Penny Dreadful

2014 British-American horror drama television series

Penny Dreadful (2014-2016) is a horror TV series created for Showtime by John Logan and executive produced by Logan and Sam Mendes.

Some of literature's most terrifying characters, including Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, and iconic figures from the novel Dracula are lurking in the darkest corners of Victorian London. Penny Dreadful is a frightening psychological thriller that weaves together these classic horror origin stories into a new adult drama.

Season 1 edit

Night Work [1.1] edit

Vanessa Ives: I have a need for a gentleman who's comfortable with firearms and not hesitant to engage in dangerous endeavors. Or was all that a tall tale as well?
Ethan Chandler: What do you think?
Vanessa: Expensive watch, but threadbare jacket. Sentimental about the money you used to have. Your eye is steady, but your left hand tremors. That's the drink, so you keep it below the table, hoping I won't notice. You have a contusion healing on your other hand, the result of a recent brawl with a jealous husband, no doubt. Your boots are good quality leather, but have been resoled more than once. I see a man who's been accustomed to wealth, but has given himself to excess and the unbridled pleasures of youth. A man much more complicated than he likes to appear.

Vanessa: Do you believe there is a demimonde, Mr. Chandler? A half world between what we know and what we fear? A place in the shadows, rarely seen, but deeply felt. Do you believe that?
Ethan: Yes.
Vanessa: That's where we were last night, where some unfortunate souls are cursed to live always. If you believe in curses, that is.

Victor Frankenstein: I would never chart a river or scale a peak to take its measure or plant a flag. There's no point. It's solipsistic self-aggrandizement. So too those scientists who study the planets seeking astronomical enlightenment for its own sake. The botanist studying the variegation of an Amazonian fern. The zoologist caught up in the endless fascination of an adder's coils. And for what? Knowledge for itself alone? The elation of discovery? Plant your flag on the truth? There is only one worthy goal for scientific exploration... piercing the tissue that separates life from death. Everything else, from the deep bottom of the sea to the top of the highest mountain on the farthest planet, is insignificant. Life and death, Sir Malcolm. The flicker that separates one from the other, fast as a bat's wing, more beautiful than any sonnet. That is my river. That is my mountain. There I will plant my flag.
Sir Malcolm Murray: You have the soul of a poet, sir.
Victor: And the bank account to match.

Sir Malcolm: I'm trying to rescue my daughter. To save her, I would murder the world. Join me, doctor. With me, you will behold terrible wonders.
Victor: And how much of the world will we have to murder?
Sir Malcolm: Do you care?
Victor: I've only one other question: Why me?
Sir Malcolm: Because you were unafraid to pull back the skin and look beneath.

Sir Malcolm: There was another thought when she was so very close to me, a strange working of memory. I thought of a particular lion hunt many years ago. You're moving through the tall grass, getting a glimpse of the prey, the shoulders mostly, the mane. You prepare your rifle. You're very quiet. And then there's a moment. The wind changes, the grass stops swaying. The lion turns, looks at you. The moment you realize you are no longer the hunter, you are the prey.

Seance [1.2] edit

Victor: My mother taught me many things. Among the most useful is that one must always have Shakespeare at hand.

Galsworthy: They're not for the fainthearted.
Sir Malcolm: My heart has never fainted.

Sir Malcolm: You see, you're hunting for a man. You need to start hunting for a beast

Proteus: Victor, what am I?

Victor: Man does not live only in the empirical. We must seek the ephemeral, or why live?

Vanessa: "If this belief from heaven be sent, if such be nature's holy plan... "
Victor: "Have I not reason to lament... "
Vanessa and Victor: "What man has made of man."

Victor: The ancient Egyptian religions were unique in a way. They had a singular goal. Not transmutation to an afterlife, but something even more profound: eternal life.

Ethan: Brona?
Brona: It's Gaelic.
Ethan: What does it mean?
Brona: Sadness

Brona Croft: Sir, you shouldn't.
Dorian Gray: I don't know the word.

