I could only go back now, I would run after him and say:" ""Don't go." "Don't go to Africa." "You'll never survive, you're too weak." "You're beautifully weak, Peter." "I love you for your weakness."" "For at that moment, Mina, I saw the future crystal clear." "[SPEAKING IN LATIN]" "[SOBBING]" "I tried to pray that night." "God didn't answer me." "But another did,." "MALE VOICE:" "Soon, child." "What games we will have." "[CHATTERING]" "VANESSA:" "You were never happier than that weekend." "On the following morning you would be married." "One move night as Ms. Mina Murray before you became Mrs. Charles Branson." "All right, dear." "Bye-bye." "VANESSA:" "You didn't seem to mind this loss of self." "Perhaps I minded it for you." "[THUNDER RUMBLING]" "You've found me out." "Last night of freedom, eh?" "[WHISPERS] Would you like to see something interesting?" "No." "My Mina?" "[IN NORMAL VOICE] Your Mina." "You'll be relieved to know she only worked with the most pacific of animals." "This is her squirrel." "Heh." "Which are yours?" "Not the docile ones." "That doesn't surprise me." "I've always felt you have to name a thing before it comes to life, like a witch's spell." "His name is Ariel." "The most challenging bit is the eyes." "They're glass, of course, so by nature are dead and dull." "But that wouldn't do for my great predator." "So I put mirrors behind the glass eyes, so they would spark." "[WHISPERING] You see?" "It's like they're alive." "They are." "I would put mirrors behind the entire world if I could." "[BOTH GRUNTING]" "[VANESSA GRUNTING]" "[HORSE NEIGHING]" "[MINA SOBBING]" "There, there." "Vanessa!" "Vanessa, come back!" "This is obscene!" "You mustn't!" "How can I not?" "Have you no shame?" "!" "Get upstairs this instant." "How dare you speak to me of shame?" "Get upstairs yourself and make amends to my father." "I have to see her." "To do what?" "Make this right." "I always thought my traveling would kill my family." "Being away so long." "My thoughtlessness." "I never imagined it would be a cruel little girl." "VANESSA:" "When the illness came, it was absolute." "I was aware of almost nothing." "The doctors were at a loss to explain it." "Because, you see, it was inexplicable." "[YELLS]" "[GASPING AND GRUNTING]" "Thank you." "Thank you." "I have her." "I have her." "You must eat." "[SIGHS]" "They don't think it's epilepsy anymore." "Did I tell you that?" "Dr. Kingston doesn't know what to think." "Ridiculous little man." "They fear" "They fear that, perhaps, it's your brain." "Something inside you." "What else?" "What else?" "Um..." "Mina's gone." "She didn't want to stay here." "Should we not talk of Mina?" "I don't know." "[VOICE BREAKING] I don't know." "We don't talk to the Murrays, or they to us." "I tried going over there, but I was not welcome." "Sir Malcolm..." "They don't know what's wrong with you, darling." "The seizures." "The seizures are so terrible." "[IN NORMAL VOICE] We shall be consulting a specialist in London." "Heh." "You always liked London." "So perhaps the change..." "We've booked rooms near the Strand." "There's a-- There's a clinic nearby that are well-known for treating women's disorders." "An asylum." "I am not mad, Mother." "I am not unhappy." "You should let me die." "[SOBBING]" "[BELL TOLLING]" "Vanessa." "Do you understand what I've said?" "I think it best if you stepped outside, Mrs. Ives." "I'll stay." "I must speak frankly to your husband." "I'd like to stay." "This form of catatonia is not unknown to me." "The unusual physical exertions are manifestations of" "They were not exertions." "She was being tormented." "I have seen epileptic seizures that have broken bones, Mrs. Ives." "None of this impossible, just rare." "Hysteria of a psychosexual nature can be treated." "The treatments involve narcotics and escalating hydrotherapy." "Cold water reduces circulation to the brain, thereby reducing the metabolism and motor activity." "The agitation and mental trauma will slow and then cease." "I've seen it work, Mr. Ives, you can have no doubt." "CLAIRE:" "And what if it doesn't work?" "BANNING:" "If we see no improvement, there are surgical options open to us." "Yes." "Let's do that." "Mr. and Mrs. Ives, please leave the room immediately." "Mom swam" "It is very good to hear your voice, Vanessa." "I'm Dr. Christopher Banning and I hope to help you." "Your parents have-- I want to be out there." "You will be." "We have a lovely garden that-- I prefer the ocean." "Have you seen someone who's drowned?" "I have." "Not a dog or a cat." "Not enough soul in a dog or a cat." "I mean a man." "A hundred men." "A slave ship." "Yes." "More than anything." "Pulled right down with the men still chained." "Souls in torment who now find themselves in greater torment." "Have you seen that, Dr. Christopher Matthew Banning?" "Vanessa, it's very important to me that you sit down now." "Who's Vanessa?" "[BANNING GRUNTING AND VANESSA GROWLING]" "[SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]" "[WHIMPERING AND SHRIEKING]" "[SCREAMING]" "[SHOUTING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]" "[GRUNTING]" "[PEOPLE SCREAMING IN DISTANCE]" "[GRUNTING]" "[GASPING]" "[SCISSORS SNIPPING]" "[BELL RINGING]" "[DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES]" "Mrs. Ives." "May