The Nevers (2021) s01e01 Episode Script

1 - Good morning.
- Good morning, Mrs.
True.
- Mrs.
True.
- Miss Adair.
- You look very fine.
- I think so too.
Newspaper! - What you have the money for? - That's what I'm saying.
- No, I'm just - I'm right, right? Can you do something about this man? Read it in The Star! Maladie kills fifth victim.
Murder spree soon to eclipse The Ripper.
I don't suppose you know how this all works out.
The ripplings don't come when they're called.
Well, let's just try to keep it civil not like with the innkeeper.
He had a shotgun.
I've heard that excuse before.
When they have shotguns.
- What's the girl? - Myrtle Haplisch.
Something to do with her voice.
Good day.
Mr.
Haplisch? Yes, are you I'm Amalia True.
This is my colleague Penance Adair.
The Reverend told you we were coming? Oh, yeah, about Myrtle.
Come in.
Missus! Please, come through to the parlor.
They're saying Myrtle might be Touched.
We heard about those girls the last few years.
They're not right.
Neither right nor wrong.
Being "Touched" is not a defect of character.
Well, that killer, that Maladie, isn't she one of them? Maladie's homicidal.
I don't know if she's Touched.
We don't know if Myrtle is.
Oh, she's Touched, all right.
Touched by Red Boot Teddy! We're, of a mind there's a satanic element.
She's Lucifer's vessel, is what! He speaks through her.
Up! Yes, the Reverend mentioned an affliction of the tongue.
'Cause old Satan is squatting on it! Spewing out his foulness making a chamber pot of our Myrtle's mouth! Well, that's a bit descriptive New kettle.
- It tells you when it's - Sophie! Ket Is Myrtle here at home then? Why is she chained? Infection? - We got the others - Out.
Get out! Get out, I say! Myrtle was the only one could earn a wage with the new labor laws and now this? Myrtle? I'm Penance, and that's Mrs.
True.
May I sit? We've come to help with what's been troubling you.
There's plenty of girls who've been shown a strangeness of some kind a "turn.
" Mrs.
True and I, we've worked with them and they come up fine.
Would you like that? Speak, Myrtle.
You mean, "Speak, Satan.
" See? Myrtle, you can understand me, yes? What about now? Chinese? Most of it.
Some of it may have been Russian.
And, I want to say Turkish? I'd guess every known language is crowding her mind.
How would a girl like Myrtle learn Chinese? She's never even seen a Chinaman! Well, at least we can rule out any sort of satanic influence.
Those Acrobats? No, they they just tumbled about.
Oh, they come to Barney Park doing flips and balancing.
They had an unnatural air.
I said it then.
And there was a monkey! It looked right at me.
Yes.
Well, allow me to be frank.
After being grateful for the chance to give Myrtle the kind of care Keep them down here! Right.
- Get hold her! - Gentlemen Might we be civil? You bitch! Penance! Shiner! Get the carriage! Dad! The lady did a wrestle! No! No! Come on, let's go! Myrtle, run! True! Did you see that face? I think I preferred when people just had shotguns.
Oh! No, no, I didn't.
We can't outrun them.
We're gonna have to change it up.
You mean, what it's only a prototype.
This is weird for us, too.
Heads down! Out of the way! Hold side! I think it's best if you come stay with us for a bit if that suits you.
We can we can deal with those fellas.
We can find out what they want or what they are.
How are we gonna deal with those fellas? True? We're going to the opera.
See? We already got a plan.
It's just a woman.
Five men murdered? I'd say she's more than that.
Yes, murder.
Very distressing.
This "Maladie" is a lunatic.
Scotland Yard has their Special Detail to catch her.
What matter if she's Touched? This is beneath us.
She's not killing whores, Your Grace.
These are respectable men.
They're psychoanalysts.
Well, Prime Minister intends to take a public position on the Touched.
We need to decide what it is.
A few women pulling parlor tricks.
It's not just women and it's not a few.
There are hundreds, at least, of unique, inexplicable afflictions.
