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The Nevers – S01E04 – Undertaking [Transcript]

While Mundi seeks justice, Amalia and her most trusted advisers make a list of potential enemies. Harriet, Primrose, and the other Orphans attempt to decipher a message. Later, Amalia exposes an unexpected threat.
The Nevers - S01E04 - Undertaking

Original air date: May 2, 2021

Everyone attends the funeral of Mary Brighton, except for Amalia who is involved in a fight at a pub. When she returns to the orphanage, Penance tries to comforts her but Amalia releases her frustration instead. In Penance’s lab, Myrtle reveals to Primrose that she understood the message within Mary’s song. Later on, Amalia, Penance, Lucy, Annie and Horatio discuss a list of suspects behind Mary’s murder. After being presented with evidence that Swann may have been behind Mary’s murder, Mundi violently confronts him in public, causing a scene. While Penance checks on Augie and Annie probes around the Beggar King’s territory, Amalia visits Massen to assess his involvement in Mary’s murder. Massen essentially confesses, but gives up no new information. Lucy then suggests they break into one of his warehouses and destroy his supply of ammunitions. Returning to his office, Mundi finds Maladie taking the superintendent hostage for all the murders, including Mary’s, being framed as her deeds. When she escapes, Mundi manages to subdue her and he demands that she is given proper prosecution. At the orphanage, with Harriet’s assistance, Primrose and Myrtle begin deciphering the message in Mary’s song. Later that night, at Massen’s warehouse, Amalia confronts Lucy, revealing that Lucy had been working for Massen and is the reason Mary is dead. Lucy bitterly insults Amalia, then tried to escape. Amalia catches her, but decides to spare her, as it is was Penance would want. She exiles Lucy instead, and destroys the true warehouse. Massen is enraged and astonished by this. Back at the orphanage, Primrose, Myrtle and Harriet disclose their work to Amalia and Penance. It is revealed that Mary’s song is a direct message of consolation and instruction from someone close to Amalia, as the reading of the message cause her to burst into tears.

* * *

AMALIA TRUE: I want you to join us.

ANNIE CARBEY: Is that the mission you were going on about?

You still feel it. Mary’s song.

You know what a better world could be like.

PENANCE ADAIR: First time Mary sang, only the Touched that were in the room could hear it.

We’ll make Mary’s voice loud enough that it could  e heard by Touched across the city.

LAVINIA BIDLOW: We need to get those fliers taken down.

They could be all over London.

DÉSIREÉ BLODGETT: What did they do to the girls?

CAPTIVE: Experiments.

AMALIA: We need to know everything they’ve been doing.

Oh! Who are you?

LORD GILBERT MASSEN: The Order is to eliminate Maladie.

Maladie has done us a favor.

She turned sentiment against the Touched.

AMALIA: We’re being attacked, locked up, and thrown in the street.

We have enemies you don’t know about yet.

(FAINT SCREAMING)

PENANCE: The Touched, they’ll all come to us.

They’ll be safe.

(church bell tolling)

(indistinct chatter)

(hooves clopping)

(church bell continues)

(somber music playing)

Mourners: ♪ Now the laborer’s task is o’er ♪

♪ Now the battle day is past ♪

♪ Now upon the farther shore ♪

♪ Lands the voyager at last ♪

♪ Father, in thy gracious keeping ♪

♪ Leave we now ♪

♪ Thy servant sleeping ♪

♪ There the tears of Earth are dried… ♪

Down!

♪ There it’s hidden things are clear ♪

♪ There the work of life is tried ♪

♪ By a juster judge than here ♪

♪ There the penitents that turn ♪

♪ To the cross their dying eyes ♪

♪ All the love of Jesus learn ♪

♪ At his feet in paradise ♪

♪ Father, in thy gracious keeping ♪

♪ Leave we now thy servant sleeping… ♪

Witches!

Freaks!

Why don’t we drown you all? Ha, ha!

Good riddance!

Drown her! Let’s see if she floats!

Vile creatures!

Go on, piss off!

Please, Inspector. Not now.

Not here.

You’re under arrest.

Come on, you two.

There we go…

I know your loss is greater than any of us can even…

Where the fuck is she?

Where’s the lady who can see the future?

(lively fiddle music playing)

(loud thud)

(lively chatter)

(music distorts)

(muffled chatter)

(panting)

(muffled music continues)

A kiss for a pint. That was the deal.

I am a woman of my word.

Kiss for a pint.

(music stops)

Oh, no, you fucking don’t…

(violin crashes)

(crowd exclaiming)

(grunts)

(thwacks)

(grunts)

(grunting)

(clatters)

I’m gonna need you in a minute.

(crowd clamoring)

(indistinct chatter)

Who speaks for these men?

Him, m’lord.

Jacobs.

The men learnt there are explosives among the cargo here.

They feel they’re due higher wages for handling them.

(clatters, clangs)

Who here knows what this is?

Well, that’s a shell, sir.

Loaded with cordite. Ready for the war.

Top marks.

It’s good for blowing up the enemy, and for saving our lads.

That’s who you’re holding hostage here. Your brothers.

That doesn’t change the facts…

(workers yelling)

Worker: Jesus!

(workers chattering)

If they were unstable, we would simply roll them over the line, wouldn’t we?

You men are seeking a grievance.

The docks are full of men who care about our troops, and foreigners who care about nothing.

