S01.E06: True

[nodorothyparker]

Airdate 2021.05.16

Quote

After Amalia's origin story is revealed, a long-awaited reunion crystallizes the Orphans' mission.

 

[NeenerNeener]

Woo hoo! Claudia Black!

[SeanC]

Well, that was a hell of a thing.

In the grand balance, it's good that Whedon is gone after this, but it's also hard not to feel a bit sad that he drops this fascinating material that finally makes the series feel more distinctive on his way out the door.

[Quickbeam]

I found it interesting but disjointed. I’m kind of lost here.

[edhopper]

Oh! Those Galanthi.

[dwmarch]

Well, I'm confused. Going to have to rewatch this once or twice because I feel like there was a lot to unpack here.

I wonder if the future scenes are set between Dollhouse and Firefly.

[Bort]

 

But seriously, I guess the one plot bunny I got out of that is that Stripe isn’t the only one who hitched a ride like she did?

[CouchTater]

This has been a wild series for me, so far.  As I've mentioned before, I loved ep 1, then lost interest but felt obligated to see it through (2-4), then ep 5 brought me back.  And episode 6 was...wow!!!!  Very good, I think?  There was enough explanation to keep me hooked, but I do not understand the Galanthi's method at all.  Were the Victorian touched a mistake?  True/Stripe/Zephyr mentioned that spontaneous powers don't normally happen.  Also, had the Galanthi been scouting Victorian London before Zephyr was transported there (the Victorian artifacts Zephyr and the other woman found in the lab)?  And so many more questions.......

Also, if this had been episode 1 instead of #6 I may have enjoyed all 6 episodes even more.  

I look forward to everyone's thoughts on the episode.

Does anyone know when the 2nd half of the season will air?

Edited May 17, 2021 by CouchTater

[AnimeMania]

Were we supposed to recognize the building that Amalia came out of after riding in the Galanthi elevator?

[CouchTater]

1 minute ago, AnimeMania said:

Were we supposed to recognize the building that Amalia came out of after riding in the Galanthi elevator?

Penance mentioned that the Galanthi thingy was under some royal military building, when she was showing True the x-ray of the city.  I assumed it was that.

[ZeeEnnui]

59 minutes ago, dwmarch said:

Well, I'm confused. Going to have to rewatch this once or twice because I feel like there was a lot to unpack here.

Same. I feel like despite paying close attention to what happened there were some key details that I most likely missed. This was a good episode but I don't know that I would have ended the first half of the season with it. To me it would have made the most sense last week or even the week before. All of the penultimate scenes last week, and conflicts would have had more impact with this information. But what do I know? I just watch an awful lot of TV. 

Molly's story was bleak. Full of so much flaky, buttery pastry and sadness. 

Nice to see Maladie without the mouth sores. I guess we have the evil doctor to thank for turning her into the annoying serial killer hamming up our screens. At least she didn't turn the crazy annoying up to eleven this episode, and was relatively restrained. 

Did True activate the doctor's power? Or did I just miss something there.

So I guess we'll just have to wait till next season (whenever that it is) for Penance to get framed for the electrical melee at Maladie's "execution"? Because I think we all know that's where this is going. 

I really appreciated that when Zephyr (I think I've got the name right) took over Molly's body, her voice hadn't adjusted. Laura Donnelly did an amazing job mimicking Claudia Black, and also making it seem like she was trying to find a way around a new mouth. So well done. 

 

Edited May 17, 2021 by ZeeEnnui
redundant sentence

[Bort]

6 minutes ago, ZeeEnnui said:

Nice to see Maladie without the mouth sores. I guess we have the evil doctor to thank for turning her into the annoying serial killer hamming up our screens. At least she didn't turn the crazy annoying up to eleven this episode, and was relatively restrained. 

And Amalia. She kind of threw Sarah under a bus there just to get the heat off of herself.

I wanted to smack that Gert for telling Molly that she should’ve gone for the other guy instead, when she had actually said the opposite. And for rubbing her nose in her barrenness and also underpaying her to do deliveries. Awful woman.

[ZeeEnnui]

1 minute ago, kariyaki said:

And Amalia. She kind of threw Sarah under a bus there just to get the heat off of herself.