Dorian: It was more of a... random invitation.
Vanessa: Do you get many of those?
Dorian: Entirely.
Vanessa:You could say "no."
Dorian: I never say "no."

Vanessa: I wasn't skeptical about the room.
Dorian: What then? Shall I guess?
Vanessa: Have on, Mr. Gray.
Dorian: You do not belong here. Even less than I. You are not frivolous. Your eye is careful and appraising. This is not a careful room, although there is much to appraise. That can divert you for only so long. You do not like it here. You are closed to it. Yet... you're the only woman in this house not wearing gloves. Your hands want to touch, but your head wants to appraise. Your heart is torn between the two. You were skeptical because you thought... This was going to be a wasted evening, but now you're not so sure.

Mr Lyle: I would not tell Miss Ives this. After all, who wants to know they're hunted by the devil?

John Clare: [after killing Proteus] Your first born has returned... Father.

Resurrection [1.3] edit

Victor: Death is not serene.

John Clare: Is every newborn creature abandoned the moment they are born?

John Clare: Who is the child, Frankenstein? Thee or me?

John Clare: I learned to stay in the shadows. To protect such a heart as this you gave me.

John Clare: You have not known horror until I have shown it to you.

Vincent Brand: There is a place where the malformed find grace, where the hideous can be beautiful, where strangeness is not shunned but celebrated. This place is the theater.

Mina: They are all about me. The beasts that feed at night. And they are hungry.

Victor: When you transform a life, you're making it anew. Whatever happens to that creature downstairs, we are responsible for it. It is our burden now. Every action builds another link that binds us to it. That chain is everlasting.

Vanessa: We here have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return. There is no going back from this moment.

Victor: Killing redskins more your line?
Ethan: You know nothing about it.
Victor: Whole Indian nations pacified into nonexistence, what don't I know?
Ethan: How do you know I was in the Indian wars?
Victor: I didn't.

Victor: I cannot unmake the past!
John Clare: I'm not concerned with the past, only the future.

Victor: You seek to threaten me with death? If you seek to threaten me, threaten me with life.

John Clare: You made me strong and tireless. If only you had made me handsome.

Demimonde [1.4] edit

Dorian: What does it say to you?
Vanessa: Touch me with your finger, softly.

Vanessa: Is it poisonous?
Dorian: Like all beautiful things, I hope so.

John Clare: My bride must be beautiful.
Victor: To match her mate?

Sir Malcolm: How will we be able to tell?
Victor: Well, he won’t want to eat everyone, to start.

Dorian: I suppose we all play parts.
Ethan: What's yours?
Dorian: Human.

Vanessa: Leave the mad larks to the boys, Sir Malcolm.
Victor: Oh, not me, just him. I'm bloodless.
Vanessa: The essence of your appeal, Doctor.

Vanessa: You don't miss your home?
Ethan: Landscape's nice. Legal system less so.

Dorian: Once you get used to something, why bother? It's just repetition.

Vanessa: Things are so rarely what they seem.

Ethan: You ever wish you could be someone else? Just run away from your life?
Dorian: All the time.

Dorian: You want to be someone else? Come with me.
Ethan: Does it involve a drink?
Dorian: Many.

Ethan: We've all done things to survive. There are such sins at my back it would kill me to turn around.

John Clare: You are so fragile, you mortals, such things of skin and air. Such things of the past. The future belongs to the strong, to the immortal races, to me and my kind.

Sir Malcolm: We'll carry on with this fight. We can lose every battle, except the last.

Closer Than Sisters [1.5] edit

Vanessa: You have to give them names or they’ll never come to life.

Vanessa: Perhaps it has always been there, this thing, this demon inside me. Or behind my back, waiting for me to turn around.

Vanessa: I tried to pray that night and God didn’t answer me, but another did.

