As we enter Penny Dreadful's second act, it's finally time for some storylines to start crossing. Ethan Chandler takes his girlfriend Brona to Caliban's theatre, where they run into Dorian Grey and Vanessa Ives, while back home Dracula calls on Sir Malcolm and Frankenstein, resulting in lots of terrible things.
Vanessa sees Mina in a vision, and helps Malcolm explain her situation—under the influence of an unnamed Dracula, who might be connected to the Hidden Ones; food for vampires somewhere gross—before the crew takes a midnight excursion to the London Zoo. After Ethan has quite a strange dog-whispering moment with some of Dracula's wolf familiars, they lead us to our story's Renfield—a mesmerizing young floor-licking madman named Fenton—and Malcolm brings him home for torture... All of which seems to be part of Dracula's plans.
Ethan Chandler wakes up in the street, after possibly Jack the Rippering some more people, and immediately goes looking for a drink. At the nearest inn he meets Billie Piper, a sarcastic hooker with a heart full of hope and an Irish accent that will eventually grow on you but is some rough fucking sailing for a while. He's into her, although she doesn't really seem that interested, and takes a room in the inn so they can become friends. She has consumption and the whole thing, which we know because—like every character on this show—she feels comfortable expositing her entire history to a stranger for ten minutes seconds after meeting him. (Or not her entire history, since everybody on has one million secrets and enjoys coyly implying them at any old time at all.)
The upside-down crucifix gushes spiders in every direction. A second ago it was a regular crucifix that Eva Green was tearfully Ave Maria'ing at, but fuck you if you thought it would stay that way. After all, this is Penny Dreadful, where every pile of corpses has a Nosferatu in the middle, every skull is covered in flesh-eating beetles, everything creaks except for when things selectively don't, and everyone tailors their signature look so as to be identifiable in mist-shrouded silhouette. If there's a crucifix, assume it will be upside down and blasting spiders ASAP.
