‘Penny Dreadful’ season 3, episode 5 review: Ethan, Hecate bond, embrace inner demons
Last time on “Penny Dreadful” we had a whole episode dedicated to Vanessa as she reached into the deepest parts of her mind and remembered her time at the asylum – including the fact that Dracula and Satan (brothers) are fighting over her. Once awake from hypnosis, she is now armed with the name of the man after her – Dracula. Tonight though, we have a chance to catch up with our favorite werewolf Ethan.
Hecate and Ethan are still on the run and are headed towards his father’s ranch to face him, but the Marshall (and Malcolm) are hot on his trail. Hecate is still doing what she can to push Ethan to the dark-side and embrace his inner monster, but he’s still not having it even though they have a lot more in common then Ethan may like to think. We have been saying for weeks now that there will likely be something romantic brewing between these two and tonight we saw a spark of that when Hecate was taking care of their dying horses and Ethan saw some good in her.
In a moment of desperation he agrees to help Hecate summon an army of demons to fight for them and they come in the form of snakes, attacking the Marshall’s camp and killing most of the group, but the Marshall is still coming for him and now he wants him dead. Is Malcolm going to get to Ethan in time to keep him from embracing his inner darkness or will Hecate bring him further into the shadows? As we predicted long ago, Ethan and Hecate hooked up and he decided to be one with the darkness.
Shortly after their bonding experience, they hit the road, except their horses are dead and Hecate is dying of dehydration, but Malcolm shows up and gives them water saving their lives. Unfortunately this happy reunion doesn’t last long when Ethan’s father’s men show up and takes all of them back to his father’s ranch. When they get to the ranch, Jared makes it clear that he wants Malcolm’s help in getting Ethan to stay at the ranch with him, but he’s not sure that he can.
When Ethan comes face to face with his father, Jared says he wants Ethan to see what he did when he betrayed him and attacked his father’s ranch with his enemy. Ethan sees the wreckage left behind in the chapel and learns that his mother, brother and sister were slaughtered and tortured in the attack saying that Ethan brought the devil to his door and gave him the key that day. Jared wants Ethan to repent for what he’s done or will kill him, but Ethan says that he belongs in hell and is done repenting. Is Jared going to kill Ethan?
We were very excited about this episode of “Penny Dreadful” tonight, because there hasn’t been nearly enough of Ethan this season, and more then that it was nice to learn more about his past and some of the horrors he faced as a young man as well as some of the atrocities he committed before becoming a werewolf. We can’t wait until next week’s episode to see if Jared is going to kill Ethan or not (even though we know that it is unlikely that they would kill Ethan off) – it was an intense episode filled with a lot of interesting answers to Ethan’s past. Episode grade: A-
What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Penny Dreadful”? Leave us a comment below and share your thoughts on the season.