The Nevers (2021) s01e05 Episode Script

1 It's not fun watching you throw yourself at danger like you think it's gonna propose.
Coming here to patch you up - over and over.
- It could be fun.
I was left here completely alone with nothing but a mission I was never actually given, no orders, no objectives.
The heart of our empire brought to a shuddering halt.
The blade is in.
We need to know whose hand is on the hilt.
Do you think that I had something to do with your friend's death? Did you? It would save me such a lot of time.
I hope he told you what happens to spies during war time.
A few days ago, dark as the day we found it.
And now They say I killed Mary.
I never did it.
I only kill angels.
Justice! She gets justice from us! Myrtle understood Mary's song.
She said, "Come below and find me".
Who do we need to find? After five weeks five grueling weeks of testimony as to your heinous and unrepentant malfeasance this court finds you guilty of the crimes of burglary, theft, assault extortion, indecency, kidnapping, and 15 counts of murder.
You're clear.
The court therefore sentences you, Maladie, to be hanged by the neck until you are dead.
Sentence to be carried out in the public square.
So that all who wish may see the punishment for such wickedness, and the end of your reign of terror.
May God, assuming He ever gave you one, have mercy on your soul.
A public execution? A travesty we abolished 30 years ago.
A necessity.
All of London is watching.
- The world is watching.
- Yes.
As we turn savage.
Turn into Darwin's ancestral apes.
My cousin, His Majesty, the king Oh, yes, please remind us again who your cousin is, because we wake each dawn having forgot.
We are not apes, Your Grace.
We are managing a crisis.
The Certification Act, the Blue Badge Act.
We keep the Touched accountable, visible.
- The woman is chained like an animal.
- She's not in pain, and that's the point.
Pain gives her power she could use to escape.
And not allowed to wash, or change.
Does she gain power from that, hmm? Or are we violating Maladie hangs as Maladie.
Not some anonymous prisoner.
This is a case where justice must be seen.
There is a legitimate concern, and it's not just the Prime Minister, about enflaming the Touched.
A minimal risk, at worst.
I have ordered troops deployed around the square, and any potential targets in the city.
But no marching, dress uniforms, or bayonets.
Well, except around the palace.
The queen will have her pageantry.
But nothing resembling martial law.
We must keep control, not seem to be grasping for it.
I'm not talking about some rabble hurling brickbats at patrolmen.
It's the long-term.
We showed our hand siccing that ghastly gunman Kroos on Mary Brighton, and for what? Within a week, The Orphanage had doubled its roster.
If Kroos hadn't silenced Brighton, it might've increased tenfold.
And Maladie's not some fetching chorus girl.
She's a pariah.
Maladie's hanging will cause a brouhaha, we all know, - but it is in the long-term that - Gentlemen.
We took a vow to protect the Empire, not to kill for sport.
We've learned nothing of the origin of the illness, or the creator of these horrors.
You ignore my reports on the menace of electricity, and then when I am absent I think, Prince Albrecht, there was some concern as to the nature of your absence.
About your sympathies with regard to the Touched.
In particular, why the princess was, uh, bundled off to Zurich in the dead of night.
Bettina has lumbago! And we wish her a speedy recovery.
But our patient is, as you say, the Empire.
And it requires a bloodletting.
You know that won't be enough.
Not for a lasting peace.
- X-ray.
- Spectralacle.
You X-rayed London.
It's a spectral-acle.
Because it can see through the but, yes.
The square bits are where we'll need to drill.
The rest should be open air.
Be easier to go straight down.
Not if we want to come back up.
The Galanthi's right under Grand Abbey, and Nimble says it's covered in thugs.
But we still don't know whose.
We'll find that out on our reconnaissance.
I've studied the angles, and this is the best place to get in.
So what's this? The Royal Military Army.
- Which is better? - Not usually.
But we do have an opportunity.
Which is? This is the part I don't like so well.
Maladie's hanging? The whole place will be dark for the day.
Augie has a friend from school who says everyone's being deployed.
- Hmm.
- Grand Parliament.
Buckingham Palace.
- Are they expecting a rebellion? - Maybe.
Are you planning a rebellion? A reunion.
