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Things are beginning to look very dire for London, and one has to wonder if Alfred made the right decision to stay and fight alongside Thomas, Martha and Aziz. Because with Lord Harwood dispatched — and publicly his heart just gave out — Colonel Salt now has almost all the power of the Raven League at his disposal. Even his uneasy partnership with the military is still swinging things in his favor but after a meeting with Aziz and Alfred, it was quite clear that the general was uncomfortable speaking about Stormcloud as a military asset.
But Salt is quite clear of his intentions — meeting with Aziz and the Queen for what are supposed to be ‘peace talks’, he is offended that the pair have given him a list of ‘demands’ to secure a peaceful resolution to the conflict and save London from Stormcloud. Aziz assures him that these are just points of order, but Salt tells them clearly that this is not a negotiation, it is a demand for surrender. And now they have 48 hours to basically give him the keys to the city or Stormcloud will be unleashed. The most surprising thing that came out of the meeting was that we see Aziz and the Queen … are in love? That tender kiss they shared when all seemed lost certainly makes it look that way.
At Harwood’s funeral, Salt gave a televised eulogy that was quite chilling, very dictator-like in its presentation, and Bet and Peg have decided that they will avenge Harwood’s death … by kidnapping Salt’s girlfriend and doing unspeakable things to her. Bringing the actress back to the sex shop, Bet’s girlfriend Katie lays down the law with her, reminding Bet she promised she’d change her ways. Trying to justify doing harm to their ‘guest’ to get back at Salt, Katie warns her that should any harm come to the woman, she will leave Bet. Bet really has a soft spot for Katie and agrees, but she isn’t promising that she won’t do something to Salt when she gets her hands on him. But, they can’t just release the woman back out into the wild, even though she promised not to tell. Nope, now she’s part of the window display with the other guy who’s been there for … who knows how long. I hope at least they’re feeding their human mannequins.
Things are going swimmingly for Thomas and Martha. Their romance seems back on track and they are about to hit the sack when Martha asks Thomas about using protection. He casually says he keeps a condom in his wallet, but she asks why he didn’t use it when they had sex. It slipped his mind, but he’ll use it now. No need, she tells him, she’s already preggers. Angry at first that she’s just now telling him — and putting their child in danger by staying in London — he becomes quite happy that he’s going to be a father, and he’s going to get a marriage license first thing. That’s not exactly a proposal, and Martha is in no hurry to get married just because she’s pregnant. Perhaps it’s the hormones, perhaps it’s just the way Thomas embraces his male chauvinism, or a combination of both, but Martha is not happy in that she sees him trying to control her, so she storms out of her own apartment ‘to get some fresh air’, leaving Thomas perplexed as to what exactly it was he did to flip the situation so quickly.
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Now that Alfred is remaining in London and working with Aziz to fight the Ravens, there is one more thing he has to do so he can move forward — face Gully. Leaving Dave Boy to look after his mum, Alfred goes to Gully’s home because Gully didn’t come to him as expected. There he sees the place is practically destroyed, but Gully tells him he knew Alfie would come to him. He didn’t need to expend the energy to cause any damage. Alfred notes he seems to have expended quite a bit of energy in his own home. Thinking Gully is a ‘sensible’ bloke who will settle things with a few words, Alfred is surprised by two of Gully’s team, guns drawn. This is not going to go down the way Alfred planned.
Instead he ends up in the same forest where Gully killed Banjo, ready to settle things the only way Gully will find acceptable — hand-to-hand combat. He’s even happy to give Alfred a five minute head start … after stabbing him in the gut to ‘even the playing field’. Not only does it put Alfred at a physical disadvantage, the blood loss also provides Gully with a trail of breadcrumbs. There is nothing fair about this fight. As Alfie bleeds out, he gets a few visitations from Bazza, who keeps reminding him that he’s dead so there isn’t much he can do but escort Alfred to the other side, should the time come. Gully finds Alfred, spent, bleeding out, but still with some life in him. The two fight with knives, Alfred loses his and Gully throws him against a tree. When all seems lost, a trap is sprung and Gully is impaled in his side by a large, sharp tree branch, a trick Gully taught Alfred when they were in the military. Ironically, Gully killed the man who showed him how to build the trap, and now it seems as if Alfred has done the same thing.
Making his way back to the van, and having to take out Gully’s ‘back-up’, Alfred collapses and Bazza returns. Is this the end for Alfie? Of course not. He doesn’t know that Dave Boy and his mum went to Gully’s house and had a chat with the female team member waiting for Gully’s return. And by chat, we mean that Mary Pennyworth punched the woman in the face! You go, girl! Getting the location, they find Alfred in the nick of time, he tells Dave Boy that Gully needs an ambulance, and they get Alfred to safety.
But that safety may be short-lived as Salt convenes a meeting to secure the votes to name him the supreme leader of the land. Voting by rank from highest to lowest, everyone gives him an ‘aye’ vote, but there is one more participant who arrives by a high tech wheelchair to cast the final ‘aye’ …
The not actually dead Arthur Pennyworth. Alfie and Mary are in for a shock.
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