The disturbing and possessed Vanessa waxes lyrically (and
insightfully) about the Victorian ideal of the passive woman and compares it to
being almost dead or actually dead. Sir Malcolm tries to gently talk to her, to
see what she remembers – but she focuses on the fact he dressed her and seems
almost childishly gleeful. She speaks as Mina, Malcolm’s daughter
Let the scenery chewing commence! And no-one scenery
chews like Vanessa (Eva Green should have “Best Scenery Chewer ever!” on her
CV). Hang on for the ride – she talks as Mina, of her dad always been away, of
her mother crying, of Malcolm’s affairs and disdain for her mother because her
mother was fat all the while giggling away. Then turning demonic and demanding
to know about the other women – and lashing out at Malcolm for not going to
Vanessa’s mother’s funeral.
There then follows a racist tirade of Malcolm’s women,
though the slur is used to describe how Malcolm treats the various native
peoples he commanded and used while an explorer, it’s still grossly
unnecessary. She continues to rant about the women he had sex with throughout
his travels, the prostitutes he visited, forcing Peter to visit the same to “prove”
his manhood – and things start flying, papers, books, cabinet doors… until
Sembene runs in and knocks her out
While the rest of the cast stand around looking shocked and stunned, Sembene tends to act.
Vanessa is taken to her room and is examined by a
adorkably awkward Victor (who isn’t used to treating the living) with fun
moments like “I fear I do not look my best” “your visual responses are
perfectly adequate” “no wonder you’re not married.”
She has a brief moment of sanity when she worries about Victor bringing in an alienist, before the scenery chewing begins anew! Speculating about Victor’s virginity and quoting Shelley - the same quote Victor always uses “No more let life divide what death can join together.” Victor is duly shaken
Malcolm and Victor consult, thinking that it’s a
psychological problem. And since this is Victorian, that means “evil lady
sexing is evil”. After asking a series of questions (Malcolm doesn’t think
Vanessa is a virgin and doesn’t care), Victor comes up with the idea that
Vanessa is suffering from huge sexual guilt, probably triggered by having sex
with Dorian.
Then her tarot cards spawn a wave of 8 bajillion spiders and Vanessa screams/roars all demonically. I
believe the demon just disagreed with Victor’s diagnosis.
Ethan arrives (Malcolm makes sure he’s armed) and they
all pile into Vanessa’s room. Vanessa… does not look good. She looks all
pitiable and Ethan goes to her – and she asks about him having sex with Dorian,
demon’s back in charge who also knows Brona slept with Dorian. She completely
loses it and lashes out at everyone until Victor sedates her while she babbles
in Arabic.
The guys conclude demonic possession and Malcolm spills about
the whole Amaunet thing Vanessa has. Ethan suggests a priest which Victor disdains,
Malcolm opts to them all staying and supporting Vanessa while she fights –
going back to her words of the people they trust and are loyal too. Also,
Vanessa was saying “let me die.”
Montage of lots of battling with Vanessa while possessed
until a week passes. She wakes up to some clarity and she and Ethan have a
touching moment in which she says she may be in love with him. And then it all
goes to pot because it isn’t Ethan – it’s Demonic Ethan, like invisible Demonic
Malcolm! After spitting gross slurs at god, and tries to make her give in and
become the Mother of Evil. His co-ruler in darkness. They kiss and hold each
other
Downstairs, Ethan and Malcolm have it out. Ethan doesn’t
want to go to Africa with Malcolm and doesn’t want another father figure since
he doesn’t like the one he’s got – and Malcolm’s own treatment of his son was
so lacking. This is something Malcolm admits, even when he buried his son he
did it in Africa so he could continue searching for the source of the Nile –
and even though he says he’s going to bring his son’s body back, it could be
just another excuse in that search.
Daddy issues shelved for more Vanessa scenery chewing, including black veins and hieroglyphs this time
A brief moment for Victor – who takes morphine (for “pain”
is all he says, and acknowledges it’s an addiction). His monster, Caliban, is
still lurking outside. He and Ethan talk about Vanessa maybe being beyond help and
Ethan thinks Malcolm is hiding something about why he wants Vanessa to live. Ethan
brings up the horrific treatment of Native Americans in the US, including the
removal of children and stripping them of their culture, language and history
which they somehow compare to Vanessa (Victor goes to look at Caliban, seeming
to make some connection to the “not fitting in either world” thing).
Victor asks Ethan to teach him how to shoot – he’s
enthusiastic. And Ethan shows off his own impressive skills (and yes, I smiled
when Sembene questioned the noise on Sir Malcolm’s behalf and Ethan says “we’re
in trouble with dad.”)
Next little moment is, surprisingly, between Ethan and
Sembene – Sembene resists any personal questions so Ethan makes a guess – Sir Malcolm
saved his life so Sembene owes him. Sembene flips it round with a completely
different cultural context and suggests he saved Sir Malcolm’s life and now
Malcolm is his responsibility. Sembene also votes for a priest.
And Malcolm is an arsehole – seeing Vanessa in her distress,
he tries to use her horrendous state to get her to reach Mina. Vanessa is not
impressed by his ruthless cruelty and she wonders if he caused this or let it
happen just so he could get her in this state. Ethan intervenes, Ethan and
Victor confronting Malcolm she needs a priest or, if she wants to die, she
needs to be allowed to do so. Them calling for a priest? That’s for the last
rites – but Malcolm realises an exorcism might help. Victor considers it obscene and
asks Malcolm if this is what happens when you “murder your way across a
continent”. Malcolm goes for him and Ethan intervenes, yelling at Malcolm that
if he wants a daughter so badly, he has one right in there, dying.
Malcolm calls for a priest – and Ethan threatens to rip his throat out if Vanessa is right and Malcolm let all this happen. Malcolm and Victor have a moment with more musings about Malcolm’s dead son and naming a mountain (putting a “proper English name” on one).
They call the priest and he refuses to perform an exorcism
– it’s forbidden without permission from Rome. He is adamant and Victor loses
patience with the man, not having much with priests in the first place. They
take him upstairs and he’s all very disturbed but prepares the Last Rites when
Ethan stops him leaving – Vanessa throws out some Biblical references then
bites off the priest’s ear. Then jumps onto the ceiling
Spider-demon!
She shatters all the windows and throws people around the
room with the power of her mind. Ethan points a gun at her and seems to get
through – and she begs him to kill her. Instead he reaches for the amulet of St
Jude that Brona gave him and prayers over it in Latin, pressing it to Vanessa’s
head. Demonic voices echo his shouting
Wait, Ethan knows the exorcism ritual? And can pull it off with a borrowed amulet in a minute? This would have been nice to know a week ago!
Vanessa collapses and they put her to bed.
When she wakes, she says she knows where Mina is
No-one, ever can match Eva Green when it comes to sheer,
unnerving intensity.
And yes, the whole setting was beautiful and intense. The music was perfect. The acting, as ever, excellent. The melt down, the possession was powerful and sad and desperate. But… what was the point? This is a 10 episode season – do we have time for the characters to watch Vanessa show how amazingly well she does freak out while everyone else shares little vignettes of things we’ve already covered and developed and explored several times over?
I appreciate them pointing out the many racist horrors of
this time – the genocide of the Native Americans, Malcolm murdering and sexing
his way across Africa – it’s nice to have all of these evil called out for what
it was. But all they are is used as rhetorical flourishes for white people drama.
They’re mentioned, but only as a way to add some grossly inappropriate context
to whatever they’re talking about or whatever point they’re trying to make or
to try and establish some kind of characterisation. While the actual POC
character still stands in the background and says so very little and does less.