I wanted to smack that Gert for telling Molly that she should’ve gone for the other guy instead, when she had actually said the opposite. And for rubbing her nose in her barrenness and also underpaying her to do deliveries. Awful woman.

100%.  At least now we know why Maladie was so pissed at True. 

Oh man, I forgot about this scene. YES. Gert can choke on a baguette for that b.s.

[Cerulean]

Magic? Check!
Time Travel? Check!
Steam Punk? Check!
Post Apocalyptic War? Check!
Body Snatcher? Check!
Aliens? Check!
Claudia Black? Check!

Seems like someone pulled a lot of slips out of the SF jar. 
 

ETA- and I forgot to list secret names, mad scientists, and zombies

Edited May 18, 2021 by Cerulean
Apparently there were too many to list!

[Philbert]

I have two reactions to this fucking episode.

 

1. Holy shit it's God damned Claudia Black. God how I have missed her in sci-fi tv.

2. What the fucking fuck did I just watch?

[thuganomics85]

Well, that was a lot to take in!

I still have a lot of questions, but I think the main gist is that Amalia really is from the future and is this Zephyr character, who is awesomely played by Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun!)  Long story short, there is apparently going to be some kind of war between two rival factions in the future (can't say that surprises me), and the almighty Galanthi is some kind of alien species?  Who went back in time to drop those magical spores, because they are hoping that might change the future?  And Zephyr's essence was somehow taken into the past and put into Molly's body after she just committed suicide?  It also sounds like others from the future like Zephyr might be here as a well.  Yeah, I don't know what to make of that.  Except that I do hope we get another flash-forward or two somewhere down the road, because I'm all for more Claudia Black!

We also get to discover what Amalia did to Maladie that was considered a betrayal.  They basically bonded at an asylum back when Maladie was known as Sara and Amalia was in for Molly's suicide attempt (not helped by Zephyr going ham on everyone), but Amalia/Zephyr figured out that Dr. Hague/Denis O'Hare was up to no good, and basically threw Sara under the bus to protect herself.  Yeah, that certainly explains why Maladie is the way she is now and why she is just a wee bit miffed at Amalia for what she did.

Loved the montage of Zephyr becoming Amalia.  

Laura Donnelly basically had to play three different characters in this episode and did a pretty damn good job, I thought.

Augie would be the one who actually apologizes to a solider for having to hit him.

Hope Harriet pulls through.

Glad Amalia and Penance made peace, even if I don't think I agree with Amalia that Penance "made the right call" to try and help Maladie.  But if this gets them back on the same page, I'm not going to simmer on it for too long.

All in all, a bit of a mixed bag on some levels and a few things held it back from its true potential (really think it needed another episode or two), but I also think it has a lot going for it, so I'm glad I checked it out despite the underwhelming reviews (which I do understand), and will definitely stick with it once it comes back.  To be fair, even a mediocre HBO show can still fare better than a lot of other shows on different networks.  But the overall story and mysterious are still interesting and the cast; especially Laura Donnelly and Ann Skelly; make it more than worth it to keep going.  Hope the wait isn't too long! 

[CatWarmer]

Last week I walked away saying “I have no idea what’s going on.”

Tonight I walked away saying “Consciousness time traveling from a dystopian future with crazy armies fighting each other and potentially helpful yet mysterious aliens and portals and misbehaving spores...” Still no idea what’s going on but at least I have a framework for it!

And that’s without being able to understand half of what was being said in the first chapter.  

I did enjoy how Stripe (the stripe?) wakes up in the asylum and is so fed up and annoyed and tired of trying then just takes over completely.

[aghst]

For all of chapter 1, I didn't connect it to the previous 5 episodes until someone mentioned Galanthi -- well I saw the previews too and someone here predicted that Amalia would be from the future.

Have to say I didn't love the future segment that much.

Buffy/Angel built a whole universe of supernatural creatures and the whole vampire slayer lore.  But they did't do it in the first 6 episodes of season 1.  They backfilled a lot of it over time but then they got to play around with like 22 episodes a season.

Here they're building a very expansive universe -- Neversverse? -- which span centuries and galaxies.

And Amalia hints at a coming war.  Hmm, Wheadon always has high stakes doesn't he?  The end of the universe was hinted at in both Buffy and Angel, more than once in each series.

