Season Three is the Last We’ll See of Penny Dreadful

If that “The End” title card at the end of last night’s Penny Dreadful has you a little confused, here is your answer. The Showtime horror period piece has officially ended with its season three finale, Entertainment Weekly reports. Creator John Logan and Showtime CEO David Nevins discussed some of the reasons with EW today in an interview.

SPOILERS AHEAD. You’ve been warned.

Logan came to Showtime with Penny Dreadful fully disclosing that he did not plan for the show to last long. He said it was about halfway through the second season that he was planning season three, and he realized that it was headed to the ultimate point of Vanessa Ives sacrificing herself. “Penny Dreadful is about many things, but for me it’s always been about one really simple thing, which is a woman’s journey of faith—a deeply religious woman who loses her God and then finds him again,” said Logan. He said that her being reunited with God is the end of the character, and thus the end of the story.

When Logan first laid out season three to Nevins with Vanessa’s death, Nevins said he objected at first, saying they could keep going with the other characters, but Logan convinced him that this was “the right ending.” As for the decision not to announce beforehand that Penny Dreadful would be done after this season, Nevins said that he and Logan wanted it to be a surprise. “We could have maybe tempered the emotional ending and given people a little warning, but what’s the fun in that?” said Nevins.