Penny Dreadful (2014–2016): Season 2, Episode 7 - Little Scorpion - full transcript

Previously on Penny Dreadful:

- Splendid day, isn't it?
- Sir Malcolm, is everything all right?

- What do you mean?
- He's a changed man...

...since he became reacquainted
with you, Mrs. Poole.

Scream for me.
You're in danger.

That big book,
with the glyph on the side.

If ever the day comes...

...where my little scorpion
is crushed and beaten...

...only then does she open it.

On that day...

...she will have gone away
from God forever.



This is my cousin,
Miss Lily Frankenstein.

Would you think it bold...

- ...if I compliment your eyes?
- Yes.

Be still your heart, doctor, Mr. Gray
is being a proper host to a new guest.

You're smarter than that, Miss Ives.

I believe we make ourselves
who we are.

The blood's on our hands, not God's.

Whoever you have made yourself,
I'm here to accept you.

We're together for a reason.

Will you let me escort you home?
This place isn't safe for you.

Things become other things.

The leopard consumes the monkey...

...and becomes leopard and monkey.

The crocodile consumes the leopard...



...and becomes crocodile and leopard...

...and monkey.

I have seen this.

The shamans in my mountains call it
Uchawi Mabasiliko...

...the changing from one skin
into another.

The ones so cursed
do not always fully remember it...

...this becoming.

Is it a sickness?

Or is it something else?

Is it a blessing...

...the purpose of which
we cannot yet see?

I say this is what it is...

...for I know you, my friend,
Ethan Chandler.

I see inside you...

...past the crocodile...

...and the leopard and the monkey.

And the wolf.

Tell me what you saw.

No, Sir Malcolm, that's not it at all.

It wasn't female hysteria.

Don't insult me.

- Then what was it?
- She was in danger and she sensed it.

I was on my way to say good night
to the doctor...

...and I felt I was being surrounded.
I couldn't breathe.

And who was surrounding you?

I don't know.

I find this difficult to credit,
I'm sorry.

Hold on. You don't credit
Miss Ives' ability to sense things?

I think it more likely
the room was crowded...

...and she became over-stimulated.

We've been living under a certain
amount of pressure here...

...as the mountains
of armaments might suggest.

And now?

I need to go.

- What?
- I need to leave.

- London isn't safe.
- I'll go with you.

- I'm not sure.
- I'm coming with you.

I think that's a wise precaution.

Both of you go somewhere
far away and stay there.

She's safer here.

I won't be kept a prisoner
in this house, Sir Malcolm.

If I'm to be pent up,
I'll choose my own cell.

Don't tell us where you're going.

Just go.

This company is safe.

Is it, though?

Are any of us immune to this
danger we can't see, can't touch...

...but is everlastingly present?

Mr. Lyle's right.

Tell no one.

And we're not to even trust
one another, then?

Has it come to this?

Then why trust Mr. Chandler
to go with you?

Because he wasn't there.

You were all in the room with me,
and yet the lions still hunted.

We'll leave immediately.

Yes.

Doctor, may I have a word?

I want to tell you alone
where I plan to go.

- Are you sure that's a good idea?
- Someone has to know. I trust you.

What are you up to, Vanessa?

I've never met a woman
less likely to run and hide.

So far, we've been
thrashing at spectres.

I'm going to find a better weapon.

While I'm gone,
do be mindful of Sir Malcolm.

He's losing his heart
and needs our care.

I shall.

And if he needs me, don't hesitate.

Come.

And be patient with your cousin.

It's all so new to her.

London and all the bright
shiny prizes it offers.

She'll grow tired of them.

That's very kind.

Only what if she doesn't?

Then we'll have a long talk
on a dark night.

That's where it happened?

Yes.

Where should I go?

I slept down here.
There's a bed upstairs.

Why don't you take that?

This is your house now.

We'll have to replenish the stores.

I know the forest. It'll supply us.

And Sembene
sent along some tins as well...

...so we won't starve, anyway.

Do you believe
a place can be haunted?

Yes.

Have you been in such a place?

Indian graveyard in Arizona.

Indians I killed.

Were you frightened?

I felt I belonged there.

Perhaps I belong here.

She always thought that.

I don't know
that I'm made for company.

I think I'm made for something
like the moors.