Sir Malcolm: There was a time I would have gladly killed you, and there may come a time when I gladly shall.

Vanessa: His name is Ariel. The most challenging bit is the eyes. They're glass, of course, so by nature are dead and dull. But that wouldn't do for my great predator. So I put mirrors behind the glass eyes, so they would spark. You see?
Captain Branson: It's like they're alive.
Vanessa: They are. I would put mirrors behind the entire world if I could.

Vanessa: An unforgivable transgression that has marked me for life. You think you've suffered. You think you know blood. You think you've walked on corpses. Spread them from here to the horizon and I have walked further! You weak, foul, lustful, vainglorious man. How dare you presume to speak to me of death?

Vanessa: I write in hope that one day you will answer me and that everything can again be like it was... Though I know that can never be.

Vanessa: I don't remember clouds when we were young. Were there any, my dearest Mina? Just beyond the horizon, perhaps? Or was it all seashore and sandcastles? Such a thought is naive, I know. But aren't memories always that?

Vanessa: Your father loves you very much and would do anything to save you. But I love you in a different way. I love you enough to kill you.

What Death Can Join Together [1.6] edit

Professor Van Helsing: Of what I am about to tell you, we cannot enlighten him.
Victor: Why not?
Professor Van Helsing: Because the truth is unendurable.

Professor Van Helsing: She did not succumb to a disease precisely.
Victor: Of what did she succumb?
Professor Van Helsing: I drove a stake through her heart and cut off her head.

Sir Malcolm: Do you hold out hope for her?
Ethan: I hold out for dignity.

Sir Malcolm: She will cease to be who she is.
Ethan: Then I will love who she becomes.

Vanessa: I have a complicated history with the Almighty.

John Clare: Do not weep. I've learned that skill. It brings no solace.

Professor Van Helsing: For the dead travel fast.

Dorian: Photographs are so ironically impermanent. They capture one moment in time to perfection. A painting can capture eternity.

Possession [1.7] edit

Ethan: Do you believe in God?
Sambene: I believe in everything.

Victor: [shooting bottles] Again?
Ethan: Go crazy, Dr. F.

Vanessa: You have very clean hands.
Victor: Yes, I suppose so.
Vanessa: Do you value cleanliness?
Victor: I suppose I do.
Vanessa: That's why you're a virgin. [Victor looks startled] Or maybe not. Who can tell about such things, such hidden things. Such secrets we all have, don't we, Doctor? [pretends to almost bite his thumb] There's a line from Shelley that haunts me, a single line from "Adonais". I can't seem to get it out of my head. "No more let life divide what death can join together." [Victor stands, shuddering] Your clean hands are trembling. Are you afraid?
Victor: N-Not of you.
Vanessa: You think you know a greater demon? Tell me of him. Or shall I tell you? [Victor walks to his bag] Is the examination over?
Victor: It has not yet begun. [leaves the room]

Ethan: [about Vanessa] What's wrong with her?
Sir Malcolm: She's been possessed by the devil.
Ethan: [under his breath] Fuck me.
Sir Malcolm: Or a devil. Who can say. There is a pantheon, I believe.
Ethan: [to Victor] Well, you're a doctor, do something!
Victor: This is a bit beyond my usual practice. [pointing up to Vanessa's room]

Grand Guignol [1.8] edit

John Clare: What dreams I had of my mate. Of another being, looking into these eyes, upon this face, and recoiling not. But how could that happen? For the monster is not in my face, but in my soul. I once thought that if I was like other men, I would be happy and loved. The malignance has grown, you see, from the outside in, and this shattered visage merely reflects the abomination that is my heart. Oh, my creator, why... Why did you not make me of steel and stone? Why did you allow me to feel? I would rather be the corpse I was than the man I am. Go ahead. Pull the trigger. It would be a blessing.