I can fill your jobs in an hour!

Get back to work, and I will forget this happened.

No repercussions.

You won’t be docked for this stoppage.

It’s very generous.

Go on. Go on. Back to work.

Go on. Go on.

Next time, come and talk to me as individuals.

To band together when you could stand alone?

I expect more courage from Englishmen.

They’re taking the carrot, my lord.

They’re mouthing the carrot.

They spit it back out, we’ll use the stick.

(indistinct chatter)

I thought Aneel was with you.

He had to get back to school.

I mean, he gets to.

If you’re up to it, I need a favor.

(shattering)

The new folk, there’s rumors one or two have outstanding warrants.

Petty charges, likely cooked up.

Oh. It should mostly just be fines, I imagine.

Some of them might not technically be citizens.

They don’t all speak English, so it’s hard to tell.

(clinking)

I don’t know if that matters, but I’ll find out.

You’re a daisy.

I’d rather be a barrister.

Then I could prosecute the men…

I don’t see how, though.

I can’t even apply to Aneel’s school.

How are we ever gonna see justice if we’re not a part of justice?

All I can see my way through is a grape.

(clinking)

You know you’re gonna have to clean up those shards, right?

Yeah.

(footsteps approaching)

So, is this what we can expect?

A leader who doesn’t lead?

Are you looking to fill that position?

(scoffs) She does have the nicest room.

You know True should have been there.

I’ve shown more respect for Mary, and I’m her kidnapper.

Amalia misses the point of things, as often as not.

But if that chair is warm when she sits in it, she’ll know why.

You don’t think I can best her?

I don’t think you want her job.

(liquid pouring)

It’s very draining.

Did you see anyone out of place at the funeral?

Not Maladie. None of the gang.

Beggar King sent a wreath.

The great big one?

She lost a friend.

She didn’t win the Derby.

Big one wasn’t signed.

Couple of Purists making a fuss.

You probably saw.

The pink rags.

Purists all have them.

So they have a name now?

Christ preserve us.

Thought that was my job.

We don’t want more violence.

This is London, Doctor.

There’s always more.

I still don’t see how you can go from working for Maladie… to being here with Amalia.

You really think they’re that different?

(door opens)

Penance: True still not back?

I swear to Jesus, I would…

Have you not finished discussing my faults?

Come on, Penance. Jesus awaits.

He already knows what I was gonna say, and I’ll add a few Hail Marys for that later.

Frank Mundi’ll owe a few himself, poor man.

Maladie didn’t show at the funeral.

Can you believe the rudeness of that woman?

It’d be madness to show, and not her kind.

The papers that bothered to report on the shootin’ are all blamin’ her, and we don’t know that we shouldn’t be.

I still thought she might go.

So why didn’t you?

The man who tried to drown me is Nicholas Perbal.

Ach. That brute?

The blasphemy of walking on water for the purpose of murder…

He’s called Odium.

Not by his dear Granny Perbal, who owns a snug little attic somewhere in the narrows.

Beggar King’s man says he’s convalescing, likely at Gran’s.

Do violins cost a lot?

The two attacks could be unrelated, you and Mary.

Lot of people don’t like you, I’m told.

I know. (sighs)

(rumbling) -Lord Massen: …a casualty of war…

(gasps)

(exhales) I need a bath.

Tell Lucy we’re meeting in an hour.

Start listing suspects.

But she’s broken up worst of all the girls.

Amalia: We’ll take her mind off it.

It’s all hands on deck, and she has the best hands in the group.

In the meantime…

Make yourself comfortable.

(footsteps departing)

(scoffs)

(imitating Penance): Ah, True, sure and you should’ve been at the service.

You’re a bitter poor example to the girls.

(imitating Amalia): But I’m so tough and mean, and I hate sentiment.

And also people. And myself.

(imitating Penance): Ah, Lord, Mary Brighton trusted you, and you failed her.

(normal voice): Is that what you think?

(normal voice): I think the longer we wait to find the killer, the greater the chance we never do.

Mary doesn’t need me crying over her corpse.

True, I can’t imagine how many funerals you’ve been to, but…

None. We don’t do that when I’m from.

We don’t have enough time and we don’t have enough ground.

You know better than anyone what pain does when you don’t make time for it.

All time does is run out.

I was left here, completely alone, with nothing but a mission I was never actually given.

No orders, no objectives…

They left me here and they fucked right off.

Maybe they died. Who cares? I’m here…

where a woman can be killed just for having a voice, which will be the world’s fucking epitaph

if I can’t do something other than make it worse.

I know your burdens, True. But is vengeance going to make the world better?

If we… if we find out who took away our Mary, I have a worry as to your next course of action, because the rest of us, we had a chance to say goodbye…

To remember the goodness of her heart, and not just the unfairness of her being taken.

You keep saying taken instead of murdered. Mary was murdered.

I was there, True.

So was the man with the gun.

He was set up before we got there.

So stop worrying about who wasn’t at the funeral, and start asking who wasn’t at that park.

You don’t mean one of us.

Amalia: Well, I know it wasn’t me.

(distant sobbing)

(thuds)

Primrose: Myrtle?

Do you want to talk?

(sniffles)

(speaks foreign languages)

(clattering)

(sobs softly)

May I see?

Oh, Myrtle.

This is so…

(paper rustling)

You… heard her?

You wish you could hear her.