And for doing such things
as hurt even as they help.

She called me her little scorpion...

...and only said my name aloud once...

...before she was murdered...

...tied to that tree outside.

I've never liked trees since.

Not a one.

Thank you, I will go upstairs.

For years now, Sir Malcolm and I...

...have had a very private relationship.

In a way, I think I savoured that.

The intensity of it.

Perhaps I even fed on it.

And Mrs. Poole threatens that?

Doesn't she?

He's lost his anger.

That resentment and rage
is what we shared.

Our bond was in our
mutual suffering.

Despite all that...

...you're still the closest thing
to a family he's got left.

He didn't go
to his own wife's funeral.

Doesn't that demonstrate
his allegiance to his family?

Because it was too painful, maybe.

You know better.

He's in love.

The memories of his past,
including me...

...are clouds he doesn't want to face.

And why should I demand him to?

Just so I can retain
my unique bond with him?

It's selfish.

My God, let him be happy.

Wood betony...

...attracts bees for honey...

...crushed and put into your pillow,
it prevents nightmares.

- Get a lot of that.
- Heh, heh.

When I was with Miss Croft...

...I was more content
than I ever thought I could be.

For once in my life,
I didn't feel like running away.

I felt I had a place to belong.

She was your moors...

...your solitude.

In a way.

Sir Malcolm's just looking
for where he belongs now.

Without Mina.

Without you, even.

But when he settles down,
he'll come around.

He won't forget about you.

I certainly didn't.

Are you making a rabbit snare?

Surprised?

Who knew you were so handy?

Life isn't all tarot cards
and pagan blood glyphs, you know.

You know what?

You're gonna make someone
a great little wifey one day.

So I'm all of 8 or the like...

...and my father takes sadistic glee...

...in pulling me out there...

...pointing at the biggest one,
and saying:

"Ride, boy."

Now, all of the vaqueros...

Those are the Spanish ranch hands.
...were watching...

...and they can't wait to see the little lord
in his velvet knickers fall on his ass.

I walk up to this monstrous
big horse...

...who goes by the name of,
I kid you not, Diablo.

Ooh. Heh, heh.

And he's snorting fire...

...and his hooves
are pounding the earth.

My little knees
are knocking together...

...and I just look up at him
and I say in my best grown-up voice:

- "Know your master, beast."
- Heh, heh, heh.

What happened?

Broken wrist and soiled knickers.

That's the most unheroic story
I've ever heard.

Must have been scared of something
when you were young.

No. I was fearless.

- Come on.
- Really.

Mm, you don't fool me.

Dolls.

- Dolls?
- Dolls.

Like girlie dolls?

- Yes, girlie dolls.
- Ha, ha, ha.

- Don't laugh.
- Never.

I mean, I played with them.

You had to or they thought you were
deviant in some dreadful way...

...but I never liked them.

My mother insisted on
deploying them around my room...

...like an army of little play friends.

But every night
before I went to sleep...

...I ran around my room
and knocked them over.

Miss Ives.

Then every morning,
I would put them all back.

God, those eyes staring at you,
just waiting to come to life.

Who thinks
that's healthy for a child?

I played with toy soldiers.

Also not the best recipe for
mental health when you think about it.

All those things that mark you
when you're young...

...that make you what you are.

Never escape them.

They just wait, don't they?

What?

The monsters inside us.

Monsters?

What would you call them?

For me...

...demons.

But one word is much like another.

And when they're released?

We're most who we are.

Unrestrained.

Ourselves.

I need to go out.

What? Out where?

There's nowhere to go.

Just bolt the door when I'm gone.

Do you know how to shoot?

- What? No.
- I'll teach you.

- When will you be back?
- Morning.

- Ethan...
- Just bolt the goddamn door!

Mr. Chandler.

Would you like some breakfast?

I'm not hungry.

Thanks.

Tell me.

We're alone.

Speak quietly, but tell me.

Tell you what?

We can whisper about those things
that hurt us.

You need to learn
to protect yourself.

You haven't done this before?

No, I suppose
it just comes naturally.

Why am I not surprised?

No, no. Let me.

It's a different thing when
you're firing at something that's alive.

How do you learn that?

Experience.

Aim at the middle of the body.
Don't get fancy.