Priest: Before we continue our conversation, my dear, there is one thing you must understand. Even if it can be verified, this is a long, grueling and dangerous thing you ask. It could take months, or years, or always, or never. But before we say another word, you must look into your heart and you must answer me a question. Just one. If you have been touched by the demon, it's like being touched by the back hand of God. Makes you sacred in a way, doesn't it? Makes you unique, with a kind of glory. The glory of suffering, even. Now, here's my question. Do you really want to be normal?

Sir Malcolm: [about Mina] If I can save her, I will. If I cannot, I will end her suffering.
Vanessa: And will that bring you peace?
Sir Malcolm: Don't be naive. It doesn't suit you.

Mina: I am your daughter!
Sir Malcolm: [Looking at Vanessa] I already have a daughter. [Shoots Mina]

Season 2 edit

Fresh Hell [2.1] edit

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.

Verbis Diablo [2.2] edit

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 Nightcomers [2.3] edit

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.

Evil Spirits in Heavenly Places [2.4] edit

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.

Above the Vaulted Sky [2.5] edit

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.

Glorious Horrors [2.6] edit

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.

Little Scorpion [2.7] edit

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.

Memento Mori [2.8] edit

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.

And Hell Itself My Only Foe [2.9] edit

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.

And They Were Enemies [2.10] edit

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.

Season 3 edit

The Day Tennyson Died [3.1] edit

Dr. Seward: [to Vanessa] You're unhappy. You're isolated. You think you are the cause of this unhappiness and are unworthy of affection. So, you have few friends. Recently, you lost something that you feel very important; your lover, your faith, your family, or all three. You blame yourself for this, so it makes you neurotic. So you don't sleep and don't eat, not anything healthy anyway. You used to care about your appearance, but you've lost interest in that, so you avoid mirrors. Sunlight bothers you, so you avoid that too, for which you feel guilty. Because you think it's unhealthy and even immoral not to like the sun. You are not a woman of convention or else you wouldn't be here. But you like to pretend that you are so people don't notice you. But you like that as well, and can sometimes dress to draw the eye. But then you think that the men who look at you are fools or worse to be taken in by such an obvious outward show. So, instead, you are drawn to dark, complicated, impossible men, assuring your own unhappiness and isolation. Because, after all, you're happiest alone. But not even then because you can't stop thinking about what you have lost. Again, for which you blame yourself. So the cycle goes on. The snake eating its tail.

Kaetenay: Are you familiar with the West?
Sir Malcolm: Only through the newspapers.
Kaetenay: It is not what it was. But then, what is, Sir Malcolm?
Sir Malcolm: How do you know me?
Kaetenay: I've been following you.
Sir Malcolm: In Africa?
Kaetenay: I missed you in London, so I came to this place. I awaited for your return from the anterior.
Sir Malcolm: How did you know I'd return?
Kaetenay: Because you can't die until you've served your purpose.
Sir Malcolm: And what's that?
Kaetenay: To fight the great demons of earth and sky until you are dead.
Sir Malcolm: I'm done with that.
Kaetenay: Better say you are done with breathing.

Victor: I have conquered death, and created monsters... none more so than the man who sits before you.

Vanessa: The old monsters are gone. The old curses have echoed to silence. And if my immortal soul is lost to me, something yet remains... I remain.

Predators Far and Near [3.2] edit

Bartholomew Rusk: I will consider my duties discharged when I see Ethan Chandler hanging from the end of a rope, and not before.

Henry Jekyll: We are all two things in a way, are we not, deep in the marrow? Angel and devil, light and dark. The pull between the two is the active verb that energizes our lives.

Kaetenay: Hunting a man is no great thing. They are slow and predictable. They can be found always where their appetites lead them: to eat, to sleep, to fuck. Man is no great thing.

