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Well, this certainly was a heart-pounding and brutal episode of Pennyworth. I’m still trying to catch my breath.
This really seems like the week Alfie will get out of London before the Ravens take over completely. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that they will use Stormcloud to win the war but things like this can change on a dime. Alfred’s already said his goodbye’s to Sandra, and now that she’s giving him the coldest of shoulders he seems to regret putting so much distance between them. He’s also aware now that Thomas Wayne was the one who orchestrated his involvement in the extraction of Lucius Fox from the Raven HQ. What’s done is done, and no hard feelings, especially since Wayne is helping him get himself, his mum and Dave Boy to safer shores.
Of course there are always complications. Like when Gully showed up at his mum’s house under the pretense of having one more job for Alfred. Alfie looks like a deer in headlights the whole time Gully is there, and he certainly picked up on that asking Alfred if there was anything he wanted to tell Gully. No, nothing, no thank for the job, we’re leaving tomorrow. Gully obviously wasn’t buying it, but left without incident, leaving both Alfred and his mum shaken. Back at his own home, he tried the same tactic with Melanie until she finally told him what he wanted to hear — and with as much venom as she could muster — ‘I fucked Alfred Pennyworth, and I liked it.’ That was met probably exactly how one would expect — brutally. Man, talk about a difficult scene to watch as Gully beat, punched and threw Melanie all over the place, smashing furniture and vases in the process. There really should be a trigger warning for this scene because it was savage. The saving grace was that Melanie was able to grab a piece of broken glass and stab Gully a few times so she could escape. And run right to Alfred.
Thomas and Lucius have their own rude awakening when they learn the American government is going to turn a blind eye to the Ravens gassing the entirety of London because it will bring a swift end to the war after all. Neither of the men are happy, especially when their boss says that they will deny having any knowledge of Stormcloud. And neither of them can talk about it either. But Thomas does have a loophole – Martha. Telling her isn’t quite the same as going to the Prime Minister, but he knows she will and giving Aziz the film Lucius shot of the Stormcloud demonstration is the leverage he’ll need to hold over the American government’s head should the need arise.
But will Stormcloud actually be used? If Salt has anything to do with it, it most certainly will, even though he keeps playing along with the general that the taking of London will be a military operation. Salt has already successfully gotten Frances Gaunt locked away, and now he’s manipulated Harwood into committing murder and placed under house arrest at his family estate. What Salt didn’t count on was a witness to everything — Salt’s sudden promotion with title, and his manipulations to drive Harwood to kill an innocent man — reaching out to Harwood’s friends, the Sykes sisters. Tellin Peg what’s happened, the women spring into action to save Harwood.
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Managing to make their way onto the estate by taking down a few guards, Harwood is genuinely happy to see Peg and Bet, but he knows they have just put themselves in unnecessary danger for him. And seeing Harwood now, he’s quite lucid, probably because he’s not been taking the pills Salt was pushing on him. Harwood knows now the only way to save the lives of the sisters is to surrender, but he will only surrender to Salt. He knows that Salt has basically set him up, and keeping Harwood secluded from the public but still the figurehead of the Ravens means that Salt can deploy Stormcloud … in Harwood’s name, and that just won’t do. Jimmy is adamant about doing this, and promises the sisters that he will create a diversion so they can sneak out the back and get to safety.
Salt arrives the next day and calls for Harwood’s surrender. Jimmy exits the manor in full dress uniform and creates a diversion alright, pointing his gun at Salt, calling him a traitor and demanding the troops escorting him now turn and arrest Salt. Salt can see exactly what Harwood is doing as he frantically waves his pistol and advances toward the troops. Salt yells at them not to shoot because a dead Harwood is useless to him, but Jimmy knows that as well as he squeezes off a couple of shots which triggers the troops to fire back. James Harwood made the ultimate sacrifice for his country and for the Sykes sisters who made their escape. Before they all left, he tasked them with finding Frances and telling her that he sincerely apologizes for not believing in her and allowing himself to be misled by Salt. But will they be able to get to her in time? Will they be the ones to reveal to the world that Harwood is dead? Salt certainly won’t want that made public.
But the day has come for Alfred and company to leave England, and now he’s got an additional passenger — Melanie Troy, and for some reason his mother is not very happy at all. It seemed very odd the way she was treating Melanie. But the call was made for everyone to board the plane … and I kept waiting for that other shoe to drop as Gully showed up and killed her, possibly with Mary Pennyworth as collateral damage. As they all walked toward the plane, Alfred stopped and said he couldn’t go. Mary breathed a sigh of relief and turned around, followed by Dave Boy. But he wanted to make sure Melanie got on that plane and away from her brutal husband. It was actually a little more heartbreaking to see their goodbyes than it was when Sandra walked away from Alfred, but there was one bright spot as Thomas’ sister singled Melanie out to be her new best friend, gossiping all the way to the United States.
But neither Thomas not Lucius got on the plane, and they along with Martha, Alfred and Dave Boy are staying to fight for England.
What did you think of the episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
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