Unfortunately, this is Victorian times, and so most of the methods they use on her would be considered inhumane today. One of the episode’s most striking shots comes when Vanessa is bound to a wall and mercilessly battered by a powerful jet of water. The Christ-like imagery is clear – Vanessa has paid, more than anyone else, for the sins of her mother. When the hydrotherapy does not produce the results they want, the doctors cut all her hair off (side note: the hatred and misery in Green’s eyes throughout her institutionalization is some of the actress’s most stunning work on this show to date). Then, Banning lobotomizes her. With that final, horrific procedure complete, she’s released, a vegetable.
The episode cuts to the Ives sitting in front of their fireplace, quietly choking on their own depression and hatred of one another, when who should arrive at the front door but Peter, swinging by on his way out of town. Finally, Malcolm has caved and agreed to bring him along on an expedition to Africa. We all know how that turned out for Peter (see: “Séance”), but he couldn’t be happier. That is, until he sees Vanessa, who now spends most of her time motionless in bed. He begins to reminisce about their childhood, when Vanessa slowly leans up and croaks, “You should have kissed me. Will you kiss me now?” Perturbed, he leans down and carefully kisses her once. I’ll admit I looked away during this scene out of fear that the demon in Vanessa would want more of a taste of Peter than just a quick peck on the lips, but that force lies dormant… for now. “You’re going to die there,” she whispers, and he hastily departs, lying that he “couldn’t make her out” when Mrs. Ives asks.
Vanessa’s night isn’t over, however. She’s soon confronted by an impossible vision of Sir Malcolm at her bedside, who asks her if she knows Keats. “You are not here,” she says, pressing the apparition to reveal its true facd. “You have to name a thing to let it live, don’t you?” It shoots back, daring her to identify its true name. “Serpent, is that what you mean?” Vanessa cries out, filled with anger. “Enchanter, deceiver, prince of darkness, devil of the pit!” In response, it only smiles back at her and asks, “Do you have such contempt for your old friend?”
She doesn’t want to hear the Keats. The demon says that it’s her choice, and that it’s always been her choice. She was the one to seduce Branson – she was the one who “sought it out and fucked it.” The demon tempts Vanessa by offering to share all the knowledge of man with her. After pushing her to admit that she’s always been drawn to the promise of what lies beyond the veil, it proceeds to recite four lines from Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.” The fact that the poet wrote it on his deathbed “just adds to the piquancy,” it claims. The lines it recites read as follows:
“Darkling I listen; and, for many a time
I have been half in love with easeful Death,
Call’d him soft names in many a musèd rhyme,
To take into the air my quiet breath.”
Essentially, what I get out of that poem is that Keats was obsessed with death, much like Vanessa. In that excerpt, he’s literally composing a declaration of love to death itself, and all he wants is for death to steal into his room at night and take the breath from his lungs. Keep in mind that Vanessa expressed her readiness to die earlier in this episode. What I want to know is what comes after she bites the dust. If we harken back to the Amunet/Amun-Ra subplot from earlier in the season, there’s a doomsday prophecy that revolves around Vanessa’s union with the Master of the Vampires, which could perhaps happen in the afterlife. Obviously, her dying is not good in any way.
They kiss as it finishes the lines, Vanessa fully in the demon’s power. She murmurs, “So the darkness spoke.” The demon’s reply comes quickly: “Yes… but you listened.” It lies her down on the bed. Downstairs, Mrs. Ives opens her eyes. There’s a weird noise coming from Vanessa’s room. She wanders upstairs and nervously opens the door.
“Closer Than Sisters” is largely devoid of freak-out images, but this one takes the cake. Vanessa, nude as the day she was born, is on the bed, thrusting her hips up and down, gasping in pleasure. It’s obvious that the demon is on top of her, pumping away, but Mrs. Ives can’t see that – all she sees is Vanessa, her bizarre condition worse than ever. Then, Vanessa turns to her to reveal that her eyes are completely white. That’s more than enough for Mrs. Ives, who dies of shock on the spot.