OK so we know where the Touched get their powers from, some beneficent alien beings which want to rescue humanity from itself.  The Victorian foils established in the first 5 episodes, such as Massen, Bidlow, etc. all seem quaint by comparison.

Are they going to escape this backwards times to the future again?  I wonder if they will drop all the steampunk gadgets that Penance builds and instead go to full-fledged futuristic laser weapons at some point.  Hope not.

Molly was Zephyr sent back to Victorian London yet didn't have special powers until she was fished out of the river and put in that asylum? Did the Galanthi send her back as well as disperse the spores which gave her her future vision? 

I guess we'll see when Penance became Touched and a few of the other characters.

 

 

[Chicago Redshirt]

So it turns out that the series has a lot in common with the 4400 if people remember that show: to try to save Future Earth, a group seeds people from the past with various and sundry powers but no further guidance. Meanwhile a faction opposing their work is also apparently at work in the past. The main differences being that the 4400 were physically taken from various parts of the 20th century to the future, experimented on, and returned to the 2000s Seattle as opposed to Zephyr's traveling psychically from the future to Victorian England..

So, who do people think is the other future person? I'm guessing the bad guy from the future has somehow managed to travel to the past as well. I could see him as pretty much any non-Touched person: Massen, Swann, the doctor, even Lavinia. 

[GaT]

4 hours ago, Quickbeam said:

I’m kind of lost here.

 

4 hours ago, kariyaki said:

 

2 hours ago, Philbert said:

2. What the fucking fuck did I just watch?

This pretty much sums it up for me.

[Lily H]

At what point did this show first mention the term Galanthi? Because all I remember is Amalia saying it once at some point in the last ep, and it making no sense at all, and then all through this episode, it's like we're all supposed to just know wtf the Galanthi is. I watched the 'future' part of this episode seriously debating whether or not to just change the channel and wait for Mare of Easttown to start, mainly because I couldn't make out what they were saying most of the time and there was so much random gibberish being spoken it was frustrating and annoying to watch. I still have no idea whether the Galanthi is good or bad and what it is.

[Bort]

6 hours ago, aghst said:

Molly was Zephyr sent back to Victorian London yet didn't have special powers until she was fished out of the river and put in that asylum? Did the Galanthi send her back as well as disperse the spores which gave her her future vision? 

Actually, I think she already had that power in the future, there was something discussed about her having temporal side effects, of which we saw her having flashes. I don’t think that was a result of the Galanthi, it seemed to be from something else. And she can fight so well because she was a soldier and she spent her time in the asylum getting her doughy new body into shape. So I don’t actually think Amalia is touched like the others are but she’s weird enough to pass for it.

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, Lily H said:

At what point did this show first mention the term Galanthi? Because all I remember is Amalia saying it once at some point in the last ep, and it making no sense at all, and then all through this episode, it's like we're all supposed to just know wtf the Galanthi is. I watched the 'future' part of this episode seriously debating whether or not to just change the channel and wait for Mare of Easttown to start, mainly because I couldn't make out what they were saying most of the time and there was so much random gibberish being spoken it was frustrating and annoying to watch. I still have no idea whether the Galanthi is good or bad and what it is.

Pretty sure the word "Galanthi" was only first used in the last ep, but also pretty sure it was used way more than just once. 

Far as I am concerned, the episode answered a fair amount of questions but then raised a lot of new ones.

Questions answered:

We now have confirmation that the Galanthi are an alien race that came to Earth in the future and that Amalia is indeed a time traveller.

The Galanthi distributed spores among the future population and the Victorian population.

In the future, there was one or more catastrophes/wars that killed five billion of the Earth's population. There are at least two  future factions: Free Life  and the Planetary Defense Council. It seems the Free Lifers are anti-Galanthi and have managed to kill most of them somehow. The Planetary Defense Council is pro-Galanthi, and has at least some people who have bonded with the Galanthi but don't have superpowers. They are just, it seems, mentally enhanced.

The person we have come to know as Amalia True was a soldier fighting no the side of the PDC. In her time, apparently polygamous marriage is a thing and telling people your actual name is not. She goes by "Stripe," which may or may not be a rank or specialty as a soldier.

