03x02 - Predators Far and Near

[bunniefuu]

Vanessa: Previously on Penny Dreadful...

I was introduced to a woman who saved my life.

A mental doctor.

Good afternoon. May I help you?

I'm here to see Dr. Seward.

Take a seat, Miss Ives.

There are no emotions unwelcome in this room, and if this process doesn't appeal to you, the door is there.

(GRUNTING)

My name is Kaetenay.

You must come with me.

Where?

Kaetenay: America. Our son needs us.

(g*nf*re)

(GROANS)

Welcome home, Ethan.

Ethan: Who are you?

Man: We're your liberators.

From those Federals who would have hung you from the neck until dead.

You work for my father.

Man wants to see you again.

Dr. Sweet: Dr. Alexander Sweet.

Director of Zoological Studies.

Noah in his ark.

Vanessa: Do you have a favorite?

Dr. Sweet: The unloved ones.

All the broken and shunned creatures.

Someone's got to care for them.

Who shall it be, if not us?

(KNOCKING)

Dr. Jekyll.

Dr. Frankenstein.

I have conquered death.

The old work?

(ELECTRICITY CRACKLING)

Frankenstein: I've created monsters.

Soon, he will kneel to us.

This sad little world is ours.

Frankenstein: You must help me destroy her.

What if I could tame her?

(GASPING IN TERROR)

(THE MASTER WHISPERING)

Tell me about Vanessa Ives.

I don't know anything! I don't know anything!

The Master: You will open her secrets to me.

My name is Dracula.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES)

(SCOFFS)

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CREAKING)

You are aware, sir, of the extremity.

Yes.

I mean, sir, the illegality.

I mean, sir, we butcher 'em.

I believe that's what I'm paying for.

Well, I hope you have a memorable evening, sir.

I'm sure of it.

(GASPING)

(GASPING)

(GRUNTS)

(GRUNTING)

Man: Please! No!

(CHOKING)

(g*n CLICKS)

(EXHALES)

Now...

You are mine.

♪

(INDISTINCT MUTTERING)

Bury 'em.

Rusk: Then where else would they go?

There's nothing else out there.

I'm a bit more concerned with that f*cking trainload of dead bodies.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to...

(DOOR OPENING)

Where's my g*dd*mn prisoner?

Ask him.

You Rusk? And you are?

Federal Marshal Franklin Ostow.

What happened?

He was taken from the train by brigands.

Your duty is discharged.

I'll sign the extradition order.

Go home.

Rusk: No, sir.

My duties will be discharged when I see Ethan Talbot at the end of a rope and not before.

If you're telling...

There'll be no conversation about it.

This is a federal matter now.

My duty is to the Queen.

So I see it as an imperial matter, which rather trumps your territorial jurisdiction.

If you so choose, take it up with the British Ambassador in Washington.

In the meantime, I intend to bring Mr. Talbot to heel, at which point... (EXHALES)

I will deliver him to the appropriate representatives of your government.

And how you gonna do that, Inspector?

You familiar with the territory?

No, sir.

But I have been on horseback for long stretches of my m*llitary career.

I've learned how to hunt, track, and sh**t from the saddle.

It's no great matter to me.

One-armed British man's gonna go into that desert and do some tracking, is he?

There's no tracking required.

I know precisely where he is.

They're heading for a town noted as Cascabel.

I shall apprehend him there.

And how do you know that?

All to the west of the desert.

That area in pink on the map.

What does it say?

(OSTOW) Talbot Range.

The wolf is returning to his den.

(OSTOW) All right, I'll get the men.

We'll get saddled up and head to Cascabel.

(SIGHING)

(DOOR CREAKING)

(RENFIELD CHUCKLES SOFTLY)

Hello, Miss Ives.

Oh, do sit down.

The doctor is just finishing up with another patient.

Thank you.

Renfield: When you've completed your session I'll need you to fill out some documentation.

Basic information: address and the like, you know.

Medical history.

Of course.

I'm glad the bells have stopped.

For Tennyson. (CHUCKLES) Made my head hurt.

My head hurt.

(DOOR OPENS)

This way, please.

(DOOR OPENS)

Gloves are a nice touch.

Didn't want to scratch my hand.

You mean you didn't want me to see you scratching your hand.

The gloves are to remind you but the itch is still there.

Sit down.

I record my sessions for later review, saves taking notes.

I've never heard my own voice.

You wouldn't like it. No one does.

