The Nevers review, Episode 6: “True”

The Nevers ends its (maybe) first season in a very Nevers kind of way, combining impassioned filmmaking with some frustrating choices.

To be fair, “True” is more cleanly divided than most Nevers episodes when it comes to the good and the bad parts. I hated the opening section, or “Chapter One: Stripe,” as it’s dubbed by the pretentious title card. Throughout these first six episodes, The Nevers’ big problem has been that it gets ahead of itself. Why was everyone talking about the Galanthi last episode before it had been explained to the audience? How was Nimble Jack suddenly a full-fledged member of the group even though he’d never met anyone beyond Bonfire Annie? The show always seemed in such a rush to get where it was going that it left these gaps. “True” does a great job of filling in some of the big ones, but starting the episode by dropping us into some kind of future war where everyone has space guns and talks in sci-fi cliches with no preamble just seemed like the show indulging in its worst instincts.

After watching the whole episode, we know that the Tough Woman soldier named Zephyr is actually Amalia True, and that her essence is somehow transported back in time by the Galanthi and takes over the body of Molly, a melancholy baker who commits suicide by jumping in the Thames. And knowing that does help this opening bit go down easier, but it doesn’t make it any less of a bland exposition dump. Twenty minutes just isn’t enough time to sell us on a whole new milieu, complete with its own politics, history and vocabulary, and the attempts come off as cringey in the extreme. I rolled my eyes whenever any of the standard issue sci-fi warriors blurted out some cookie cutter fight-the-future lines. “Rex can’t tap the OS without a hard connect,” one says. “Finder, what’s the schematic say?” asks another. Gross, no, stop it.

Making sense of the sci-fi scenes from The Nevers

For the sake of completeness, let’s try to untangle what was happening here, since it matters for Amalia’s mission back in Victorian London. Clearly, the future is in a sorry state, with a cliche Terminator-style war going on. One character I’ll call Hope Girl lists off a string of catastrophes that have devastated the planet. Our nominal heroes are fighting for an organization called the Planetary Defense Coalition (PDC) against Free Life, represented by one portly hostage who has a distracting Colonel Sanders accent for absolutely no reason.

Free Life may or may not be upset about the Galanthi, an alien species who came to Earth to guide humanity through their struggles, or at least that’s what the PDC thinks; the Free Life people clearly want them gone and even tortured one, the same one who takes Amalia back in time and is currently buried under London. The Galanthi can seed people with “spores,” which make them smarter and more empathetic. These spores are what give our characters back home their superpowers, although apparently they don’t usually do that.

As for Amalia-Zephyr-Tough Woman, she’s ingested a number of “coolant pods” which apparently make time wacky for her, which might be part of the reason the Galanthi can drag her spirit back to Victorian England…? You probably won’t be surprised to hear me say that it’s unclear. Naturally, in the future, Amalia still struggles with the concept of “hope,” which has become something of a trigger word for me. The show is always talking about it but never seems to engage with the concept beyond giving some vague platitudes. It’s especially bad here when we’re also fruitlessly trying to get our heads around a new scenario and sympathize with a new cast.

And that’s basically what I’ve put together. Anyone have any other insights? Either way, I’m happy to move on to the good part of the episode.

The amazing Mrs. True

The rest of “True” isn’t just better, it might be the best stuff The Nevers has given us so far, starting with the sad story of Molly the baker, the woman who will become Amalia True. This whole sequence is just heartbreaking, as we trace the line of Molly’s life from a gentle young woman dreaming of a family to a widowed pariah making a pittance (ooh, I wanted to slap her grasping boss) and caring for her abusive late husband’s dying mother. The whole second chapter is essentially a short film; it’s kind of like that this-is-your-life sequence from the beginning of Pixar’s Up, only it ends in suicide.

Molly dies in the Thames and emerges as Amalia, her body taken over the Tough Woman and gifted with precognition. Naturally she’s taken to an asylum where she meets Doctor Cousins, Maladie (then going by Sarah) and other members of the Touched.

At long last, The Nevers is giving us the answers we’ve been craving. We learn that Amalia told Doctor Cousins everything about the future and the Galanthi (she also told Penance, FYI, but no one else), and see how their relationship started. Seeing Sarah as a lonely, bright-eyed girl eager for Amalia’s friendship adds depth and tragedy to their relationship. It ends up that Amalia sold her out to Doctor Hague in order to divert attention from her own plans, such are they are.

And what are Amalia’s plans? Well, now that she’s spored Touched, she wants to try and prepare people for the grim future that’s coming. She wants to give them hope, which is at odds with her combative and cynical nature. Thank goodness she has Penance there to inspire her. “It is upsetting, the future being so grim for everyone, but we’ll just change it all up,” she chirps. “It’s work, it’s a life’s work…What in the world’s as rare and nourishing as a life’s work?” Sniff.

That brings us to the final chapter, where Amalia finally finds the Galanthi where it’s being excavated under London. “I left my heart to come talk to you, talk to me,” she rages. There’s real catharsis in this scene, and Laura Donnelly absolutely crushes all of it. In fact, she crushes the entire episode. She’s convincing as the demure Molly, who speaks in an entirely different kind of English accent than the one Amalia uses; as Zephyr as she tries to adjust to her new body and learns how to speak like a Brit; and finally as Amalia as we know her, lost and confused but unbreakable and determined. This is Emmy-worthy stuff here.

For her efforts, Amalia is given a jumbled visions of things to come. “Did you think you were the only one who hitched a ride?” someone asks, ominously. (Alright, I’m now taking bets on which other character is from the future and we just don’t know it yet.) We see Lord Massen aiming a gun at the camera, Maladie looking upset, and Myrtle against an outer space background talking with the Galanthi’s voice (I think), in English. “Oh Amalia, this is a long time from that little cave. This I will need you to forget.”

In the end, Amalia decides to tell the rest of her Touched the full story of her journey, which we’ll probably only hear if HBO decides to continue making this show, which I hope it does. As many complaints as I have, The Nevers is a high-spirited show full of ideas. It’s obvious that everyone put their hearts into it, and I want to see where it goes. I want to see more of these characters. I want to see whether and how Amalia’s vision comes true, and I want to see how new showrunner Philippa Goslett handles things now that Joss Whedon has left the project.

Fine, I’ll say it: I hope. The show got to me.

Episode Grade: B

The Bullet Points

• “I was married for three years and I never told either of them.” There’s polygamy in the future, FYI.
• Hope Girl dies before she can reveal her true name. It was probably Hope.
• “God makes his plans, so here we are,” Molly is fond of saying. The Nevers holds up “hope” as its big unifying theme, but I’m more interested in how it grapples with the notion of God. The show is set in Victorian London, where the truth of Christianity isn’t questioned. But there are no gods on The Nevers, just space aliens trying to do what’s right. “Sometimes it feels like God made His plans long before he met us.”
• I liked the scene where Lavinia Bidlow meets Amalia in a padded cell. Lavinia’s another character who has unplumbed depths. Also her costumes just do not quit. That purple feathered number she’s wearing here? C’mon, it’s great.
• Augie using his bird powers to attack the soldiers is fun.
• In the future, giving out one’s proper name is a weighty decision on account of…I dunno, simulations or something? It’s one of many undercooked sci-fi ideas in that first chunk. That said, I did find it moving when Amalia came clean with Penance. “My name is Zephyr. It’s Zephyr Alexis Levine.”

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