Who can Touched trust? Nevers led with that question in its premiere episode led by Joss Whedon, and will clearly be a recurring question that goes further, as the second episode of “Exposure” (also directed by Whedon) is built around the same idea. Maybe that was the purpose of that flood of villains in the pilot: Wherever Touched returns (it doesn’t have to be a pun, my badness!), There’s someone unhappy waiting for them. Lord Massen and his cohort of friends of the government. Illness, and her hangers and sycophants. Hugo Swann and his promise of female entrepreneurship. The Beggar King and his desire to keep the world underworld. And that mysterious doctor at the premiere, who is now revealed to serve a specific master: the very benefactress who supports the orphanage and hires Mrs. True and Penance. What the hell are Lavinia Bidlow and Dr. Hague doing?
Nevers has already provided parts to this response. Dr. Hague conducts experiments on humans – trepanning, perhaps? – to try to see what is different in the brain of the Affected and what could cause their return. (“Spark,” he calls it.) The result seems to be the creation of working slaves on the one hand and those who kidnap the proud as demons on the other. The former are prepared to dig up what they believe is the crashed ship from the pilot, while the latter are responsible for abducting additional Touched people around London so that Dr. Hague can open them. And all of this is funded, I suppose, by Lavinia, who in this episode insists that the affected people engage in social civility – while in the final conversation with Dr. Hague, she says, “It’s not fun. This is war. “But does she declare war? on Touched or thinks it works with their?
I think Jane Espenson’s writing here is intentionally opaque, but I’ll go further and guess that by putting fake butterflies for the orphanage and using Mrs. True’s face to attract desperate people, finding only their ranks at Dr. Hague’s, like lambs for sacrifice is not in particular benevolent from Lavinia. (Poor Mrs. Cassini. That follow-up scene, with a series of floating impediments, also felt a little Fantastic animals, but Domenique Fragale’s terror at revealing her secret was pretty believable.) I’d think it’s only a matter of time before Mrs. True, or anyone else in the orphanage, sees one of these posters, but if I can connect them to Lavinia it’s up in the air.
The “exposure” begins with Maladie’s opera attack. The city is on the edge, and Inspector Mundi is keeping an eye on the orphanage. Mrs. True’s (failed) question had a nice rhythm – she shouted offended by Penance “How are you not wonderful?” – and helped establish that, despite being in Hugo Swann’s pocket for whatever reason, Mundi is not completely an idiot. “Do you often get involved in public violence?” it is a sarcastic question, but at its core, a valid one. Mrs. True is a kind of living thread, and the super-endurance, super-speed and ripples offered by her turn seem to make her stronger than almost any other member of Touched.
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Except, of course, for Illness. Yes, she is very vile in Whedon’s disturbed Drusilla or in the vampire mold Willow-for-pain, and I admit that all her murmurs and murmurs about God and the crowns of thorns and pain, as a pleasure, made me wish just look Real detective season one for the millionth time. But Illness seems to work totally out of anything Lord Massen tries to do with government control over the Affected and any Lavinia / Dr. Hague tries to find the source of the power of the Touched. She, as Mrs. True observes, is driven by this zealous desire to thank her God — and perhaps to hurt Mrs. True? The conversation between the two was difficult to follow, but I think they knew each other from an early age, and Mrs. True (“Molly”) abandoned Maladie (“Sarah”) to the authorities who ran her orphanage? Remember that Mrs. True keeps saying she’s not “from here” – so she and Maladie are from the same place? And when Mrs. True apparently again does he abandon Maladie to save Mary and Penance captured, puts the Touched who are aligned with her in danger? It doesn’t look like Maladie would easily get this kind of rejection. (Bonfire Annie probably doesn’t like lighting it either.)
Questions, questions! Although the introduction of Désireé that forces the truth means that we get some honesty from different characters in this episode (Mundi and Mary were engaged, but she left him at the altar; Mary does not know the meaning of the song she sings that only the Touched) can hear ; Mrs. True is overwhelmed by the responsibility of running the orphanage), we also have, of course, more uncertainties ahead. Who gave Mrs. True the “mission” that compels and frightens her at the same time? Does he refer to the “mission” in a figurative way, comparing his turn with a kind of responsibility with the rest of the Achieved or does he speak literally? Could Augie, who reveals her turn, who inhabits the birds, to Penance, realize the evil intention of her sister? Or will she take her (fanatic) decree to stay away from Penance seriously?
Finally: What does Mary’s song say? “Hope” is a big and vague concept. Hope for social acceptance, respect, solidarity, unity, what? The Touched does not work as a single entity, but Mary’s song seems to bring them together. This might frighten people: remember that Dr. Hague tells Mrs. Cassini before lobotomizing her: “Maybe your darkness is part of her plan. I mean, his, but she takes care of that. Lavinia seems to be “her” here, but who is “his”? And did Mary’s song hit her on the back? another bastard into the Nevers universe?
Lost remarks
- Laura Donnelly’s grin while talking about “bendy Wendy” should be an immediate gif.
- Do we have an explanation for what “Nevers” means in this episode? No, we don’t.
- Did I already know that Lord Massen was a tough man, but essentially blaming Hugo for the tragedies of the Swann family? Even if Lord Massen didn’t know about Hugo’s strangeness (which I’m not sure he knows), this is still an impressively cruel proclamation.
- However: does Hugo Swann look like a bastard? Also, yes. Two things can be true at the same time.
- Interestingly, Lord Massen and Mrs. True both have immediate grievances with Hugo; remember that she sarcastically describes Inspector Mundi as “the man with the cock out” during the opera performance. And it’s also interesting that Lord Massen seems to have some kind of annoying respect for Mrs. True, even if he’s targeting her and the rest of the Affected.
- Augie rushing to Hugo’s sex club doesn’t seem like the best idea, I’ll be honest. Penance may not impress much!
- Do we hear “It’s just a prototype” this episode again? We do! But, of course, these Matrix-stylized sunglasses that block the explosive light were pretty good and I’m sure we’ll see the fire extinguisher appear again.
- Désireé is my new favorite character, and “I’m a Whore, a Little Famous” was perfectly delivered by Ella Smith.
- Did I really determine Mrs. True’s powers? She boasted to the Begging King that this was not her face; The disease is still called the woman who can “lose her skin” – something that Mrs. True does not deny exactly.
- “How many grandchildren did they have to hire?” I love that nepotism exists even in this supernatural steampunk version of our reality!