These are for my ears only.

It makes you uneasy. Why?

An actual record of our deeds through life, and permanent.

How can we forget anything?

Why would you want to?

Who wants to remember their shame?

Or sin? Or... or foolishness?

Let's start with sin.

(WHIRRING)

Have you sinned?

Everyone has sinned.

Have they?

Mmm-hmm.

Including you? Yes.

When?

(SCOFFS)

How long is your cylinder?

Start with the first time.

(SIGHS) Apart from... childhood indiscretions, the first of importance then.

I...

I betrayed my dearest friend Mina on the eve of her wedding.

How?

How?

I seduced her fiance.

Dr. Seward: What was the result?

It led to catastrophe.

And eventually her death.

You blame yourself for her death.

Indirectly.

What directly then?

(WHIRRING)

It's hard to say. Can you turn that off?

No.

Tell me your story.

And if it involves m*rder?

Then let it.

And much beyond that.

What's beyond m*rder?

If you credit my story... if you believe the things I tell you, you'll never sleep quietly again.

Not as you did before.

Can you believe?

Tell me.

Frankenstein: I think you're just morbid.

Dr. Jekyll: Practical.

I swear my father has suffered every ailment an overstuffed Briton can endure, from gout to dropsy.

But he can't last forever.

And then?

Then I get the title and the estates and a proper lab.

Off to Harley Street I go.

Oh, yes, you'll fit in very well there.

I meant your work.

You meant my complexion.

Cambridge to Harley Street. Makes no bloody difference.

Once a wog, always a wog.

Henry.

My mother d*ed, you know.

After my noble pater left India.

Abandoned his exotic whore to her own devices.

But she was tainted by then.

Rejected by her own family.

Untouchable.

Do you know how she d*ed?

Leprosy.

(SCOFFS)

Oh, there's poetry in that, don't you think?

Truly untouchable.

I'm sorry.

And you wonder why I wait for that man to die.

It's not for the money or the title.

It's for the justice of the thing.

Of that duality that makes us who we are, he is wholly evil.

Duality?

We are all two things in a way, are we not?

Deep in the marrow.

Angel and Devil. Light and dark.

The pull between the two is the active verb which energizes our lives.

Or so I've come to believe, anyway.

Thus my current work.

Really, Victor, you must eat.

Get your strength back.

It's chops and spuds for breakfast every day now, old man.

As you say, Doctor.

And the injections?

We'll have a care to that, won't we?

You know I'll help in any way I can.

Yes, thank you, Henry.

Now, you were intending to take me to your lab.

Oh, yes, my lab.

It's right over there.

I work at Bedlam.

Dr. Jekyll: I was lucky to get the job at all.

As you can imagine, the more reputable hospitals and academies weren't lining up to hire the uppity little half-breed.

What's your actual position here?

I'm the resident somnolist.

Meaning, I keep the most violent patients sedated until the Crown can decide how to best dispense with them, which is mostly to let them rot, or to more actively starve them in some cases.

But they do give me a lab and no end of diverting subjects.

(DISTANT SCREAMING)

We're subterranean now, coiling away in the bowels of the city.

They keep the worst of them down here.

The cannibals and the infanticides.

The criminally insane.

The angel seeks the light, the beast seeks the dark.

Oh, they never see the light.

They only see me.

(DOOR CLANGS)

(CREAKING)

(LIQUID BUBBLING)

(DOOR CLOSING)

(LOCKING DOOR)

Frankenstein: A barber's chair?

With my own modifications.

I need to look into their eyes, you see.

Mirrors to the soul.

(EXHALES)

What?

Lily.

Yes?

I'll have to bring her here?

Into this awful place.

Yes. When we're ready.

(SIGHS HEAVILY)

So much I've put her through.

Her life has been...

I stopped her breath when she was Brona and gave it back to her as Lily.

And now I do this to her.

What we won't do for love.

Will it work?

Can we make her more calm?

Undoubtedly.

Can we render the beast dormant?

It's possible.

But can we make her love you?

I want her back.

As she was.

But before I bring her to this place... show me what you can do.

Vanessa: ...and without my God I feel utterly alone.

I don't even know who I am meant to be.

(VANESSA SNIFFLES)

(SOBBING)

(RECORDING CYLINDER STOPS)

(PANTING)

(SNIFFLES)

Filthy habit.

I've been trying to quit.

(KNOCKING ON DOOR)

Yes?

