"I betrayed her once," said Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) told Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), "You ignored her, her entire life."

Is Penny Dreadful a Hit?

The fourth episode of Showtime's Victorian supernatural drama Penny Dreadful marks the halfway point for the show's first season. Previews for episode 5 focus heavily on the clairvoyant Ives and the mysterious "transgression" that was associated with the abduction/disappearance of Sir Malcolm's daughter, Mina (Olivia Llewelyn).

As the relationship between Ives and Mina is slowly expanded upon, viewers have begun to wonder what exactly happened between them. Was Ives responsible for Mina's disappearance and, if so, to what extent that has made Sir Malcolm loathe her so?

The preview for episode 5 looks to focus on the relationship between Ives and Mina in the past, and the cruelty that has formed between Ives and Sir Malcolm in the present. Sir Malcolm resents Ives, claiming in the fourth episode that he sometimes wishes his daughter had been born with the crueler aspects of Ives. "You are the daughter I deserve," he told her spitefully.

Based on the little information Ethan Chandler (John Hartnett) gets out of Ives, it appears that Mina was seduced by a blood eating creature who stole her away. Did Ives let Mina go? Did she abandon her in her time of need? Answers are likely to be revealed in the upcoming episode five, and whatever the transgression, it is bound to have been ugly.

"We have been brutalized with loss," said Ives in episode 3, "It has made us brutal in return."

Tags
Penny Dreadful, Showtime