(speaks foreign languages)

(speaks foreign languages)

You want to learn to read?

(speaks foreign languages)

Mary sang to you.

To… I’m trying.

Mary sang to you.

(sighs)

To this person.

About this person? (sighs)

When Mary sang, you heard…

Words.

Language.

Mary was telling us something, and you understood it.

Was it something nice?

(bird cawing)

(typewriter keys clacking)

(indistinct chatter)

So now you’re after our jobs as well?

What angle are you pursuing?

Hemlines of the deceased?

I have every right to be here.

(chuckles)

No, you fuckin’ don’t.

Lovely. Now I’ve had gin for breakfast, too.

Inky fingers don’t make you a reporter, Boyle.

Inspector Mundi.

Why are those Purists being detained?

Is there a connection between them and Miss Brighton’s death?

Or was it your detail’s failure to catch Maladie?

Is Mary another of her messages?

That story’s been told.

I don’t believe it has.

I think there is something much larger at work than one maniac.

Have you got information I can use, Miss…?

Boyle. Effie Boyle from “The Sentinel,” and, well, nothing yet.

But I do know the Touched are being vilified in the press, often for no reason.

It was a Touched that killed Mary Brighton.

You learn more than that, come calling.

(scoffs)

Birch: So you just happened by Mary Brighton’s funeral.

Nobody told you about the service.

We were out walking.

(Birch scoffs)

You live in the south end, work at Marster’s Mill.

That’s four miles out of your way.

We’s peripatetic.

Look, I told you…

Tell me.

We were walking.

And you stopped to yell obscenities at a grieving family.

You’re already going to jail.

(scoffs) You can’t put us in for expressing ourselves.

No. No, I’m putting you in for assaulting a police officer.

(chuckles)

Well, I like that plan.

Enter the Ape…

The Ape? Wait. The boxer?

The East End Ape?

Is that… Is that Frank Mundi?

Inspector Mundi.

Whew. No. You’re all right.

Purist 2: Look, a couple of guys in suits approached us at a Purist meeting, all right?

I don’t know the guy who said go, but… he gave us this.

Said they were burying a Touched with decent folk, and we should call ’em out.

(distant indistinct chatter)

Harriet: Great, that’s 6:00 in the main dormitory downstairs.

Thank you.

That’s another two, so we can…

Hi. Sorry, are you new to The Orphanage?

Okay, do you speak any languages or dialects?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah? What are they?

Cops, the church, the Purists… and our masked freaks.

There’s no shortage of people who hate us.

But only a few are powerful or inventive enough to have gotten Kroos out of prison undetected.

Horatio: Maladie?

Amalia: Kroos was her man.

And she’s still got a network.

They found Horatio easily enough.

Gilbert Massen?

What, Lord Massen?

The Great White Hunter.

Oh, he’s a piece of work.

I got chums in his factory talkin’ about a strike, cause he pays a pittance!

And it’s dangerous.

It’s bombs and the like they’re handlin’.

But it’s a fine fuck-thee-well if you’re injured.

He’d stick your head on his wall for a trophy ‘fore he’d give you thruppence to feed your kids.

Oh…

I’ve gone all political. Sorry.

No, it was quite rousing.

(door opens)

Horatio, Lucy, and Penance: No.

(door closes)

Right. So…

The Beggar King.

Lucy: A bit public for him.

Horatio: But he runs Odium, and since we have a hard-won lead on his address…

I’ll take it. I know the area.

If Mrs. True isn’t looking for a rematch.

No. I’m going to talk to Massen. Alone.

Lucy: You sure that’s the way to go?

He’s hardly gonna fall into…

No, I mean, I’m going to.

Sometime today. I’ve already seen it.

Wasn’t sure where I was at first, but… or will be.

Wait, does… does that mean Massen killed Mary?

Did the ripplings tell you that?

They tell me I don’t get to plan my own day.

They’re not treasure maps.

I’ll learn something, I’m sure, but…

Penance: And once you have?

I mean, if you get something in the way of, uh, “he did it.”

Then I will bring that information back here.

I’m not planning to attack a Peer of the Realm inside his well-guarded house.

Hmm, sure, but what you mean to happen and what actually happens in the thick of it…

It’s not just you, True.

Everyone has to keep their heads.

Mary’s death needs to be answered, and not with another death.

And it’s not just about what’s right.

We’re hated right now.

Our first response cannot be hate.

We’ll be lined up in the streets.

And they may have killed Mary exactly for that purpose.

Make us do something they can rain hell on us for.

See? Annie agrees, and she’s terrible.

And so do I.

Good.

Level heads.

All right. Augustus Bidlow?

Yeah, we should murder him.

Lucy: I’m with Penance. That party they thrown, seeing how he treated her,

I nearly pulled off me gloves.

Lavinia Bidlow, as well.

Or are you just writing down people you know?

Amalia told her we were going to the park.

Amalia: And she knew where I’d be coming from.

Lucy: Still, she might be a bit over-puckered, but she’s the reason we’ve got all this.

Mm-hmm. The family that sponsored my medical training…

That brought me from Jamaica to England…

A week in their house, and I almost swam back.

I’ve been left for dead by men with less contempt.

Now, Miss Bidlow, she means well, and I know she does good work for the Touched, but it doesn’t make her a friend.

So she goes on the list with her terrible, bird-watching brother.

