03x04 - A Blade of Grass

Episode transcripts for the 2014 TV show "Penny Dreadful". Aired May 11, 2014 - June 19, 2016.*
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Explorer Sir Malcolm Murray, American gunslinger Ethan Chandler, and others unite to combat supernatural threats in Victorian London.
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03x04 - A Blade of Grass

Post by bunniefuu »

Sir Malcolm: Previously on Penny Dreadful...

Do you believe me?

What are you asking me to believe?

That you were hunted by vampires?

That you commune with Satan?

I've lost the immortal part of myself.

No matter how far you have walked from God, He is still waiting ahead.

Vanessa: Where is your master?

Soon you'll meet him again.

Again?

Don't you remember, my lady?

When was this?

In the white room.

Why do you think he was talking about the Banning Clinic?

This has to be the room where I met the Master in the past!

I know what I'm asking.

I don't think you do.

Hypnotism can be extremely traumatic.

Are you alone?

Always.

No one comes in?

An orderly with the food.

(DOOR RATTLING)

I've brought your food, Miss Ives.





(GRAMOPHONE RUNNING)

Dr. Seward: Tell me about him.

The orderly?

Yes.

We barely spoke.

When you did, what did you talk about?

I don't remember.

Nothing.

How long were you in that room?

Five months.

And he was the only person who came into your room all that time?

Yes.

Describe him, the orderly.

Nondescript.

Look at his face now.

Let your eyes move over it. What do you see?

Round sort of face.

Pleasant.

Good complexion.

Eyes?

Blue.

Go on. What else?

Let your eyes move.

He's tall.

Strong hands without veins or age to them.

Very closely cropped hair.

(SCRATCHING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

Food, Miss Ives.

(DOOR LOCKING)

(SCRATCHING CONTINUES)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(RASPY BREATHING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

Creature: You have to eat, Miss.

Please eat.

(SIGHS)

Why didn't you eat?

(INHALES SHARPLY)

Why are you here?

What... Why can I see you?

Your mind is between both worlds now.

You're in my office, and here in the cell.

Why didn't you eat?

I wanted to die.

You were trying to starve yourself?

Yes.

Why did you want to die?

I had betrayed my friend Mina.

I was ill.

No, I was evil.

Satan had touched me.

And...

Yes?

There was another.

Another demon? Who?

Yes.

I don't remember.

Try.

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(GASPS)

If you don't eat... there'll be consequences.

(RASPY BREATHING)

(MUFFLED GROANING)

(GRUNTS)

(GASPING)

(SOBBING)

(GAGGING)

(GASPING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

Bring it to me.

No.

It's three feet away.

I'm tired.

They tortured me today.

I'm not to engage in conversation, Miss.

Are they listening?

No.

They didn't t*rture you.

You weren't there!

They're making you well.

(VANESSA LAUGHS)

Bring me the food.

No.

How are they making me well?

The injections never end.

(SIGHING) And the questions.

You're to begin other treatments tomorrow.

What are they?

Bring me the food.

No.

Is it day or night?

Sorry?

The light's never off and there's no window!

Is it day or night?

Which would you prefer it to be?

Night.

Then it's night.

Bring me the food.

No.

I'll collapse.

No, you won't.

Bring me the food. Help me!

No.

You think I'm a spoiled bitch.

We're not to engage in conversation, Miss.

What's the treatment tomorrow?

They call it hydrotherapy.

(VANESSA SHIVERING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(DOOR CLOSING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(BREATHING DEEPLY)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

I need the blanket.

(WHISPERS) What?

Hand me the blanket, Miss.

Why?

You're not supposed to have it.

Hand me the blanket, Miss.

(CRYING) No.

Miss.

I'll die.

You won't. No one does.

Why can't I have the blanket?

You're not supposed to have it in case you hang yourself.

Please.

I'm sorry, Miss.

(SNIFFLES)

You're not sorry.

Not at all.

(GRUNTS)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(PANTING)

(GROWLING)

(CRYING)

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

(SNIFFLES)

How long do I... have to wear this?

Until Dr. Banning decides.

Decides what?

If you're dangerous.

I am.

(SCOFFS)

Don't you think I'm dangerous?

I think you're ill.

I'm not ill!

Then what are you?

I'm sorry about your face.

Well, we'll have no more of that.

No more of that.

No fight left in me.

You'd all like to see that.

(CHUCKLES) Yes, Miss. Safer that way.

(EXHALES)

It's not t*rture what they're doing.

It's science.

It's meant to make you better.

It's meant to make me normal.

Like all the other women you know.

Compliant, obedient.

A cog in an intricate social machine... and no more.

I couldn't say, Miss.

Couldn't you?

Not all the women I know are cogs.

Then they're freaks.

My wife's not a freak and she's not a cog.

You should think better of your sex.