- You're afraid.
- I'm not.
You're afraid to go see the Galanthi.
Yes.
Yes, of course I am.
Nothing's happened the way it should've.
I What if I Stop that.
No, don't stop.
You're a bad person.
Oh.
Uh-huh.
What if that's because Uh-huh What if it's because of me? What if it sees what a horror I've been? I think that every night.
Don't bring up Katherine.
Okay.
It's It's gonna It's gonna work, all right? It's It's gonna be worth it.
It'll heal us.
All right? Heal us.
Us.
- Heal this.
- I, I don't know.
I - They're murdering women, but this is a sin.
- Just Just It's hatching.
No, uh, more chrysalis than egg.
Speaking loosely, it's moving from a liquid state to goggles! We're keeping exact track of the pulses.
- They're dimmer, but - Kill it.
- Ma'am? - It has a crack in it.
Kill it! If it can crack, it can break.
No, it cracked.
I didn't crack it.
I and I still can't.
We have the bunker ready.
Another week of digging, and we can lay the tracks.
This thing will be miles away from the city - when it emerges - Our hopes for a cure were childish.
Its power grows by the day.
There's a fever spreading through London.
Do you forget we're on the eve of a public execution? You think that's coincidence? I think it's justice.
When we hang someone in America we watch.
F-forgive me.
Maladie killed great men of my profession.
Friends.
I may seem all numbers, but I am still a man.
I am still capable of rage.
Of pettiness, and hope.
The two of us have been more exposed down here than anyone, but your moral compass hasn't fluttered.
I'm still capable.
Neither of us has sprouted wings.
This creature isn't all-powerful.
If Satan himself is in there, I doubt he's a match for Lavinia Bidlow.
We're taking a terrible risk.
It means to destroy us.
If we've lost hope it already has.
Ooh.
Oh! Oh "And what of those looking down from above, jud-ging judging these women without knowing where their own jud-g-ment ends.
When He who sits above all and yet looks down on no one calls 'em to account, will they explain how celebrating murder was the righteous path?" She's terribly compelling.
Ah, so you liked it? Telling all to Désirée.
'Course you did.
You are so predictable.
Hey, it's Mrs.
True's orders.
And talking to Désirée, baring the soul, among other things, it takes a weight off.
Among other things.
And now everyone's comfortable with me being here, except around the silver, and trinkets, purses, keepsakes Smug.
Won't be this easy tomorrow.
Can't skip away in a dark cave.
Oh, I'm not skipping.
Good.
I don't want to talk about it either.
Go on, then.
Go.
Everybody's glad you're going.
She smiled because you're going! Men.
We truly are the unfairer sex.
Aah.
"When Maladie is swinging in the sight of lords and little girls, will that bring peace to London?" I guess maybe the Galanthi will.
Whatever they are.
Well, not in time for her, but Is it even gonna work? Hanging Maladie.
Mrs.
True said she gets stronger from pain, yeah? From pain.
Not from damage.
Not from death.
Read the end.
"Maladie's hanging is more than a barbaric spectacle.
It is a crack in the soul of the city, and who knows what venomous vapors will billow from below, infecting it with the oldest, most animal rage, and making Maladies of us all".
Well, I don't much like the sound of that idea.
There's no legal argument for this.
Look, the 1868 amendment made executions private, only subject to change in order to prevent abuse or to give greater solemnity to the act.
This will do the opposite, and the government knows it.
They're hanging Maladie for being Touched.
Name, address, employer.
- And you've got your letters of support? - Yes.
New Touched who are here to register, get in this queue.
- Right.
- You'll get your turn soon enough.
She wears this everywhere.
If she's seen in public without it, that's jail for a month.
Now, you wait over there while she's in the demonstration room.
Demonstration? What what you gonna demonstrate? It's ju It's just the ears.
Nah, I've seen this one in me henhouse last week.
Aw, don't worry, pet.
We'll get out the hounds and horses.
See how fast you can run.
I told you when you first started nosing around here, Boyle, - you can't interview her.
- Five minutes.
- She'd kill you in four.
- Three and a half minutes.
Oh, come on, Mundi.
I need this.
They need this.
