Season 1, Episode 1:
Pilot
Douglas Broome: "A girl started in my engine works last month wiping down the plating press. She slipped. Got her arm caught in the press. And then she pulled it back out. Three tons of pressure, and she snapped the hydraulic without so much as a bruise."
In Victorian London in 1899, the mysterious Amalia True runs an orphanage as a safe haven for the Touched, individuals - mostly women and minorities - who suddenly developed supernatural abilities or physical abnormalities three years ago.
Tropes in this episode:
- Alien Space Bats: An apparent alien ship gives people superpowers in 1896.
- At the Opera Tonight: Lavinia Bidlow takes Amalia and Prudence to the opera, in an effort to show people the Touched as a part of normal society. It doesn't go as planned.
- Concert Climax: A night out at the opera turns into a bloodbath when Maladie arrives.
- Differently Powered Individual: Those who have come down with 'turns' are referred to as 'the Touched'.
- Establishing Character Moment: Hugo is introduced in bed with both a man and a woman.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: When Penance introduces Myrtle to Primrose, Primrose thinks Penance is trying to impress her with the car, and brushes Penance off by saying she can't ride in it. When Penance explains that she's trying to introduce Primrose to Myrtle, Primrose stands up, and it's revealed that this remark wasn't just a continuation of her dismissing the car as "common" and "a blight", but because her size makes her physically unable to ride in the car.
- Foreshadowing: Primrose's turn isn't apparent to the audience at first thanks to the blocking, but it's hinted at with some lines of dialogue and Myrtle doing a double take upon meeting her for the first time even before she stands up to her full height of 10 feet.Lucy Best: Does she think she's too big for a spanking?
- Gadgeteer Genius: Penance's power allows her to see potential energy, lending itself well to the creation of complex mechanisms. Among other things, she's created umbrella stun guns, flying flashbang grenades, a carriage with an automaton coachman, and a miniature steampunk car.
- Healing Hands: Dr. Cousens has them, and serves as the orphanage's de facto physician.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: Accompanied by Laser-Guided Amnesia. At the end of the episode, we see what appears to be an alien ship fly over London, releasing glowing motes of light that enter the bodies of people all over the city - many of whom we know go on to be Touched. The entire city gawks up at the ship, but when it disappears beneath the horizon, they pick up and continue on their day without any awareness of what just happened. Except for the woman who will become Maladie.
- New Technology Is Evil: While Lucy and Harriet are amazed by Penance's motor-car, Primrose is dismissive of it.Lucy: [upon hearing that Penance is driving her motorcar] It's mad. Primrose, you've got to see!
Primrose: Mother says motorcars are common.
Lucy: Common?! There's only eight of them that ever were!
Primrose: [haughtily] I wouldn't expect you to understand, but Mother says they're a blight. - Omniglot: Myrtle's power allows her to speak and understand every known language. Unfortunately, she has no control over which language she speaks at any given moment.
- Personality Powers: In some cases. We see 1896 Penance jury-rig a water pump, and she becomes a Gadgeteer Genius. Dr. Cousens gets Healing Hands. Mary, a singer, receives the ability to sing a song only the Touched can hear.
- Seer: Amalia's power - she randomly receives glimpses of her near-term future, which she calls 'ripples'. Unfortunately, she cannot control when she receives them, nor when or what she sees.
