A Sentence of Sorts

The Pseudoscientists, Act II, Scene 5: You’ll Catch your Death Out There

(Summary: Hyde tries to find someone to go out with him on an adventure, but a storm is keeping everyone inside. He goes out anyway, gets into a fight, and is saved by Rachel, who has followed him in case he gets himself into trouble. The fight attracts the police and they hide in Bethlam asylum. Also this sequence obliquely sets up the death-potion that comes into play later.)

  Hyde peers out of his study. It is a little earlier than the last time he went out, and some of the Lodgers’ rooms are still lit, with their doors open. He hurries down the hall, but then he glimpses in one of the rooms a small gathering of young scientists, including the werewolf girl, all crammed into one room. It appears to be a tiny party and, notably, they have a great deal of alcohol at the ready.

He enters, demanding drink and startling the Lodgers, who of course thought he was off in hiding somewhere. Hyde tells them that is still in hiding, but that he is far cleverer than the police and can come and go as he pleases. “I trust none of you are going to tattle on me?” The Lodgers shake their heads. Hyde had never given them any reason to hate him. 

Hyde quickly downs a couple of glasses of some dark-colored liquor and invites the Lodgers out for a night on the town. But the Lodgers are hesitant. Though they have only a tiny, muddy window to look out of, they can tell that it is pouring rain outside, and the streets seem practically flooded. No, they would rather stay inside tonight.

Hyde grows cross with them. He swipes a small bottle from a side table and storms out of the room before one Lodger can protest, “Hey! You can’t take that! It’s–”

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Hyde rushes up to the attic. He is disappointed to find Victor still bedridden, and tries to pry him out of bed. “Are you not the man who wandered fearlessly through the arctic wastelands? Don’t tell me this little breeze outside frightens you! Come on, there is havoc to be wrought!”

And then an enormous thunderclap is heard outside, accompanied by heavy rain and wind. At this point the Creature steps forward menacingly and Hyde draws back. 

Frankenstein sits up in bed and tries to interest Hyde with somewhat tamer interests. He shows him the book he had been reading before bed, a rare and beautifully illuminated alchemy book. He tries to show Hyde a chapter talking about the human eye, which had inspired him before to go searching for one in the graveyard.

Hyde is too wound up to be interested in theory. As Frankenstein talks, he takes a swig from the little bottle he brought along. He gags at the taste and spits out the liquid–only to stumble and gag, as if he were terribly nauseous. He falls to the floor and curls up in a ball, clutching his chest.

Frankenstein and the Creature pull in close to see what is wrong. For a moment, Hyde falls deathly still. But before anyone can help him, he comes gasping back to life. As he shakes vitality back into him, Frankenstein takes a close look at the bottle Hyde had been drinking out of.

“Zhis is a strange potion!” he enthuses. He believes it to be a special kind of poison, one that induces a death-like sleep, like in the story of Romeo and Juliet. If Hyde had swallowed more of the stuff rather than spitting out most of it, it might make a wonderful study of the ability of human flesh to survive in a near-death state. The idea of the experiment is exciting to Frankenstein. Too exciting, actually: his enthusiasm is taxing on his sick body, and the Creature forces him to lie back down again.

Hyde pulls back, being in no mood to spend the night as Frankenstein’s lab rat. He wants a night out, dammit! As he goes off seeking a new companion, the Creature huffs, as if to say “Good riddance!”

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 Hyde now is reduced to asking Rachel if she wants to go out. To his disgust, she not only refuses but tries to guilt him out of going as well–how could he put himself in danger like that? He is a wanted man, and besides, n a night like this, he could easily catch his death or slip and break an ankle.

Hyde insists that he can’t just stay in, not here, in Dr. Jekyll’s building, under Dr. Jekyll’s rules! He refuses to be kept in a cage. Rachel insists that he is being silly. Hyde persists (she is his last hope here) and ends up explaining the events of the previous night and how Frankenstein ended up falling ill.

“Mr. Hyde, that is not very nice! He’s your friend!” Hyde laughs at her–he doesn’t have friends! Besides, Victor was the one trying to escape in the first place. All he did was help him out a bit. “Friends help each other out.” Well … it was a different sort of helping out.

Tired of arguing with a chambermaid, he stubbornly decides to go out on his own. In this he gets his own way: worried for his safety, Rachel secretly trails along behind him. The night is miserable, and it looks as though a flood is starting to form. Nearly everywhere in the city is shut down from the bad weather, but he does eventually manage to dig up a bit of trouble: he gets himself into a brawl.

He has an obvious advantage over his opponent–he seems much stronger than usual, with all the pent-up energy he’s had from the last couple days. But Rachel’s warnings come back to haunt him: he slips on a wet tile and is about to be stabbed when Rachel comes up from behind and knocks his opponent on the head with a walking stick. The fight is essentially over at that point, but before Hyde can gloat, he hears the police coming, and he sprints away, with Rachel following close behind. Hyde is surprised to notice how easily she manages to keep up.