Penny Dreadful, Season 2

Gladys:
[to Sir Malcolm as they stand over Peter and Mina's graves] We have no more children for you to kill.

Ethan:
Mina's dead, the creature's dead. We lost.

Vanessa:
That was only a battle. Do you think the dark forces that converge on our heads can be vanquished so easily? Do you honestly believe you can escape them?

Ethan:
And the other ones? The ones inside us?

Vanessa:
Inside me you mean?

Ethan:
No, that's not what I mean.

John Clare:
What would Dr. Frankenstein be without his creature?

Ethan:
This is something I never thought I'd see.

Sembene:
What?

Ethan:
Here's a woman who faced down that creature in the theater without blinking. And held her ground against Satan himself, but now... I've never seen her frightened.

Vanessa:
Is this what it is to go mad. Your darkest fears made manifest before your eyes.

Sir Malcolm:
You're not a neurotic, Vanessa.

Vanessa:
Then tell me where am I to find peace! Not even my prayers are safe! Do you know what that's like?

Sir Malcolm:
No. But I understand the fear of twisting things that move at night.

Vanessa:
Tell me I deserve peace.

Sir Malcolm:
I'm a poor minister for that, Vanessa. That's not been my life. But this I do know. I'll not leave your side. Wherever we walk, we walk together.

Victor:
If Proteus was any model to go by, she'll pick up language quickly. Even more quickly since I reduced the trauma of the electrical charge. It will come back to her. So too human interaction and, well, perhaps memory.

John Clare:
And then?

Victor:
I don't know. Proteus was just beginning to regain the memory of his former life, when you killed him.

John Clare:
You don't need to remind me of my sins. Just never forget your own.

Victor:
And this? Creating another sin?

John Clare:
Atoning for your first. All the love and companionship you denied me, visit upon her. She is our future, Creator. Tread carefully.

John Clare:
Is it not this, Ms. Ives? The glory of life surmounts the fear of death. Good Christians fear Hellfire, so to avoid it they are kind to their fellow man. Good pagans do not have this fear, so they can be who they are. Good or ill, as their nature dictates. We have no fear of God, so we are accountable to no one but each other.

Vanessa:
That's a profound responsibility.

Lily:
You haven't told me. What's my name?

Victor:
Lily. Your name is Lily. The flower of resurrection and rebirth.

Lily:
Why does that make me sad? Why should a flower make me sad. I don't understand. The words come out, but with so little meaning. [cries]

Victor:
Shh. Be still. It will take time. But you'll learn. I'll show you what life is.

Lily:
Cousin, teach me. I am at your mercy.

Victor:
I shall.

The Cut-Wife:
Thee and me got nothing to talk about here. You want a salve for your heartache, I can give you that. You want herbs to ease the gout, I can give you that. You want to poison your baby brother, I can give you that and laugh while I do it. But if you think you are touched by the demon then you best walk out that door. Because what I can give you for that, is only knowledge you don't want, little girl!

The Cut-Wife:
Why you want to learn the art? [spreading out tarot cards]

Vanessa:
To find out what I am.

The Cut-Wife:
And if the answer you don't like?

Vanessa:
Better to know.

The Cut-Wife:
Not really. Look that them. What do they say to you?

Vanessa:
[looks down at the cards] Nothing.

The Cut-Wife:
[hits Vanessa on the head] I said look at them.

The Cut-Wife:
They send their girls to me, but for this very service they despise me. So it is always for those who do for women. Old as I am, I know nothing. Why people in this world hate what is not them. Why they fear all they don't know. Why they hate themselves most of all - for being weak, for being old, for being everything altogether that is not godlike. Which of us can be that? Monsters all, are we not?

Vanessa:
Some perhaps more than others.

The Cut-Wife:
Is that what you feel?

Vanessa:
Yes.

The Cut-Wife:
Then it will be true, as long as you feel it so.

The Cut-Wife:
[as she goes to her death] Now you watch yourself close, my Little Scorpion. And remember this I speak now, eh? When Lucifer fell, he did not fall alone. They will hunt you until the end of days. [she puts her hand over Vanessa's chest] Be true. [pause] My name is Joan Clayton.

Vanessa:
[clothes shopping for Lily] Good morning. Vanessa Ives, pleased to meet you.

Saleswoman:
Mr. and Mrs. Ives.

Victor:
Oh God, no! No, we're not married.

Saleswoman:
Oh, I see.

Victor:
No, it's not like that either.

Saleswoman:
I assure you, sir, discretion is the watch-cry of my trade.

Vanessa:
We'll look around for a bit if we may, my non-husband and I. [they walk away]

Victor:
This is worse than I knew it was going to be.

Lily:
So, women wear corsets so they don't exert themselves?

Victor:
Partly.

Lily:
What would be the danger if they did?

Victor:
They'd take over the world.

Victor:
You know, once I would have thought all of this impossible.

Vanessa:
And now?

Victor:
I know nothing's impossible. Whatever we can imagine, far worse is true.

Vanessa:
And far better.

Victor:
You think so?

Vanessa:
I choose to.

Malcolm:
How do we protect ourselves?

Vanessa:
There is lore to ward off witches.

Mr. Lyle:
And rituals.

Ethan:
And sturdy locks. And a shit load of weapons.

John Clare:
Do you like poetry?

Vanessa:
All sad people like poetry. Happy people like songs.

Ethan:
I believe we make ourselves who we are. The blood is on our hands, not God's.

Vanessa:
I wish I were going mad. Then the doctors could lock me away and cut out the madness. Anything to make it end. You know the true path to freedom? Open any vein.

Victor:
My cousin and I... it's not without its complications. That's what they call the workings inside of watches. Did you know that? The intricate gears and mechanisms. Complications.