All this registration nonsense, it's just a milder form of what's going on with Maladie.
Maladie Maladie is the worst killer in London's history.
The less she's heard from, the better chance we've got of controlling this fucking circus.
You don't want this hanging either.
No, I want order.
I want the wicked punished and the good protected.
Then do something besides sitting at your desk ogling the Touched women.
I can't see the Touched women, and you can't see Maladie, 'cause it helps nothing except your sales.
My sales matter.
I'm the only one showing the human side of the Touched.
Mundi, people can print whatever they want.
I am still in favor of the truth.
- Who's this? - Murder.
Railmen tried to throw it on Maladie's pile.
With no ID, no one missing, it fits the description.
Well, they didn't put much effort into matching the writing.
I have that coat.
Or that style.
It's popular with working women.
It's a sharp cut, and it's cheap.
I'll wager she worked in an office but was out a lot of the time.
She was in the underground, city council, a secretary, or a "secretary".
You put a name on her, I'll take you to Maladie myself.
You mean it? I do not.
After all that, both the ostriches were females.
Well.
Oh - Lavinia, are you all right? - Oh, it's nothing.
Slight ache behind the eyes.
Oh.
Did you buy that waistcoat on your own? It looks like one of Swann's.
No, I just I just thought Hello.
You need to steer clear of him in future, and now that that ghastly club of his has become a matter of public record.
He's my friend.
He was your friend, as well.
Do you Do you remember when you took us ice skating with you? He made you laugh all day just pretending to be an ice dancer.
Yes, he was charming at 10.
Augie, the devil may take a pleasing form, but you trust people, and I think I You know, you must call Dr.
Waterson about those headaches.
Or I'll tell Hugo that you think he has a pleasing form, then you'll never hear the end of it.
- Stop it.
- They should hang her, and shoot her.
Just to make sure.
How early are we going? Can we pay a boy to hold a place in front? Why don't they just bring guns and shoot her themselves? We are not murderers, madam.
No, you just like to watch.
At least Maladie has a work ethic.
What are you saying? - Oh, noth noth - Don't apologize for me.
How dare you? I'm not someone's dotty mother.
There are vultures everywhere.
Dressed up in hats and fine silks.
Yes, I was quite good at skating.
Rings around the rest of us.
You know, that, that's something that hasn't changed.
You're not to be in the city at all tomorrow, Augie.
- Don't argue.
- No, no, of course, no.
I, um I'm going to Brighton for the day.
Uh, thank you.
Um, a a building's opened up that might make a a good new bird sanctuary.
There's been a lot of interest from the public of late.
Yes, the more barbaric we humans are to each other, the more we pamper our pets.
Or maybe the more we need them.
Augie Bring your sister something fun back from Brighton.
Of course.
One of the guards did say Maladie sings.
- Nursery rhymes and such.
- How insightful.
Well, it's just, you know, it's all about mental capacity, really.
Are you fucking playing with me? He's pressing charges.
This is insane! Lord Humphries was badly burned.
Bertie Humphries is a bully and a coward, and he wasn't burned, he was frozen.
And he was frozen because he will not hear the words, "Don't touch!" Ronald is a great act.
He can chill your drinks.
You can see your breath, - but you grab it, you're only going to - Ronald isn't registered.
An unregistered Touched can't contest a complaint.
If his lordship pursues this, - you will - Injury waiver.
You cannot apply for membership to the Ferryman's without it.
Does Bertie really want to go public? Because I am more than happy to speak to Lady Humphries Extortion is still illegal.
This is not extortion.
It is umbrage.
Oh, God.
Do you know how hard I am working? Dealing with petty legalities and excruciating paperwork, and now some idiot is wasting my time because he's got angry with the Touched.
Bugger.
Of course you do.
What a strange fate.
We've become men with offices.
Yeah.
It's like looking in a mirror.
How do I make this go away? Do you think my acts want to be on a government list? They know how people feel about them, even people who desire them.
Especially people who desire them.
A "turn" is unique.
It marks you, like a Like a Sargent portrait.
Or, um, oh, God, what's that thing? Fingerprints! Are really no two alike? That seems mad.
We have to register your man.
