Martha Kane has another job offer for Alfred, but having been warned off by Inspector Aziz he’s reluctant to take it. However, that wedding isn’t going to pay for itself…

Having rescued a man, his invention and his lover from the cruel attentions of Her Majesty’s government last time out, this time Martha has a much simpler sounding job for our hero – discover the identity of the new leader of the Raven League. Having been paid a non-too-friendly visit from Inspector Aziz warning him against continuing to work with the No Name League, Alfred is understandably not too thrilled at the prospect. But he also has an upcoming wedding to pay for and nothing much better to do. However, as you may have guessed, the job isn’t all that simple.

From the initial meeting with a man at a railway station to a journey to a small village, chases, doubles crosses and every other sort of spy fiction cliché, this is another episode of Pennyworth where the actual main narrative won’t win any prizes for originality. What it does do is showcase some excellent performances from all concerned. Whereas last week Alfred was happy to use his brain to avoid violence, here he almost revels in applying the old fists, boots and headbutt against his foes. What’s almost endearing about it though, is the exasperation he expresses while doing it. Like all the best ‘gangsters’, he’ll happily smack someone around while lamenting the need for it, wondering aloud why everyone can’t just be ‘professional’. It also hasn’t escaped my notice that week by week Jack Bannon’s Michael Caine-esque accent gets sharper and sharper – there’s little doubt in my mind which version of the character Bannon is basing his own on.

Arranged around the periphery of this main plot are the two subplots of Esme’s continued fear of everything – which leads to her being left to stay with Alfred’s parents while he’s away on his job – and Bet and her sister’s…disagreements.

Esme proves here just how resourceful she can be, warming Alfred’s father to her in spite of himself, while also keeping Mrs Pennyworth on side as well. If the acting ever dries up, you sense that she’d have a bright future ahead of her in diplomacy. The weird tension that simmers over the Pennyworth household adds a rather dissonant note to all the niceties that means you literally can’t tear your eyes from it. We already have it heavily implied that Mr Pennyworth is physically abusive towards his wife (or at least has been in the past), but there’s a sense that she fights back in her own ways too. Here, she’s more than capable of standing up for herself against his verbal bullying, and the handiness they both displayed in the pilot against a home invasion suggests she’s no victim.

As to Bet and her sister – they have a weirdly polite little domestic of their own, replete with sudden and explosive violence inbetween verbal arguing which ranges from restrained to outright shouting. Bet is bored, and wants to go back to London, her sister understandably doesn’t think this a good idea, especially when she knows exactly who Bet wants to go and visit.

It all races along at a fair pace as per usual, and I was enjoying it all immensely right up until the end which is both obvious, cliched and completely unnecessary. Perhaps the show will use it as a jumping off point to do something interesting, but as of now, it just strikes me as an uncharacteristic bit of laziness in an otherwise excellent show.

Verdict: Right up until its final minutes it’s another excellent slice of genre TV with its own particular sensibility. Then we reach that ending, and I can’t help but groan a little. Here’s hoping it does something with it going forward to prove me wrong. 7/10

Greg D. Smith