Epix
The second season of Pennyworth is here and Alfred and company live in a very different world than the one we left them in at the end of Season 1. And that is mainly because Lord Harwood and the Raven Society have taken over England with a new Fascist regime, preparing to bear down on London to fully incorporate the country under Harwood’s leadership. Not only that, but Thomas Wayne is back in the US after being shot (and now fully recovered thanks to modern medicine), presenting intelligence to the CIA that the Queen and the No Names really have no chance to hold London against the Raven League (yes, they have an updated name) because they have tanks and other weapons. For his hard work, Thomas is sent back to England to ‘observe’ while the US remains officially neutral, not really something Thomas seems comfortable with (both the stance of neutrality or returning to England).
Upon his return to London, Thomas checks in with Martha and learns she’s now a lieutenant with the rebels and has her own unit under or direction. She can’t quite believe it herself, and she’s not about to listen to Thomas tell her she fighting a losing game against the Ravens. The one thing that’s still there, however, is the spark they had ignited just before Thomas was shot. Except … Thomas is engaged. That’s one way to throw cold water on someone’s feelings. And it only strengthens Martha’s resolve to fight, in fact working with Inspector Aziz to commission a kidnapping of one of the higher ups in Harwood’s league. And there’s only one man for the job … Alfred Pennyworth.
Epix
Since we last saw Alfie, who was forced to kill his father and considering fleeing to the United States, he’s now apparently the proprietor of The Delaney, not just security, where the goal is to allow people from both sides to come and enjoy a night or drink and entertainment … as long as those weapons are checked at the door. And there’s a new girl singer who has her eye on Alfie but he’s more focused on business. And his business costs a lot, more than Martha is willing to pay, but Aziz gives Alfred what he wants because he knows no one else will be able to extract the target as swiftly as Alfred, Bazza and Dave Boy can.
The target is someone named Colonel Salt, a man with unique skills of extracting confessions from insurgents. When we meet him, he’s attempting to get a man to repent for his harsh words against the Ravens. That man is George Orwell, the author of 1984 and Animal Farm. It’s never explicitly mentioned which of Orwell’s works has upset Harwood, but with references to ‘Room 101’, it’s most likely to be 1984. Last season the show introduced the real Aleister Crowley into the story (he will apparently return this season), but Mr. Orwell will not be so lucky as Salt does not believe Orwell has truly repented in his heart so he meets a rather gruesome end. (The real Orwell died in 1950, long before the events of 1960s-set Pennyworth.) But for such a key figure, Salt has some light security which Alfie and the boys easily take down and apprehend Salt without incident.
Salt attempts to talk some information out of Alfred, to no avail, although he knows who Alfred is and he knows Mr. P is considered a hero. But nothing sways Alfred and he turns Salt over to Aziz, whose car is blocked on the way to the station by forces unknown and Aziz is rescued from custody. Aziz believes Alfred had something to do with it because who else knew the exact route and exact time they’d be passing through that particular alley, and Alfred suggests Aziz has a mole inside his organization. It’s enough to make Aziz reconsider his words and apologize to Alfred, but after he leaves the same man we saw at the scene of the rescue turns up at The Delaney and has a sit down with Alfred, accepting payment for a job well done. We don’t know much about the man yet, but he’s played by James Purefoy and he has some long-term connection to Alfred through their military duty.
Epix
Bet Sykes is now working for Harwood as an interrogator, attempting to force confessions out of people believed to be insurgents. And it doesn’t matter if they are or not, as long as she can get names out of them. Sort of like the Communist Witch Hunts in the US where people were forced to give names of possible ‘commies’, often falsely, just to save their own hides. Bet is tasked with getting names from a young woman who was picked up from a commune of hippies. She refuses to give any names, claiming innocence. Bet threatens her with violence if she doesn’t comply, but the woman insists she knows no one and will not just give a random name. Bet is forced to bring an officer in to further the process, now with the threat of sexual assault, but he makes one fatal error — he asks Bet to put a kettle on for him. Bet really does not like taking orders from anyone, but she does put the kettle on … his head, several times, blood splashing everywhere, terrifying the young woman. The act of being treated like some maid set Bet off and she set the young woman free.
With the Ravens encroaching more and more on London, Alfred is close to having enough money to leave England with his mum. But she doesn’t want to go. She believes that because of her husbands stature within the Ravens, that she’ll be okay. But she also adds that she might not have that much time left anyway, which stops Alfie in his tracks.
The second season premiere of Pennyworth was a bit of a reboot as it is set many months after the end of Season 1. We don’t know how Thomas got from London to the US after he was shot, we don’t know what happened after the explosion aside from Alfred’s royal pardon (and the Queen keeps ringing him up for a royal booty call), we don’t know how Harwood actually came to power after he was arrested and imprisoned, as were the Sykes sisters (and there is no sign of Peg). So there are a lot of questions here that may or may not be answered as the story moves forward this season. Either way, the premiere was a good slow burn of building expectations for what is to come and I am fully on board.
What did you think of the season premiere? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Pennyworth airs Sundays at 9:00 PM on Epix.
Share this post