Lavinia Bidlow's made a cause of them.
Which is why the PM needs to take a Women are being attacked accused of witchcraft, or some island voodoo.
Fairy stories! These are biological anomalies caused by electricity.
Lord Massen? A girl started in my engine works last month wiping down the plating press.
She slipped, got her arm caught in the press.
And then she pulled it back out.
Three tonnes of pressure and she snapped the hydraulic without so much as a bruise.
- People cheered.
- Well, I say enlist her! - Point her at the bloody Boers! - A machine breaks.
Again, gentlemen, this isn't a troop deployment or a a market crash.
The Prime Minister will not be taking a position on the Touched.
Nor will he allow any official debate on the subject.
Not until we understand the nature and breadth of the attack.
Attack? You're declaring the Touched a direct threat against the Empire? Which we here are sworn to protect.
- Against all enemies.
- Against all enemies.
And this attack is expected to come It came three years ago.
Third of August, 1896.
A Monday.
Rather grey.
Not one case of someone being "Touched" before then.
Not one outside London.
Those reported overseas were all here at the time.
And not one man of stature afflicted.
That's the genius of it.
They came at us through our women.
They? I'm still not sure I can equate a few bizarre anecdotes with the Mongol horde.
Only a blind man measures the length of a blade - by how much is in his belly.
- You overstep the Mongol This was designed so that we would see the parts, not the whole.
Philanthropists like Lavinia Bidlow see the suffering of the afflicted.
The common throng see a macabre murderess.
And you see a broken machine.
That is exactly what I see.
The greatest machine, the heart of our empire brought to a shuddering halt by the caprice and ambitions of those for whom ambition was never meant.
This is the Age of Power.
New power.
The X-ray, the wireless.
Electricity.
We are the first generation accustomed to the impossible.
What women are appalled by today they will accept tomorrow and demand the day after that.
And the immigrant, and the deviant.
That is the power being wielded, and not by us.
The blade is in, gentlemen.
We need to know whose hand is on the hilt.
Nobody gets through.
Get your back here, Jones, your lazy ass up.
We get any further behind, I'll pluck the lot of you.
Yeah, not in front of the officer.
Show some respect.
Detective Mundi? You're the special detail, yeah? - You're gonna wanna see this.
- Am I? Mind your head.
It was a digger stumbled on her.
Near had a kiss, they did.
They're saying they're stab wounds.
These mates brung the torches in.
They spotted this on the wall.
That's how they knew it was one of hers.
It's a message.
- Not from Maladie.
- Well, how can you be sure? She can spell.
Did he recognize the victim? The digger? No.
Not much to recognize, the rats having had a go.
You get vagrants and drunks taking shelter down here all the time.
This woman was neither.
Where does this lead? It was meant to be the maintenance tunnel for the southern line but it got scrapped.
There's too much to do, expanding the underground.
The city'll fall in on itself.
- I don't envy you this job.
- Yeah.
- Who moved the body? - It must be Wait.
What? - No, it was there.
- She wasn't killed there.
And her blood's been dry a lot longer than this pig's.
No, it's not You're tossing about a lot of assumptions.
Clearly, I meant to.
All right, shut this lot down, line 'em up.
We check every man in here for blood on his hands or his clothes.
You You can't stop the dig.
We got a schedule to keep! And what's a murder to that, eh? What, you think you're the first to try and pin something on Maladie? People think every Touched they meet might be her.
And some of them Touched, they're weird enough, they are.
They make your skin crawl.
But here's you letting a killer get off by making it harder to catch another one.
For a schedule.
I know about you, Frank Mundi, east end up.
Always fists first.
You could beat a confession out of a headstone.
You can play the righteous man, but even you answer to someone.
Yes, I do.
She's right there.
That woman faced an horrible end and I don't think you killed her, but I'm not letting you bury her.
What about a special detail? If it's not Maladie done this, then it's not your case.
Oh, no.
Maladie done this because she left a message! So you're gonna tell me what was here before you dressed it up 'cause one more lie, and I'm not on a case I'm the fking "Angle" of Death.
