After seeing the second episode, it cemented my reason for loving this series in its early stage. The point when Bruce shows his hand to Alfred and the way he reacted nailed it, that this version of Alfred was perfect.
With all the different versions out there you always see Alfred as the ever perfect butler/guardian for Bruce Wayne, it somehow diminishes some part of reality and humanity. But here you see such raw emotion.
Bruce, this grieving little boy, is running around the house all by himself and Alfred can’t find him — can you imagine how afraid he would have been, and then to finally find Bruce and see what Bruce has done to his hand, the possible implications of that.
Alfred’s reaction is so real, so human, he’s been looking for Bruce all this time, afraid for his well being and he is greeted with this? Of course he freaks out, anyone would when you’re confronted with the reality that this is a 12 year old boy doing something that is hurting himself — that this boy you’ve promised to protect is hurt and you didn’t stop him when you should have kept him safe — of course Alfred would fall into anger as a reaction, anger at Bruce, and anger at himself….
But the most amazing part is that he realizes that it’s not about his feelings, it’s about Bruce’s feelings first — that as scared as Alfred is, Bruce is even more scared and that Alfred’s burst of rightful anger does not help, and he IMMEDIATELY corrects himself and HUGS Bruce, telling him that it’s alright and that he’s sorry for being mad.
Just LOOK at the way he hugs Bruce, the way he holds him SO TIGHTLY like this boy is everything in the world to him — he knows Bruce is scared, and he knows his anger scared Bruce too, and he knows that this is such a complicated mess that Bruce didn’t deserve to be in and ultimately it isn’t Bruce’s fault — so he holds tight onto that boy and APOLOGIZES because his anger was a mistake.
So yeah, I love this version of Alfred. He’s real, he’s human and he’s believable.