Lily: You musn't be here. There's nothing here for you.
Victor: Where you go, I belong.
Lily: God help you if you follow my path, Victor. Take your romance and your memories of your most current fiction and go.
Victor: No. I must save you from one of them. One way or another, you're my responsibility. I created you.
Lily: I need no man to save me. And I think, in a way, I created you more than you created me. First love, Victor. You will recover. Do not come here again. You will not like what I am becoming.

Good and Evil Braided Be [3.3] edit

Vanessa: [to Dr. Seward] Such things have a name. They are witches, they are vampires, they are Lucifer. They are all those things that walk in your nightmares. Shall we walk together?

Henry Jekyll: [after a patient regresses into insanity] Aye, that's the tragedy of it. The ceremony lasts a matter of hours, and then they revert.
Victor: The beast will out.
Henry Jekyll: And which is true? Which is the real man: the beast or the angel?
Victor: We are both.
Henry Jekyll: Are we?
Victor: Good and evil braided be.
Henry Jekyll: Oh, no. Not at all. Or at least, we can seem to be that way. So complicated, I mean. In the end, we must be that thing the world demands of us. We must take all the lust and the avarice and the ambition and bury them. All the alien and ugly things, all the things we really are! The other one, the other man, we cannot allow him!

Lily: All men are slaves to their appetites.
Justine: Even Dorian?
Lily: Dorian is an exceptional creature.
Justine: He's a man.
Lily: But unlike all others.
Justine: I've never known a man who didn't want to fuck me or beat me. Can you say different?

Train man #1: [to Kaetenay] This car is for whites. Indians and niggers go back. Get your filthy ass up now!
Sir Malcolm: This gentleman is with me.
Train man #1: [scoffs] Gentleman? Indians travel with the livestock. That's the goddamned law, friend...
Sir Malcolm: Before you speak another word, I ask you to consider this: How valuable is your life? Do you hold it dear? Does your wife value your company? Do you favor growing old, to one day teach your ugly, inbred children your grotesque manners? Lay hands on him, and it will be your end.

Lily: Liberty is a bitch who must be bedded on a mattress of corpses.

A Blade of Grass [3.4] edit

Vanessa: [about her straitjacket] How long do I have to wear this?
Orderly: Until Dr. Banning decides.
Vanessa: Decides what?
Orderly: If you're dangerous.
Vanessa: I am. Don't you think I'm dangerous?
Orderly: I think you're ill.
Vanessa: I'm not ill!
Orderly: Then what are you?

Orderly: It's not torture, what they're doing. It's science. It's meant to make you better.
Vanessa: It's meant to make me normal, like all the other women you know. Compliant. Obedient. A cog in an intricate social machine. No more.
Orderly: I couldn't say, miss.
Vanessa: Couldn't you?
Orderly: Not all the women I know are cogs.
Vanessa: Then they're freaks.
Orderly: My wife's not a freak and she's not a cog. You should think better of your sex.

Lucifer: [while possessing the orderly] Oh, my dear, we have so much to catch up on, do we not?

Orderly: Miss Ives, if you don't start showing signs of improvement, he'll turn to surgery.
Vanessa: Let him.
Orderly: You don't know what you're saying.
Vanessa: I'll sing as he cuts me open.
Orderly: Listen to me! They'll start by cutting your hair off and shaving your head. Then they'll sedate you. Then they'll strap you to a table. Then he'll use a drill to open up your skull. It's not a medical thing - it's a drill for woodworking. Then he'll put a clamp on your skull and crack it open. Then he'll start cutting things out. I see the results. That's where my job starts again. You'll have lost the ability to control your body. You'll shit and piss yourself, and I'll clean it up. If you're lucky, that part will come back to you, but not much else, if I'm honest. Sometimes, they can't open their eyes or hear. It varies. Do you know what they are, all of them? A broken thing. Not a tiger, not a flower, not a clump of earth, not even a blade of grass. Miss Ives, you have to get better! [she shakes her head] Then pretend! Be like everyone else. Do what he wants you to do!
Vanessa: I've tried.
Orderly: Is it that important to be different? To have such specialness inside you?
Vanessa: Would you want your son to be anything but what he is?
Orderly: I want him to be happy.
Vanessa: What if he's not? Would you want him to pretend?
Orderly: [pause] No.
Vanessa: Then don't ask it of me.