I step in?" "Of course." "Mr. Ives." "Peter." "I've come to say goodbye." "I'm, um... off to Africa with my father." "May I see her?" "Yes." "I don't think..." "Stay here." "You" " You mustn't be shocked." "She's much changed." "[VANESSA BREATHING HEAVILY]" "Van." "Oh, Van." "Will she die?" "If there is a God." "Is she always like this?" "No." "There are episodes of activity." "May I sit with her?" "Yes." "Of course." "Does she know me?" "We don't know." "But talk to her, it's meant to help." "Hello, Van." "It's Peter." "Closer, I'm afraid." "It's Peter." "I'm off to Africa." "Can you believe it?" "Finally having that adventure we talked about." "I'm very excited." "I walked by the shore yesterday where we used to swim." "[WHISPERING] Hey." "You should have kissed me." "Will you kiss me now?" "[SOFTLY] You're going to die there." "You're going to die there." "[GASPS]" "CLAIRE:" "Peter." "Good luck on your trip." "And thank you for coming." "Of course." "Peter, what did she say to you?" "I couldn't make her out." "[BREATHING HEAVILY]" "MALCOLM:" "Do you know Keats?" "The poet, I mean." "Keats, the poet." "[SOFTLY] I can't speak." "I'm too weak." "No, you're not." "[IN NORMAL VOICE] You are not here." "And yet..." "Who are you?" "You are not Sir Malcolm." "You have to name a thing to make it live, don't you?" "And shall I name you?" "Only if you want me to live." "Serpent." "Is that what you mean?" "Enchanter, deceiver, Prince of Darkness, devil of the pit?" "Have you such contempt for your old friend?" "So the Keats." "Four lines from "Ode to a Nightingale"" "have always struck a chord with me." "Keats was dying when he wrote them, and he knew he was dying, which adds to the piquancy, don't you think?" "Would you like to hear them?" "Do I have a choice?" "Vanessa, please, you've always had a choice." "You allowed all this to happen." "Hell, you sought it out and fucked it." "You could have shut the door at any time." "You still can." "Right now." "Will you?" "Yes." "And give up everything we could have together?" "The true knowledge of man's virtue as well as his sin." "The power." "The sight beyond this world." "I want nothing beyond this world." "Don't lie to me." "You've always been drawn to the deep ocean, to the dark whisper... a mirror behind the glass eyes." "To life at its fullest." "Will you close that door now?" "So the Keats." "The lines from Keats." "Yes." "Darkling I listen" "And for many a time I have been Half in love with easeful Death" "Called him soft names In many a mused rhyme" "To take into the air my quiet breath" "So the darkness spoke." "Yes." "But you listened." "[THUMP]" "[THUMP]" "[VANESSA GRUNTING]" "[GRUNTING]" "PRIEST:" "May the soul of Claire Ives and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace." "Amen." "ALL:" "Amen." "Sister." "I do not blame you." "Whatever sin, it has been forgiven in your suffering." "So much suffering." "It is more than I deserve." "But I can't forgive myself." "There's so much to say." "Or so little." "I'm married now." "Can you imagine that?" "He's a lawyer, in the employ of Mr. Hawkins of Essex." "He doesn't have a mustache like my gallant Captain Branson." "But Mr. Harker is a good man and he loves me." "I'm happy for you." "And our poor Peter." "I'm so sorry." "If only you'd run after him that day in the maze... and held him tight, and told him not to go, and that you loved him for his weakness." "How do you know about that?" "I know about many things now, Vanessa." "The master has taught me much." "Things no one should ever know." "Help me." "Save me from him." "Please." "[MINA SCREAMS]" "[THUNDER RUMBLING]" "[BOTH SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE]" "Mina needs our help." "Will you let me in?" "And there's nothing more?" "No." "You believe you can reach out to her again?" "Or she to me." "I know you do not credit it." "You know nothing of me." "Do you know how many men I've killed?" "In Africa, we walked in blood every step." "There was a time I would gladly have killed you." "There may come a time when I gladly shall." "But for now, I can make use of you." "And no more?" "What else?" "Forgiveness?" "Go to your Roman Church for that, you'll find none here." "Have you imagined for one moment what this has been for me?" "An unforgivable transgression that has marked me for life." "You think you've suffered." "You think you know blood." "You think you've walked on corpses." "Spread them from here to the horizon and I have walked further." "You weak, foul, lustful, vainglorious man." "How dare you presume to speak to me of death'?" "Then we shall speak of it together." "Yes." "We will follow it to Mina." "Yes." "And then?" "You will be done." "I will walk on." "I'll have Sembene prepare a room." "This is your home now." "VANESSA:" "There is no exculpation I expect of you." "My guilt is my own and that I carry with me." "It is my present and my future." "It has damned me well beyond this short life of mine." "But I will not rest until you are safe." "There is no other purpose in my life." "I shall love you always." "Your dearest friend, Vanessa." "Postscript." "Your father loves you very much and would do anything to save you." "But I love you in a different way." "I love you enough to kill you." "[GIRLS LAUGHING]"