Her squad found a place where there was still a living Galanthi, but it had been taken over by Free Lifers. The PDC squad managed to take the place back, to find there was some kind of a spatial anamoly there and the Galanthi was trying to do something. The Free Lifers tortured it by killing the PDC people it had bonded to and leaving it in a pool of their blood. The speculation about what the Galanthi was they were trying to do ranges from trying to bring in more Galanthi to fleeing the planet as a lost cause. There is a single Free Life prisoner who somehow convinces a PDC member to backstab his team. All of the PDC members are killed except for Amalia, who suddenly finds herself in the past. 

The  real Amalia "Molly" True worked for a bakery and had a choice between two possible husbands. Instead of marrying for the cool, smart and loving guy, she married someone who seemed more financially secure. It turns out that he wasn't, and she had a miserable life with him being an insensitive jackhole, having multiple miscarriages, and having to attend to his ailing mother. Her husband dies of a disease and it turns out he was deeply in debt. She also learns that the man she was interested in has gotten married and was expecting a baby. It is all too much for her, so she attempts to drown herself.

Somehow Stripe's mind gets implanted in Molly's body while she's in the Thames (presumably after the death of the true Molly).. Stripe doesn't expect this and isn't clued in at first. She initially thinks that she is in a sort of sim that is trying to get her to talk. Eventually she comes to realize that she has found herself in the actual past in an unfamiliar body with "world class tits" (Sorry Laura Donnelly, but not so much). She is taken to an asylum, where she meets Horatio and begins having her future flashes, including one of them doin' it., so she trusts him. She also meets Sarah, aka Maladie,, and befriends her and other Touched. She learns that there was an event similar to what must have happened in the future, with spores being distributed in London. But it's dissimilar because people have developed abilities. She is speaking with a North American accent because Stripe was apparently Canadian. She gradually learns how to feign Britishness thanks to lessons from another inmate.  The doctor we have seen comes to the asylum looking to research the Touched, and he talks to Amalia first. Realizing he was up to no good, she plays dumb about knowing about the Galanthi and throws Sarah under the bus as the one who really knows about all the lights-in-the-sky stuff. So the doctor takes her to do stuff off-screen that will result in Sarah becoming Maladie. Lavinia comes on the scene and strikes a deal to have her run the Orphanage. She also meets Penance.

We then see the Amalia half of the mission from last episode. Her crew does enough fighting so she is able to get to the Galanthi. She has a bunch of future visions including one that somebody (the Galanthi in Myrtle's form? Myrtle herself? Someone else?) tells her that she's going to need to forget. She and her crew manage to escape, and back at the Orphanage, Penance and Amalia talk and Amalia says she's going to tell everyone everything, and she admits her real name is Zephyr something.

Questions raised:

When exactly it is the future? Where exactly the Galanthi are from? What is their true agenda  for the future or the past? Why specifically do the FL or PDC oppose or support them? Why are 5 billion dead (war between the FL and PDC? Global warming and other man-made problems? Disease? A combo platter?)

Why was there a proto-Touched who looked like Harriet from Victorian England (at least to me) in Zephyr's time? Why the one PDC turned traitor (other than because the plot required it)?

What exactly is the spatial anomaly, and how it works, how/why at least some other future people were able to leap to the past.

Why did the Galanthi go to Victorian England? It seems that someone was thinking about Victorian England because there were artifacts from there. What is the agenda? Why are they giving superpowers now when they didn't before? Are they engineering specific powers for specific people? Why do the spores work only on some people? Is there a political reason they have mostly touched women and people out-of-favor with society?

Who else is from the future besides Amalia and who are they inhabiting?

Does time travel in the Nevers work like Back to the Future (the future is completely changeable through actions undertaken in the past and people from the future will have no memories of the original future), Terminator (some things are predestined to happen), Avengers: Endgame (the past is essentially frozen but you can make new futures for yourself) or what?

[Enigma X]

Dare I say that I did not care for this episode or revelation?

[blackwing]

I was completely lost.  Not gonna lie, the first few minutes of the show I kept checking my HBO app to see if I had clicked on the wrong show, and even after seeing the Indian lady who makes glass in the future on a spaceship, I was wondering what happened.

I haven't been this confused about a movie or TV show since the first time I watched the first Mission Impossible movie.  I remember leaving the theater thinking I must be so stupid because I didn't understand a lot of what happened.  And I think this was in the days before Wikipedia (or at least before I had ready access to internet) when it was so easy to just read a plot summary.

