Penny Dreadful has promised us dark, gory, sexy times all year, and with the show’s recent debut we learned they weren’t joking. But even on set, while the cast is filming key scenes, there are inexplicable things happening. Star Timothy Dalton spoke recently about a moment in a recent episode (spoiler alert, kind of) where an unexpected guest showed up….to a seance.

“In the middle of that scene, in a quiet moment, in a pause, I don’t know the name of the butterfly, but it’s a red and black butterfly, maybe a Red Admiral they’re called, fluttered across the stage and landed on the table, silently, whilst we were filming. And then, everyone [was] going, ‘Oh my God. Look at that. It’s a sign. It’s a sign!'” Dalton said.

As the actor explained, it wasn’t the right time of year for butterflies to be around, but they had apparently been hibernating in the studio and hatched from the heat of the production’s lights.

“What was actually happening, I believe, is… these studios are big, they’re old. They’d obviously been dark for some time, but now, with the activity and the heat from the lamp… these butterflies were actually hatching out. … [It was] completely the wrong time of year, because we were in the winter, but the warmth of the activity and the lights was doing this and they were just occasionally fluttering around. But in a séance, to land on the table like a spirit, that was odd. It was magic, it was marvelous. I loved it. I thought, ‘This is a great sign.'”

The show is getting great reviews, which is somewhat rare for a show with a horror base. For a recap of the most recent episode–and some spoilers about what may be ahead for the characters–you can go here.

Image via YouTube