Leave the doors! Mrs.
True's back with a new one.
And they's in Penance's the "prolatype"! What, the auto-carriage? It's mad! Primrose, you've got to see! Mother says motorcars are common.
Common? There's only eight of them that ever were.
I wouldn't expect you to understand, but Mother says they're a blight.
Yeah? She say that lately? On a visit, maybe, that we all missed? As though you know anything about being a mother.
Primrose.
She didn't mean that.
She thinks she's too big for a spanking? Coming through! Good day.
All right.
All right, come on.
Don't suffocate them.
- You know, it's only a carriage.
- Look at that! No.
That's fking amazing.
Myrtle, this is Doctor Horatio Cousens.
He swears a lot.
No, I don't.
- How was your journey? - Eventful.
Lucy, I need to send a letter to Mrs.
Bidlow.
- Let her know about the attack.
- Attack? - What attack? - Lucy? Pen, paper - I'll set up in your rooms.
- Shoptalk first.
- Not first.
- This is just a scratch.
Primrose I can't ride in it, so I don't see what No, it's just, I recalled you saying you didn't have anyone your own age to talk to.
I'm Miss Chattoway, but you may call me Primrose.
I hope we'll be friends.
So what's your "turn"? I'm large.
I don't know how I will sound when I speak.
Myrtle has a language situation and I imagine she could use a cup of tea.
- Do you want - She does speak English but not with her mouth.
It's my mouth, yes.
All right, come with me.
We should be married in this.
How is this new? People have been attacking us since they known we was Touched.
Or since always This is different.
This whole day.
We knew people would come down on us the more we were thriving.
Why would they want this Myrtle.
I don't think she's the first.
I think they've been doing this for some time.
All those girls we went after who'd "just run away.
" Oh, Lord.
We need to bolster our security.
All entrances, windows bolted or blocked.
I can rig up a few surprises as well.
Nothing lethal, but very discouraging.
Everyone signs in and out, time and destination.
No one goes out alone or after dark.
Not even visitors.
One time.
I've been showing the girls a bit of scrappin'.
- You'll show them all.
- Well, not using their turns.
There's plenty you can do with what's at hand.
It's about confidence.
As my mom used to say "If you can look a man in the eye, you can stab him in it.
" - Smart woman.
- But also don't do that.
The Beggar King.
Tell him I need to see him.
We pay him for protection and he's been feeding us potential candidates.
I need to know if he's been feeding anyone else.
Here, first thing tomorrow, put word on the street.
That's not how it works, Mrs.
True.
Amalia, you don't just ask the Beggar King to come calling.
I am, in fact, not asking.
All right.
Better tend to that scratch since you're in such a hurry to make new enemies.
Augustus Bidlow to see you, sir.
Augie! Sorry I kept you waiting.
Did I keep you waiting? I'm at odds with time.
They're unhappy.
Who? The Humphries? Of course they're unhappy, they're old.
The crows.
They shouldn't be massing here.
Crows Do you mean to say we're witnessing a murder? Oh, you know I hate that term.
It's so unfair, "a murder of crows.
" Crows are actually lovely.
They're intelligent creatures.
Why is it an "exaltation of larks"? - Larks are not at all as - Not at all as social.
Yes, Augie, your radical stance on avian nomenclature - hasn't changed since Eton.
- No, thank you.
I think they're here as a Greek chorus to your distemper.
So what has you so ruffled? I assume your sister is angry about something? No! I just I've done something stupid.
I mean, that's not why she's She That's You know Lavinia's charity endeavor with the Touched Yes, the - The Orphanage.
- Orphans, right.
- No, the Touched.
- Yes.
They're terrible.
They're wonderful! They're sad? Do you even know what the term means? Touched? Yes! No, they're all they have weird deformities and afflictions, and Oh, Alderton Musgrove has a niece who can float! - Really? - Yeah.
Just an inch or so off the ground.
She can't go anywhere unless you tow her about.
Musgrove is apoplectic.
I'm not supposed to tell.
