A maid discovers Sir Malcolm’s dead wife, Gladys.
Dorian wakes to see Angelique preparing for the day and Dorian
wants to go out shopping in big public places while Angelique is wary and
wishes for more discretion. Of course, Dorian won’t hear of it, he “celebrates
the unusual”. Aie so it looks like the good path of last episode is not being
continued. To get the “thrill of the forbidden” he decides to throw a ball for
Angelique, a “proper coming out.”
Creepy Victor wakes up to find Lily making breakfast and
it’s all very lovey dovey except, of course, for the whole lack of awareness
and consent which ruins it.
Speaking of, Evelyn wakes before her drugged victim, Sir
Malcolm and steals some of his hair.
He goes home in very high spirits only to find everyone
in the house very grim to pass on the bad news about Gladys. He seems
completely unemotional and rather horrifying unbothered. When hearing his wife
slit her own throat his only remark is how he will have to replace the carpet.
Sembene insists that something is wrong, despite Ethan attempting to rationalise it (and thinking that maybe Malcolm just didn’t care that much). Vanessa sharply disapproves and Sembene is quietly insistent – that was not Malcolm.
And they get a visitor – the man Ethan mauled as a wolf.
In private there’s lots of taunts and threats as the man tries to be very
loquacious and talk about how he murdered some Mexicans while Ethan is curt and
short. He insists that Ethan’s dad wants him to come home and makes it clear he
hasn’t given up taking him and threatens to kill everyone in the house to try
and force him to go back to America. He singles out Vanessa specifically
Oh he doesn’t know what he is messing with. The werewolf is the least of his problems
Victor and Vanessa discuss the verbis diablo when Vanessa
talks about John Clare and Victor realises she’s met his creature. She misses
his shock and pokes him about his romance with Lily and he’s all gleeful and
awkward and a bit dorky and she’s all nice and kind and happy for him. It’s
sweet.
Dorian pays a visit to the rest of the cast to invite
Vanessa et al to Angelique’s ball.
Vanessa takes Malcolm his invitation and Malcolm
continues to be creepily detached, not even wanting to go to the funeral. He’s
even enthusiastic about going to the ball.
At her house, Evelyn works on her Malcolm wax work doll
which is every bit as creepy as you imagine. Evelyn intends to attend the ball
with Malcolm though Lyle thinks she better be careful around Vanessa. They also
turn to philosophy and Evelyn thinking god has given up on them when she sees
the suffering around her. Without god and in suffering world who else would she
turn to than the dark master – to live forever while the world suffers?
Victor goes home to Lily to tell her about the ball, he’s
hesitant about bringing her, wondering if she’s ready for such crowds and so
many strangers, but when she takes this to be embarrassment of her he quickly
agrees to go. They continue to be lovey-dovey and romantic
To John and Lavinia as she describes her process of
molding the figures for the display and touches his hand – only to realise that
his hands are unnaturally cold and to be worried by it. She questions him but
he assures her she needn’t fear him, even though she does (despite saying she
knows he’s kind). Mr Putney also drops in for more ominous talk about his new
upcoming attraction.
At dinner Lavinia tells his worries to her parents – that
she doesn’t think John is really alive.
The display opens with its gruesome depiction of
horrendous crimes – including the slaughter at the Mariner’s Inn which Ethan
sees, disturbed. Then the Inspector arrives and continues to make pointed
comments about predators and cannibalism – and even some hints at wolves and
Ethan’s guilt. Guilt which he thinks will torture Ethan’s conscience – which doesn’t
seem entirely far from the mark.
When he goes back to the house, Vanessa invites him to
escort her to the ball… and he refuses when he hears the date (I suspect full
moon may be involved).
To the ball! Lyle and Hecate duel with words pulling out
Hecate’s long term plans to betray her mother while he lays some perfect
insults in. Dorian presents Angelique and they dance
Victor and Lily arrive and Lily is stunned by the utterly
opulent surroundings – though she is also having a sense of déjà vu. He introduces
Lily to Dorian… and it looks like he recognises her. And Lily definitely has a
big déjà vu as well. He then leads Lily off in the dance, abandoning Angelique
and Victor. Dorian compliments her and seems to try and poke her memory.
Vanessa arrives, without an escort, with Lyle trying to
ensure Hecate keeps her distance. Victor and Lily’s dance ends and Victor is
all sharp and jealous while he fills in Lily’s backstory rather than let her
speak for herself. Dorian is all charming and kind of neglecting Angelique,
though it does partially feel like a rejection of Victor’s highhandedness. Lily
and Dorian dance again and Vanessa tries to sooth Victor’s jealousy even as he
also laments that Dorian is showing Lily life that he couldn’t
Evelyn and a newly shaved Malcolm arrive and Vanessa has
a woo-woo moment. I don’t know if it’s from touching Victor’s hand or from the
presence of Evelyn (probably the latter). Vanessa is duly suspicious of how
much Malcolm has changed – since meeting Evelyn. Vanessa lays in a fair few verbal
barbs with an excellent undercurrent of menace and warning
As everyone dances, Lyle tries to encourage Vanessa to
leave, worried about the Nightcomers. Instead she, Hecate and the other two
young witches face off on the dance floor – using woo-woo to make her dizzy and
make her hallucinate until she passes out and collapses to the floor.
Ethan is back at the house with Sembene – and he asks for
Sembene’s help. Help chaining him up in the basement on the night of the full
moon. But he also wants Sembene to watch Ethan’s transformation.
Ethan changes into a wolf man. I’m not impressed, it’s not nearly wolfy enough.
I know a lot of people have commented on Vanessa not
recognising Lily as Brona and I can see that – Vanessa does come across as very
astute. However is it that unlikely? Whatever else Vanessa is, she is an upper
class lady and whatever else Brona was, she was a lower class Irish sex worker.
How much do we think Vanessa would have noticed her, paid great attention to
her, tried to memorise her? Enough to recognise her with a different voice, different
hair and different clothes and in totally unexpected company?
Evelyn – her musings on faith and her reward were so
powerful – she’s aiming for a prize she doesn’t even know she wants and doesn’t
even value, calling it a sad prize. She merely prefers it to the alternative.
It takes a lot to make a baby killing monster… tragic.
Why does the Inspector suspect Ethan so much? Ok I can see
suspecting him of being involved. But pointed comments about wolves and blood
lust and memory loss? Where does this come from? How does he know so much?
Again Dorian seems to have backslided and goes back to that terrible portrayal of him treating Angelique’s being trans – and LGBTness in general – as some kind of delightful fetish to be engaged in to shock. He doesn’t celebrate difference because people are different and we should celebrate them, he revels in difference because of its potential to shock, to be novel, to be an adventure. It makes it look like he’s less interested in Angelique as Angelique than he is in the exotic, different trans woman – to a level where he is steamrolling over her own concerns. He is putting both their safety at risk (though largely hers because of his immortality as well as his class privilege) for the sake of his spectacle.
Which seems all the more apparent when one of his other
curiosities returned and seems to distract him so thoroughly from Angelique.