I don't think I liked at all what I saw.  I signed up to watch a show about people in Victorian London with superpowers.  While the concept of the future world was interesting, that's not what I thought this show was going to be.  I spent much of the show wondering if these were all new characters... the first 25 minutes or so, the only person I recognised was the Indian lady and possibly the simpering brother of the wheelchair lady.  (Sorry, yes, I too find it sad that I don't know the names of many of the supporting characters.)

[Bort]

13 minutes ago, blackwing said:

the first 25 minutes or so, the only person I recognised was the Indian lady and possibly the simpering brother of the wheelchair lady.

No, those were different actors. 

[blackwing]

18 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

No, those were different actors. 

Gah.  Thanks.  I am even more confused now.  I'm going to have to go back and rewatch this episode again.

[Cerulean]

It occurs to me that Amalia is like Horaratio, Penance, and Mary- her turn is something she already had (temporal slips) but enhanced to be future visions. The Touched like Myrtle and Harriet don’t seem to have that link. 
 

Also, the crazy doctor said that his study was non-voluntary- when did it do from “no -voluntary” to abducting people. I’m sorry for everyone on the list. 
 

People gathering Touched that we know about: Maladie, the doctor, Swan, Amalia/Zephyr, and Lavinia. Will we meet others?

[TVMovieBuff]

Six episodes will do me. I liked them, that is why I watched all 6. I would have bailed. I didn't understand everything but enjoyed what I could zero in and appreciate. I see this 6 as a sneak preview before committing and I am getting off this train. 

I like Amalia & Penance. Those actresses are great. There isn't anything really unique about Maladie, she is sort of a stock character, the villainous but insane wacko. 

 

[AnimeMania]

Time Travelers, Superpowers, Aliens, any one of those could have explained what was happening in the show, but we have all 3. Since Amalia has spent a lifetime killing people, why hasn't she told Penance how to make some advanced weapons (lethal or non-lethal) like tasers, etc.

[Bort]

7 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

Since Amalia has spent a lifetime killing people, why hasn't she told Penance how to make some advanced weapons (lethal or non-lethal) like tasers, etc.

I imagine that Penance is limited to the technology of the times. A taser would require the use of capacitors, which would be very large and heavy.

By the way, Penance’s power strikes me as the 19th century equivalent of Gary from Alphas: seeing the entire electromagnetic spectrum. If she were in modern times, she’d be able to see everybody’s WiFi and Bluetooth signals coming off their phones.

[iMonrey]

Quote

there was so much random gibberish being spoken it was frustrating and annoying to watch. 

I touched on this last week, but a big problem for me is that the show is trying way too hard to be clever. The dialogue throughout the future scenes was incomprehensible because it was filled with made-up jargon to sound futuristic. I'm sure the writers got a big kick out of creating it but it was impenetrable for the viewer. 

In the end I got the gist, but I was equally annoyed at having to sit through that much of it. 

[Popples]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

I was completely lost.  Not gonna lie, the first few minutes of the show I kept checking my HBO app to see if I had clicked on the wrong show,

Me too! Even though they showed the "Previously on The Nevers", I thought I recorded the wrong show until somebody finally mentioned the Galanthi, and that still took a while.

I was so close on my original thoughts about Amalia/Molly. I just needed to substitute "Baker's Assistant" for "Washer-Woman".

On 4/14/2021 at 9:50 AM, Popples said:

On 4/14/2021 at 9:37 AM, AnimeMania said:

I just thought that she hated her life and wanted to kill herself.

That was my thinking as well. A widowed washer-woman in Victorian London who was sick of the drudgery of her every day life.

[marcee]

I quite enjoyed this episode.

For what it's worth, here's what I picked up: Pheen = Morphine. Stripe, Boots, Crescent, Knitter - those were all names for their military positions: Boots - being boots on the ground/infantry type, Stripe - appeared to be combat/assassin, Knitter - knits things together; she was their medic, Crescent - appeared to be their leader.

As far as bringing someone else back with them - it would make sense for that to be Lavinia. She seems terrified of the Galanthi and convinced it will bring war (something she would know if she came from the future); she appears to be on the side of the "Free Life" people. Perhaps whatever caused her injury actually killed her, allowing for a future consciousness to now reside inside.

