Penny Dreadful continues with its most nightmarish installment yet, "Episode 5: The Deb of Destruction." Detective Leslie Caldwell (Matt Gray), with the help of a police officer (Mateo Moreno) and a Pinkerton detective (Dan Maccarone), raids the home of Cyrus Pierce (Bryan Enk). From his initial investigation in Episode 2, Caldwell has concluded that the bottles in Pierce's wine cellar contain the entire blood supply of Robert Ford (Aaron Baker). Caldwell's raid is interrupted - and completely upstaged - by the appearance of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst (Trawets Sivart). Caldwell's team doesn't find any blood, nor does there seem to be anything suspicious about Pierce's collection of masks. The Detective of the Supernatural is disgraced once again - and this time it costs him his job.

Outside his home, Caldwell is confronted by Abigail Pierce (Becky Byers), who insists that her father replaced Ford's blood supply with new bottles of wine. Caldwell tells her that there is no hard evidence, and now that he doesn't have a job, he certainly can't make any arrests. A furious Abigail wishes a violent death on both Caldwell and his wife Ethel (who we met in Episode 2, played by Dina Rose Rivera).

Meanwhile, back at the Pierce household, a drunken Cyrus, half-crazed with fear and guilt, is confronted by Hearst. Pierce describes his murdering of Ford, taking the body to the cellar, draining it of blood and putting the blood in the wine bottles. Then, a couple of days later, every drop of blood was gone, and he has no idea where it went. The two men discuss what this mishap means for an organization they refer to as The Alliance, and for the plans of someone they call The Black Dragon. Pierce asks Hearst why they should trust the Black Dragon, who seems to have disappeared. Hearst reminds Pierce that something horrible happened to their city of San Francisco the last time they didn't.

In her bedroom, Abigail is haunted by the ghost of Robert Ford, dressed in his prison garb and wearing a white mask. Ford sadly tells Abigail that the anger and sadness that's inside of her is only going to get worse. Abigail then confronts her drug-addicted mother, Martha (Christiaan Koop), who expresses her disappointment in her daughter and her rebellious behavior. Martha tells her how good it will be when Abigail marries Lord Onslow (who we met in Episode 4, played by Jerod Hobbs) before she drifts back to her opium world.

Back in her bedroom, Abigail is warned by Ford that "someone's coming." Ford disappears, and a terrifying figure dressed in a dark cloak and white mask emerges from under Abigail's bed. As the figure slowly gets into bed with Abigail, we can only conclude that this is the Black Dragon.

Abigail then confronts her father, who is now almost completely lost in drink, guilt and fear. Pierce tries to explain that his actions were for the good of their family, for the country, for the world itself. He talks of God's war, and how Ford's sacrifice has given him the strength to fight some great evil. Abigail condemns him with her cold, dead eyes, and as she storms out of the room, Pierce completely breaks down, wailing and screaming, saying that the Black Dragon has abandoned him.

In the episode's show-stopper scene, staged completely without dialogue, Abigail prepares soup for her mother and father. Martha, Cyrus and Abigail sit at the dinner table, almost like a real family, and eat. Before too long, blood starts to trickle out of Martha's mouth. She then starts violently coughing up blood. Soon the tablecloth is soaked with blood, and Martha collapses on the table, dead. Abigail turns to confront her father as he glares at her, but then she realizes that he is already dead as well.

Back in her bedroom, Abigail is visited once again by The Black Dragon. He speaks in a deep, guttural voice, and whispers something in her ear...

We are now at Clinton Hall in New York City, where anarchist Emma Goldman (Maggie Cino) delivers a rousing speech to the masses, accompanied by her lover and fellow anarchist, Alexander 'Sasha' Berkman (Mateo Moreno). Later, they are confronted by Abigail Pierce, who tells them that she has a plan "to kill them." "To kill who?" Goldman asks. Abigail simply replies, "To kill them all."