He’s the ringleader. You know he…

Likes… birds.

Birds are stupid.

And it’s high time you told him that.

What? Go and talk… No!

I should do Annie’s.

Track an assassin?

Come on, Pen, you can give Bidlow the old parasol.

(knocking on door) -Lucy, Penance, and Horatio: No!

Oh.

Sorry.

Doctor Cousens, we got a few peaky ones down there.

How are you holding up?

Oh, well,

my Nigel doesn’t really understand what’s going on.

But I’m keeping my chins up. (laughs)

Sometimes pretending you feel good makes you feel better.

Trust me.

Horatio: All right.

Let’s see to those patients.

Don’t do anything rash.

I won’t.

I was talking to Penance.

(laughs)

(door closes) -Annie: Shouldn’t you take Désirée with you to Massen’s?

Amalia: I should.

But I don’t.

(soft music playing)

(indistinct chatter)

(chuckles) That’s a pungent gambit, Tommy.

(grunting)

Frank.

Frank!

(grunts)

(yells)

You’ve been mixing with the Purists.

Stirring them up.

Did you want to scare the Touched, so you could tell ’em they was only safe with you?

Uh, first of all, who…

(cracks)

Who are the fucking Purists?

(clatters)

That’s not mine.

You really think I’d be handing out personalized evidence?

Butler: Master Swann.

Any assistance required?

Uh, no, thank you. Uh…

Just a bit of sport. We’ll keep quiet.

Butler: This is a members only establishment.

And you need to fuck off. Please.

Uh, yes, uh, do fuck off. There’s a lad.

(door closes)

Look. Think about this.

If they’d said it was Lord Such-and-What, you’d be gathering evidence. Having him followed.

Behaving like a detective.

Someone pointed you and pulled your trigger.

It’s no secret that you loathe me.

That don’t mean you’re innocent.

(laughs) When… When have I ever claimed…

Wait. Are you talking about the shooting?

I’m not a murderer.

I had nothing against Mary.

She was a rival.

I think you know she wasn’t.

Look, I… I will provide you with my whereabouts.

I wanted to learn about Amalia True, and what I’ve learned is stay away.

I am not a part of this.

‘Course you are.

And if it ain’t you, it’s one of them toffs you play chess with.

Oh, uh, actually we call it cheese because we…

It’s rich men grinding up them who’s helpless for extra penny on the pound, or, or the rights to a patch of sand. Or a fuck.

Are we done?

Oh, we’re done, Swann.

Across the board.

And our little arrangement, my debt, is done.

Cause I got something over you now.

I don’t fucking care.

Harriet: Translators.

Aneel (on phone): Bring Klaus?

Yes, bring Klaus. Anyone who speaks another language, or who studied a dead language really well.

I’ve only got law Latin.

(indistinct chatter over phone)

Oh, it’s trouble.

Well, you can sneak out for a kiss anytime, but not when I need your help?

Aneel, you know I wouldn’t ask…

No, of course, I’ll do it.

Thank you. I love you. Yeah. Six o’clock.

(cawing)

Mr. Bidlow.

Oh.

Miss Adair.

Uh, what are you…

Uh, so, does Lavinia know you’re here?

I know very well that I’m not welcome here.

No, you are. You are. It’s, it’s…

It’s wonderful to…

Did, did anybody see you?

You seem a bit nervous.

Well, I mean, I usually am, but, but you’re well? No, Lord, no.

No, of course. I’m so sorry. Um…

May I offer my most sincere condolences about Miss Brighton?

She wouldn’t have been entertaining to your friends, so you needn’t grieve overly.

Lavinia made me do it.

She, she, she said it would be bad for you.

Bad for me?

Yes, that’s why I did it.

She said if I didn’t, that there would be cons…

Wait.

Wait, it wa… It was bad.

So, how is it bad?

Are you making a joke of this?

You can’t, you can’t p… Possibly have had any deep, emotional conn… connection to…

Oh, no, I’m saying, I’m saying this all wrong.

I’m saying it wrong.

I thought it was the gentlemanly thing to do.

Murder?

I’m sorry, what?

Oh, you are a monster.

And you’re gonna go to prison.

I don’t care how rich you are.

What’s happening?

What’s happening? I don’t know what’s happening.

You just confessed to the murder of Mary Brighton, and I made a wax recording of it.

(hissing)

(clacking, sparking)

Ugh.

Fuckin’ prototype.

Miss Adair.

You are a terrible person!

Yes, I know. I know!

But I… I didn’t kill Miss… Can I…

Uh, I’m fine.

I was referring to the party.

It’s my… awful…

I was just abominably rude.

And I’ve barely slept since.

When I heard what happened, I wanted to reach out to you in your grief, and it just… it seemed… It seemed opportunistic, or…

You, you didn’t kill Mary?

Is… is that bad? Um, it’s…

Of course you didn’t.

You’re as gentle as a blush.

But you’re still terrible.

Yeah.

Tell me just anything that I can do to make amends.

I cried, which seems petty now to think about, but… I don’t… I don’t have a lot of experience with men.

Certainly not of your class, which from what I’ve seen…

No, nobody is quite as barbaric as the well-to-do.

Your Lucy had me figured out.

Miss Adair, I would give anything if you would erase that day from your mind.

That’s not how it works.

No.

No.

Nor should it be.

Remember my transgressions, so that I may re-earn your trust honestly, over time.

