Penny Dreadful Season 1, Episode 3, “Resurrection”
Written by John Logan
Directed by Dearbhla Walsh
Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on Showtime
For a character who introduces himself by ripping his younger “brother” Proteus in half, and begins “Resurrection” by wiping Proteus’s blood on Viktor’s face, Caliban (the name Frankenstein’s first monster is given by a kind theater owner) is a surprisingly eloquent creature. Having learned English through Victorian poetry and Shakespeare, Caliban is yet another of Penny Dreadful‘s horrendous and beautiful creations, a wildly entertaining re-imagination of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein novel—and a force that drives the emotional undercurrents of resurrection and redemption established in the first two hours.
In a way, “Resurrection” is pretty bold for a third hour of a show, splitting its attention between the broader plot of the show (Malcolm’s search for his daughter) and a much smaller, self-contained story of Viktor’s upbringing and how he ended up in London with his first creation ripping his latest creation in half. There isn’t a whole lot of nuance to these scenes (especially with Caliban, whose exposition serves no purpose other than explaining the actions we’re viewing on screen, albeit with a bit of literal panache), but they do a great job serving as a standalone story separate from the primary narrative, painting Frankenstein’s monster as a creature who commits brutality because it’s all he’s known and who is desperately seeking to find the ultimate form of connection to the world of the living: being loved by another, forcibly commissioning Viktor to create a wife for him.
That’s not to say “Resurrection” ignores its central story, but it takes the risky move of fleshing out a secondary world for an hour, while only alluding to the things to come with Malcolm, Vanessa, and Ethan—chief among them further fuel for my theory that something’s up with Ethan, who sticks out his bare hand to an aggressive wolf, only to watch it put his hand in its mouth for a moment (without biting), and walk away (say it with me: WOLFMAN!). Outside of that seemingly random excursion—we still never get a reason why Malcolm wanted to go to the zoo, outside of he is doing it to use Vanessa as bait—”Resurrection” mostly focuses on Viktor, pausing occasionally to peek in on the others and remind us that Ethan’s sleeping with a dying Irish woman (cue long, predictably sterile sex scene), and that Vanessa is a special creature that is in high demand in the supernatural realm at the moment.
It seems writer John Logan realizes what he has in the short-term with Frankenstein: it’s easier to pull on the simple lineage of this iconic character, while slowly building towards the more sweeping, epic tale of Mina, Malcolm, and the vampire army hiding in the shadows of London. It’s not a sure thing that the show will be able to deliver on these overarching narratives and from that perspective, spending an episode focused on a secondary character and his familiar, self-contained origin story makes a lot more sense. “Resurrection” uses this story as an emotional launching pad for the climatic moments, where Frankenstein pleads with Malcolm that “every action builds another link”, that every moral decision we make has consequences, and accepting responsibility for those decisions is the only path we have to both enlightenment and inner peace. Just as Viktor struggles to live with what he’s done to Caliban, part of his problems come from not understanding or accepting what he’d created, and if Malcolm takes the same approach to the creature he’s trying to “cure” (in fear that his daughter’s been turned, Malcolm wants to be prepared to remove any “toxins” in her veins), he’ll lose those he loves forever (in last week’s episode, there are hints that Malcolm’s tried to change others in the past, with disastrous results).
Although it remains to be seen how often Penny Dreadful will be able to successfully intertwine origin stories of iconic horror characters with its organic narrative (especially in an eight-episode season), “Resurrection” is a pretty fine example of how to pull it off. It gives depth to both Viktor’s character and the person-like creature he’s created, fleshing out a familiar relationship and story with a delectably poetic voice—and more importantly, using it to give voice to the more isolated central narrative of the show’s first season with flair and a touch of Victorian poignancy.
—Randy