The Nevers review, Episode 4: “Undertaking”

The latest episode of The Nevers gives us powerful revelations, sharp humor, super-powered battles, and so much energy it almost trips over itself.

The Nevers is a show that rewards close watching. From the sets to the costumes to the dialog, it all feels hand-crafted. The dialog especially is full of whips, turns, twists and callbacks. For instance, Amalia spends Mary Brighton’s funeral getting drunk and violent at a bar, at one point smashing a dude’s violin over a guy’s head. Later, she meets with her lieutenants about finding Mary’s killer and lists off a bunch of problems they’re facing, ending with, “Do violins cost a lot?”

If you caught that, you might crack a smile. If you didn’t, the episode moves on after a quick reaction shot from Penance. It’s not asking for a laugh, but it’s there to find if you go looking. The series is full of fun little details like this. The opening funeral scene is sad, but it’s hard not to grin at Primrose towering behind everyone in the back. What about the little robot gas-bomb Amalia uses to knock out the workers at the munitions plant? What about Hugo and his rich friends playing cheese chess? What about new character Effie Boyle’s rejoinder when a police officer gets up in her face? “Lovely. Now I’ve had gin for breakfast too.”

The series is dedicated to giving us a distinct sense of place, character, and tone. I appreciate how much energy it has, but that also makes it frustrating when the show comes up short. The Nevers may have too much energy, because it keeps running ahead of itself. It loves these characters and this world it’s creating, but it continually serves up climatic moments without laying the proper groundwork.

The big culprit for me this week was the revelation that Lucy had fed Lord Massen information about Mary’s song, which led to him sending the gatling gun guy to the park to kill Mary in front of everyone. Massen is turning into a great villain, a real piece of work who snuffs out a potential  unionization attempt and who truly believes that the Touched represent at attack on England, an attack he will repel in the name of tradition, patriotism and godliness. He’s smart, loathsome and played to the buttoned-down British hilt by Pip Torrens. The scene where we learned he was behind the murder was chilling, effective and in character.

The scene where we learned what Lucy was working for him…I thought it would have worked better had it come later in the story. I didn’t like the clumsy info dump about Lucy’s backstory last episode, and the payoff seems just as rushed, although both Laura Donnelly and Elizabeth Berrington kill their confrontation scene. “I want [the traitor] to be someone else,” Amalia snaps, and we feel her frustration. “Lord Massen, he says he’ll find a cure,” Lucy says, just as believable. I only wish we had enough time to get to know Lucy as well as we do Amalia before we hit this twist.

Their fight also has peaks and valleys. The actual battle is cool — Lucy cracks apart anything she touches, including the concrete floor — but after showing us the extent of her powers, I have to ask: how was she able to hold her little elephant pendant in her bare hands and not splinter it to pieces? Was there some mythological nuance I was missing? I don’t like being the guy who points out the inconsistencies in the made-up magical stuff, but that one really stood out.

Then again, that was really the only thing about the episode I thought hit a wrong note. I loved the scene where Primrose figures out that Mrytle could understand Mary’s song, and then Mrytle jumps into Primrose’s arms with joy. First, it was adorable, and second, I appreciated the creative blocking to get them seeing eye to eye.

It leads to a fun subplot where the Touched gather everyone they know who can speak a foreign language so they can translate Mary’s song. It ends up it was written expressly for Amalia. “Come below and find me.” Is the song from the alien spaceship (or whatever that was) that gave everyone their powers? I’d love to know more.

I will fully keep watching this series to see where it goes. It has a ton going for it and I hope it coheres a little better now that we’re in the middle stretch of the season.

Episode Grade: B

The Bullet Points:

• Kind of an odd choice to intercut Mary’s funeral with the workers at Massen’s plant. You’d figure the funeral would be dramatic enough on its own.
• The Purists are apparently some kind of anti-Touched group? I can’t remember if we’d heard about them before. “The cops, the church, the Purists and our masked freaks, there’s no shortage of people who hate us.” This show has a lot of factions.
• We meet Nimble Jack, who’s working for the Begger King and can make use his turn to make little shield things. This show has a lot of characters.
• This episode gives us a little more time with Harriet Kaur (Kiran Sonia Sawar), who has ice breath and wants to be a barrister.
• It was an easy laugh, but I liked Penance giving an impassioned speech against vengeance only to flip when Augustus’ name came up. “Yeah, we should murder him…Birds are stupid.” Their scene together was sweet, but both characters are so delicate and soft-spoken I’m almost nervous watching them onscreen. It’s like they could break at any moment.
• I prefer Amalia’s harder edge. Massen: “You think I had something to do with your friend’s death.” Amalia: “Did you? It would save me such a lot of time.”
• Frank seemed to capture Maladie with surprisingly little fanfare. Also…did she say she was in the coffin with Mary at the funeral? Yeesh, Maladie.

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