I won't list his place of employment, but you need to give satisfaction to Lord Humphries, not threats.
Send him a fucking horse, or whatever you rich people do, and no more of these.
If you can't keep your people safe, I will shut you down.
You ain't a man with an office.
You're a pimp with a gimmick, and you're playing with fire.
- Again, it wasn't fire - It was someone's life! I don't know how you always Tomorrow, we are going to kill a woman for the public's entertainment.
'Cause that's what London is now.
It is Jack the fucking Ripper grown into an 'ole city.
You're in entertainment.
You should come.
Get in the dirt, smell the blood.
Then you'll know what's on your hands.
Frank, why did you take a job you hate? 'Cause I work with the people who love it.
- Oh.
Excuse me.
- do know a bit about your Had your ear to the door, I hope? Oh, I didn't need to.
You're Hugo Swann.
You don't write about the Touched and not hear about London's most infamous impresario.
I deny everything.
Oh, I'm not I'm not after your story.
But you are after something.
Something you can't get me.
Mmm So it's a challenge, is it? You'd like that.
I'd like it more over a plate of oysters at Pegini's.
We're both much too busy to spend the afternoon seeing who gets to use who, but there is something you can do for me.
- Augie? - Yes? Go! - Oh - Were you a crow? - What? - Up there, were you peering at me by way of bird? Oh! Oh, G No, good God, no-no.
No, no, I I was I was me.
I was me, in, in in me.
I don't I don't mean I came, I came for the meeting.
- So I would I would never! - Wouldn't you? - That bird seemed awful keen on my ablutions.
- Well, I I mean, it's It's a It's a bird.
I-I didn't even know you were bathing, and that-that-that that was a redwing, anyway.
They never listen to a word, I think.
Am I being recorded again? Of course not.
I s-should make more noise when I come in.
No, it's just, um the madness of all this.
It's as though sin is in bloom.
People doing what they oughtn't, or doing nothing.
It's like we're being tested, but it's that dream where the test's over, and you've not found your pencils.
But you're telling me the truth? I would never betray your trust.
Wouldn't sneak a quick glance at what a husband's meant to see? - Never.
- Well, is my naked frame a source of dullness then? - Am I interrupting? - Yes, please! I've got the drill all ready.
Let me show you.
Augie, how's the bird watching? - I - You ready to make them sing tomorrow? Oh.
Oh, yes, yes.
They'll make all sorts of noise.
They'll swoop about.
I've been practicing.
Be the perfect distraction for the drilling.
What do you, um, what do you think you'll find down there? If-if-if it's all right for me to ask.
Um, I'm not sure what I'm what level of I-I know it's Galanthi, uh, even in the singular.
The timing on the explosive bolts was the issue, but now We'll find answers.
Is it safe, who's down there with it? What do we need to get it away from them? There's more, but can I just say hope? You could have only said that.
And when you reach the proper depth, you just Oh Uh uh Uh, that that'd be the floor that it Yeah, that's not coming back.
No? Mmm Keep it movin'.
Maladie hangs tomorrow.
You mustn't rush, my sprouts.
It ain't a hangin' if she don't swing.
Chop chop! Bring him 'round the back.
Slow and steady.
You's got all night.
Gilbert Massen.
Captain of industry, Peer of the Realm.
Am I meant to call you "lord"? Am I meant to call you "king"? This machine's impressive.
Penance Adair's work, I think.
Yeah.
It's fun.
I let the kids tool about the yard in it.
Not very practical, though.
If I ever crash, I like a nice fat horse in front of me to take the brunt.
What the fuck do you want? I want London under control.
- Meaning yours.
- Meaning not overrun by monsters.
Monsters, yeah? Well, Maladie stretches tomorrow.
While Bonfire Annie is free to set fire to both our holdings, while an uneducated Irish girl builds something in days that men of industry have labored over for years.
A thing that threatens the natural order is by definition monstrous, even if it's pretty.
There's nothing natural about order, Gilly.
There's chaos.
Savagery.
And then there's men like us, who carve out just enough order to make ourselves absolutely necessary.
You didn't come here 'cause you're afraid of the pretty ladies.