Yes, Mr. Renfield?

Oh, your next appointment has been waiting.

In a moment.

(DOOR CLOSES)

Look at me, Miss Ives.

We will find our way through this.

But today, right now, I want you to do something that you believe might make you happy.

Even for a moment.

Doesn't matter what it is, no matter how capricious or unlikely.

Tell me about it at our next session.

That'll be all. Good day.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(SIGHS)

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

(TYPEWRITER CLACKING)

Sir Malcolm: Cable October, date uncertain, 1892.

Vanessa.

Traveling now. Bound for the Americas.

Have in mind to do some hunting.

Tell me you are well.

(GROANING)

Signed, Malcolm Murray.

God grant us anything but ships.

You've been in many, though, in your travels.

Doesn't make it any more pleasant.

I was once of a mind to travel to South America to hunt the big cats.

But the prospect of the ocean... brought me to my senses.

Kaetenay: Which cats?

Sir Malcolm: Oh, jaguars and the like.

Lions in Africa are easy prey for the most part, especially if they've fed.

Rhinos can be challenging.

You speak for your race.

Nature is to be hunted.

Your people hunt.

Yes.

And our quarry now?

Hunting a man is no great thing.

They are slow and predictable.

They can be found always where their appetites lead them...

To eat, to sleep, to f*ck.

Man is no great thing.

And Mr. Chandler?

Or Talbot, as you'd call him?

His appetites lead him elsewhere.

Where? Night.

Do all your people speak so enigmatically?

Yes.

Ethan came to me with blood on his face.

The blood of my brothers and sisters and children.

He wanted to die.

He wanted me to take his scalp and wear it on my belt.

And why didn't you?

I thought it crueler to let him live.

Have you ever hated a man so much you wanted him to suffer alongside you for all your days?

So you could watch it.

Such was your anger from what they had done to you and your family.

Yes.

A woman.

What happened between you and this woman?

In time, we stopped wounding each other.

The anger became something else, equally powerful.

Love.

Of a kind.

Like a daughter?

Of a kind.

Then you understand.

Let us speak to our son.

(CHANTING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(CONTINUES CHANTING IN NATIVE LANGUAGE)

(GASPS)

(CHANTING CONTINUES)

Kaetenay: My son...

(GASPS)

(GRUNTING)

Look into my eyes.

Did they look at you when you k*lled them?

Yes.

Come near me in life, old man, and I will take your hair and wear it on my belt.

That's a cheap Comanche trick.

Good to frighten whites, but wasted effort for an Apache.

I'm not an Apache!

Where are you now, Ethan?

Outside of Cascabel.

They're taking me home to see my father.

And then?

I'll end it with him.

Just as one day I'll end it with you.

Keep an ocean between us, old man.

I'll see you presently, my son.

Don't!

I'm not the man you knew.

There's blood on my teeth and in my soul, I think.

Then you are the Apache I need.

(GASPS)

He knows we come.

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

Dr. Sweet: ...ranging from the least weasel, Mustela nivalis, to the polar bear, Ursus maritimus.

Unlike many of the other mammalians, and rather remarkably, members of the vulpes genre are found on every continent, save for Antarctica.

Nor is this to say that the widespread distribution of the common red fox, Vulpes vulpes, with its many sub-genera, is meant to suggest a commonality with the household dog, Canis lupus familiaris, though there are marked similarities within the taxonomy of both animals.

Which brings us, in the typically roundabout way of nature, to the arachnids.

Take, for example, the modest desert scorpion.

Now, can any of you tell me about, say, the Omdurman scorpion?

(GASPS) Miss?

Do you mean the "Deathstalker" scorpion, Dr. Sweet?

Why, yes, Miss, I do.

Those found in the Sudan, for example?

Yes, precisely those.

Now, can any of you tell me which are the most dangerous?

Yes, Miss?

I understand the smaller varieties are particularly venomous.

Wouldn't expect that, would you?

I would actually.

Not to mention, well, the albinos.

They're beyond tiresome, but I have to do them, the lectures.

The burden of command.

Public subscription pays for a fair number of my beasties.

Not to mention, the expeditions.

Expeditions?

Yes.

We don't just sit in London and stuff the odd animal.

We sponsor expeditions all over the globe.

Where have you been?

Oh, I don't go.

(CHUCKLING) Not made for adventuring myself.

I hoped I would when I was younger, being cursed with Jules Verne.

