I have been rather dreading this episode. So far this season
we have been seeing a very previous thing – Vanessa being happy. Vanessa
getting help. Vanessa being healed. After two seasons of horrendous suffering,
we needed this
And now we have her hypnotism based memories of her time in the asylum, complete with all the horrendous torture she endured this
We really don’t need to see more of this. And seeing that
John Smith was her orderly and potentially involved in this abuse when we have
already seen these two characters have connected. I don’t want that connection
to be based on abuse neither of them remember
It wasn’t that bad. While we had Vanessa being
horrendously agonised and tormented. Yes the acting is incredible yet again,
the stares amazingly intense and her utter collapse are painfully poignant to
see. While she suffers there is Dr. Seward trying to help her out of her fugue
state and it’s also awesome and powerful and touching and beautiful
And we’ve done this. Yes it’s all so incredibly well
done, it’s amazing, it’s emotional and I want to applaud the skill, the
direction and the utterly perfect acting. No-one can fault the immense skill,
emotional power and general impressive power of this scene. But enough of
Vanessa’s suffering. Enough. Please.
Beside her suffering, at least Orderly John Smith
develops a very touching relationship. He cares for her. He worries for her. It’s
heartbreaking how he genuinely tries to reach her, how her tries to beg her to be
well. His faith in his superiors and the institution he is part of crumbles
more and more as he comes to agree with her that she is being tortured. It’s
beautiful and well developed as they grow closer together and he sees the
asylum for what it is. At the same time it’s clear that he is just a cog in the
wheel of the institution, too poor to quit and too lowly to break the
regulations
There are some special interesting moments: There’s John
Smith applying make up on Vanessa to try and let her feel more human, less
worn, less ragged even as he tries to bring her hope by telling her no-one will
touch her without her permission again. How someone will never touch her, even
to put make up on her. Even while trying to give her some hope he acknowledges
that even there he is taking liberties with her, he is violating her.
She accurately describes how a lot of women are treated
in the Victorian era – insisting that they don’t want to make her well, they
want to make her “normal. Compliant like other women. Cogs.”
And when John begs her to fake being well so she can be
released and spared surgery:
“Is it so important to be different?”
“Do you want your son to be who is?”
“I want him to be happy.”
“And if he isn’t, would you want him to pretend?”
…Vanessa, is always toweringly awesome
But we also have John Smith possessed by not one, but two
different demons: Lucifer (who wants her spirit and her soul) and Dracula –
Lucifer’s brother who mocks his sibling for his weak dependence on spirit and
turning against the flesh Dracula has embraced (he wants Vanessa’s body). They
are terrifying and shadowed and spooky and awful…
Except Vanessa has all that and then some more. After
giving up on prayer, she embraces her terrifying witch’s tongue and out evils
both of them after they both dare to threaten her – forcing them both to
retreat and cower before her. I do like those brief, beautiful moments when we
see Vanessa’s power.
She doesn’t leave the fugue state, insisting she isn’t
finished yet, even as her memories show her prepared for brutal surgery –
condemned by her faith.
In the end, John Smith hands in his notice, because he
cares too much about Vanessa, lovers her too much to continue working there.
Only then does she return to Dr. Seward’s office. She
wakes, remembering everything. And grim. And unfrightened. Now I want her to start kicking Dracula and stop being victimised