You just get ugly men to murder 'em.
Isn't that right, Odium? My man Odium was sent to kill Amalia True.
Thought it was an order sent down from me, which the law would've happily confirmed.
Now you look me in the eye, hand on heart, and you tell me that this man is not ugly.
I see only a soldier who was laid out by a woman one-fifth his fighting weight.
We have a common enemy.
Someone, some group, is rewriting the rules of reality.
If we don't find a way to control it You know why they call me the Beggar King? Hmm? 'Cause I had fuck-all, and men followed me anyway.
The Touched are gonna change things.
So did the fucking longbow.
I'll adapt.
I'm not looking for an ally, Mr.
Orrun.
I have a job.
It pays obscenely well.
Now was that so fuckin' hard to say? We have looked for the source of all this, for a cure.
We've taken steps to But we're behind, reacting when we should act.
Maladie's hanging presents an opportunity to change that.
To be ready.
Be ready? You expecting some kind of daring escape? No, Maladie hangs.
Justice will be seen.
But in the short run, it will stir up emotions as much as it placates.
The Touched, the Purists, their defiance is at a fever pitch.
Right, and you want my men to keep the peace.
Maintain the natural order, as it were? As far as my people know, yes.
But, uh, it's become apparent to me that if London is going to be saved from chaos, it needs to see chaos.
What I want from you is just enough.
- Are you heading up? - I have to finish rebuilding the drill.
- How are the girls? - Mmm, a bit jittery.
Except for Myrtle, who's angry she doesn't get to go.
I'm pretty sure that's what she was angry about.
She has to get on with her writin' lessons.
I would take her if I knew it was safe.
She speaks Galanthi.
A couple of the girls were saying you killed Lucy.
Annie shut them down, but she's a bit frightening herself.
But you know I didn't.
Oh, of course not.
No, you would never.
No, I would.
I wanted to.
That's how you know I didn't.
And yes, I miss Lucy, too.
I wonder if Mary does.
- No, I'm not saying that - They're either with us, or Well, what about forgiveness? I mean, forgiveness still exists in the world, doesn't it? Or did we come up with a cure? Was kindness just germs all along? This time tomorrow, - I promise you won't be worried.
- It's just, I always I always say that I won't make weapons.
But most of my gimcracks, they could kill someone in the wrong circumstances.
So could a candlestick.
A pail of water.
They're violent things, my engines.
Sometimes energy itself, it just seems relentless.
Penance, the Galanthi will know your heart the way I know I need to finish the drill.
Unmindful of the roses Unmindful of the thorn A reaper, tired, reposes Among his gathered corn So might I Till morn' Cold as the cold Decembers Past as the days that set Whilst only one remembers And all the rest forget But one remembers yet But one remembers yet - How did you sleep? - Standing up, with my eyes open.
And working.
I didn't sleep.
- What am I seeing? - This is how we do it.
How we do what? This is how we save Maladie.
I know the Galanthi is the key to our hopes, and it needs us to come for it as soon as we can, but But Maladie is going to be murdered this day out in public, and I can't let it happen.
I know I'm not meant to.
I've seen it done once, and if I have the power to stop it, then that is the reason I have power at all.
Maladie is not Mary.
She tried to kill Mary, and you.
- I'm not saying she - She murdered a dozen people, also in public.
Remember that? This is the legal execution of a genuine threat - who is also violently unhappy.
- So it's a mercy killin'.
Sometimes it's a mercy.
But this time it's a lynching.
For them to crow at, and for us to expect.
It's a noose in a row of nooses next to a row of nooses.
You expect me to turn my back on the only power that can make all of this right that told me a month ago it needs me so that we can prove to the public we're all in league with a psychotic killer? How is that that's all the nooses.
That's putting the Touched at risk much more than letting a crowd foam over one I know you're not comin', True.
I'd feel better if you did, but I can't let you do it.
- Oh, let's please not go down that road.
- If you get hurt, - and you will get hurt - Oh, yes, 'cause I know, I'm a child.
I've not been in battle.
I've not killed and eaten a dozen fierce men.
I also haven't.
But I am in the world.
I am a part of God's world.
