Pennyworth - Pilot 101 Episode Review

Hello and welcome! As you were able to read in this post, the new series Pennyworth premiered last week and I am here to give you episode reviews each week.

We start, of course, with episode 1 titled: Pilot. The first shots are some epic scenes with British horsemen who are hunting to the tunes of Paint It Black from the Rolling Stones. After they are finished, the owner of the land (Lord Longbrass) is visited by a blonde woman (called Bet Sykes) whose henchman drags the owner from his horse and into their car.

Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth wakes up from a nightmare involving his time in the war. After this, he attends a funeral of one of his army mates that supposedly killed himself. Alfred tells his friends Bazza and Dave Boy that he is starting a security business, but both of them agree that he is too soft-hearted to be a businessman. Sometime later, Alfred goes to his work, being a doorman/security guy in a nightclub. He lets in Thomas Wayne who comes to pick up his drunk sister. But Alfred soon has to assist because two guys stop Thomas from taking his sister home. One of the guys pulls a knife, but Alfred knocks both guys out with ease. When they are outside, Thomas’ sister accidentally punches Alfred in the nose. To possibly help with medical costs, Thomas introduces himself to Alfred and the two men exchange business cards. Back in the club, one of the dancers hands him a handkerchief for his bloody nose. They chat for a bit, she is called Esme and Alfred arranges a date with her on Saturday.

The prime minister of England is pissed that Lord Longbrass is kidnapped and that he had to put it out there with the local news. He tells his mistress that the Lord is a banker for some secret organization called the Raven Society who’s plans are to overthrow the government and that the abduction is putting the Society too much in the open. The subject of his stress, Lord Longbrass is meanwhile being held captive in some kind of torture room by another lord, Lord Harwood. Apparently, Lord Longbrass talked too much and told an outsider of the Raven Society’s plans. Lord Harwood likes to know who he told or else he will be tortured. In the meantime, Bet Sykes’s henchman stalks and kidnaps a young boy, one of Lord Longbrass’ adulterated children. Under pressure of maybe hurting his child, Lord Longbrass finally reveals the name of the man that he told their plans to Thomas Wayne. It is not clear what happened to Lord Longbrass afterwards, but I can imagine that he never saw the light of the sun again. Thomas Wayne is having a phone call with his mother when suddenly he is being shot at, but he escapes unharmed. Bet Sykes comes in the now empty room and finds Thomas’ coat with Alfred’s business card.

Alfred himself has some more nightmares of the war and an argument with his father. His father doesn’t see the potential of his security firm and likes him to become a butler instead. If he starts now at a nice house he could be a butler before he is 40. Alfred doesn’t agree and goes on his date with Esme. They have a lovely walk through the park and watch some music. She tells him that she wants to be an actress and she acts a few credible sentences for him. Eventually, the date ends with them sleeping together. Flash forward two weeks where Esme will meet Alfred’s parents for the first time. Things don’t go great between Esme and Alfred’s father. It is so badly that Esme doesn’t see a future for them together and she breaks up with Alfred. Minutes later, Esme is kidnapped by Bet Sykes but Alfred doesn’t make it in time to save her and Bet leaves him a note to call her once he has Thomas Wayne. Instead, Alfred goes straight to the police to report her abduction, but the police officer walks away as soon as he sees the logo of the Raven Society on the note.

Alfred uses the number he got from Thomas to contact him, but the number doesn’t work. Then Alfred sees that Thomas wrote his number on the back of a card from an electrician. He gathers his mates Dave Boy and Bazza to pay a visit to that electrician. With a bit of conviction and scary looking, the electrician gives the current location of Thomas Wayne. When they go there, the three of them do find Thomas Wayne hiding out there. Alfred arranges a meeting to trade Esme for Thomas, but he wants to have another plan in case things don’t go as they hope. Sometime later, Thomas and Alfred are waiting in the car on the location where the trade is supposed to go down. Then three cars arrive, but neither of them holds Esme, so they continue with their backup plan and Bazza and Dave Boy emerge out of the bushes and start to shoot all the bad guys. Alfred doesn’t want to kill them, but Dave Boy tries to convince one of the survivors, by shooting another survivor, to tell them where they hold Esme captive.

Esme herself is still held captive by Bet somewhere in a basement. Bet even forces her to dance with her which she reluctantly agrees to. When Esme sees her chance clear, she uses a teapot to smack Bet in the face. She escapes up the stairs, through a library and into a dining room. There she asks for help, saying that she was held captive, but all the people in the room only look at her and don’t make a move before Esme is captured by Bet again. Alfred and his mates found the house where Esme is held captive and Alfred goes in alone, saying that if he doesn’t come back within the hour that Dave and Bazza should bring Thomas to the American embassy. But before Alfred can reach the room where Esme is held, he is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, he is greeted by Lord Harwood. He tells Alfred that he could use someone like him in the Raven Society and that bringing in Thomas Wayne could be a token of his loyalty to the Society. But, of course, Alfred refuses. After the hour is over, Dave Boy still goes after Alfred, although the latter told him not to do that, and kills some guards in front of the house before being shot himself by a granny. This causes enough of a distraction for Alfred to knock out two guys, release himself from handcuffs and hold Lord Harwood under shot. After he also knocked Lord Harwood unconscious, he goes to find Esme. Meanwhile, Bazza also turned up and saves Dave by shooting the granny. Alfred kills some kind of doctor who wants to hurt Esme before joining Dave Boy and Bazza in front of the house where Scotland Yard also arrives.

After spending some time at the police station, Alfred is sent home. But when he arrives home he sees that Bet has captured his parents and likes to know where Esme is. Alfred doesn’t know where she is, but unfortunately, with poor timing, Esme suddenly stands in front of his door. He has no other choice than to let her in. With some distractions, Esme knocks Bet in the face while Alfred and Bet’s henchman start to fight. But in the end, Alfred’s mother knocks Bet unconscious as his dad does the same to the henchman.

In the ending scenes, we see that the prime minister holds Lord Harwood captive, suggesting that he might be the true leader of the Raven Society. Alfred dismisses a job opportunity to work for Thomas Wayne and he meets The Queen from whom he receives a medal for his work in the SAS during the war.