Don't aim at the head or limbs.

And here's the real trick,
which seems illogical, I know.

Don't look in your opponent's eyes.

That'll stop you every time.

You think for one minute
about what you're doing...

...and you won't do it.

Stop being human.

Become something else.

What?

An animal that has to survive.

A predator.

No emotion.

Survival.

And most important...

Don't look into his eyes.

All right.

Moving target.

I feel I owe you for this.
What can I teach you?

Just about any of the social graces,
for a start.

Well, that's a long list.

There's the painstaking ritual
of serving tea...

...tedious decorum at balls,
meaningless social banter...

Dancing.

- Dancing?
- I never learned dancing.

My father didn't approve
of such things.

Well, then I shall be your tutor.
I've had practise recently, in fact.

It's a deal.

Now, I'm going to toss this up
very gently.

I want you to follow it
through the air and fire at will.

Just don't shoot me, okay?

I'll do my best.

It's the opposite of homicide.

Always look
in your opponent's eyes.

And then?

Proceed gently.

Take my waist.

Up here, Mr. Chandler.

And sway.

Then one, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three. That's it.

That's it, Mr. Chandler. Come on.

One, two, three. One, two, three.
One, two, three.

No. Too much salt.

I love storms.

Primordial.

Every bit of civilisation gone.

Everything true coming out.

Let it.

You don't fear it?

Not now.

This must have been
how the world was created.

Or how it ends.

Water!

No!

We are dangerous.

What is love but a kind
of creature waiting to be unbouns?

A malady.

What does it bring any of us
but confusion and bedevilment?

The Egyptians were hardly
unique in that.

Yes, but to them it was quite literal.

They called it the scorpion's sting...

...a kind of eternal infection...

...that had no end,
not in time or death.

The gods Amunet and Amun-ra
were immortal...

...and their love
was without end as well.

According to the myth,
if they were to become conjoined...

...all light would end
and the world would live in darkness.

The hidden ones
would emerge and rule.

Emerge and rule?

Conquest.

The subjugation of all mankind.

This goes well beyond Miss Ives.

In Biblical terms,
it's the coming of the beast.

The hidden ones who will emerge?

Call them the fallen angels,
as our relics do.

Or any such name that pleases you.

Devil, creature, demon.

Vampire?

His name is legion, for he is many.

Leave the archaeology of it behind
for a moment and imagine this.

The fallen angel seeks his bride.

He believes this to be Miss Ives,
and she loves him in her way.

They are aligned, these two.

He tries to lure her, seduce her...

...attack her, if he must,
but he must have her.

Why?

Why does the scorpion sting?

To protect itself.

To kill its enemies.

- And the demon's enemy?
- God.

And if I don't believe in God?

The scorpion will still strike,
whether you believe in him or not.

We have to help her.

I'm onto something new here...

...something I didn't expect.
I need a few more days.

But I don't think she's entirely
without protection in the meantime.

One phrase, "the hound of God."

Like a musical refrain
sounding over and over...

...in our otherwise
chronological narrative. Why?

A bit of poetry, a flourish.
I don't know.

Think how your mind works, doctor.

When you can't settle something,
you return to it again and again.

- It obsesses you.
- Becomes a neurosis.

Precisely.
And it's repeated neurotically here.

Like the demon chewing on a bone
it couldn't swallow.

It can't make peace with it.

- It's a danger to him.
- Yes.

Yes, the demon,
the hound, the scorpion...

...endlessly circling one another.

You know Mr. Lyle won't give up.

If there's any sense to be found
in all this, he'll find it.

And the doctor too.
They won't let this thing hurt you.

"This thing."

We need to call it what it is:

The devil.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I just
want to let it take me.

Put an end to it.

And then?

Then I would know why.

Why this unending torment.

I can't live forever violated.

When I sleep, when I wake, when
I pray, those demons tearing into me.

I begged you
to put a bullet through my heart...

...but you thought it kindness
to spare me.

It was cruelty.

You will not die while I'm here.

You will not surrender while I live.

If I have one goddamn purpose
in my cursed life, it's that.

You are one man.

More than that. And you know it.

We are not like others.

We have claws for a reason.

Do you ever think what it would be like
to be like other people?

Normal people?

I try not to.

My God, so she's come back.