I enjoyed Zephyr's transformation into Amalia. I enjoyed her lessons with the woman who appeared to be a pyromaniac. I felt bad for Sarah/Maladie, who did appear to be getting better before the Doctor got his hands on her.

That poor Galanthi. :(

Edited May 17, 2021 by marcee

[Enigma X]

The only think I hate more about dystopian futures is teen dystopian futures. I also don't like that Amalia is not Amalia either. I love fantasy and steampunk and like scifi but this was not entertaining for me.

[Cerulean]

Didn’t Maladie claim that she only killed “angels”?

[Bort]

22 minutes ago, marcee said:

As far as bringing someone else back with them - it would make sense for that to be Lavinia. She seems terrified of the Galanthi and convinced it will bring war (something she would know if she came from the future); she appears to be on the side of the "Free Life" people. Perhaps whatever caused her injury actually killed her, allowing for a future consciousness to now reside inside.

Lavinia was already in a wheelchair. And didn’t she have a conversation with Augie about their childhood when they went ice skating? Seems like something that a stranger in her body would find hard to fake. Amalia lucked out in that there wasn’t anybody in Molly’s life who really knew her, so she was able to take over with no one the wiser.

 

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I touched on this last week, but a big problem for me is that the show is trying way too hard to be clever. The dialogue throughout the future scenes was incomprehensible because it was filled with made-up jargon to sound futuristic. I'm sure the writers got a big kick out of creating it but it was impenetrable for the viewer. 

I had to watch the first chapter of the episode with the captions on so I wouldn’t get lost.

[CouchTater]

2 minutes ago, Cerulean said:

Didn’t Maladie claim that she only killed “angels”?

She added the disclaimer "mostly."

[Chicago Redshirt]

37 minutes ago, Cerulean said:

Didn’t Maladie claim that she only killed “angels”?

Her actions last episode suggest that's not exactly true. She was happy to kill anyone who was close enough to watch her supposed execution to be touching the railing, whether they were "angelic" or not. It was also implied she killed real Effie Boyle so to assume her identity. (Although I suppose it could have been one of her minions instead.)

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, marcee said:

As far as bringing someone else back with them - it would make sense for that to be Lavinia.

Probably not Lavinia since they showed her at the time of the spores falling, in a wheelchair and not in any danger of dying.

It could be Doctor Loboticus, he seems to have an unnatural fascination with the Touched, where their powers are located and how to remove their powers.

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I touched on this last week, but a big problem for me is that the show is trying way too hard to be clever. The dialogue throughout the future scenes was incomprehensible because it was filled with made-up jargon to sound futuristic. I'm sure the writers got a big kick out of creating it but it was impenetrable for the viewer. 

In the end I got the gist, but I was equally annoyed at having to sit through that much of it. 

This x1000.

1 hour ago, kariyaki said:

I had to watch the first chapter of the episode with the captions on so I wouldn’t get lost.

I watched the first chapter with captions and I STILL got lost.  For me it wasn't a problem of hearing the words, it was that the words made no sense.  I agree fully that they were trying way too hard.  "Let's create some futurespeak that instantly shows viewers that this is a very advanced and intelligent society."  I guess I am one of the ones they left behind because I had no idea what was going on.

[Bort]

23 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I watched the first chapter with captions and I STILL got lost.  For me it wasn't a problem of hearing the words, it was that the words made no sense.  I agree fully that they were trying way too hard.  "Let's create some futurespeak that instantly shows viewers that this is a very advanced and intelligent society."  I guess I am one of the ones they left behind because I had no idea what was going on.

I was fine because with the captions on, I was able to absorb it and when they got to the more familiar setting, was able to recall it and see how it was relevant as Amalia’s origin story.

[Stuffy]

So I guess Amalia either now has the memories of both Molly and Zephyr or always had them? That’s what I took from the flashes of the past. The only flash she doesn’t get to remember is the Myrtle vision. 
 

Of course if she always had the Molly memories then the “This isn’t my face” line doesn’t work because it’s still Molly’s face. I’m thinking the Molly memories are new. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Stuffy

[Dminches]

When Amalia was talking to Penance and said "I hope that wasn't too much to take in" was that after the Galanthi mission and Maladie hanging?

