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Let’s Talk About ‘Silver Birch’:
- Thomas Wayne is a prisoner in the Tower of London after stabbing Martha.
- Martha is in surgery, but is expected to survive.
- Patrick Wayne offers Alfie a million pounds to break his son out of prison and get him on a plane to the US.
- Mrs. P is hesitant about re-entering the dating pool after her last experience … until Roger shows up on her doorstep.
- Daveboy may be getting in too deep with his hook-up from the funeral.
- Alfie is quite suspicious of Patrick and his companion Virginia, and is certain they have something to do with both Thomas’ and the late Jessica Thistle’s behavior.
- Alfred and Sandra seem to be rekindling their romance.
- Doctor Glubb can’t reach Martha to make their deal with Aziz — he doesn’t know her condition — but a mysterious caller makes him a potentially better offer.
This week’s episode of Pennyworth was undoubtedly one of the most tension-filled episodes of the series so far, carrying a sense of dread throughout that something terrible could happen at any moment. Things started off fine as Alfred and Sandra ended up spending the night together, but his reverie was quickly interrupted by a crew of hair stylists, make-up artists, and wardrobe people bursting into the bedroom without so much as a knock to get Sandra ready for a photo shoot. They didn’t even notice Alfie and Sandra just offered him a friendly ‘Bye, Alfie’ on his way out the door. Talk about ruining a moment.
Alfred’s day just went south after that, only learning as he returned to the office that Thomas Wayne attempted to murder his wife, who is in surgery, and is now an occupant of the Tower of London … which Alfred regards more as a tourist attraction than a real prison so it’s curious that he would be placed there. It’s not long, however, before Patrick Wayne shows up at the office to hire Alfred to break Thomas out of the prison and get him on a plane bound for the United States, Gotham City to be exact, for safe keeping until they can get this whole mess sorted out. Alfred thinks it’s going to be a real chore to get Thomas to abandon not only his wife but his daughter, and turns down the job. Patrick is insistent and offers him a million pounds, with 10,000 as a retainer. Alfie, of course, is not one to turn down a big payday and accepts Wayne’s offer. Now he just has to convince Daveboy and Lucius to help him out, but first he tries to sus out some info from Aziz as to why Thomas is in the Tower. Aziz, sensing Alfred is planning something, warns him that the Tower is the safest place for Thomas at this point, especially if Alfred believes he was drugged like Jessica Thistle. But does anyone think Alfred is going to let this go so easily?
And can he depend on Daveboy — especially since Bet is still MIA? Meeting Lucius and Alfred at the pub, Lucius notes that Daveboy is wearing the same suit he had on the previous night, signifying he did not go home, not a good look for a professional. Daveboy doesn’t really care because he’s been shagging Sally, but his concern is that things may be developing a bit deeper than he wants — she’s invited him to an art gallery opening, of all things. Daveboy at an art gallery?!? He’s also not too thrilled with Alfred’s new mission to spring Thomas from prison but for a million quid how can he say no? He also didn’t say no to Sally’s invitation either. So off they go to the Tower in a van with Alfred’s office manager Chadley in the driver’s seat. Lucius is there as well, not thrilled in the least, with some new gadgets he’s been working on — a grappling gun and a device that will unlock the prison cell door. Alfie takes the wind out of his sails by telling him how his grappling hook works, and Daveboy is further deflated when he learns that once Alfred is up inside the tower, he will have to climb up the wall with the aid of just a rope. Why didn’t Alfie just toss him the grappling gun so he could be hoisted up automatically as well?! They find Thomas’ cell, and by this time they’ve gotten word that Martha is in recovery and Samantha is with Mrs. P, and Alfred reveals the plan to get Thomas on a plane … an offer which Thomas refuses, but does he have a choice?
After breaking Thomas out, Daveboy goes to the gallery still in his Tower guard Beefeater costume. Sally introduces him to a puzzling character named Francis, a flamboyant man who thinks Daveboy is just as interesting as himself. Daveboy doesn’t quite know what to make of Francis and we’re left to wonder how this character will play into future episodes because you don’t cast Game of Thrones alum Paul Kaye for a weird one-off cameo (and there is a hint at who he may turn out to be on his IMDb page but we won’t spoil that here). Meanwhile, Mary is tending to Samantha when there is a knock at the door. Alfred has filled her in by phone on what’s going on, but the knock unnerves her enough to pick up the pistol he’s given her for protection. The gentleman at the door turns out to be Roger, someone from the Lonelyhearts that she was supposed to go on a date with. Things are a bit hectic at the moment and she tries to shoo him away, especially after her last date, but he appeals to her kindness, telling her it was a long way to get there including two busses. She invites him in for a cup of tea before she sends him on his way, and to her delight he actually turns out to be a very nice man, just as shocked as she was by her previous date’s suggestion to ‘carpe diem’. And then Alfred comes home and it all goes pear-shaped for them because his entry through the back made her nervous enough to pull out that gun. But he had to sneak in that way because he had Thomas with him, so the front door was not an option. It was all too much for poor Roger, and he hurriedly ended the date, much to Mary’s displeasure, shooting Alfred a glare for cocking it all up. Again.