Read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was a boy and it gave me such a passion to see the world.

Live like Captain Nemo, with that swagger and freedom. (CHUCKLES)

But...

But?

We're not made of such stuff as our heroes, are we?

I suppose not.

Sad, really.

But... if we can't walk with them, we can always follow.

And yours? Heroes, that is?

Joan of Arc. Ah.

I met her in the Shakespeare as that hellcat of Orleans.

Then I read the Schiller and... learned of her mighty passion.

Dying for her beliefs and her God, true to herself no matter the darkness that gathered 'round her.

It's said she sang on the pyre as she d*ed.

A tragic end.

I don't think so.

She heard a voice and believed it.

To have belief in anything with such confidence is heroic.

Perhaps if I had more I would have traveled with Nemo.

What happened to him in the book?

I don't remember.

He was in a number of the books, actually.

Story has it he d*ed of old age somewhere in a forgotten grotto in the South Pacific.

But I don't believe it.

I think he's still out there.

(SOFTLY) Waiting for you.

I'm glad you came today.

I hope my lecture didn't bore you unduly.

Not at all.

I give them every Wednesday.

Next week, the thrilling tale of the Madagascan lemur.

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

Good day to you, Miss...

Vanessa Ives. Miss Ives. Yes.

(CHUCKLING) Good day, good... good day.

(BELL TOLLING)

(FAINT MUSIC PLAYING)

(BALLROOM MUSIC PLAYING ON PHONOGRAPH)

(CHUCKLING)

Oh, you're up.

Wonderful.

(MUSIC STOPS)

We thought it best to let you sleep.

You must be hungry.

Please sit down.

No.

I'll stand.

Welcome to your new home, if you'll do us that courtesy.

You k*lled them.

And would have k*lled more.

And shall.

Why?

This room.

The opulence dazzles you.

As it did me when I stood there...

A feral animal raised on the streets, forced to my knees when I was a girl, servicing any man with two bob and a hard back to his hand.

And there I would have stayed and there I would have d*ed... (SHUDDERS) but for a strange working of fate that allowed me a new life.

Will you do the same?

Yes.

Dorian: No matter the cost? Beggar the cost.

And the men from your past?

The ones who used you.

The monsters.

(BREATHING DEEPLY)

Will you forgive them?

Would you have me forgive them?

No, no.

(BREATHES DEEPLY)

We shall have, my dear, a monumental revenge.

(SCREAMING) Leave me!

(SCREAMING SAVAGELY)

(STRAINING)

How long do you want him?

Dr. Jekyll: I'll alert you when I'm done.

As you like.

As you like, "Doctor."

Yeah. That's what I meant.

Dr. Jekyll: A Scotsman, this one.

He made a half-hearted attempt to assassinate Her Majesty at Balmoral...

Ranting about Scottish independence and the Bonnie Prince and the 45.

More of a failed social agitator than a lunatic, actually.

But this place soon took care of that.

Can you get ready with a syringe, Victor?

All the hopeful regicides end up here.

Poor bastards.

(SCREAMING)

Whatever you do, old man, don't thr*aten the Queen.

Tell me what you see.

Be specific.

(PANTING)

Dilated pupils... erratic ocular focus... (GROANING) broken capillaries throughout.

Eczema on the scalp and skin, jaundice, poor nutrition.

Teeth are decaying, indications of incipient scurvy.

Pulse is... (GROANING) extremely elevated...

(GROWLS)

And highly agitated.

(GROWLS)

A monster, would you say?

I've seen monsters.

Well, violently deranged at least?

(SCREAMING)

Yes.

So, let us see what miracles we can work.

(CHOKING)

(WHIMPERING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GASPING)

(SCREAMING MANIACALLY)

Mr. Balfour.

Will you not greet our guest?

I could do with some water, sir... if you're so inclined.

Honestly, no.

It doesn't have the spark of life.

Needs more shine to the eyes. That's it.

More sense of nocturnal danger, I think.

Afternoon post, sir.

Ah, thank you.

Keep at it, Phillip.

Nocturnal danger, yes?

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

Vanessa: Dear Dr. Sweet.

If you're in mind to have an adventure, please meet me at the address noted below at 7:45 tonight.

Sincerely, the woman you always forget... (CHUCKLES) ...who is called Vanessa Ives.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

How did you know?

I saw an advertisement in the paper.

I don't know that I've ever been asked out by a woman.