Oh, and Lavinia's opened her her home for them and it's all rather controversial, and And she she just now got word from the widow who runs the affair some Touched girl was attacked.
The girl's fine, but Lavinia, she's aflame.
"It's time society accepted that the touched are amongst us, and they're in" And I said, well, they're not amongst us.
You know, they're in the Orphanage and she called me a genius which is worse than when she calls me an idiot, because I I never know what she She's bringing them to the Opera.
Tonight! In our box! She's ousted the Van Alders for these women! I'm to make the fourth.
- Are they hideous? - I've no idea.
It's it's the widow Mrs.
True I think, and her companion.
Do you think they might be hideous? Well, whatever they are, flirt with the ugly one.
It creates an unexpected balance.
I don't know how to flirt.
God, these people make me uneasy.
What if she's some sort of elephant man woman? Well, then she's probably the ugly one.
You have to come.
To the Opera? Well, you know everything about flirting.
Plus, you don't mind when people are odd.
That's how we're friends.
- But it's Faust! - Please? I'll do anything.
I mean People are already saying unkind things about Lavinia's passion on the subject.
If this whole thing doesn't go smoothly I've got a very important meeting with the Minister of Finance about the Ferryman's next Midnight Carouse.
The Ferryman's? I don't Sorry, what what's the Minister of Finance have to do with your pagan sex club? Whatever he has to do to get the pictures I have from the last one.
That's how the club works.
It's all quite delicate, favors and threats and then one shining night where no law yet exists.
It's more than just a club, it's an ethos and I won't sit through three hours of moralistic bellowing with everyone I know and hate just because Lavinia's gone weird.
She's not weird! I'm an ape.
- But she does push you around.
- I know.
I know.
I will come tonight if What, me? At the Ferryman's? No.
Hugo, no, please.
I A sex club is just That That's just flirting on a much scarier level! You don't have to flirt.
You just have to relax.
Endure someone flirting with you.
These are my terms.
Oh, he's a pokey one.
As far as society is concerned Augustus Bidlow is above reproach, and beneath contempt.
- He's perfect.
- For what? Oh, you don't have to wear that anymore.
No, right.
You are the maid.
I like watching you work.
It's like you're conducting.
Well, get in wrong with the Beggar King and you'll get a symphony.
You shouldn't be in that life.
Gift like yours, you should be the Royal Physician not patching up gangsters and freaks.
Gift like mine gets me branded a voodoo witch doctor.
I gave up being choosy.
Nothing about me not being a freak? Look, a dress for you.
Oh, no, just come in.
It's only Surgery.
It's pretty.
I found a note.
Oh, right.
I'm going to the opera tonight.
I had a rippling.
To accompany me and my Brother Augustus to the opening performance of Faust.
Lavinia Bidlow.
I'll take the message to her.
So you send word that you'd just been attacked and she says come out to play? And she even sent an outfit.
And what about the part where you rest? It's the theatre, not hard labor.
And I think I need to be there.
Trouble? Katherine will have supper ready soon.
Does Lavinia really think I can fit into this? It's a good dress for you.
It'll keep pressure on the wound.
- Mrs.
True! - Miss Adair.
You look very fine! I think so too! It's like something from a storybook.
With prince and duel.
I'm not confident in my curtseying.
I'm not confident in my breathing.
Oh, I wasn't planning to breathe.
I think it's considered rude.
- Does it hurt? - Itches.
That's much worse.
Are you sure we need to go to this? You have to say yes or I'll cry, but We need to go to this.
I wish I knew why.
Give us the room.
That's Odium.
Pardon the stench.
You cannot get that man into a bath.
Declan Orrun.
The Beggar King! Or, no - Mr.
Orrun, Penance Adair.
- Yeah, I know.
The great inventress.
I'm not great - I assume you've heard about - Do you know how it looks every rum on the street hearing you calling me come like a bitch puppy? - There's channels.
- We were attacked today.
Only once? They came for Myrtle Haplisch same time we did.
Probably been after the Touched for some time but now they've been seen.