God has forgotten me here.

He can't find me here.

That's not true.

I'm not Vanessa Ives here.

I am no one.

I have no name, no purpose.

Do you want a purpose?

Don't you?

I'm doing it.

Is it day or night?

Which do you prefer now?

Day.

Then it's day.

What's your name?

Against regulations, Miss.

You know my name.

You just told me you don't have a name.

Oh, I was being poetic.

Oh.

Don't you like poetry?

Uh, no. (CHUCKLES)

All the men I grew up with liked poetry.

I don't.

What do you like?

Not being att*cked at work.

(SNIFFLES)

You must get better, Miss.

They don't get easier, the treatments.

What do you mean?

They get worse.

How?

Just get better, eh?

If I'm not truly ill, then how can I get better?

If you're not ill, then what are you?

You wouldn't believe me. (SNIFFLES)

Dr. Banning doesn't. My parents don't.

And why should they?

I have been touched... by Satan.

My weakness allowed it.

My faith was not strong enough and Lucifer came to me.

I didn't fight him strongly enough.

I don't know that I fought him at all.

I did this for my son when he was a baby.

He's eight now.

He's not well.

Cough, he has.

We used a metal spoon at first but it hurt his mouth so we switched to a wooden one.

I'm surprised they have wooden spoons here.

Oh.

I brought this one from home.

What's your son's name?

Um, that's...

Against regulations.

Yes, Miss.

You must get better.

(SIGHS) Please.

(CHUCKLES)

And I do believe what you say about Lucifer.

After all... I was there.

(GASPING)

Lucifer: Oh, my dear.

We have so much to catch up on, do we not?

Dr. Seward: What did you see?

(SHUDDERING)

His eyes... The eyes of the Demon.

Lucifer?

Yes.

It was the orderly.

And not!

You're manifesting Lucifer through the orderly.

The only person you saw.

Were there more episodes like this?

I don't remember.

Try.

I am!

Try harder!

Stop this! Take me out of this state!

I can't.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Doctor Seward, stop this session now!

I can't, Vanessa! I've been trying!

You won't come out.

You won't wake up.

I b*rned your hand with a cigarette.

It didn't work.

You've apparently gone into something called a fugue state.

Look at me, Vanessa.

I'm not going to lie to you.

There's a lot we don't understand.

It's a mental and physical break, a disassociation with your bodily functions, something like a coma.

When will it end?

I don't know.

Do people die like this?

Yes. But you won't.

How do you know that?

I just do.

That's ridiculous! You just do!

I know you.

And from what you say, I've known you a long time.

My ancestor, the old woman, Joan Clayton, what would she say to you?

"Be true."

Be true.

You will come out of it.

When you're at the heart of your trauma, when you've found what you're here for.

I'm not leaving you for anything in this world.

(INHALES DEEPLY)

What do I do?

Keep going.

What happened next?

I don't remember. I was drugged.

What do you see?

(SNIFFLES)

The same room.

Nothing changed.

The treatments continued.

Escalated.

I can't move my arms.

I can't speak.

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

(GASPS)

Miss Ives?

Can you hear me?

(SIGHS) I'm not good at this.

My wife's got short hair... and I have no sisters.

I'm sick to see you like this.

I can't stop thinking about it.

(SIGHS)

It is t*rture.

(SIGHS) I'll have to undo it all before morning.

They can't know.

They'd sack me if they knew.

And then who'd attend to you?

It'll be our secret, eh?

Uh, this is my wife's.

She told me what to do.

I tell her about you.

That's against regulations too.

(CHUCKLES)

She said to use a light hand and spare the heavy for the lips.

(EXHALES)

She's got beautiful lips, my wife.

Her name's Marjorie.

I would leave this place, but I need the work.

Jobs are scarce and...

I've to feed the family, you understand.

And I wouldn't leave you in any case.

Not until you're better.

And maybe we'll walk out of here together.

Wouldn't that be a day?

Will you take a look, Miss Ives?

Go on.

Please.

(GASPS)

This is who you are.

Please don't forget that.

(SIGHS) I'm really not very good at this.

Ah. It's the only one we had.

Someone gave it to us when our son was born.

"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me. And what can be the use of him... is more than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head. And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed. The funniest thing about him..."

"I never can get back by day, nor can remember plain and clear, the curious music that I hear."

(SIGHS HEAVILY)

I've got to go, before the day fellows get here.

(EXHALES)

(VOICE BREAKING) I'm sorry.

(SHUDDERING)

One day soon, no one will touch you when you don't want to be touched.

Or put makeup on you, or take it off.

Ever, ever again.

If I'm honest, I don't really believe in God, but... I'll pray for you.

It's Christmas today.
(DOOR UNLOCKING)

Vanessa: I'm so lonely.

Creature: Your parents?

Vanessa: They stopped coming.

