‘The Nevers’ Series Finale Ending Explained: Who Dies and What is the End Credits Scene for HBO’s Canceled Series?

The final six episodes of HBO’s The Nevers Season 1 were never aired on TV or HBO Max. They were written, produced, edited, and finished, but yanked from the schedule during new WB Discovery chief David Zaslav’s recent burst of brutal cancellations. But diehard fans got the chance to finally watch them when they were streamed on Tubi’s live channel offering this week. 

And guess what? I watched all six episodes. I know how the first season of HBO’s The Nevers was supposed to end.

So did Zaslav make a good choice by offloading the final six episodes of The Nevers to Tubi? Or did the show finish its first season on a creative high note? What exactly happened to characters like Amalia True (Laura Connelly), Penance Adair (Ann Skelly), or the gallows-skipping Maladie (Amy Manson)? Did we ever find out what happened to villain Massen’s (Pip Torrens) daughter locked in the cellar? Would Hugo Swan (James Norton) have more underground orgies? What happened next to the Galanthi??? WOULD PENANCE AND AUGIE (TOM RILEY) EVER KISS???

I know the answers to all these questions, including who dies in the final episode of The Nevers Season 1 and if there’s an end-credits scene. Spoiler: a lot of characters you loved and hated die and of course there is an end-credits scene!

Speaking of SPOILERS, there are tons ahead for the final six episodes of The Nevers ahead…

The Nevers Season 1 Ending Explained: What Happens in the Final Six Episodes That Never Aired on HBO?

You want to know what happens in the six canned episodes of The Nevers? Well, a lot happens! And not all of it makes sense! This is, after all, The Nevers. 

We learn in The Nevers Episode 7 “It’s a Good Day” that Dr. Hague (Denis O’Hare) was such a Norman Bates-level Mama’s Boy that he constructed a telephone to speak to the dead. It doesn’t work until the day of the spores. When he picks up the phone, he hears his mother’s voice. He is unaware this is the fellow hitchhiker from the future who has traveled back in time with Amalia/Zephyr. Amalia’s visions and some good old fashioned gumshoeing lead her and Penance to Hague’s house where they make contact with this new mysterious threat we’ll just call “Mother.”

Myrtle (Viola Prettejohn) tries to cosplay as Amalia and instead gets into a fight with a pair of truly awful cockney girls who I guess were in Part 1. When one of them follows her with a knife, Myrtle accidentally kills the Purist gal with the blade. he disgraced Lucy Best (Elizabeth Berrington) emerges to help Myrtle and attempts to take the fall for the murder using her power to break the dead girl’s body. The little scamp who survives becomes a bloodthirsty child warrior rallying fellow Purists to the cause like she’s an evil Lyanna Mormont. More on this later.

Lavinia Bidlow (Olivia Williams) later asks Lucy to use her powers to break through the underground Galanthi’s impenetrable shell. Lucy, distraught over the harm her “gift” has caused, does so believing it will cure her. Instead, it sets off an earthquake that nearly destroys London, trapping Lavinia and Lucy underground. We learn the Galanthi looks like an infant-sized version of a blue shark gummy with many eyes. Augie, who was spying on Lavinia, is trapped with them and able to save his sister (but we’ll get to what happens there later). Lucy eventually dies, but not before making contact with Penance and Amalia, who are also underground!!

Amalia and Penance then run into Maladie, who is after the escaped Galanthi. So Amalia and Maladie run after the little blue alien, chasing it into one of Hugo’s underground Saturnalias. Hugo is painted gold. The workmanship on his party is crap, meaning that the pool the Galanthi swims into collapses into the sewer. Amalia and Maladie swim after it and meet it in the middle of the Thames. Gross!

We learn that Augie is responsible for Lavinia’s disability. In their teens, Augie showed Lavinia an apiary where he was dissecting birds. While Augie says he didn’t hurt them — implying he just found them dead — Lavinia chooses to interpret this as proof Augie is killing animals for fun. She burns down the hut and Augie, in a childish rage, shoves her. Her fall is what lands her in a wheelchair. 

When Augie and Lavinia confront each other underground, Lavinia reveals that she always known that Augie is “touched” and implies she wants to kill the Galanthi to cure Augie of his evil. Augie leaves Lavinia underground to die. She emerges via the sewer and crashes a party Augie is hosting. Oh! And Augie finally gets the nerve to kiss Penance. Sorry, a lot is happening! At the party, Lavinia has Augie committed (though he uses birds to later kill his captors and escape) while Dr. Hague kidnaps Penance to use her power to follow energy currents to free “Mother.”

Lavinia and her goons have located the Galanthi and an unconscious Amalia and given them both to Dr. Hague. The madman’s plan? Force Penance to use her ability to set up a system that will allow “Mother” to take over the body of the Galanthi. Penance learns that “Mother” used to be an ally of Amalia in her future Zephyr timeline but now has turned on the Galanthi.

While Penance is doing all this, Amalia is trapped in some kind of psychic trip where she is forced to drink and argue with the other two versions of herself: Zephyr (Claudia Black! She’s back!) and Molly. Mary (Eleanor Tomlinson) eventually takes over along with visions of Penance’s death. There’s much ado about how talking isn’t telling and you don’t know what you’d live for until you know what you’d die for. Amalia wakes up just in time for Penance to fight Dr. Hague. There’s a scuffle and Dr. Hague is placed in the way of “Mother’s” energy, presumably killing him, but not.