If we are…

If we are to be acquainted, I shall endeavor…

No, no, no, no! Damn acquaintance.

Acquaintance is exhausting. I just…

I want to be your friend, Miss Adair.

I want… I want to become your friend.

You sent the flowers for Mary.

Was the wreath too much? It was, it was garish.

No.

Do you think your sister did the murder then?

What?

(grunting)

(screaming)

(thuds)

(grunts)

(yelling)

I was only askin’.

Nimble: Maybe it’s your tone of voice.

How’d you get there?

I’m Nimble.

No, I’m Nimble, as in, “How do you do? Nimble Jack.

But my friends all call me…”

You didn’t answer my question.

Well, I’m wondering what a sweet thing like you is doing ’round here.

I’m from around here.

They don’t seem to remember you.

No, they did.

What do you want?

A drink, maybe.

Light supper? Three Vicars does a nice eel pie.

Private room.

(flames roaring)

Too fast?

You work for the Beggar King.

Nimble: With.

On occasion.

One of his gang plays the fiddle.

Gave up an address to a belligerent widow.

Fiddler said he tried to fight, but… she got him pinned, and squeezed it out of him.

Poor Declan. He really can’t find decent help.

Which is why he’d prefer you don’t kill Odium.

(scoffs) Yeah.

Nimble: This wasn’t the King’s work. Come on.

Maladie’s man shoots the Brighton girl.

Beggar King’s chief enforcer goes after the widow.

Someone’s puttin’ on a show.

I need more than “someone.”

Odium knows fuck all.

He’s dim, bless him, and he’s in for another thrashing.

But he’s necessary to keep the peace.

Keep appearances.

Leave Odium be, and the opium you torched is bygones.

Friends.

Or… common enemy.

Thug: Where is she?

This lot, he doesn’t care about.

(thugs yelling)

Seems like they all remember you.

Just keep your head down.

Never have, never will.

(men shouting)

(shouting continues)

(flames roaring)

Thank you for seeing me.

The Bidlows are old friends.

Lavinia and I may not see eye-to-eye on everything, but she doesn’t waste her time with trifling people.

I think she regards you quite highly.

I owe her a great deal. Everyone at The Orphanage does.

Forgive me. I did read about your girl, Miss Brighton.

I suspect you’ve had all the condolences you have room for, so may I offer you a sherry?

Bit early, but…

And may I also offer a conjecture?

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’m going to have to disappoint you, I’m afraid.

No one at the club is vying for credit either, though I will keep an ear out.

Appreciated.

But, what I could really use is your perspective, as a military man and a powerful member of the established order.

Whoever did have Mary Brighton killed was making a public statement.

Like stepping on stage and murdering six people.

A different message.

The same messenger.

That gunman, Kroos.

Well, he’s taken care of.

Shame.

He might have talked.

You killed her. Let’s say.

If you’ll indulge me, I’ve found this a useful exercise.

Let’s assume it wasn’t Maladie or an erstwhile lover, but someone with a broader view.

You’ll take the part of the mastermind behind Mary’s death.

And you’ll be the irate inspector?

I’ll be Mary.

Why would you want me dead?

I doubt that I do.

I’m not entirely clear what your “turn” is.

A beacon of some sort?

Anyway benign, and you’re an inoffensive woman.

No history of radicalism, I assume.

So why me?

Why not kill that widow, Mrs. True?

She’s a willful creature, and the leader of this motley coven.

Which means she must have enemies.

Her death might be tragic, but perhaps not unexpected.

You, on the other hand, are a pure and blameless woman.

And all in white, no less.

A statuesque beauty with a mass of auburn hair and great shining eyes…

Christ, I’m not just a beacon.

I genuinely resemble a lighthouse.

It isn’t just a warning.

It’s about hope.

It’s about pulling the heart out of the orphans.

I would think so.

In fact, I would say, Miss Brighton, that you are a casualty of war.

So we’re at war.

A few years back, a pestilence ran through this city.

Some anarchic cabal found or developed a power that mocks God.

That molests and disfigures His natural law.

(inhales)

It was an attack on the stability, the harmony, if you will, of the empire.

And we must show the victims of this deliberate plague that they are not special. They are not a community.

Victims is all they have license to be.

If I am your killer revealed, behold the lion, Great Britain.

An empire unparalleled and unmerciful in its self-preservation.

My enemy is England.

Well, that narrows it down. Thank God I came.

I said your killer.

Your enemy, Miss Brighton, is the scum who caused this plague,

the fools who call it power, and the woman who should have known what would happen to you in that park.

Unless, of course, she did.

So, he confessed without confessing.

It was honestly impressive.

I should have worn your recording frame.

But he didn’t give up his source.

He never flat-out said.

Even if we had proof, Massen knows we couldn’t touch him.

I could touch him.

Oh, please tell me we’re not havin’ this talk again.

No. Even if he gave the order, he’s part of something much bigger.

Pull out one piece, it would be replaced in a day.

And damn it, it’s wrong.

He’s a human being who’s alive, damn it.

We still need a response.

If we let murder slide, it will only slide down.

Whatever’s next will be worse.

Even I know that’s true.

Well, some of the lads say he has a warehouse full of munitions we could torch.

Hmm.

I don’t think there’s anyone in there at night.

Amalia: He deserves much worse, but it would be a start.

All in favor?

Birch: You fuckin’ idiot.