I'm never getting out of here.

Of course you are.

What happened before is all that will ever happen to me.

Every dance... was my last dance.

Every flower I smelled was my last flower.

Every kiss...

(SHUDDERING)

I've only been with one man.

(EXHALES)

(VANESSA BREATHING HEAVILY)

(EXHALES)

(CREATURE BREATHING HEAVILY)

(BOTH BREATHING HEAVILY)

(EXHALING)

I should have d*ed a virgin... like Joan of Arc.

Be true. Be strong.

Sing on the funeral pyre.

Did you know she sang as she b*rned?

No.

None of us are heroes.

I suppose not.

(PANTING)

Miss Ives, if you don't show signs of improvement, he'll turn to surgery.

Let him.

(EXHALES)

You don't know what you're saying.

I'll sing as he cuts me open.

Listen to me!

They'll start by cutting your hair off and shaving your head.

Then they'll sedate you.

Then they'll strap you to a table.

Then he'll use a drill to open your skull.

It's not a medical thing, it's a drill for woodwork.

Then he'll put a clamp on your skull... and cr*ck it open.

And then he'll start cutting things out.

I see the results.

That's where my job starts again.

You'll have lost your ability to control your body.

You'll sh*t and piss on yourself and I'll clean it up.

If you're lucky, that part will come back to you.

But not much else, if I'm honest.

It varies.

But they are never the same when they come out.

Sometimes they can't walk.

Sometimes they can't speak.

Sometimes they can't open their eyes or hear.

Do you know what they are?

All of them?

A broken thing.

Not a tiger.

Not a flower.

Not a clump of earth.

Not even a blade of grass.

Miss Ives, you have to get better.

Then pretend to be cured!

Be like everyone else.

Do what he wants you to do!

I've tried.

Is it so important?

To be different?

To have such specialness?

Would you want your son to be anything but what he is?

I want him to be happy.

But what if he's not?

Would you want him to pretend?

No.

Then don't ask it of me.

(EXHALES)

Let me help you.

You're not ill, so you tell me.

So... what are you?

I've told you.

And you don't believe in God so you don't believe in Satan either.

(SIGHS) I'm a stupid man.

Very bad at my lettering and my figures, no gift for words.

But I'm here now.

And I'll listen.

So.

Why would the Devil be interested in you?

I don't know.

If you were Lucifer, why would you be interested in someone?

Lucifer: Oh, that's easy.

Because I love you.

(GASPS)

Where you gonna go, Vanessa?

Door's locked.

No day, no night, just perpetual twilight before they cut open your skull and try to let the demons out.

That's where trephining began, you know, in the Dark Ages.

In an attempt to release me and send me into the ether.

Didn't work then... won't work now.

For too long I have been afraid.

No longer.

I don't want you to fear me.

I want you to embrace me.

Of your own volition.

Give me your name.

Your favorite is Lucifer.

(SNAKE HISSING)

The Fallen Angel.

Defeated in that mighty battle with your Heavenly Father.

God have mercy.

Has He up to now?

Look at this sad old world.

Children begging for a crust of rotting food a mile from where we stand.

In the shadow of this, the wealthiest city on the globe.

Look at you.

Has His mercy touched your life?

My God is merciful and He will not abandon me.

He already has.

You're not even a blade of grass to Him.

Let us be as we were.

Before there was time, there was thee and me.

Before the scorpion crawled and the adder hissed.

Back to the time when the Old Gods sang and there was only thee and there was only me.

Give yourself to me freely.

Be what you are and always were.

And then?

We stand at the fire as it consumes all men and all women and all the beasts of the Earth until only we are left.

And then we shall turn our eyes heavenward.

Yes.

And we shall smite the Heavenly Father from his bloody throne.

(DRACULA LAUGHING)

(WINGS b*ating)

(GASPS)

(DRACULA CONTINUES LAUGHING)

Dracula: I've long dreamt of this moment, to stand at your side, close enough to touch, to smell, to feel.

Give me your name.

You can read it on my tomb.

Who are you?

Who do you want me to be?

Lucifer: Call him what he is.

The Father of Beasts, king of the maggot-crawling flesh.

(BAT WINGS b*ating)

(CHUCKLES) So long it's been, brother.

Not long enough, brother.

And your existence in the dark netherworld?

Lucifer: And yours on this filthy earth?

Perpetual.

Lucifer: And the eating of flesh, and the drinking of blood?

More beast than spirit you are.

Such a need you have of the earthly powers.

And so I am made strong and potent by the spoils of my domain.

While you, anemic, feed on dust and superstition.

The abject supplication of the weak and the ignorant.

If they cease to believe in you, do you even exist?

They won't believe forever, brother.

We live in a mighty age of science and faithlessness.

You're fading to insignificance even as I look at you.

I'm only concerned with the faith of one.