And I don't believe He means for us to go backwards, killin' each other for sport.
We'll go save a dozen people tomorrow.
Children.
That's not the point.
Kittens? It's her.
It's now.
Something inside me broke.
It, it, it snapped like a rib, True, and it hurts.
I will not live with the thought that I ignored that s-sign.
So God is telling you to save Maladie.
No.
Is He telling you to abandon her? Would your Galanthi look kindly on that? And could it not heal Sarah? Make her who she was before? Have you have you never even wondered on that? There are things you can't come back from.
That's a theory you're awful anxious not to test.
So this is about what I did to Sarah.
It's about the girls.
All of them, in here and all out there.
Not just their safety.
It's about how they see the world.
A part of them breaks or goes quiet for always when the world turns beastly.
When we just let it.
You're not bringing her here.
I mean, after many, many people shoot you, and Maladie stabs you because it's funny, she doesn't set a foot in this place.
I said I had a plan.
Look, True, I know it'll be harder in a few days with more people around, - but the Galanthi is still - No, I'm what? I'm going.
Today.
I'm going.
I've got my drill, my breathers.
You've done your part.
I'm sorry, did your plan not get as far as this? Did you not see my potential energy potentially doing the fucking job? - But - I'm not turning my back on the Galanthi because you got a fucking pain the ribs.
The future of the world depends on what I'm doing.
The future of the world depends on the present.
Isn't that why you're here? I don't know why I'm here.
I don't know how it got this far or what I'm doing next.
I know what I'm not doing.
I'm not mistaking my pain for an idea.
So let's see who still thinks I should lead.
All right, everybody, gather around, since you already have.
If you weren't listening in, Miss Adair and I have come to a bit of a crossroads.
I am leaving in a few minutes to find the Galanthi, as we've planned.
I know I've been vague about what that means, but it's the first step to learning why we were brought here together, and what we're meant to do next.
And I'm going to Maladie to save I'm going to the square to stop that hanging.
I'm going to save Maladie.
That's mad, right? Acting like she's still a child of God.
Well, we all are.
We all have a soul, no matter what viciousness people are spewing.
I am going to pluck Maladie right from out their bigoted claws, and let the world see that the Touched are not here to be slaughtered for show.
I have practiced saying this, and I feel sweaty! All right.
We had a plan.
Now there are two.
I can't compel anyone to stay with me, but that's that's mental.
Don't do that.
I wish you'd reconsider.
I wish I could.
Always assumed Maladie had a plan to escape.
Never guessed it was you.
Where Miss Carbey goes - I'll pay you.
- Mmm - That's cheating! - Well, sorry! Uh, my plan sort of doesn't work without you.
Nah, it's nice to be needed.
Do we all have to make a speech? I know that I'm younger than most of you here, but I feel like it's my duty to say that I love you both very much, and I don't think anyone should do anything.
Be careful.
- Effie Boyle.
- "My sales matter".
Her sales will turn this crowd into a mob.
Do you think Hugo Swann got her in to see Maladie? No, no one got her in.
This is fiction.
I honestly thought she was better than this.
I never trusted her, myself.
Have the men keep a rough count of people coming in.
Get to 400, close the gates.
But there's thousands of people waiting.
Then lock the gates.
Judge said public, not packed.
Bring 'em in.
You two are there to help us get in and out, nothing more.
Um, George and Violet, yous'll be back here with the prototype.
No one goes into that square apart from me until I thought you was going spelunking.
True said take care of you.
Right.
That'll make this easier, then.
Come see.
Nimble, it'll be the same, only Yeah, I'm happy to stay up here.
We're gonna need to practice this bit.
- Hey, get off! - Oi, watch it! Top marksmen in the country.
They won't fire unless they have to.
But they won't miss.
How did you, um How did you fare in the underworld? The king was unresponsive.
He said his men weren't trained to stop fights.
I suppose anarchy is a boon to him.
His dealings go unnoticed.
I did tell him which neighborhoods to stay out of.
Do you think we should deal with him more permanently? A beggar's palace coup? In time, perhaps.
Crowd's a bit thin.
- Swann.
- Oh.
General Pecking.
- Gilberto.
