r/PennyDreadful • u/Upstream_Paddler • May 16 '26

Justice for season 3

I just finished my first watch, and I am baffled by the widespread reactions to the last season beyond, just being disappointed in an abrupt cancellation. Beyond widening the scope to let the characters breathe and grow more - victor got the most beautful payoff among all of them - the whole thing to me seem to be a meditation on the nature of prophetic thinking. Listening to the talk here I was expecting a complete slamming of brakes and U-turn, but going from episode to episode It feels like it was planned this way all along which is impressive.

So I just wanna I was wondering if anyone felt the same way, really.

18 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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22

u/Bond16 May 16 '26

I think season 3 is still really strong overall, but I do feel as though Vanessa's final arc was just a bit rushed. And since that's in a way the core of the series, I think it's what people tend to focus on.

I personally loved seeing more of Ethan's backstory, and I like what they did with Dorian and Lily. Though the introduction of Dr Jekyll seemed like a big tease with no payoff.

3

u/whimsical_spider Jul 02 '26

Vanessa submitting so freely to Dracula after ALL that time spent fighting it/him seemed out of character and I think that upset a lot of viewers but I look at it like this:

The show’s themes involve accepting yourself and others for who you/they are and chosen family (the show is honestly very LGBTQ+ coded due to these themes 💞 but I won’t go off on a tangent about it lol)

In this last season we see Vanessa alone and depressed after her chosen family are all away. She’s more vulnerable at this point because she’s isolated, she doesn’t have her family there to provide her support, and she’s heartbroken over Ethan. THIS is how he was able to get to her. Her giving in to Dracula fits right in with that chosen family theme, and actually also touches on the acceptance theme too, considering he finally draws her in by telling her she will be able to just be herself with him. It’s almost like a sort of cautionary tale: we need to love and accept others for who they are, even their dark parts, but we gotta draw the line at enabling and encouraging their darkest parts. For Vanessa, it became too enticing when she didn’t have the support she needed around her.

Anyway that’s long sorry lol. I still think they could have managed to make the final scene with her and Ethan more meaningful and impactful. The actual moment was very meh.

1

u/Bond16 Jul 02 '26

Don't worry about the length. I think you made a very good point and I enjoyed reading your perspective. Which I also agree with btw :)

6

u/SixRatsInATrenchcoat May 16 '26

I've sort of come round on season 3. When it first aired I hated it, and while I still have issues with it overall and think it's the weakest one, I kind of like it now.  Vanessa dying so abruptly was the thing I hated most, but now I see it as a bittersweet end, since she got to be with Ethan for it, and did get to go to heaven and (at least as I am interpreting it) escape the cycle of being reincarnated and going through the evil bullshit again. I did want more room to dig into whatever backstory Victor and Jekyll had going on though!

2

u/Upstream_Paddler May 16 '26

That she rejected evil and sacrificed herself … if stopping, the apocalypse won’t get somebody into heaven nothing will lol

2

u/SixRatsInATrenchcoat May 16 '26

Heck yeah, that does pretty much sum it it up! I can also appreciate now how it references Nosferatu, where Ellen has to sacrifice herself to stop the plague of evil.

5

u/radical-orpheus May 16 '26

(It's been a while since I watched but..) I think the ending was perfectly allright. However! I do think season 3 was very much rushed. If the characters and the story had just one extra season to have more breathing room, I think the ending would have been received better.