EPISODE

2. Séance

Vanessa and Sir Malcolm attend a party at the home of Egyptologist Sir Ferdinand Lyle and meet Dorian Gray. The party takes an ominous turn when medium Madame Kali hosts a séance. Meanwhile, Ethan befriends Brona Croft, a young Irish immigrant.

Description credits

Description source · Content or data license. Source formatting adapted for this entry.

THIS ENTRY’S STORY

The story

Spoilers ahead. Coverage follows the scope labeled below.

Plot summary

Sir Malcolm offers his assistance with the " Ripper " case, proclaiming that they should be looking for a beast, not a man. Ethan befriends Brona Croft, a sickly prostitute, who later has an erotic encounter with the seductive and charming Dorian Gray. Vanessa and Sir Malcolm attend Ferdinand Lyle's party. There, Vanessa meets Dorian, and the two are deeply drawn to one another. The guests take part in a séance led by a spiritualist known as Madame Kali, where Vanessa is possessed by an evil entity, who accuses Sir Malcolm of leaving his son to die.

The next day, Ferdinand studies the other photographed hieroglyphics and discovers that they are a resurrection spell invoking Amunet and Amun-Ra, who will bring about the apocalypse if united. He concludes that Vanessa is being hunted by them. Victor's newly animated creation chooses a name – Proteus. They become close friends, but their time together is cut short when Proteus is murdered by Victor's "firstborn", Caliban, an earlier creation.

Credits

Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, List of Penny Dreadful episodes. HTML formatting and reference markers removed.

Original text and revision history

Content license