I come bearing an adventure.
When do you not?
All S1
S1 E15Unfinished Business
A dizzying panorama, isn't it? All the toys of love are out of the box, scattered around the floor.
And at the end of the night, to be carefully put away. These terrible games.
And do you ever play? Or only spectate?
I never learned the rules. The complications, as Dr. Frankenstein said to me, like the workings in a watch.
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.
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?
What?
The monsters inside us.
Monsters?
What would you call them?
For me... demons. But one word is much like another.
And when they're released?
We're most who we are. Unrestrained. Ourselves.
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.
You are one man.
More than that and you know it. We are not like others. We have claws for a reason.
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?
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.
Stop it!
You'll never get your soul back. Do you know that?
[quietly] Yes.
Welcome to the night, Vanessa.
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.
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?
AAngelique
Yes. [drinks Dorian's wine and dies.]
I don't think you can.
MKMadame 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.
My humanity, such as it is, is colder than this house.
MKMadame 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.
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.
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.
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.
OPOscar Putney
And what do you do, when that Siren sings?
You save your soul... or you give it to her.
OPOscar Putney
But then you're damned.
But you're not alone.
MKMadame 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?
[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.
I've not had many friends in my time, but I'm proud to count you among them.
You are a repellent creature.
RRoper
You don't know the half of it.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Penny Dreadful pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.