IN REVIEW: PENNYWORTH: THE ORIGIN OF BATMAN’S BUTLER (S1 – EP7) – Don’t Push It

Synopsis: In Don’t Push It, Alfred and Dave Boy travel to the Outer Hebrides to try and find a top-secret prison. Meanwhile in London Martha receives an anonymous tip.

The Story

Having learned that he was responsible for capturing Zahra Khin’s father in last week’s episode. Alfred seeks to try and make amends and travels with Dave Boy to the Outer Hebrides where Zahra’s father is being held. After searching high and low for the Prison where he is being kept. Alfred finally figures it out, but when he gets into the prison he learns that it is a much harder prison to break out of than it is to get in. 

Back In London Martha Kane receives an anonymous call telling her that John Salt is dead, but the military soldiers that he was working on, which were basically cyborgs are still going to move forward. When she takes this news to Prime Minister Azeez she pretty much gets given the cold shoulder from him because for no obvious reason he is unwilling to share intelligence with her.

Back in the Outer Hebrides Alfred has an uncomfortable meeting with the prison’s warden who is one of those kinds of people that loves nothing more than to push a person’s buttons.

The Acting

Jack Bannon is really solid this week as Alfred who has a few really intense scenes throughout the episode. I loved the flashback scenes to the war where we see a younger Alfred attempt to rescue a young boy from the fighting only to accidentally get the lad killed. We also get some good scenes between Alfred and Zahra’s father Zeya Khin (David Yip). I loved the scene where Zeya tries to explain how best Alfred can deal with the psychic wall that is around the prison. 

Sally Phillips is fantastic as the Prison Warden and has a great set of scenes prior to her meeting with Alfred, which do a great job of setting up her character to be the cold and calculating type who seems to derive a great deal of pleasure from the suffering of others.

Overall

Don’t Push It was a great character-building episode as we got to see a few more layers to Alfred’s character as well as some of the events that made him into the man he’d eventually become. I also liked the storyline concerning Martha finding out about the death of John Salt and I’m looking forward to seeing where that will go in next week’s episode. I’m also keen to know if John Salts’ plans had or have any connection to the drug that the CIA used on Thomas Wayne in the attempt on Martha’s life.