They're a danger to us, and I'd suspect anyone known to be connected with us.
Which you made sure I was known far and wide to be.
You called me out so I'd be forced to help you and now you've told me that to my face.
I'm genuinely searching for a way that this spins out that I don't kill you.
It would be better if you didn't.
You're a rare fkin' bird.
You sold us the information about Myrtle.
And you're wondering if I sold it to someone else.
Well, wonder away, Princess my business is mine.
From the sanctity of my harmonious marriage fk all is exclusive.
My girls need protection, and I need information exclusive, about who's hunting the Touched and why.
Skip the posture and name your price.
You ain't got that kind of swag.
We're resourceful.
Is that so? How about you get me the crown-fking-jewels? Wait, are you considering that? We'll start with a gift for today's thoughtlessness.
An automated motor carriage designed to your specifications.
And you will be paid if you help us.
You're mad enough to make this worth it but you're mad enough to try not to.
If it goes that way, I will cut your face to a mess.
This isn't my face.
I thought you was gonna scare them? Spread out your fingers.
- Wait.
- Hold up your hand and spread out your fking fingers.
Hugo, get off! Take cover.
I'm done after the cavern ballet in act five right before the prison scene.
Hugo, are you listening? - Yes, the prison scene.
- Yes.
Don't you agree, Miss Bidlow? Must we fight a war over words? I'm exhausted by these overwrought alarums about the Frenchification of our language.
It's the end of the century.
These ancient prejudices have no use.
Dr.
Beldon, you adopt new terms as they become relevant to your practice of psychoanalysis, I imagine.
Practically every week of late.
Language requires not stasis, but specificity.
I should be thrilled to excise the word "nice.
" It's vague as paste.
Isn't that right, Augustus? Augustus? - I'm sorry? - We were discussing it earlier.
The specificity of modern language.
Oh, yes It's very nice.
If it's French terminology we're discussing there are a few terms we Britons simply don't have a word for.
Oh, excuse me.
I suppose we all know the sort of terms he means.
What on earth is Swann doing here? I know.
I know.
It is It is so impulsive.
Lord Massen.
You are well, I hope? I am, Miss Bidlow, thank you.
Dr.
Beldon, hello.
Swann.
We were discussing the panic a few old men are having about certain French terms.
There was one debated on the Parliament floor.
What was it? Employees.
Employees.
And here we say it, and yet live.
It is not panicking to abhor something.
Neither is it useful to replace a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word with some foreigner's flourish.
In England we say "the employed.
" What possible benefit in replacing it with "employees"? The singular.
One may refer to a single employee, whereas "the employed" can only be used to describe a mass of people.
It doesn't allow for the idea that a single worker may be a whole and meaningful being.
Mrs.
Amalia True, Miss Adair, may I introduce Lord Massen? - Mrs.
True runs the Orphanage.
- Indeed.
Which one's the ugly one? I take it, then, that you are yourselves among the afflicted? Touched.
Yes.
We don't consider ourselves afflicted.
Perhaps some women are more fortunate in the nature of their ailment than others.
That's true, but more suffer from society's perception than their own debilitation.
What So what's wrong with you? I I think he means me.
Where to begin? It's just that you you look you You look, you're you're quite nice.
And you you have the charity, the Orphanage.
That seems normal.
Miss Bidlow runs the Orphanage.
We're just the employed.
Shockingly, I'd say my brother has spoken for everyone.
They're anxious to know what your "turns" are.
A turn is a trick.
It's not a trick.
Penance is an inventor.
A creator, really.
Oh, there's only one creator.
No, I I can see energy.
Potential energy, like, with electricity.
I can see where it wants to go or move or settle.
It helps me put things together.
And yours? Mrs.
True tends to be a few steps ahead of the rest of us.
A prognosticator.
Nothing so grand.
So I shouldn't ask how I'm going to die? No, but one can safely assume it will involve a French word.
You see the future? Snippets.
It's as confusing as it is useful.
You were a soldier.
You've seen men who suddenly feel themselves back in battle.
Well, sometimes I go forward.
