Penny Dreadful Closes With Its Biggest Monster Mash Yet

Given that Penny Dreadful, in its very premise, is kind of a fanfic-ish concept -- "Let's slap together a bunch of characters from classic literature's most ghoulish titles and see how they interact!" -- it's fitting that its season finale served so well as fan service. At least, if that fan is me.

Now that we know the show will return for a second season, it's important (to me) that the finale dispensed with two of the dullest storylines of the season. Mina Murray Harker: we barely got to know you, and even in that big flashback episode, you seemed like kind of a drip, so while one can never really be sure that a vampire is really and truly dead dead, I hope we're done dealing with you. Brona Croft: it's fine if you come back in some other form, as seems inevitable, but I'm glad we're no longer going to be subjected to your pitiful decline and (more to the point) bloody pillowcase. The only other thing that could have made me happier is if H.G. Wells's Time Traveller were to enter the story to remove Proteus from Victor's lab juuuuuust before his older "brother" killed him, and then plop him back there in time to kill the original Creature right when he was on the verge of getting his bride.

And...okay, if I'm being totally honest, I might have been okay with it if this had been the end for Vanessa. While I appreciated the moment when Sir Malcolm finally agreed with Ethan that he could trade his one adopted demon daughter for his biological one, I'm not that interested in where Vanessa's character can go, post-possession. Just because her medium powers are legit doesn't mean they've actually been that helpful to this particular Scooby gang; and if, as the finale's very last moment seemed to suggest, Season 2 is going to be about her embracing her gift and figuring out how to harness it, repeat performances of her crazy trances (and crazy voices) are going to be just that -- repetitive. It's not that I think Eva Green is a bad actor, but this character has had two modes so far: either controlled with pointedly knowing looks, or completely fucking nutso in the thrall of the spirits. If the search for Mina is over, isn't Vanessa's usefulness over too?

But whatever, I can make my peace with Vanessa if -- as seems to be the case -- Dorian Gray's continuing role on the show is contingent on his entanglement with her, EVEN THOUGH I think we ALL would be MUCH MORE INTERESTED in seeing him further explore his relationship with Ethan. Though now that Brona's out of the picture (as far as the living are concerned), Ethan probably has more time to devote to servicing his friendships -- and, if Dorian's whole thing is collecting new experiences to stave off the boredom inherent in his hedonism...I'm guessing "fucking a werewolf" isn't even something he thought to put on his list, but that he wouldn't be opposed.

Anyway, I feel satisfied by the end of the season arc, in the sense that I never cared that much about it and now it's over. I'm much more excited about the story possibilities that have opened up for Season 2. It seems inevitable that we'll get to find out exactly how Ethan turned into a werewolf (or if he's always been one), and what the deal is with his father. If Victor is successful a third time in reanimating a corpse, maybe he'll want to do it a whole bunch more -- and if he masters the particularities of female corpses with Brona, maybe he can make a bride of his own. And if The Master (Dracula, presumably) is still undead, and not whatever Sir Malcolm stabbed to death, then he could make a good Season 2 foe -- and if he were played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, I know a certain website producer who would die of happiness and then come back as a very chipper ghost.