Dracula: [while possessing the orderly] Give me your flesh. Give me your blood. Be my bride, and then all light will end and the world will be in darkness. The very air will be pestilence to mankind. And then our brethren, the night creatures, will emerge, and feed. Such is our power. Such is our kingdom. Such is my kiss.
Vanessa: [entranced] Yes.
Dracula: One kiss, and you're free of all this. In this mortal world, you'll always be shunned for your uniqueness, but not with me. They will lock you away in rooms like this. They'll brand you a freak and a sorceress, but I won't. I love you for who you are, Vanessa.
Vanessa: And what name do I whisper to you, beloved?
Dracula: I am the demon. I am the dragon. My name is Dracula!

This World Is Our Hell [3.5] edit

Hecate Poole: Such guilt you carry. The shame, it hangs around your neck.
Ethan: The only decent thing about me is the shame I feel.
Hecate Poole: Spoken like a true servant of God. This God, that would anoint you Lupus Dei, that would make you a glorious monster and have you hate yourself for being so monstrous. He tortures you with guilt, and in return offers you what?
Ethan: Forgiveness.
Hecate Poole: Do you feel forgiven? There is only one way to be free of guilt - embrace your sins.

Victor: After all... it is our memories which make us monsters, is it not?

Hecate Poole: Whatever you did in the Army, whatever the Indians made you do, know this: God watched it all unfold, and laughed.

Ethan: Let him die here. He ain't worth the bullet.

Jarod Talbot: [showing Sir Malcom a portrait of a mountain lion] This is by Audubon. Some folks think he only did birds, but no such thing. He did the bloodthirsty beasts as well. It fits here; this is a bloodthirsty land. When I first came to this place, it was infested with those red-handed devils, the Apache. More animal than human. Not human at all, in truth. I blazed my way through the darkness. Through iron will and violent force, and the glory of God, are empires born. There are mountains named after me.
Sir Malcom: And at what cost? Your home's empty. Your son hates you. Your vainglorious pursuits have led to nothing but bloodshed and heartache. But you're right, the whiskey is very fine. And what do you want from me?
Jarod Talbot: I want to know why you were riding with that Apache filth.
Sir Malcom: I was riding alongside a man.
Jarod Talbot: Ah. Tell me, Malcom, when you were in Africa, how many "men" did you slaughter?
Sir Malcom does not answer, looking ashamed.
Jarod Talbot: [smug] It is like looking in a mirror.
Sir Malcom: We are not the same.
Jarod Talbot: You're right. I still have one child to save. "Bring the fattened calf and kill it. For this son of mine was lost, and now is found." Ethan will live out his days on this land. And you will help me in this. [makes to leave]
Sir Malcom: And if I am unable to assist you?
Jarod Talbot: [stops at the door] What would you do to someone who became between you and your child?

No Beast So Fierce [3.6] edit

Jarod Talbot: You will repent, or I will send you to Hell myself!
Ethan: I'm done repenting, and I belong in Hell.

Lily: We are not women who crawl. We are not women who kneel. And for this, we will be branded radicals. Revolutionists. Women who are strong and refuse to be degraded and who choose to protect themselves are called monsters. That is the world's crime, not ours.

Catriona Hartdegan: Do you fence?
Vanessa: Alas, no.
Catriona: Oh, you should. It's wonderful for the mind. Every decision reduced to back and forth, thrust or parry. A clarity forms during it that the rest of the world is sadly lacking in. Life and death, without the death... most of the time.