- Developed a taste for blood, have you? Uh, blood, yes.
Just, uh not blue.
Can I help you, sir? As it happens, you can.
For I am your favorite uncle come from abroad, - just to see you.
- Nah.
You're just here for the hanging.
Not for me.
Oh! We got a tub of gin inside.
- Oh! - Tom, this is my uncle.
Hello, Tom! Remember, George, when you hear the it's two minutes, and then that lever goes down.
After the prototype's been deployed, you drive out, and you go to Porchill Road, after the drums, down.
Aneel and I studied together.
He knows I mean to practice, but when we marry, I'm supposed to give up my hobby.
Shh! I'm a better student than he is.
He's gonna leave me because I'm a better student than he is.
Don't be daft.
A pound says he shows up with flowers and apologies tomorrow at the latest.
Did you not hear my shushing? - All right, settle down! - Oi! You! Stop pushing, or out you go! Oi, is that a bottle? Gimme that.
You want something What, you gonna cry? Fuck off.
- He's in an uproar.
- Thank goodness.
It's less work for me.
15,000 pounds of gold! Shh, we do not tell the others.
- Put your backs into it, lads.
- Yes, uncle! My dad never even looked at my paintings.
He said a copper's life is good enough for me.
- Oh! - Then he takes my brushes, Windsor and fucking Newton, no less, and It's Maladie! Maladie! Quit yelling, love.
I'll be down in a minute.
You give the devil what for! - You're a fuckin' animal! - They should burn you! Go on, then! Drop the bitch! Go on! Drop her! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! - Careful.
- Oh, blimey, this is heavy.
My back is killing me.
You're a fucking animal! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Drop the bitch! Oh, hi.
Shoot! Shoot, guards! Aah! She didn't want to be rescued.
No.
She wanted people to see.
An audience.
She's gonna kill us.
Everyone who came to see her die.
- Get out! - Wait.
- No, you have to get - No, just shut up.
What are these power lines under us? They don't go to the prison.
Are those barricades metal? It's been a privilege.
Away from the railings! Birch! Get 'em off the railings! Get 'em off the railings! Get 'em off! Move! Move! Move back! What the hell's happening? Fucking electricity.
Move out.
Out.
Ev Everyone Everyone out.
George, don't deploy! Don't touch the lever! They deserve worse.
Open it! This way! Oi.
Come here.
No! No, no, no.
No, don't! True said take care of you.
Oh! Harriet! Harriet! I'll, I'll get help! I'll be back! Come on, come on! Go, go! Oh! Oh, God, Harriet! No more Touched! No more Touched! No more Touched! No more Touched! Over there.
Aah! Bring her in.
Go all right? Put her feet up.
You? Uh, it was a riot.
I only kill angels.
She talked about the detective who was smart, and honest, and she didn't marry him because he was sad.
My sales matter.
Her sales will turn this crowd into a mob.
It's popular with working women.
Inky fingers don't make you a reporter, Boyle.
You see the stab wounds? - You were there.
- Who's this? Murder.
Don't be stupid! This way! La! There's a fight that's coming.
Get ready! I need to find out who our enemy is.
You could've been miles from here months ago.
We'll never know if we've done it right.
You know what's coming.
Why are you hiding? You said, "Find me".
Why did it go so wrong? Maladie's hanging scene, it's just madness.
They should burn you! Penance realizes it could be them in Maladie's position, and if they can stop it, they should.
This is a case where justice must be seen.
And it requires a bloodletting.
They're killing her to make a big example out of her.
That's, I think, the principal of it.
Public execution, we abolished 30 years ago.
They're hanging Maladie for being Touched.
Harriet's MO is to abide by the law.
So she sides with Penance, because there's a disparity of justice there.
I think, for Desirée, it's just survival.
She doesn't want to go along with Amalia because that route looks too unknown and uncertain.
And, um, on some level, Desirée's a bit lazy, so she'd rather do less work.
Penance's plan to save Maladie is quite a crucial thing to be able to pull off.
And that sense of the orphanage coming together for the greater good You can feel it when you're on set.
It's really exciting.
I remember I was supposed to get a 4 a.
m.
call time and go and shoot this.