(CHUCKLES)

Boldness is, alas, part of my nature.

The best part I'm sure.

(APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)

Ladies and gentlemen... journey with us now across endless fathoms of wonder.

Join Captain Nemo on his bold expeditions as he travels...

20,000 leagues under the sea!

(PEOPLE GASP AND APPLAUD)

(PEOPLE GASPING)

(GASPS)

(GASPING AND APPLAUDING)

(ALL GASP)

Dr. Seward: Have you sinned?

Vanessa: Everyone has sinned.

Dr. Seward: Have they?

Vanessa: Mmm-hmm.

Dr. Seward: Including you?

Vanessa: Yes.

Dr. Seward: When?

(VANESSA SCOFFS)

Vanessa: How long is your cylinder?

Dr. Seward: Start with the first time.

(VANESSA SIGHS) Apart from childhood indiscretions, the first of importance then.

I betrayed my dearest friend Mina on the eve of her wedding.

Dr. Seward: How?

How?

Vanessa: I seduced her fiance.

Dr. Seward: What was the result?

Vanessa: It led to catastrophe.

And eventually her death.

(CHUCKLING)

Can't sell you what I don't have.

Well's all but dry.

I've got six men, six horses.

That's a couple, three gallons each man, more for the horses.

Call it two score gallons, worst case.

(PROPRIETOR) You go look at that well.

It's mud pretty much.

Like I say, there ain't no water between here and Hell and back.

(SIGHS)

You look sad.

What did you do?

I k*lled a senator's son.

(SCOFFS) Serves you right then.

They gonna hang you?

Not exactly.

You come to a bad end anyway, yeah?

Of that I have no doubt.

(IN ENGLISH) I would help you if I could.

What you can do for me is leave this room right now.

You understand?

Bless you, son.

Thank you, Mother.

(EXHALES)

(INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS)

(BONES SHIFTING)

(GROWLING)

(GROANS)

(CONTINUES GROWLING)

(SCREAMS)

Man: What the...

(GROWLS SOFTLY)

(GASPING)

(GROWLING)

(ETHAN SNARLING)

How I've missed you.

(HORSE NEIGHS)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Vanessa: I've always loved the ocean and felt great affection for creatures of the deep.

I suppose it goes without saying that they don't actually get so big, squids, I mean.

Cephalopods are delicate little things, in fact.

(CHUCKLES)

Well, do you favor some coffee?

Simpson's is open, I think.

Perhaps another time.

I'm sorry.

Of course.

May I get you a cab?

I'll be fine, thank you.

Thank you for tonight.

It's meant more to me than I can say and I do look forward to the next time.

The Madagascan lemur.

I'll never forget your name again.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(DOOR OPENS)

You mustn't be here.

There's nothing here for you.

(LILY SIGHS)

Where you go, I belong.

God help you if you follow my path, Victor.

(INHALES)

Take your romance and your memories, which are a most kind fiction, and go.

Frankenstein: No.

I must save you from all of this, one way or another.

You're my responsibility.

I created you.

I need no man to save me.

And I think, in a way, I created you more than you created me.

First love, Victor.

You will recover.

Please don't come here again.

You will not like what I am becoming.

(SOBBING)

Vanessa: Dear Sir Malcolm, I read your last cable with great interest.

You certainly are traveling far afield.

You say you're heading to the Americas.

I wonder if you're going to the United States, and what you might be hunting there.

Perhaps you'll visit the West and walk the roads of our lost friend, Mr. Chandler.

Did you know American coyotes mate for life?

And that there are certain octopi who can manipulate their bodies through holes no larger than a ha'penny coin?

As you can tell, I've developed an interest in zoology of late.

(GENTLE THUDDING)

I miss you.

But please know that I am well and abide in something like contentment.

(VIOLIN PLAYING)

In fact, it's all rather boring here.

(MOUSE SQUEAKS)

As ever, with love, Vanessa.

(MAN BREATHES HEAVILY)

(BELL RINGS IN THE DISTANCE)

(VIOLIN CONTINUES PLAYING)

(THE MASTER WHISPERS)

She has told her story.

(WHIMPERING) Yes, Master.

The Master: Did the doctor believe it?

I don't think so.

(VIOLIN CONTINUES PLAYING)

Give me blood. Please.

Please!

(LOW RUMBLING)

Kneel, child.

You will be flesh of my flesh...

(SLURPING)

Blood of my blood.

♪