Ethan: Our Father, who art in Heaven, cursed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be spited, on Earth, as it is in Hell.
Jarod: That's enough!
Ethan: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us not our trespasses...
Jarod: I said that's enough!
Ethan: ... as we will never forgive those who trespass against us!
Jarod: You will shut your mouth!
Ethan: Lead us into temptation, and deliver us to evil, for Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.
Hecate Poole: For a few hours longer.
Ethan: Amen.
Hecate Poole: Amen.

Sir Malcolm: [to Kaetenay] I knew you were too mean to die.

Ebb Tide [3.7] edit

Vanessa: You were very kind to me once, and I loved you for it. The man I knew deserved to be loved.
John Clare: And the man you see?
Vanessa: [smiles] No less.

Ethan: You may want to fight on until the sun falls from the sky, the last fucking Apache, and more power to you, pal. But I'm done.
Kaetenay: You may be done with Hell, but it is not done with you.

John Clare: I've done cruel things. I've been unworthy, and hurt those who didn't deserve it. A kind of madness, call it, and bottomless rage. The sun will never shine as brightly for me, now that I've walked in darkness. I cannot be the man I was.
Marjorie: You were lost. Now, you are home.

Justine: Ever so charming, aren't you? All charm, and nothing but. There may come a day when that ain't enough.
Dorian: And are you to choose that day?
Justine: You wanted a killer. You got one. Can't go back now.
Dorian: Listen, child. I can toss you out like the baggage you are whenever it pleases me. And don't think for one moment your tiresome Sapphic escapades shock me. You think you're bold? You think you know sin? You're still learning the language. I wrote the bloody book. [grabs her by the throat] You want to play with me, kitten? Then show me your claws!

Vanessa: I'm no witch. You know nothing of me.
Kaetenay: You are a great, fertile bitch of evil, and I love you for your fertility and your power. You are the woman of all our dreams and all our night terrors.

Dracula: We have been shunned in our time, Vanessa. The world turns away in horror - why? Because we're different. Ugly. Exceptional. We are the lonely night creatures, are we not? The bat, the fox, the spider, the rat...
Vanessa: The scorpion.
Dracula: The broken things.
Vanessa: The unloved.
Dracula: There's one monster who loves you for who you really are, and here he stands. I don't want to make you good, I don't want you to be normal. You don't need to be anything but who you truly are. You have tried for so long to be what everyone wants you to be, what you thought you ought to be, what your church and your family and your doctors said you must be. Why not be who you are instead?
Vanessa: Myself...
Dracula: You will never be alone again. I will love you until time has lost all meaning.
Vanessa: Yes...
Dracula: Do you accept me?
Vanessa: I accept... myself...
[she bares her throat to him, and he begins drinking her blood]
Vanessa: [voiceover] And then all light will end, and the world will live in darkness. The very air will be pestilence to mankind. And our brethren, the night creatures, will emerge and feed. Such is our power. Such is our kingdom. Such is my kiss.

Perpetual Night [3.8] edit

Catriona: Mr. Chandler, you will need a mask, something to filter the air.
Ethan: I can handle the fog.
Catriona: That is not fog. That's what we all thought at first: an especially dense fog mixing with the chlorine gases from the factories. And then people started to die. First by the dozens, then by the hundreds. Last week, 7,000 people died in London. It is not a fog, Mr. Chandler. It is a plague.
Ethan: I'll take my chances. He needs a doctor. I need to find Miss Ives.
Catriona: We all need to find Miss Ives. If I'm correct, she is the only one who can stop all this.
Ethan: And what is "all this"?
Catriona: The End of Days.

