Season 1, Episode 1
Written by Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 11 April 2021

“We’re woven into the fabric of the world, and we’re meant to be as we are.”
Penance Adair

SYNOPSIS

In the late 1890s, London is quietly losing its mind. A growing number of citizens — mostly women — have begun exhibiting strange abilities, and society has no idea what to do with them. St. Romaulda’s Orphanage has become a refuge for these “Touched,” led by Amalia True, who sees flashes of the future, and her closest friend Penance Adair, an inventor whose knack for potential energy borders on supernatural.

Their day begins with a rescue: Myrtle Haplisch, a young girl suddenly speaking in a jumble of languages, has been chained to her bed by terrified parents. Amalia and Penance arrive intending to help, only to discover she’s being kidnapped by hired thugs. A chase through the streets follows — stagecoach first, motorcar second — and Myrtle is brought safely to the orphanage. There she meets Horatio Cousens, a doctor with healing abilities, and Primrose Chattoway, who stands ten feet tall and is still somehow the most polite person in the room.

Elsewhere, the government is already panicking. Lord Massen, who never met a moral panic he didn’t enjoy, insists the Touched are a threat to society. Inspector Frank Mundi of Scotland Yard investigates a murder at a factory, complete with a misspelled biblical message on the wall. A worker blames the serial killer Maladie, but Mundi points out that Maladie can, in fact, spell.

Augustus Bidlow visits his friend Hugo Swann — owner of a private club and professional libertine — seeking help with matters involving the Touched. Meanwhile, Amalia and Penance attempt to gather information from Declan Orrun, the Beggar King, who agrees to help but does so with the kind of threat that suggests he enjoys his work far too much.

At the opera, Lavinia Bidlow (Auggie’s sister and the patron of the orphanage) attends a performance with her brother. Maladie interrupts the show in spectacular fashion, murdering an actor onstage before her henchman opens fire on the audience. Amid the chaos, one performer, Mary Brighton, reveals a strange, angelic voice that resonates deeply with Amalia, Penance, and Auggie. Maladie abducts Mary, and Amalia gives chase, losing half her dress in the process.

Mundi continues his investigation, questioning Hugo but receiving nothing useful. Penance finds Amalia afterwards, comforting her as they try to understand the strange song Mary sang — something more than music, something that felt like a message.

Meanwhile, Dr. Edmund Hague is shown performing grotesque experiments on Touched individuals, attempting to understand their abilities. He hints that he was behind Myrtle’s attempted kidnapping.

Finally, a flashback to 1896 reveals the origin of the Touched: three years earlier, a mysterious aircraft drifted over London, scattering glowing particles across the city. Those touched by the sparkles gained abilities — Penance, Auggie, Mary, Cousens, Maladie, Massen’s daughter, and Amalia herself, who at that moment was drowning after a suicide attempt. The ship vanished underground, and everyone who witnessed it immediately forgot the event… except Maladie, who remembers everything and has been trying, unsuccessfully, to convince others ever since.

Amalia, revived by the sparkles, swam to the surface — and the world has been different ever since.

TRIVIA

CONTINUITY