The Nevers: What’s In Lord Massen’s Basement

HBO’s The Nevers episode 3, “Ignition,” hints at something sinister lurking in Lord Massen’s basement. In the episode, a repairman is laying telephone wire at Lord Massen’s estate, much to the owner’s chagrin. The repairman ventures into the basement and hears something unsettling; however, before he has time to investigate, the housekeeper arrives and attributes the noise to rabid dogs. In a show with a bevy of secrets, that answer is far too underwhelming.

Lord Massen is an old-fashioned man who exists among London’s more conservative elite. He is part of the faction against the Touched and their so-called ‘turns.’ In this fantastical reimagination of Victorian London, the new underclass represents everything Lord Massen despises – a threat to the apparent natural order of everything he clings to. Most of the Touched are young women who possess superhuman abilities. And in classic period drama fashion, everyone has secrets, even those they’d least expect. Surely, a man of order like Lord Massen isn’t hiding any skeletons in his closet or basement.

The Nevers‘ series premiere features the initial flashback to the supernatural event that caused the Touched’s abilities, and in that scene, Lord Massen witnesses his daughter collapse after being touched by a celestial spark from a spaceship overhead. In episode 3, a cut to the tombstones of his wife and daughter appears to confirm his daughter’s death, but maybe she is still alive. With all of the emphasis on Lord Massen’s estate and ominous basement, it’s safe to assume that Lord Massen’s daughter might be one of the many cast of characters in The Nevers who changed that day. Judging by the sinister nature of the gnashing and snarling sounds emitting from the basement, her ‘turn’ may not be as palatable as the other gifted young girls.

This predicted plot twist of Lord Massen faking his daughter’s death could provide a backstory for his ardent dislike of the Touched, beyond conservative politics. If that fateful day did turn his daughter into something monstrous, then the divide is no longer professional; it’s personal. When Lord Massen meets Amalia True (Laura Donnelly) and Penance Adair (Ann Skelly) in the series premiere, he greets them with a frigid reception, which only serves as further evidence for this supposed secret. Amalia runs St. Ramaulda’s Orphanage for members of the Touched community – shunned misfits in need of solace, but also protection from the larger community. He is the last person who would willingly entrust his daughter to her care, believing that they are the root of London’s “feminine plague.”

The reveal of Lord Massen harboring his Touched daughter in the basement would certainly prove scandalous since the show has established him as one of the main antagonists against the Touched. With his status as a high-ranking government official and his in the know information regarding the government’s equal dislike of society’s newest group of people, he might also feel inclined to protect his daughter from both sides of a divided city. After all, his daughter’s tombstone is next to his wife’s, so he no stranger to grief. However, seeing the time period the show is set in and that Lord Massen is the head of one of London’s noble families, it’s just as likely that, if the thing in the basement truly is his daughter, that he hid her away rather than her bring shame upon their family name. In any case, it’s certain to be revealed later in the first season of The Nevers.

More: Joss Whedon’s Involvement With The Nevers Explained

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