Man, was that the sex episode on Penny Dreadful last night or what?

Jeepers!

It was like the writers looked at the season so far and did the facepalm -- Guys! We're on cable and we aren't doing any sex scenes! Let's get it going!

We had Dr. Frankenstein and his new monster Lily (formerly Brona Croft played by Billie Piper). We naturally had to have some really graphic man-on-man sex with Dorian Grey and his crying game boy. And I do mean graphic. Eesh.

For pete's sake, we even were treated (if that's the word) to Timothy Dalton having fully clothed sex (thank god) with Evelyn Poole. The last half hour of the show was like tuning into Cinemax Late Night or something. It just went on and on.

As to the actual plot -- Miss Poole has driven Sir Malcolm's wife to kill herself, allowing Poole to presumably marry Sir Malcolm and get closer to Vanessa Ives. Vanessa is losing a bit of her grip on sanity, turning to Ethan Chandler for solace. I'm a bit confused as to why the little Egyptologist, Ferdinand Lyle, doesn't tell Sir Malcolm about Miss Poole. They went into great detail in Ethan's speech about protecting themselves from being infiltrated and yet Lyle stands by and watches exactly that happening and does nothing. Also not sure why Vanessa can't pick up on Evelyn's spellcrafting over Sir Malcolm.

We learn, both from Miss Ives and the deciphering of the ancient puzzle that Ethan may be some sort of key in this whole affair with the devil and Miss Ives. I'm wondering if somehow Frankenstein's first monster will come into play here. He is clearly taken with Vanessa, and also hates the Doctor with a passion. I can see some scenario where they either get him to the mansion or he arrives to take action against the doctor for stealing his created mate, and he is able to fight off the witches. I'm thinking that as a construct, he has no soul, which may make him invulnerable to their spells and sorcery. It's a thought.

They've been teasing us with images of Chandler revealing himself to Sir Malcolm's manservant Sembene, so I'm hoping we get a look at the werewolf next episode. With the excellent make-up and special effects, that could be a bit of fun.

Still excellent television, with some wonderfully poignant and gripping moments on a regular basis. If you're not watching, you should give it a look. Highly recommended.