Dorian: In my time, I have seen a thousand Lilys. Beating their breasts, burning too bright and too wild. I understand she dazzled you, but she's gone now. Trust me when I tell you, you are lucky. You have glimpsed liberty, and that is more than most ever know. Go back to your short little life, or build a new one. I don't care in the slightest.
Justine: I can't go back. I can't live that way again.
Dorian: You will be surprised with what one can live with.
Justine: I won't go back.
Dorian: The choice isn't yours to make, child.
Justine: But it is. I would rather die here on my feet than live a lifetime on my knees.
Dorian: Do you mean that? As you wish.
[he takes her face in his hands, kisses her, and breaks her neck]

Catriona: Why is it that men always resist doing what's best for them if they think it makes them look weak, especially when the advice is advocated by a member of the opposite sex?
Sir Malcolm: I suppose we're just proud.
Catriona: I'm all for pride, but there are limits.
Sir Malcolm: I've never known them.
Catriona: Then you'll learn.
Sir Malcolm: Are you going to teach me?
Catriona: You could do worse, though I've a firm hand, Sir M.

Lily: There are some wounds that can never heal. There are scars that make us who we are - without them, we don't exist.

The Blessed Dark [3.9] edit

Vanessa: What do you fear?
Dracula: I don't know what you mean.
Vanessa: I can smell it on you.
Dracula: He's coming - your Mr. Chandler. I have reason to fear him. He is foretold as my singular enemy.
Vanessa: Fear not all prophecies. We defy them. We make our own Heaven, and our own Hell. Let him come. He and I shall write the ending in blood, as it was always going to be.

Kaetenay: A vision was sent to me of a man with a true heart - a son - and only then did I understand my true purpose. It was not to save my people. It was to give you the power to save all people.
Ethan: You did this to me? You made this monster!
Kaetenay: I claimed you from God.
[enraged, Ethan slams him against the wall]
Ethan: Do you how many people I've murdered? How many have suffered? This blood is on my soul! You poisoned my heart!
Kaetenay: I have given you the power to save her. [pause] Graves will overflow. The rivers will run red with blood, and darkness will consume the Earth. Only one man can stop this. I alone understand the sins you have committed, the pain you carry. But all your life, you have run from this pain. You ran from your father. You ran from your tribe. Tonight, you stop running. Tonight you accept the destiny that God has given you.

Dorian: Do you not yet comprehend the wicked secret of the immortal? All age and die, save you. All rot and fall to dust, save you. Any child you bear becomes a crone and perishes before your eyes. Any lover withers and shrinks into incontinence and bent, toothless senility, while you, only you, never age, never die, never fade - alone. But after a time you'll lose the desire for passion entirely, for connection with anyone, like a muscle that atrophies from lack of use. [glances at the portraits] And one day you will realize that you have become like them - beautiful and dead. You have become a perfect portrait of yourself.
Lily: An eternity without passion, without affection, caring for nobody...
Dorian: [smiles] A small price to pay for such immortal perfection, don't you think?
Lily: Goodbye, Dorian. I hope they watch over you.
[she leaves]
Dorian: You'll be back, and I'll be here. [pause] I'll always be here.

Sir Malcolm: Before we go, answer me one question. My daughter, Mina... it was you who turned her.
Dracula: Yes.
Sir Malcolm: Why?
Dracula: She was meant to bring Vanessa to me.
Sir Malcolm: My daughter's life meant no more than that?
Dracula: No more than that. [smiles cruelly] Although, her flesh was sweet... and I enjoyed her.
[Sir Malcolm stares at Dracula and his brood for a moment, and then turns to the others]
Sir Malcolm: You should go.
Victor: Not a chance.
Sir Malcolm: We are all doomed in this place.
Catriona: Makes a change for a Tuesday, though.
Dr. Seward: Fuck him.
Sir Malcolm: [smiles] I die proudly alongside all of you.

Vanessa: Let it end. With a kiss.
Ethan: With a kiss. With love.
Vanessa: With love.
[Ethan kisses Vanessa, then begins to recite the Lord's Prayer. Vanessa joins in and finishes the prayer. Ethan shoots her and catches her as she falls]
Vanessa: [dying] Oh Ethan! I see our Lord. [dies peacefully]

Cast edit

External links edit

 
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