You might as well have marched in the House of Lords and had a slash!

Superintendent’s had an earful.

I was pursuing a lead.

Unless Maladie was havin’ tea in that club, Superintendent don’t want to hear it.

Superintendent: Mundi! Get in here!

(phone ringing)

It’ll be fine.

Can I have your desk?

You can cop a mouse.

(breathing heavily)

Maladie: Shh… shh…

Let him go.

But he lies about me.

He’ll stop.

And, and he’ll resign, and, and he’ll never bother you again…

Oh, now you’re lying! I heard you wouldn’t.

And, whoa, the papers!

They say I killed Mary. They call me crazy.

I never did it.

I only kill angels. Mostly.

I liked Mary so much.

She was gonna be my pet, and sleep on my belly.

You were gonna hang her.

Well, we had a lot of plans.

(grunts)

She talked about the detective who was smart, and honest.

And she didn’t marry him because he was sad.

For Mary’s sake, will you…

Will you let him live?

Oh, she doesn’t have a sake, love.

She’s dead. She’s all cold in that box.

Everyone crying as they lowered it in the hole, singin’ about the workday, and what.

Y… You were there?

Of course. (panting)

I was in the box.

I had a little cuddle.

But she smelled different.

And I will not believe that was her favorite dress.

What do you want?

I want everyone to stop lying.

Can you see to that?

I will try.

I have to think about my reputation. (pants)

Things never come back when they go away.

Ha!

Frank: In here! Now!

Oh, Christ.

(thuds)

(grunts)

Oh, no!

That’s a form of lying!

(Maladie screams)

(screams, giggles)

No!

(Maladie yells)

(Frank grunts)

(grunting, yelling)

(smashing)

(grunting, yelling)

(groaning)

(panting)

(panting)

(running footsteps approaching)

Mundi.

Fuck, it’s her! It’s Maladie!

He fucking got her!

Officer: Right. Not so scary now…

(yelling)

Frank: All right.

(knife clatters)

Hey.

Justice.

She gets justice from us.

I’ll have badge and balls off any man who tries that.

She gets justice from us.

Okay, everybody.

Ready?

Translator: Okay.

Harriet: Right. Myrtle?

Nice and loud.

(speaks foreign languages)

Myrtle.

A little slower.

Uh…

(speaks foreign languages)

(translators murmuring)

Again?

Um, uh…

(speaks foreign languages)

Cook: (speaks foreign language) I know it!

(speaks foreign language) The darkness.

Dark. Um, uh, before the dark?

Uh, come before the dark.

Sí, sí.

Was that near the end?

(chuckles softly)

Again.

(speaks foreign languages)

(vibrates, shatters)

(indistinct chatter)

My mate said the warehouse… Yeah.

It’s that one.

And the entrance is on the far side.

And that lot?

I promised Penance.

Because it’s your turn again!

No, it ain’t my turn to get the cup.

I always got to get the cup.

Just do what you’re told, all right?

If the foreman finds out we’ve left…

(music box tune playing)

Do you hear that?

(clattering)

(music box tune continues)

Bloody hell. What the blazes is that?

(steam hissing)

(all coughing)

(thudding)

(groaning)

Annie: Do you ever think maybe Penance is frightening?

And what were you gonna do? Hand ’em a daisy?

Stay outside.

I’m the one with the fire.

And we need to make sure no one goes up in it.

Your funeral.

No one.

Looks good.

Due to ship out at dawn.

I’d like to see his face.

Let’s open a couple. Make sure we have the right shipment.

You sure the guards are still sleepin’?

We have time.

Yeah. No, I just have that… that feeling.

Lucy.

Open the crate.

Well, now we know why the war isn’t going better.

They swore they were weapons, True.

They must be workin’ for…

(sighs)

How’d you cop it?

It was the rippling.

Your talk of Massen’s hunting. His trophies.

You’d have to have been in his study to call that up.

I might have missed it if I hadn’t seen it twice.

My clapper of a mouth.

And then this perfectly convenient plan.

Warehouse of munitions no one’s really guarding?

Christ, it was all already there.

The questions, the absences, the money you swore you didn’t steal so we’d assume you did.

I figured that’d get a bit tired.

You clean my study, but you can’t make your own bed. I am such an idiot.

I didn’t know what they was plannin’ for Mary.

I swear.

What else would they have ever done, after you told them Mary was a beacon?

What do you want, True?

I want it to be someone else!

I want it to be Harriet, or Jo.

Or the one who does, she… Helen.

Maud.

The one who does the cartwheels. Fuck!

You were the first woman, the first woman to walk through those doors!

The one I could lean on instead of protecting, that understood the world the way that I do.

You don’t know fuck about the world.

All your war stories.

You don’t know which war. Oh, oh, it’s awful.

‘Cause you’ve left bodies on the field, and you’re all damaged.

I broke my son to pieces.

I held my baby, and it killed him.

And it wasn’t sudden like I said.

The breaks, they were sudden.

But he… he held on.

And he screamed.

He screamed longer than I did pushin’ him out… ‘fore his heart gave.

So you tell me, are we sisters?

It’s been three years since I’ve touched another person.

And Massen, he says he’ll find a cure.

Of course he tells you that.

And what are you telling us?

A better world?

How many of your precious orphans would be lining up to be free of your better world if they had half a chance?

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

I don’t know what happened.