Vanessa:
Then enjoy them, doctor. They will tick away no matter what we do.

Dorian:
I come bearing an adventure.

Vanessa:
When do you not?

Mr. Lyle:
A dizzying panorama, isn't it? All the toys of love are out of the box, scattered around the floor.

Vanessa:
And at the end of the night, to be carefully put away. These terrible games.

Mr. Lyle:
And do you ever play? Or only spectate?

Vanessa:
I never learned the rules. The complications, as Dr. Frankenstein said to me, like the workings in a watch.

Sembene:
The shamans in my mountains call it Uchawi Mabadiliko... the changing from one skin into another. The ones so cursed do not always fully remember it, this... becoming. Is it a sickness? Or is it something else? Is it a blessing, the purpose of which we can not yet see? I say, this is what it is. For I know you my friend, Ethan Chandler, I see inside you.

Ethan:
All those things that mark you when you're young... that make you what you are. Never escape them. They just wait, don't they?

Vanessa:
What?

Ethan:
The monsters inside us.

Vanessa:
Monsters?

Ethan:
What would you call them?

Vanessa:
For me... demons. But one word is much like another.

Ethan:
And when they're released?

Vanessa:
We're most who we are. Unrestrained. Ourselves.

Ethan:
You will not die while I'm here. You will not surrender while I live. If I have one goddamned purpose in my cursed life it's that.

Vanessa:
You are one man.

Ethan:
More than that and you know it. We are not like others. We have claws for a reason.

Victor:
What is love but a kind of creature waiting to be unbound? A malady. What does it bring any of us but... confusion and bedevilment?

Ethan:
Do you know what it is... to walk with someone's body tied around your neck for the rest of your goddamn life? Do you know what that is, little girl? Let me tell you about it. First time is hard. I'm sure you cried a bit, didn't you? Don't worry, that'll pass. Second time is easier. Third time, you don't blink. Then it's all just repetition. You don't cry anymore. You don't even remember when you used to cry. You're alive and they're dead. Fuck 'em.

Vanessa:
Stop it!

Ethan:
You'll never get your soul back. Do you know that?

Vanessa:
[quietly] Yes.

Ethan:
Welcome to the night, Vanessa.

Sir Malcolm:
We're all neophytes in love. None of us have the tools, or the weapons, or the resources. Prepared as we think we are, we're defeated.

Dorian:
So... you've discovered my secret. Forever unchanging. My sins made manifest only here. At times I've deceived myself into thinking I'm other than this. Don't we all want to paint ourselves into something better than we are? But that... is truly who I am, Angelique. Can you accept me as I am? Can you love me?

Angelique:
Yes. [drinks Dorian's wine and dies.]

Dorian:
I don't think you can.

Madame Kali:
Eternal life, eternal beauty. Such shallow pursuits. What value do they hold if we walk always alone? I've been too much alone... and this house is... so cold. But with you, I've found a kind of elation. To feel the old touch of passion. To yearn. To be truly human.

Sir Malcolm:
My humanity, such as it is, is colder than this house.

Madame Kali:
No. No arrogance or pride. This is your chance to live, Malcolm. Let's bury the past together. Your wife... your son, your daughter, and all my sins as well, which surely match your own. Far exceed them. I don't want to live alone. Nor do you. So take my hand and love me. We have no one else. And together we will walk quietly. So quietly.

Sir Malcolm:
You know, if I could, I would tear that beautiful head from your shoulders and laugh all the while. But if you will let Miss Ives live, I will walk with you to the end of time.

Lily:
We flatter our men with our pain, we bow before them, we make ourselves dolls for their amusement, we lose our dignity in corsets and high shoes and gossip and the slavery of marriage! And our reward for this service? The back of the hand...the face turned to the pillow...the bloody, aching cunt as you force us onto your beds to take your fat, heaving bodies! [her voice becomes Brona's] You drag us into the alleys, my lad, and cram yourselves into our mouths for two bob when you're not beating us senseless! When we're not bloody from the eyes, and the mouth, and the ass and the cunt! Never again... will I kneel to any man. Now they shall kneel to me.

John Clare:
True evil is, above all things, seductive. When the Devil knocks at your door, he doesn't have cloven hooves. He is beautiful, and offers your heart's desire in whispered airs. Like a Siren, beckoning you to her ruinous shore.

Oscar Putney:
And what do you do, when that Siren sings?

John Clare:
You save your soul... or you give it to her.

Oscar Putney:
But then you're damned.

John Clare:
But you're not alone.

Madame Kali:
[about Sir Malcolm ] He's lost his power to entertain me. When men become mad, they quite lose their dignity. And without that, well... what are they but throbbing vermin made to procreate and expire?

Sembene:
[to Ethan] I have been much feared and hated in my life. By my people, by yours. These marks mean I was a slave trader. 'Tis my sin to live with. But in this house, I have found kindness among the unkind. So have you.

Ethan:
I've not had many friends in my time, but I'm proud to count you among them.

Vanessa:
You are a repellent creature.

Roper:
You don't know the half of it.

Proteus:
[to Victor] We were born innocent. You made us into monsters.

Mr. Lyle:
Never underestimate the power of a queen with lovely hair, my dear.

Vanessa:
You offer me a normal life... Why do you think I want that anymore? I know what I am. Do you?

Ethan:
Dear Vanessa... your many kindnesses I will always carry with me. Such generosity... has not been a part of my life, and I thank you for your affection and understanding. In my most frightened and lonely moments, you were there. And such light you brought to me. But I am made for the dark. As we both know. I am fit for only one place and should have been there long ago. Deep in the cold clay on a forgotten hill. Your road may be difficult. But mine is doomed. So we walk alone. Written with love... Ethan.