Then Lavinia shows up with some guys with guns. “Mother” enters the Galanthi and there’s a blackout. Amalia wakes up again to Lavinia attempting to shoot the Galanthi to death. With each shot, Amalia and Penance feel pain.

While all this stuff was happening, Maladie returns home to Sarah’s life, where we learn her husband is an abuser who sold her to Dr. Hague. Maladie murders her husband and is discovered by Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin), who lets her go. Maladie joins a gang of Maladies that includes a runaway Myrtle. Maladie and Myrtle figure out that the screams of the Galanthi only Maladie can hear are a cry for help. Maladie and her gang fight off Lavinia’s goons.

Lavinia and her one loyal maid get away, but they are found by Augie. He, uh, straight up murders his sister.

Elsewhere Hugo has become a good person. He and Frank Mundi (Ben Chaplin) have rescued Lillie from Massen’s cellar. She has horns and a monster face, but otherwise seems normal, albeit traumatized. They take her to the Orphanage, which has been saved from political ruin by now nice Hugo and Harriet (Kiran Sonia Sawar). What they don’t know is Nick Frost and that evil child I mentioned are being sent by Massen to destroy the Orphanage and kill everyone inside.

Amalia has a vision of the Orphanage’s doom so she, Penance, and Myrtle go to their friends’ aid, leaving Maladie and her pals with the Galanthi. Maladie notices that Dr. Hague is still alive, but something “more,” aka “Mother”, is inside of him. “Mother” goes into the Galanthi and immediately it looks like the creature is dead. Everyone’s powers go away the minute the Purists attack.

Much fighting and death happens after Amalia, Penance, and Myrtle arrive. Myrtle kills the little evil girl after she kills formerly giant girl Primrose (Anna Devlin). Massen learns that his daughter is at the Orphanage and tries to stage his version of Liam Neeson’s Taken, but it does not go well. Lillie rejects him, Mundi and Hugo fight him, and Mundi shoots two bullets. One kills Massen and the other accidentally gets Hugo, who dies in Mundi’s arms.

After Maladie finally defeats Dr. Hague, the Galanthi stirs. Everyone gets their powers back in time to save the Orphanage, but Amalia is mortally wounded. As she dies — surrounded by Penance and Horatio (Zackary Momoh)— Amalia sees Mary in the bar again. She/the Galanthi explains Amalia had to die for her friends to understand why they would do the same.

Here’s where it gets weird and confusing, if you can imagine that!

The sparks that originally settled into everyone start coming out. They all zoom into the Galanthi’s body and then the light becomes a starburst in the sky. The Galanthi sacrifices itself to create yet more sparks. Amalia comes back from the dead and explains to Penance that the Galanthi has turned itself and its energy into seeds. As these seeds land back into the Touched and still more people, it’s turning people into the Galanthi.

Amalia thinks this is great, but Penance points out that an alien species has just colonized earth and taken over humanity without consent. Penance breaks with Amalia and returns to her workshop where she sees Augie. They embrace. (I assume they were supposed to be the baddies in Season 2???)

Oh, and there’s more stuff, like how Horatio can now hurt people with his hands and his kid sees other people’s nightmares and there’s a bad puppeteer man and Nimble Jack (Vinnie Heaven) is writing newspaper stories about the Touched, but who cares! What’s the official body count? What happens in the end credits?

Who Dies in The Nevers Season 1’s Final Episodes?

A lot of people! 

A cockney girl named Nancy dies, stabbed by Myrtle.

Lucy dies, after breaking through the Galanthi’s shield.

Maladie’s husband Lester dies, killed by Maladie.

Lavinia Bidelow dies, strangled by Augie.

Primrose the giant girl dies, stabbed by vengeful cockney girl Bessie.

Bessie dies, whacked and stabbed to death by Myrtle.

Dr. Hague finally dies, stabbed in the temple with a scalpel by Maladie.

Massen and Hugo Swan die, both shot by Mundi, though Hugo was an accident.

The Galanthi dies, sacrificing itself.

Amalia dies, stabbed by Bessie and others, but then comes back to life.

Amalia and Penance’s friendship dies.

What Happens in The Nevers Season 1’s End Credits Scene?

The last we see of Myrtle, she is approaching the dead Galanthi. We then see her walking home in the dark, singing “I’ll Be Seeing You,” and lighting up street lights with a newfound magical power. The implication is that “Mother” is inside her. We still don’t know who “Mother” is, but Myrtle seems happy?

Were the Final Episodes of The Nevers Good?

They were certainly a lot! In the grand scheme of things, I can see why Zaslav thought this would be a good title to take off HBO Max to make money elsewhere. It’s a rather convoluted mess that boasts a small, but devoted fanbase that might follow it to another site.

Did I enjoy watching the final episodes of The Nevers? Well, that’s complicated. It’s certainly a fascinating show in that it’s bizarre. The acting is pretty good. I liked rooting for some of the characters. But I found myself mostly frustrated by the questions left unanswered. What exactly was “Mother” and how did this energy force know how to manipulate Dr. Hague? Is the Galanthi good or evil? Why is Amalia the only dead character worthy of magical regeneration? What was Nick Frost doing in this show? Did Augie murder those birds?

I guess these are questions that the showrunner was planning to answering in Season 2. The problem is we’ll never get that second season.

Where Can I Watch the Final Episodes of The Nevers?

Miss the last six episodes of The Nevers on Tubi TV? All 12 episodes of The Nevers will be run “live” once again on Tubi from March 1-3.