How do you know how it’s supposed to be?

Did you do this?

Did you make this nightmare?

I just got left behind.

‘Course you got left behind. What good are you?

You, a leader?

You’re out whoring when your girls need…

Your boss told me today that we’re at war.

I didn’t start it.

I didn’t even volunteer. But he’s right.

I hope he told you what happens to spies during wartime.

Is that what this is?

There’s rules of engagement.

And not just you needing to take your failure out on someone.

(gun cocks)

You think Penance will forgive you for this?

You think Mary would?

And that’s where you lose me.

(grunts)

(fires)

(shattering)

(rumbling)

(shattering)

(yells)

(grunting, yelling)

(yells)

(grunting)

(punching)

(rumbling, cracking)

(both groaning)

(panting)

(gun cocks)

(groans)

You’re finished in London. Forever.

Annie and I will put you on a boat and you’ll stay on it until you’re well and fucking gone.

And you’ll tell me everything you know.

Everything. Yes?

Where are the real munitions?

(explosions)

Massen: A fire? Oh, no!

Foreman (over phone): It’s everywhere.

How?

My men were just doing the rounds.

Everything exploded, and it was, it was chaos!

Was anyone at the factory harmed?

(muffled chatter over phone)

No, it was the factory, the…

Foreman (over phone): Luckily no one was hurt.

(muffled chatter over phone)

The Paul Street storage building.

I see.

(receiver dings in cradle)

Maladie: This wasn’t the plan.

Well, it was your plan, wasn’t it?

(sobbing)

I’m just your instrument.

I’ve always been your instrument.

Why won’t you play me?

Why?

I still can’t make sense of it.

Lucy.

We should have seen it a long time ago.

I just hope she’s the only one.

Losing her the same day we buried M…

Anyway, I’m grateful you spared her life.

I didn’t.

You did.

That idiotic pin.

She could have gotten away, but she wouldn’t leave without it.

That was always my plan, of course.

She said I had no idea what anyone is going through here.

I hate that she’s right.

But I can’t… get close to them.

Lucy’s proof of that.

She shows her face in London again though, it’ll take more than a piece of jewelry to save her.

So, um, a bigger piece of jewelry?

A belt, maybe, or a hat?

True, I can’t make her a whole outfit.

You are the strangest person I’ve ever met.

It’s why you’re the one I trust.

Augie Bidlow’s Touched.

Birds. He sort of controls them.

I’ll be damned.

Do you think that’s why Lavinia took up the cause?

He’s certain she doesn’t know.

I think he’s afraid to tell her.

But he’s not afraid to tell you.

(door opens)

You’re here!

They’re here!

We are here.

You won’t believe it.

Myrtle, what’s wrong?

Primrose: No, it’s not wrong at all.

Harriet, tell them. It was mostly Harriet that worked it out.

I helped with the French, though.

Harriet, please.

I’m sorry, it… I don’t want to say it wrong.

And it, it wasn’t me. It was Myrtle.

(speaks foreign languages)

Myrtle understood Mary’s song. Mostly.

Even Mary didn’t know what her songs meant…

She always said.

Some of it was more about emotion than…

Or emotion plus semantics, but she remembered a lot. She just didn’t know how to tell us.

Myrtle.

What did she say?

Uh, she said, “You’re not alone.”

Well, I think we could all feel that…

You, Mrs. True.

She said it to you.

She said, “Amalia, my lonely soldier.”

Um, something about wearing stripes.

But that part…

But she said, “I didn’t leave you.

“I went into, in-inside the city.

I was damaged…” uh, “incomplete?

“I had to heal.

Soon we will all be ready…”

Oh, that part was me.

“But it’s dark. There’s a darkness.”

She said to-to everyone, all of us, to gather, and protect each other.

(sobs)

Because of the dark.

(sobs)

(sobbing continues)

And was there more?

Uh, “Find me.

“Let them help, those who will, but come below and find me.”

Um…

“Come before the dark, and we can save…”

It ended there. That’s when…

Those aren’t Mary’s words, are they?

That was someone else talking through her.

That’s right.

Then who?

Who do we need to find?

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

Maladie is the worst killer in London’s history.

This is a case where justice must be seen.

(CHAINS RATTLE)

There is a concern about enflaming the Touched.

SPEAKER: We keep the Touched accountable, visible.

If London is going to be safe from chaos, it needs to see chaos.

What I want from you is just… enough.

We all have a soul, no matter what viciousness people are spewing.

(CROWD SCREAMS)

Let the world see, the Touched are not here to be slaughtered for show.

(CROWD SHOUTING)

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

Amalia, before this Massen scene, has had a ripple that tells her that she will be at his estate.

PENANCE ADAIR: Mary’s death needs to be answered, and not with another death.

I’m going to talk to Massen, alone.

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

The confrontation scene between Amalia and Massen is really interesting.

You think that I had something to do with your friend’s death?

Did you? It would save me such a lot of time.

PIP TORRENS: We flipped roles, and he uncharacteristically, as you would think, simply goes along with it.

You’ll take the part of the mastermind behind Mary’s death.

And you’ll be the irate inspector?

I’ll be Mary.

TORRENS: You wouldn’t have thought that would happen in a conventional 1899 drama with conventional gender stereotypes.

These people are roleplaying in a way that’s really very modern, as a way of trying to find the truth of the situation.