But you're not a thing of the spirit, Vanessa.

You are a thing of the flesh... like me.

You're the wolf.

You are the scorpion.

You are all those things that slip and soar and stalk through the deep forest and the dark night.

You are powerful.

You feel it coiling within you.

Become the wolf... and the bat and the scorpion.

Be truly who you are.

Lucifer: He appeals to your lust, your appetites.

You're more than that.

You're spirit and soul.

You want her soul.

I don't need it.

Give me your flesh.

Give me your blood.

Be my bride.

And then all light will end and the world will live in darkness.

The very air will be pestilence to mankind.

And then our brethren, the Night Creatures, will emerge and feed.

Such is our power... such is our kingdom, such is my kiss.

Yes.

Dracula: One kiss and you're free of all this. In this mortal world you'll always be shunned for your uniqueness... but not with me.

They will lock you away in rooms like this.

They will brand you a freak and a sorceresses, but I won't. I love you for who you are, Vanessa.

And what name do I whisper to you, beloved?

(MOANS)

(WHISPERING) I am the Demon.

I am the Dragon.

My name... (EXHALES) is Dracula.

(GASPS)

(VANESSA BREATHING HEAVILY)

So I see you clear now.

Two brothers fallen from grace.

The spirit... and the animal.

You seek my soul.

You my body.

But both are promised to another.

He who vanquished you.

He who is my protector and who stands with me even now.

Child, you have no sense of the terrors I will bring unto you.

Then do it.

And no hint of the horrors I can unleash unto you.

Unleash them.

No step you take will be safe.

No dream untroubled.

Battles I shall plan.

Prophesies I shall unveil.

Who are you to defy me?

I am nothing.

I am no more than a blade of grass.

But I am.

You think you know evil?

Here it stands.

(CHANTING IN VERBIS DIABLO)

(GASPS)

Creature: Well?

Why would the Devil be interested in you?

I'm...

May I sleep? I'm very tired.

Oh, yes, of course.

You should sleep.

(EXHALES)

I wish I could turn the light off.

What?

No, don't worry. Good night.

(DOOR CLOSES)

Dr. Seward: Vanessa, look at me. You can come out now.

Come back to me gently now.

Listen to the sound of the gramophone.

The stylus cutting into the wax.

No.

No.

I'm not done here.

(DOOR UNLOCKING)

Miss Ives?

(EXHALES)

Will you look at me?

(CREATURE SIGHS)

(BREATHES DEEPLY)

I'm so sorry.

I didn't counterfeit normality well enough.

I tried.

I spoke lowly.

I bent my head.

I was a submissive dog.

I was the woman he wanted me to be.

I almost succeeded.

But then... he asked me to speak about my faith.

I told him the truth, that God's immortal glory lives in me as in all of us.

How can that be anything but lunacy to a man like Dr. Banning?

Will you eat?

Why bother?

You'll need your strength tomorrow.

It's to be tomorrow?

Yes.

Will there be anything left of me?

(EXHALES)

Will it take long?

A few hours.

Will I feel pain?

No, no, you'll be sedated.

Does your wife cook for you?

Creature: Yes.

Yeah, she's a good cook.

I'd make a horrible wife.

Well, that's not true.

And you're a horrible liar.

I'll miss your hair.

So will I.

No, I mean, I'm leaving tomorrow.

What?

This job.

Oh.

You have another?

No.

It's no great matter.

I'll tell you what happened.

I was at home, yesterday night past.

And I was helping my son with a wooden ship model.

That's something we do.

And he asked me about the ship.

I said it was the kind of ship used for exploring the seas.

And he said, "Where do they explore, Father?"

And I told him, "Everywhere.

The Orient, Peru, and even the frozen North."

And he says, "What's that, Father?"

And so I told him it was the places all covered with snow.

(INHALES)

North of Scotland and even beyond that.

And he said, "Do people live there?"

And I said, um... (SCOFFS)

"No. It's too cold and lonely all the time. No one lives there."

And I started to cry.

And I couldn't stop.

My son took my hand.

(VOICE BREAKING) I...

I couldn't stop crying.

(SOFTLY) Why?

(SOBBING)

Because I realized I was wrong.

One person does live there, where it's cold and lonely all the time.

(SOBBING)

So I, uh, tendered my resignation.

I'll stay on long enough to see you tomorrow.

(SNIFFLING)

The last person you see before the surgery will be someone who loves you.

Good-bye, Miss Ives.

(DOOR OPENING)

(DOOR CLOSES)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GRAMOPHONE RUNNING)

(GROANS)

I'll get you something for that burn.

Sorry.

(GULPING)

Ah.

What do you remember?

Everything.

Images. Like a dream, yes?

No.

Everything.

You once said we name things so they don't frighten us.

I'm not frightened.

His name is Dracula.

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