Also, who was the person who said to Amalia while she was falling backwards in front of Galanthi that she would have to forget "that one?"  It looked like the girl who speaks all the languages.

 

[Proclone]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I touched on this last week, but a big problem for me is that the show is trying way too hard to be clever. The dialogue throughout the future scenes was incomprehensible because it was filled with made-up jargon to sound futuristic. I'm sure the writers got a big kick out of creating it but it was impenetrable for the viewer. 

In the end I got the gist, but I was equally annoyed at having to sit through that much of it. 

I agree completely.  I understand the desire to make a setting (especially a fantasy/sci-fi setting) specific and unique.  And language and how people speak is a great way to do that.  People speaking markedly different than we do is a great way to clue people into how the world is different.  That being said, you still have to be able to understand what the fuck the characters are talking about!  I felt like first few minutes of the episode were spoken entirely in gibberish. For a second I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't just having a stroke and lost the ability to understand English.  I turned on the subtitles and that didn't help whatsoever.  The fact that the characters were stressed and speaking rapidly in the beginning didn't help at all.  Soldiers using jargon (even if it isn't jargon we use) and speaking rapidly might be realistic, but that doesn't make it an enjoyable experience for the viewer.

I found it got a little better as the first chapter went on.  Which in some ways is more annoying.  It's like they wanted to blow their future-speak wad right off the bat, not remotely considering that sprinkling in the future-speak would make it easier for the viewer to follow.  I appreciate when fantasy and sci-fi don't spoon feed you exposition but rather let you experience the world...but this was a bridge too far (I had the same complaint about last week with the introduction of the Galanthi, but this week kicked the problem up to eleven).

I'll echo what others have said, I'm not sure how I feel about this show or the turn (no pun intended) it's taken.  I signed up for people in Victorian London with weird powers trying to find their place in the world, and this show has turned into something else entirely.  And I have a feeling that the people with weird powers finding their way, is going to be less important than the overreaching plot.  And I'm not sure if I'm down for that show, since it very much is not the one I signed up to watch.

That being said, I really do like the characters, especially Amalia (Stripe...Zephyr...Molly...whoever).  I do like that she a deeply flawed person just trying to do her best and that her best isn't even that good sometimes (what she did to Sarah).  I like her relationship with Penance (whom I also really like).  I think the acting is quite good.  I have to give both Laura Donnelly and Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun remains my first love, so I was really stoked about seeing her) major props for having to play the same character in two different bodies.  Donnelly did a really good job speaking like Black did in chapter one and Black did a really good job at having the same mannerisms that Amalia has had throughout the series (the finger tapping for example). 

There are parts I really like about this show, and there are parts I don't much care for.  I worry the parts I don't much care for are going to over shadow the rest and I'm not sure when this show returns (I'm assuming it will be) that I'll be returning to it.  Maybe if only to see how different it will be without really having much Whedon influence. 

[Bort]

4 hours ago, marcee said:

Pheen = Morphine

I didn’t even catch that. But I did love that she wasn’t able to swipe it from any medical people without them realizing it. I particularly loved the second time:

Amalia: I gotta get out of this place.
Horatio: Then you might not want to say "fuck" quite so often. And give me back my morphine.
Amalia: Fuuuuck!

[Dminches]

Once the episode got to chapter 2 (Victorian times) I thought it was great.  Laura Donnelly should be awarded for that episode alone.

 

[tennisgurl]

I was seriously confused last week, and now this week...I'm still confused, but have at least a bit more of an idea of what is going on. When Amalia and Penance were like "we should explain everything to them" I was like "how about explaining it to us too?" because while I don't need to have my hand held when it comes to world building or to have a giant info dump where they explain everything happening in painful details, I would like a little bit more. I can respect the craziness of taking us from a Victorian superpower steampunk fantasy to a futuristic science fiction war show with robots and aliens and stuff, but its a whole lot to throw at us when we have no idea what is going on in this future world we've been thrown into, its not the show that we signed up for. I am glad that they gave us a lot of answers about Amalia, but having the whole mid season finale be a flashback at this point makes me sad that we didn't get anymore follow up from the rest of the cast. This show got a bit screwy at the end, dropping tons of information on us with very little context or follow up, but I still really liked it and looked forward to watching every episode, so I cant be too upset. I am really hoping to get more answers in the next batch of episodes, and maybe even get a few more episodes in future seasons. I think that this half of the season would have benefited a lot from a few extra episodes to throw a little more exposition our way and would give the supporting cast more time to shine. 

