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'Pennyworth:' S01.E05. "Shirley Bassey"

John Ripper (Danny Webb) presents Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) with an offer; meanwhile, Lord James Harwood's (Jason Flemyng's) circumstances takes a curiously odd turn

By Shain ThomasPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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Esme Winikus’s (Emma Corrin) premature death takes its toll on Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) in this latest episode. In Rob Bailey’s "Shirley Bassey," old foes are seen reinvigorated, new ones crawl out from beneath the woodwork, and a restaurant is redecorated with an interesting shade of brain matter.

This fifth episode opens with a scene of London in the dead of night. As the camera pans down to reveal Bet Sykes (Paloma Faith) standing inside a classic British red telephone box, we hear the actress’s voice recounting to her sister, Peggy (Polly Walker), how she saw Esme’s murderers enter the building. Bet tells her sister that the assailants, a man and a woman, entered the building with a key.

From a distance, basically because everyone thinks Bet has been executed, she and Peggy attend Esme’s funeral. Also attending the funeral, watching from a different vantage-point, are Martha Kaine (Emma Paetz) and Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge). While Martha is clearly feeling guilt for being with Alfred the night Esme was murdered, Thomas is mostly unbothered by the death. He’s obviously got more important things on his mind. Does Thomas intend to have a few bigger fish battered? Being in England, he’s in the right country for fish n’ chips.

The fish Thomas has his eyes set on battering, at the bidding of the No-Name League, is the new leader of the Raven Society. In the previous episode, China Moo-Young’s "Lady Penelope," we discovered the Raven Society’s new leader is Dr. Frances Gaunt (Anna Chancellor).

With hooligans at each other’s throats, the streets of London are becoming increasingly unsafe for decent people. Something needs to be done so that order can be restored. But for Thomas to do anything, he needs Martha’s assistance, and they are lost with Alfred. Because Alfred is taking Esme’s death extremely hard, he can’t bring himself to work for Thomas, Martha, or the No-Name League.

The father-and-son bonding moment between Mr. Pennyworth (Ian Puleston-Davies) and Alfred does not go unnoticed. When Mr. Pennyworth shaves his son, he makes Alfred eat a custard crème biscuit. While the scene itself doesn’t seem all that poignant, one would have to understand the father-son dynamic at play between the characters before making any significant judgements.

Even though Alfred has sworn off committing acts of violence, it doesn’t take much for him to be brought back to killing for the greater good. In a previous episode, we saw Alfred making a deal with John Ripper (Danny Webb). It was only a matter of time before Ripper came to collect on that deal.

Even though Ripper initially wants Alfred to be his running partner, there is always something else that must be done. Alfred and Ripper go running together every day.

Ripper eventually gets around to requesting Alfred do a job for him. Once Alfred has completed the job, Ripper will tell him the name of the person that killed Esme.

With Martha not able to get Alfred to return to work, Thomas is left with no choice but to seek out Wallace "Dave Boy" MacDougal (Ryan Fletcher) and Deon "Bazza" Bashford (Hainsley Lloyd Bennett). Even though Bazza takes a pass on the work Thomas is offering, Dave Boy is a completely different story. Dave Boy is financially embarrassed, and will do almost anything to get back on his feet.

As Dave Boy arrives at the meeting between the No-Name League leadership, Julian (Richard Lintern), Undine Thwaite (Sarah Alexander), and Gaunt, a lapse in judgement on Dave Boy’s part gets him shot. Within moments of Dave Boy being shot, Alfred shows up and blows Julian’s head off with a single shot from a sawed-off shotgun. With Dave Boy in toe, Alfred heads directly to the one place he feels safe: The pub.

Sandra Onslow (Harriet Slater) has had eyes for Alfred ever since he first walked into the pub, even though Alfred hadn’t paid any real attention to the barmaid. With Alfred not completely thinking straight, he and Sandra go to the backroom of the pub for a good old-fashioned rooting.

Elsewhere, as Bet tells her sister that class is not something which one can learn, possibly because she has not seen either the George Bernard Shaw written stage play Pygmalion, she spots sitting in the darkness a dishevelled Lord James Harwood (Jason Flemyng).

Lord James has gone from being the leader of the Raven Society to being treated like a dog in the space of a few short weeks. When Bet approaches Lord James, the so-called Christian that was apparently helping him tried to stop Bet, but Bet being Bet, has none of it. She calmly walks over to him and stabs him in an eye with the pin of her broach.

Not long after, Lord James is being retrained by Bet, Peggy, and Mr. and Mrs. Spicer (Steve Edwin and Jennie Goossens) as someone they can use. Which direction will Lord James’s story go next? Where, even though we know where Alfred’s story ends up, will his story go in the meantime?

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About the Creator

Shain Thomas

I'm a freelance journalist. A member of both the NLGJA and SPJ, I currently write articles for Harsh Light News on Medium and HVY.Com. When I was a university student, I wrote articles for the NT Daily and TCU 360.

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