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But now it’s time for Alfred to collect his fee from Patrick, and arriving at the Wayne residence he is greeted by Virginia. She’s cordial enough, but flies into a rage when it’s revealed Patrick is paying him a million pounds to get Thomas out of the country. Alfred assures Patrick that his son is now safely somewhere over the Atlantic. Virginia says Thomas is not going to pay a thing, but Alfred assures her that he will or else he’ll start talking publicly about Lullaby, the drug that was used on Thomas and Jessica and the others at Sister Susie’s ashram. And them Thomas bursts through the door — ruining Alfred’s payday — and confronts his father about trying to make him kill his wife. Patrick, about to be throttled by his son, admits that it wasn’t him, it was Virginia — she’s CIA, his handler, she made him do all of this. She pulls a gun on them all and tells them to sit down, and Thomas wants to know why his father had a handler. Patrick said he made some mistakes, errors of judgment. Virginia helpfully fills in the blanks: fraud, corruption, sexual assault among his many sins. But why is the CIA mucking about with drugs when there are easier ways to kill people. Virginia says it isn’t just about killing people, it’s about controlling people, whole armies, to do their bidding. She’s trying to control a matter of national security, but Alfie says she’s just trying to cover her ass. Doesn’t matter because she and Patrick are returning to the States, leaving Alfred and Thomas to deal with the police. Thomas says he’ll just tell them the truth, but she assures him that no one will listen because America is an ally and he and Alfred are much better culprits. But before Patrick can follow her orders and handcuff Thomas and Alfred, Virginia gets a surprise when the police burst in. She said no one called the police, but Alfred said he did. Maybe he should have mentioned that. Alfred explains that the plan was to get Mr. Wayne to confess so they could find out where Lullaby was stashed, but Thomas screwed that up by not waiting outside like he was supposed to. Virginia says they’ve done nothing wrong and points to Alfred and Thomas as fugitives. As they are all being cuffed, Patrick tells her she might as well mention ‘Scorched Earth’ but she tells him to shut up. But he reminds her she has diplomatic immunity so spill the beans. Alfie says that sounds ominous and wants to know what it means, but Virgina says it’s too late, she couldn’t call them off if she wanted to. Turns out ‘scorched earth’ was the code for tidying up this mess by taking out Martha.
Two CIA agents enter the hospital and make their way to Martha’s room … where they are greeted by Aziz and a phalanx of officers, guns drawn and aimed directly at them. Whoops, wrong room they say, and quickly exit. Aziz confirms with Alfred that the CIA’s men were indeed there but Martha is safe. Alfred hopes that Aziz will be able to see past this incident and release him and Thomas since it was he who called him into this matter after all. Later he returns to the pub and finds Daveboy and Sally having a snog on the other side of the bar, and upstairs in his office he finds Sandra waiting for him. Well, she really couldn’t leave while Daveboy was downstairs with that woman, so she helped herself to a drink and waited. Alfie is more than happy that she’s there, but she tells him she’s not looking to re-start anything with him. But a shag or two among friends isn’t out of the question, it seems.
And that leaves us with the mysterious Doctor Glubb. Previously he’d met with Martha to set up a deal with Aziz for his services, but now he’s been unable to reach her as planned, unaware of the attempted murder because of his drug. He keeps trying to call her office from a call box, but is frustrated by the continued response that she’s unavailable. Hanging up and turning to leave, the phone rings, an unusual occurrence for a call box. Picking it up, a voice on the other end speaks directly to the doctor, making him concerned that someone is watching him, but from where? The person on the other end of the line is very interested in using the doctor’s services, and Glubb finds himself tied to a chair with a bag over his head. A figure enters from behind, clad in a black cape and hat, removing the back from Glubb’s head, and turning to reveal a mask — a Guy Fawkes mask (the costume is a direct copy of the one seen in the movie V for Vendetta). He leans down, face-to-face with Glubb and says they are meant to do great things together. End scene. Who is this mystery man, and what exactly is he planning? Don’t read on if you want to avoid a presumptive spoiler.
SPOILER ALERT: I don’t know for certain but the appearance of this Guy Fawkes character seems to be tied directly to Sally, because I believe it is the odd gentleman whom she introduced to Daveboy. Somehow, they are going to rope Daveboy into their plot and end up pitting him against Alfred. Hopefully it won’t end as badly for him as things did for Bazza back in Season 1.
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
New episodes of Pennyworth stream Thursdays on HBO Max.
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