But an amazing scene to shoot because it’s just so ambivalent and ambiguous the whole time, and wonderful to get, you know, toe to toe with Laura in that scene.

That was my favorite day, I think, really, so far.

It was great having that scene with him, and also seeing that it’s kind of two adversaries, but nobody saying anything in clear and plain language.

If I am your killer revealed, behold the liar of Great Britain, an empire unparalleled and… unmerciful in its self-preservation.

LAURA DONNELLY: Filming at Knebworth is incredible, because it’s this huge Gothic Tudor building with so much history.

And it seems fitting that something that solid and powerful has a man who would be that solid and powerful.

So, it very much embodies Massen’s spirit.

Knebworth has these extraordinary gates with vast great dragons on them.

So, the exterior is fantastic, but the inside’s lovely as well.

TINA JONES: When you look at old Victorian photographs, to any of the interiors of Victorian prominent gentlemen, you would find a lot of them would have hunting trophies, and things on the wall.

To do the interior of Massen’s estate, you’re looking at maybe not antiques and furniture from that Victorian period, because they would often have them maybe 50 or 100 years earlier.

So, you’re looking at really fine antiques.

DONNELLY: Amalia notices all his hunting trophies, and his armor…

It speaks to his power, I think.

MICHELE CLAPTON: I suppose you can say Massen is a villain.

In modern day, he looks like a villain in his black and his high collar.

Actually, that was just what men wore then.

I love the way the men have to hold their head with these incredibly high collars sometimes.

What I really enjoy is, as a costume develops, you see the character emerge.

Particularly Amalia, with the corset.

It was incredibly important that she would really want to be controlled and precise.

Some anarchic cabal found or developed a power that mocks God.

It was an attack on the empire.

So we’re at war.

Massen doesn’t believe that the Touched represent progress of any good kind.

He is the living, breathing embodiment of the patriarchy, and power as it exists in that society.

Massen embodies that empire and the values of that empire, and if that means people being sacrificed, then that’s the way it’s gonna go.

Massen, I suppose, is fundamentally a bad guy, in that he’s about destroying the Touched.

We always ask ourselves about villains, “How do they get to be like this?”

With Massen, he lost his wife young, and now he’s lost a child.

So, that makes him rather compelling.

If you have a personal tragedy, all that does is fortify your allegiance to the larger force.

So, the larger British Empire for Massen.

DONNELLY: There’s a regular power play between Massen and Amalia.

He’s the old power, she represents the new power, and neither one of them is gonna give that up easily.

So, I think she comes out of there feeling frustrated… and angry.

So he confessed without confessing?

It was honestly impressive.

DONNELLY: Amalia is looking for how she is supposed to be moving forward, but she really is quite lost.

I was left here completely alone with nothing but a mission I was never actually given.

DONNELLY: She is learning where to find  the information that she needs, and the thing that… really sets that in motion, first of all, of course, is…

Is hearing Mary’s song.

Myrtle’s turn is she can speak every language, she can understand every language.

So she does understand everything Mary’s saying.

And she also knows she cannot say what it means.

She can’t communicate that with anyone.

And she knows that this is life-changing for everyone around her.

When Mary sang, you heard words, language.

Primrose and Harriet kind of seize this opportunity.

She’s trying to communicate with us what she heard Mary sing.

We tried really hard to include as many as we could.

You know, Asian languages, Afro languages, European languages.

It was a little bit dictated by… what contacts we had.

(SPEAKING IN PORTUGUESE)

Viola is a remarkable person, because she’s so good at picking up the sounds and the rhythms of a language, and the tune of a language.

She kind of absorbs that very, very quickly.

(SPEAKS ITALIAN THEN DUTCH)

Myrtle…

A little slower.

But I think we both felt we want to do justice here, if we’re going to use a bit of Afrikaans, if we’re going to use a bit of Dutch, or Turkish, or whatever it is, we want to try and do that justice.

(SPEAKING IN ITALIAN)

So, I put out an email to the whole crew.

The response was phenomenal! Loads of people got involved, and translated pieces of script for us.

We had something like 30, 40 languages.

I just thought it was fantastic.

It was really joyous, this coming together.

VIOLA PRETTEJOHN: It’s sadly quite unusual in the world for so many different cultures to come together and help each other.

We had some very, very interesting debates, you know. I’d say, “Oh, um, can you say, ‘Because of the darkness, ‘” and people would say, “When you say ‘darkness’, what do you mean?

Do you mean total black? Do you mean night-time?”

SPEAKER: I know it. “Darkness.”

SPEAKER 2: “Dark…”

And, um, “before the dark?”

Uh, “Come before the dark.”

Si!

That’s so incredible, that we’re going into this detail.

And you suddenly realize that English has some words that cover some things, but other languages have amazing words.

KIRAN SAWAR: It’s just really exciting, ’cause it’s the coming together of a lot of different people who speak a lot of different languages, and can’t necessarily communicate with one another clearly, but still have the ability to do it, regardless.

DONNELLY: They were able to find out what Mary’s song meant, so that’s finally a message.

What did she say?

She said, “You’re not alone.” She said it to you, Mrs. True.

And “There’s a darkness.” She said to everyone, all of us.

So, it’s really just a kind of blind scrape through the dark to get where she needs to get, in the hope that there is some light at the end of that.

Was there more?

“Find me.”

Who do we need to find?

♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪

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