Sir Malcolm offers his assistance with the "Ripper" case, proclaiming that they should be looking for a beast, not a man. Ethan befriends Brona Croft, a sickly prostitute, who later has an erotic encounter with the seductive and charming Dorian Gray. Vanessa and Malcolm attend Ferdinand Lyle's party. There, Vanessa meets Dorian, and the two are deeply drawn to one another. The guests take part in a séance led by a spiritualist named Madame Kali, where Vanessa is possessed by evil spirits, who accuse Malcolm of leaving his son to die. The next day, Ferdinand studies the other photographed hieroglyphics and discovers that they are a resurrection spell invoking Amunet and Amun-Ra, who will bring about the apocalypse if united. He concludes that Vanessa is being hunted by them. Victor's newly animated creation chooses a name – Proteus. They become close friends, but their time together is cut short when Proteus is murdered by Victor's "firstborn," Caliban, an earlier creation.
Tropes:
- Body Horror: Proteus is killed by being torn in half. As Caliban's bloody hands emerge from his torso, at first it almost seems like another body is bursting out from inside Proteus.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Peter Murray's spirit glares in hatred at Malcolm, as he condemns him for leaving his only son behind to die.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The murder of Proteus is one of the most graphically brutal in Penny Dreadful's show run.
- Foreign Culture Fetish: According to Dorian Gray, Ferdinand Lyle's house is decorated in an indiscriminate mishmash of orientalist styles.
- Line-of-Sight Name: Invoked by Victor, who has Proteus choose a name randomly from a volume of Shakespeare.
- Mood Whiplash: The subplot of Proteus being reintroduced to the world is sweet, hopeful, gentle... and gruesomely cut short.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Dorian Gray's interest in Brona increases markedly when he realizes she has consumption; he's turned on by the fact that she's dying.
- Second Episode Introduction: Main characters Brona Croft, Dorian Gray and the Creature are only introduced in this episode.
- Sex Starts, Story Stops: Sex as a metaphor of power-play is not an uncommon device in Penny Dreadful but Vanessa's sexcapades with a random guy on the streets of London in the middle of a rainy night after the party comes without any warning or build up. It's expanded upon later sexuality and erotic encounters leave Vanessa vulnerable to the demon inside of her yet neither man or tryst are mentioned in the show ever again.
- Sherlock Scan: Dorian Gray does one one Vanessa at the party, echoing the one she did on Ethan in the previous episode.
- Spooky Séance: Which turns into outright
Nightmare Fuel as the medium who initiated the séance is sidelined and Vanessa's obscene and accusatory possession takes center stage. - Surprisingly Sudden Death: As Proteus and Victor are reviewing their pleasant and enlightening excursion in the city, Proteus is suddenly killed by Victor's previous creation.
