The Nevers Review: Undertaking (Season 1 Episode 4)
The Nevers Season 1 Episode 4, “Undertaking,” continues to give us just enough to stay interested, but not enough information to piece together the puzzle.
After four episodes, The Nevers has given us a rich world that is full of nooks and crannies to explore, but it’s introduced and expanded so much without getting to the heart of anything that is happening.
“The Undertaking” is generally a heavy episode following the fallout of Mary Brighton’s murder. There’s some who-done-it, but the real weight of the episode is on the content of Mary’s song. Myrtle (Viola Prettejohn) is essential in figuring out what’s being said, and the scenes where she and Harriet (Kira Sonia Sawar) get all the orphans from different backgrounds to translate the song is so heartwarming and touching.
The character that really steals the show is Harriet.
While everyone is struggling with and mourning Mary in their own way, Harriet’s the one whose grief we see the most concretely. Listening to her lament about how she can’t really do anything because she can’t go to law school or lace into Aneel draws us into her. Sawar does a great job playing this character and she deserves to be put front and center more often.
Harriet’s lament about Aneel and law school is also heartbreaking. It’s easy to forget that The Nevers is set in the 19th century until a conversation like this where the current power structure is brought into the foreground.
While these moments draw us into Harriet we don’t really get enough to latch onto. We are continuously pulled into different sides of the investigation into what happened to Mary. It’s an important question and one the series needs to dedicate time to, but all we see from it is the revelation that Amalia has been betrayed.
The reveal that Lucy has been working against Amalia, and hoping for a cure feels like a slap in the face, but it also continues to present the different angles as to how the Touched fit into this society. It’s an interesting development to realize that some of them may be hoping for a cure, but we also haven’t been connected to enough of them to have that empathy.
Penance alluded to what happened to Lucy’s son, but hearing Lucy talk about those moments is more effective.
While the plot developments keep the story inching forward, the heart of this series is Amalia. We keep getting tidbits of her story, but not enough to make heads or tails of what her motive is. This continues to be the case on “The Undertaking,” but we finally get a little look at her interiority when Harriet reads the song translation.
Laura Donnelly’s performance when Amalia reacts to the words is fantastic. It does give the audience enough to infer that whoever was speaking to her through Mary was important to her. Now if only we had an answer as to who, maybe we could get a little more invested in who Amalia really is under that glossy armor.
I can appreciate the slow burn, and the expansive world that The Nevers has created, but it needs to loosen its purse strings a bit to let the audience in a bit.
Stray Thoughts:
- Amalia in the bar is my hero.
- The scene between Pip Torrens and Laura Donnelly as they talk through Mary’s murder is an interesting one. It’s an interesting play on power dynamics and I think it really serves the series’ tone to have these characters play in such a way that we can see them ruffle each other’s feathers.
- I still want to know what Lavenia Bidlow is up to. Is the show going to return to that before the midseason finale in a couple of weeks?
- Having Myrtle jump into Primrose’s arms when Primrose figures out what she’s trying to say is a nice touch. I appreciate the special effects that go into making Primrose a giant but not having her touch or interact with someone was something I was lowkey noticing. Having such an enthusiastic contact really sold the idea that Primrose is real.
What did you think of this episode of The Nevers? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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The Nevers airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.