Season 1, Episode 2
Written by Jane Espenson
Directed by Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 18 April 2021

“It’s society. Doing nothing is how we panic.”
Lavinia Bidlow

SYNOPSIS

Beth Cassini’s life collapses in a single moment: a slip of the hand at work causes every object around her to levitate. Her employers panic, Beth panics harder, and she flees into the streets with nothing but a pamphlet for St. Romaulda’s Orphanage. She never makes it there — she’s kidnapped before she can reach safety.

Back at the orphanage, Inspector Frank Mundi storms in, convinced Maladie is hiding among the Touched. He finds nothing, but does manage to make everyone uncomfortable, especially when he admits to Amalia that he’s unsettled by the idea of Mary Brighton being one of the Touched. Lavinia Bidlow arrives and, with the kind of authority only Victorian wealth can buy, sends the police packing.

Public opinion has turned sharply against the Touched after the chaos at the opera, so Lavinia drafts Penance and a handful of residents to attend a charitable fete at her estate. The goal: soften the public’s view of the Touched. The reality: Victorian society is exactly as suspicious as expected.

Lord Massen and his fellow council members discuss the opera attack and how it threatens their political interests. Massen later confronts Hugo Swann, who has decided to hire more Touched staff at his club — memberships have skyrocketed since the opera incident. Hugo’s flippant remark about his father enrages Massen, revealing just how tightly wound he is beneath the statesman veneer.

Amalia meets Desirée Blodgett, a Touched woman whose ability forces people to confess their secrets. After a vision of a confrontation with Maladie, Amalia brings Desirée to Mundi, where Desirée’s power reveals the truth: Mundi and Mary were once engaged, and Mary left him at the altar. His obsession with finding her has nothing to do with Maladie’s crimes and everything to do with heartbreak.

Mary, meanwhile, is being held in an abandoned factory, tormented by Maladie’s followers.

At the fete, Penance and Auggie Bidlow share a gentle moment — until Lavinia warns her brother that people will assume Penance used her powers on him. Auggie withdraws instantly, leaving Penance hurt and quietly exiting the estate.

Amalia’s visions finally align: she locates Maladie’s hideout. Inside the factory, she finds both Penance and Mary standing on a platform, each with a noose around her neck. Amalia confronts Maladie, and the two call each other “Sarah” and “Molly,” revealing a shared past — and a betrayal. Maladie forces Amalia to choose which friend to save. Instead, Amalia shoots herself, breaking the standoff long enough to shoot Maladie as well.

Maladie escapes with her followers just as Mundi and the authorities arrive. Horatio Cousens heals Amalia’s wound, and the crisis ends — for now.

TRIVIA

CONTINUITY