WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 7, of Pennyworth, “The Bloody Mary,” which aired Sunday on EPIX.
In Season 2 of Pennyworth, the EPIX series plunged viewers into the middle of a war between the Raven Union and the English League. All of the United Kingdom had fallen, and London remained the only city left to be conquered. While all characters played different roles in this war, Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) had only one goal: secure enough money so he could take himself, his mother Mary (Dorothy Atkinson) and his friends to America, where they would be safe. Now, as the series’ latest episode begins, Alfred finally has all the money he needs and the plane is set to take off the next day.
As “The Bloody Mary” begins, Alfred finds himself on the eve of departure. He makes his final preparations, but an unexpected visit from Gulliver Troy (James Purefoy) complicates matters. Troy’s presence is menacing and ominous, and Alfred suspects that his old SAS Captain finally knows that he is sleeping with his wife, Melanie (Jessica de Gouw). And while Troy doesn’t confront Alfred directly, he does end up cornering his wife, forcing her to tell him the truth. In answer, Gulliver violently beats his wife, and she fights back by stabbing him repeatedly with a broken piece of glass that leaves him wounded.
Melanie runs to Alfred, explaining what has just happened. Realizing that Gulliver now represents an awfully dangerous threat to the both of them, Alfred agrees to take Melanie with him to America, where they will be able to live happily as a couple, far away from her husband. However, once he, Melanie, Dave Boy (Ryan Fletcher) and Mary are all about the embark on the plane, Alfred changes his mind. Just before departing, he realizes that London is his home and that he needs to stay and fight for it. Mary and Dave Boy both agree to stay with him, but Melanie still leaves, in order to be free of her abusive husband. Melanie and Alfred share a tearful goodbye, and he promises to visit her whenever he finally travels to America.
What’s more, Alfred isn’t the only one who ends up declining to leave London. Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge) and Lucius Fox (Simon Manyonda) are both set to depart on the very same plane. Lucius is adamant that their CIA superiors intervene to stop the Raven Union from unleashing their chemical weapon, “Project Stormcloud,” but the organization has no interest in letting the war go on any longer. They cite plausible deniability and agree to let the Union win. However, Lucius simply can’t abide by that, and neither can Thomas.
The two agree to remain in London and, at the airport, Thomas reconnects with Alfred. The two bond over their willingness to fight for London and all three men travel to the English League’s headquarters where they tell Prime Minister Aziz (Ramon Tikaram) and Martha Kane (Emma Paetz) all that they know about “Project Stormcloud.” Everyone sees the horror in this weapon, and they are all determined to prevent it from being used.
Meanwhile, Lord Harwood (Jason Flemyng) now finds himself under house arrest at his family’s estate. After he lost control and killed one of the Raven Union’s soldiers, the army is determined to have him prosecuted. However, Colonel Salt (Edward Hogg), who is now at the head of the Union, is determined to keep all of this quiet for the time being. In truth, all he wants is to keep Harwood alive, so that he may use him as a scapegoat when “Project Stormcloud” is unleashed on London.
However, Salt’s plan runs into a massive complication when one of Harwood’s secretaries contacts Bet Sykes (Paloma Faith) and her sister, Peggy (Polly Walker). She informs them about Lord Harwood’s situation, and the two women rapidly storm the estate in order to free him. Unfortunately, the army is simply too numerous, and they are unable to escape. But Harwood devises a plan: he agrees to surrender to Salt, which he will use to create a diversion to allow Bet and Peggy to escape.
Harwood may be unhinged, but he knows exactly why Salt needs him alive — and that is why, when he surrenders to him and the army, he draws a weapon on them. The soldiers open fire, and Lord Harwood is shot repeatedly until he falls dead to the ground. The character’s death is tragic, but it comes with hope. Salt has now run into a complication that will prevent him from using “Stormcloud” right away, and Bet and her sister have escaped, with the mission to find and free Frances Gaunt, the one woman who could wrestle control of the Raven Union from Salt’s treacherous hands. With only three episodes to go, the war for London is heating up, and everyone is caught in a race to stop “Project Stormcloud” from being launched.
Developed by former Gotham collaborators Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, Pennyworth stars Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth, Ben Aldridge as Thomas Wayne, Jason Flemyng as Lord Harwood, Paloma Faith as Bet Sykes, Ryan Fletcher as Dave Boy, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett as Bazza, Jessica Ellerby as the Queen and Simon Manyonda as Lucius Fox.
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