- The little quim with the witch.
- And who the fuck are you?

Got herself a man now, does she?

Mind your manners, lad.

Know your betters
when they address you.

One word from me
and you don't have an arm anymore.

They know how to behave.

You know how you get
a dumb animal to behave?

You feed it with your own hand.

You don't let anyone else do it.
You give them food or you don't.

You let some of them starve
so the others see.

So they know their lives
depend entirely on your will.

Learned how to behave yet,
little bitch?

- That's enough.
- Not hardly, lad.

Maybe I come visit you, eh?

Bring a match and start another fire.

Young flesh burns best.

Hey!

I swore one day I would see him again
and be avenged.

You don't need his soul
on your conscience.

- I can live with that guilt.
- No, you can't.

- That's not who you are.
- Of course it is.

Stop looking at me with those eyes
and see me for what I am.

And is that what she would want?
Your friend?

One more step into darkness,
for what? Her memory?

Justice.

What are you gonna do? Kill him?

Sneak up and cut his throat?
Is that what you're gonna do?

You do that
and you won't be able to stop.

So stop now!

I'll stop when his soul
is burning, like hers was.

Go on, then.
Do what you fucking want.

I hope you can live with it,
because I sure as hell can't.

And don't worry.

I see you for exactly what you are.

LILY:
Don't you want me to have friends?

Of course I do.

LILY:
Do you not like Mr. Gray?

It's not that.

For heaven's sake, Victor,
I can't stay cooped up here all the time.

No.

Of course not.

You should go.
I'm sure you'll have an amiable time.

And Mr. Gray will certainly be
a charming dinner companion.

Tell me not to go and I won't.

Don't be silly.

I could use some time to work.

You're an awful distraction.

You won't be late?

Don't worry, cousin.

I'll come back with tales for you.

I was surprised to get your invitation.

- I would think you get many.
- No.

I don't go out much.

Your choice or his?

My cousin is...

...protective.

I don't think you need
much protection.

You are, I believe, more capable
than you perhaps appear.

I'm useless, really.

It's all so new to me.

Is it?

My heavens, what's that?

DORIAN:
A waxworks.

Have you never been to one?

I've never been anywhere.

Then will you allow me
to escort you?

- Oh, it's awful.
- It's not real, you know.

Well, I know that, but I can't.

I'm such a goose. Heh, heh, heh.

You must think me very silly.

DORIAN:
I think you're mysterious.

- Hardly that.
- Oh, yes.

The coolness of your touch...

...your sense of constant discovery.

And your eyes, mostly.

So familiar, but not.

You make me sound much more
complicated than I am.

Dear. Heh, heh, heh.

What's this one?

Burke and Hare,
the resurrectionist men.

Caught here in the midnight act
of exhuming a body.

Why would they do that?

To sell it to a doctor
for medical experimentation.

What sort of experimentation?

I couldn't say.

DORIAN:
I hope I haven't shocked you.

LILY:
No. It's good to see new things.

DORIAN: Then I hope you'll allow me
to squire you again sometime.

London is nothing if not filled
with new adventures.

Yes, I'd like that.

But I should go now.
Victor will be worried.

Of course.

Lily, thank you for this evening.

You're like a breath of fresh air.

It's good to have a new friend.

And so I hope you'll always
count me.

No one's ever done that before.

New adventures.

Number 17, Shad Thames.

Could you stop, please?

Well, hello.

You were going to kill him.

I didn't get the chance.

But I guess you know that.

Do you feel better now?

Now that you're a murderess?

I suppose that's what
you learned here, isn't it?

From your nice old lady friend.

How to kill babies.

How to kill men?

You do belong here.

I know what I've done.

Do you?

Do you know what it is
to walk with someone's body...

...tied around your neck
for the rest of your goddamn life?

Do you know what that is, little girl?

Let me tell you about it.

First time is hard.

I'm sure you cried a bit, didn't you?

Don't worry, that'll pass.

Second time is easier.

Third time, you don't blink.

Then it's all just repetition.

You don't cry anymore.

You don't even remember
when you used to cry.

You're alive and they're dead.

- Fuck them.
- Stop it!

You'll never get your soul back.

Not ever.

Do you understand that?

Yes.

Welcome to the night, Vanessa.