I never said I was a soldier.
You're probably going to.
No, it's the eyes.
Assessing every threat.
Lord Massen is the last line of defense against the scourge of modernity.
I am old, and I have seen too much change to fight against the tide, but chaos is not change.
Shouting for recognition does not make a people worthy of it.
There's a harmony to our world that's worth preserving.
As I understand it, a harmony is made up of different voices - sounding different notes.
- Yes.
And one is always above the other.
Ladies.
Oh, my god! I killed the devil.
It's Maladie! What does she want? Is no one going to say thank you? It's okay It's okay, petal, it's not your fault.
It's the doctor.
Oh.
Oh, there's so many people.
Did you all come in hats? Now all of your brains are naked.
No.
You shall have a wreath of eels with the tail in your Please! Please.
Don't go.
Devil's speciality is eels which is known by you as a serpent Oh, but it's only Adam.
It's all the same when it slithers.
Eva had a cunt.
Why am I here? I came to kill an angel, which Oops.
But the closer I came the more I felt I was here for a because I saw God.
He was all light, and he put on me his wreath.
He came.
He came to us all, and you all turned your backs on him! You lied! You said he never.
But he makes hum.
Oh, he sings.
I can never make it out, but I feel his hum, like a comb in my throat.
And I feel it I feel it.
Him here Who who Bugger it.
Take the angel.
Oh, nothing? Anyone? Tell me what you want! Either I am here for a reason or for a bonfire.
Oh, no! She fell! Mice.
Tiny mice.
How is that still hard? Go! - Damn it! - We don't have time to stop! Just let me have the girl.
Just let me have the girl.
No.
Well, you've made a mess, Little Song Bird.
- Come on! Through here! - Boss.
Hugo Swann? Lord Swann, but I'll overlook the breach this once.
Now, I'm sure this must be a very difficult time for you.
On the contrary.
London's deadliest maniac was as close to me as Kitty is now.
- It's Katie.
- The presence of sudden death makes one appreciate the act of living.
He did seem to appreciate it.
I'll need to interview his Lordship alone, Katie.
- I don't see why - It'll be quicker.
But don't leave the theater, please.
Oh, I could never leave the theater.
So I don't suppose you made any effort to stop Maladie? I have it that that's your job.
Oh, and that there's a young widow doing it for you.
Amalia True.
Guest of Lavinia Bidlow, runs the Orphanage.
Maladie kidnapped a girl, Mrs.
True gave chase? Champion of the unfortunate, and she knocks dangerous men about.
Then I guess you're lucky she doesn't know what you're up to.
What we're up to.
I think of you as a partner, in a way.
I don't profit by what we do.
Well, neither do I yet.
Once you've sent enough suitable girls my way and a certain investor is invested The Ferryman's Club will become not just a profitable business but a phenomenon.
I might even forget a few debts.
Take the fking champagne, Frank.
You'll want it.
You see, I know the name of the girl Maladie took.
And so do you.
One little polyglot.
One tiny Touched girl that's all you had to bring me.
I like that word "Touched.
" Like the finger of God gave a few of us a little poke woke us up.
Every subject gets me closer to finding exactly where it is he touched us.
Oh, not today, though.
Not today.
Let's just see where it hurts.
We didn't want it anyway, you fking tart! Oi, is that maniac a friend of yours? Amalia? Mrs.
True? Miss Adair.
You look very fine.
I got into a fight.
It's been a day for that.
I didn't win.
Maladie has the girl.
Mary.
Brighton, they said.
She won't kill her.
Not right away, we have time.
We have some time.
And you've found an invigorating way to spend it.
They started it.
- Or no, I started it.
- I know.
I know.
Trouble makes you troublesome but nothing sets you off like good fortune.
Mary's song.
Reaching right into me telling me that that I'm here.
I belong here.
And you, and all of us that's Touched we're woven into the fabric of the world and are meant to be as we are.
We find Mary, we get her singing.
They'll all come to us.
They'll be safe.
They won't be safe.
Less lonely, then.
And that's a start.
That's a start.