RIP to the poor original Molly, who I assume successfully committed suicide to escape her dreary miserable life before Zephyr was thrown into her body, so she is basically dead now even if her body is still being used. We also find out why Maladie is so pissed off at Amalia, she is quite salty that Amalia threw her under the bus after befriending her, and that led to her getting taken by the doctor and that lead to her becoming the charmer that we all know and avoid. Which does add tragedy to her character and her anger at Amalia understandable, I still don't think that saving her from the gallows was the right call. All of that sucks and she might be too brain damaged now to be held fully responsible for her actions, but she is still very much a threat and the whole gang publicly aligning themselves with her would only have made things worse for the Touched. Amalia doing a whole training montage to become Amalia was fun.

I hope we can get a few more flashbacks, its awesome seeing Claudia Black. It would also allow us to explain more about what is going on, its clear that there was a lot of interesting world building happening in the future space world, with two different sides of the conflict plus these Galanthi around, a culture that apparently holds names sacred, a TON of jargon and slang, a war that is about something or another, its hard to get that invested when you have no idea what anyone is talking about, not even through context clues, and its hard to put the pieces together when you don't know what the pieces are yet. I do hope we don't get swallowed up by the future war plot though, its just not the show that I have been watching so far. Props to both Claudia Black and Laura Donnely, they really did seem a lot like each other in their inflections and body language. 

So many questions now. Why did the Galanthi start dumping powers on the Victorians? Why are their powers different with them then it apparently was in the future? Who else was sent back from the future? What do the Galanthi want from Amantha/Zephyr? What does Lavinia plan to do with the ship thing? Who are the two sides of this future conflict and what do they want? What this show be like with even less input from Joss Whedon? 

Edited May 17, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Hawk]

19 hours ago, kariyaki said:

 

But seriously, I guess the one plot bunny I got out of that is that Stripe isn’t the only one who hitched a ride like she did?

Perfect, WTF did I just watch!

Claudia Black and all my Farscape dreams come true.

5 hours ago, Popples said:

Me too! Even though they showed the "Previously on The Nevers", I thought I recorded the wrong show until somebody finally mentioned the Galanthi, and that still took a while.

I was so close on my original thoughts about Amalia/Molly. I just needed to substitute "Baker's Assistant" for "Washer-Woman".

Yeah, I thought I was on the wrong show.

[MissLucas]

My reaction 5 minutes in: Claudia frelling Black!!! followed by mad giggles because I knew we'd be in for a ride. It may be my residual crush on Aeryn Sun but I loved every minute of her scenes. Confusing? Challenging? Yes, but I thought there was enough exposition to get the gist of what was going on.

And the transition from Stripe/Zephyr to Amalia was fantastic. Feeding Sarah to that clearly evil Doctor was a low-point. Understandable but no wonder Amalia felt at least early on in the season some guilt about Maladie.

Molly's story was depressing as f***but sadly nothing uncommon for that time. And yeah, to hell with Gert and her 'heart of gold' act. Kudos to Laura Donnelly who played three characters in one episode!

The big question is of course who hitched a ride? Massen is too obvious an answer. Maybe someone from his little semi-secret club?

And nope, still not thinking Penance's hare-brained plan was the right thing to do, sorry Amalia/Zephyr.
 

1 hour ago, Dminches said:

When Amalia was talking to Penance and said "I hope that wasn't too much to take in" was that after the Galanthi mission and Maladie hanging

Looked like a flashback, clean outfits, no battle scars and both looked fresh and relatively happy. Of course I'm biased as I claimed for weeks now that Penance is in the know.

I still think last week's episode with the folks in the orphanage talking about the Galanthi was a misstep. Apparently they were not given the whole story - so what exactly did Amalia tell them? And why were they not pushing for more info/answers?

Still overall I loved what we've got so far, warts and open questions and all and I can't wait for the second half of the season.

Edited May 17, 2021 by MissLucas