And it was just like, "Oh, we're all shutting down".
And it was like, "Okay, see you in a few weeks?" We all disappeared for six months, and, originally, we were gonna shoot in a very historic part of London called Greenwich.
It was just a grand, grand space.
But, during these COVID times, we just said, "You know what? What if we just built our own town square?" I'm so pleased that we got to build it because with COVID and everything and not having so many extras It's not as big as Greenwich, which is good, and it's got a lot more, sort of, ins and outs to it.
We created the back of a prison in a sleazy, down part of town, really.
So, I plied my painter with all these pictures of filthy walls and what have you.
It just has that lovely, Victorian griminess about it, which inspired everything that we're putting in there.
We sort of do research into what they would've eaten then.
So an event like this toffee apples, oysters, jellied eels.
So those are the sort of things that the poor extras are eating.
It needs to feel real.
Even down to things that probably the camera won't pick up, like bits of oyster shell crushed on the ground.
The creatives on this just take things to another level.
So, as an actor, you just step on set and melt into your surroundings.
It was interesting to see the crew who were, like, just on the lookout for how to make it look as realistic as possible.
Bring 'em in.
Public execution was an event that brought together people from different classes.
They were this sort of spectacle.
I think people really saw it as a holiday.
There was this sort of ring that the police had set up so that no one could get too close.
But beyond that, it was a free-for-all.
We were supposed to fill it with hundreds and hundreds of people.
But we actually used digital motion capture crowds and spread out socially distanced crowds on green screen.
Come on, guys And roll! That kind of gave us a lot more opportunities to do a lot of camera tricks to make not so many people seem like a lot of people.
The hanging of Maladie It won't actually be our actor, it will be a stunt double, because it's more unpleasant than it is dangerous.
So we have a dressing rope that looks like a noose.
And that's tightened with bungee, but it will always stretch.
So, when they drop through, they're actually dropping into a harness.
And the actual pain is at the top of the legs where the femoral arteries are.
That's what takes the impact.
The hanging scene is just this enormous moment within that world.
Nimble appears, using the turn to get Sue down to the gallows.
We had this massive ramp, which we built on the stage, and painted it green.
Our stunt double can run and jump, and we'd use wires just to take the sting out of the landing.
Working with the effects, they have to take all of these shots and stick them into a real environment.
Shoot! Shoot that! And then, it, you know, it all kicks off.
It all goes crazy.
You see, I knew that Amy Manson wasn't going to die in that episode.
And I was like, "Okay, what's the loophole here?" She wanted people to see.
He realizes this is a setup.
"We're not hanging her, she's hanging us".
What does happen is completely unforeseen.
You know, it is, as Massen says, "It all comes down to effing electricity", which is a great line.
The railings were hollowed out and perforated.
And then we pumped some smoke up there so that when people are getting electrocuted, all the smoke comes out around them like they're sizzling up.
Maladie had rigged this whole thing up to drive people to that hanging.
She set up this identity for herself that she's gonna be able to observe.
She's harboring a hell of a lot of resentment and pain.
She needs to seek revenge.
Frank, he remembers Clara, who has a kind of fetish for the Touched.
Sacrifice, you know? Through a fight sequence with Frank Mundi, the two end up switching positions.
So, he then starts thinking about a conversation that he had with Effie Boyle.
My sales matter! He starts putting it together that the journalist, who's been covering the trial and eager to get access to Maladie is Maladie.
Before the whole Maladie reveal is when you first see she starts to feel empathy.
Hurry! That is a beautiful moment for the audience.
Deep down, she does have a conscience, you know? She's a person.
She's not invincible.
Even the villains in our show have so much heart.
The Effie reveal was great fun.
Yeah, that was the hardest there, trying to hide Maladie's wig under another wig.
Amy just did such a brilliant job.
Teeth out, threw them on the floor.
Wig off, threw it.
And she's back to Maladie.
I think for the audience that's so delicious after the event.
You know, she's smart.
She's plotted, well, everything really.
From the start of episode one.
You realize, "Oh, my God! Okay.
This is much more sophisticated than I realized".
A lot of things start to pay off.
But there are a lot of mysteries left too.