Penelope Blake

"*I married my husband... to save my father's company. My mother died when I was little, so I practically raised my sisters, and when the business started to fail... Well, I couldn't just let that happen to them.*"
—Penelope to Ah Sahm[src]
**Penelope Blake** (née **Mercer**) is the wife of Mayor Blake, who she reluctantly married to save her father's business, Mercer Steel. When her father died, she took over for Mercer Steel and began employing Chinese labor. This angered Dylan Leary and the Irish, who began attacking her work force on their way to work. So Penelope hired Ah Sahm, who she briefly had a romantic relationship with, and the Hop Wei, to protect her employees. However, that wouldn't stop Leary from blowing up her family's business.

Following a deal Penny made with Lymon Merriweather to supply steel for Merriweather's buildings, Penelope was confronted by Samuel, who attacked her in a blind, drunken rage. He nearly choked the life from Penny until she was saved by Jacob, who killed the mayor in her defense. Unfortunately, she was not able to save Jacob, and he was hanged by the Irish Mob. Upon learning of Jacob's death, Penny confronted Buckley, but after blowing her off and killing her story to expose corruption in the mayoral office, Buckley had Penny committed to an insane asylum.

## Biography

### Early life

Penny is the oldest of three girls. She was young when her mother died and was forced to essentially raise Sophie and Nadine. In fear that her family would lose their home as her father's business began to struggle, Penelope reluctantly married Samuel, who in turn agreed to bring business to Mercer Steel.

### Married to the Mayor

Penny greets her husband, Mayor Blake, and joins him for breakfast, though she doesn't seem too pleased to be in his company. They are joined by Deputy Mayor Walter Buckley, who reveals that two chinamen were attacked by a couple of labor thugs and killed last night. Mayor Blake wants to keep this as quiet as possible, but Penny is disgusted by her husband's attempt to sweep such heinous crimes under the rug, not he is interested in her opinions.

Later that evening, as Penny gets undressed, Mayor Blake watches from the bedroom. She takes off her robe, but instead of joining him in bed, she simply slams the door shut.

### Rescued by Ah Sahm

Penny witnesses Ah Sahm and Young Jun harassing a shop owner, for which she scolds them both before being urged to leave by her manservant, Jacob. On their way home, Penny and Jacob are confronted by Seamus and Paul O'Shea. The two Irishmen instigate a fight, and when Penny tries to leave, Paul restrains her while Seamus attacks Jacob. He beats Penny's manservant until she bites Paul and Ah Sahm intervenes, taking out both Paul and Seamus with fairly little effort. Unfortunately for Ah Sahm, all Sergeant O'Hara sees is a Chinese man attacking citizens. So, hits Ah Sahm over the head with his baton and arrests him. Penny pleads Ah Sahm's case, explaining that he saved her, but Bill discover a hatchet in Ah Sahm's coat pocket.

Penny informs Samuel about the attack in the pond and how Ah Sahm came to her defense, but he isn't interested in hearing what she has to say, informing Penny that Ah Sahm is a member of the Hop Wei and was carrying weapons when he was arrested. And so, after failing to get anywhere with her husband and after a brief run-in with her father, Penny decides to take matters into her own hands and visit Ah Sahm down at the station, where she thanks him for coming to her rescue and learns that he can speak English.

Penny finds Ah Sahm's lawyer getting drunk at the bar and tells him that Ah Sahm is innocent. She even offers to testify on the stand, but Phillip refuses to allow her, as Buckley has made it clear that he will be out of a job should he allow Penny anywhere near the case. Seeing how far he's fallen, she asks what happened to him and if he thinks so little of her now. He replies that it doesn't matter what he thinks, as Penny made her choice.

In order to avoid having sex with him, Penny spikes Mayor Blake's drink. He realizes that she's upset with him for his stance against Ah Sahm. He admits marriage and politics are a fraught combination, though ultimately it worked out, with Penny's defender walking away a freeman after Paul and Seamus neglected to show up in court. Just as Samuel begins caressing on Penny, the relaxer she slipped into his drink begins to take effect and within seconds, he is unconscious.

Penny sends Jacob to give Ah Sahm a message, but in doing so, Ah Sahm follows Jacob back to the estate, where Penny urges him to leave before Samuel discovers him, but Ah Sahm only came to return her money, as he doesn't need it. She didn't mean to insult him, as she didn't know how else to thank him. On his way out, Penny asks Ah Sahm why he defended her. He recalls how she called him a coward in the shop. He simply wanted her to know that he wasn't one, for which she apologizes for misjudging him.

### Having an affair with Ah Sahm

Penny has Jacob bring Ah Sahm to her apartment. Her father owns the building, and she simply wanted to apologize for their last encounter, in which she rushed him out. After they have sex, Penny questions how Ah Sahm learned to fight so well and remarks that he doesn't seem like someone who would be a gang enforcer. Ah Sahm explains that joining the Hop Wei was his best chance at finding his sister, who, as it turned out, didn't want to be found. Penny confides in Ah Sahm that she married her husband to save her father's company. Her mother died when she was young, so Penny practically raised her sisters, and when the business started to fail, she couldn't just let that happen to them. With the Blakes being one of the wealthiest families in San Francisco, she saw an opportunity, as Samuel was already a friend of her father's, who visited a lot after her mom died. But the city contract was all that stood between her family and financial ruin, so she offered herself to him, having sold herself in a similar fashion to Ah Sahm.

Penny has dinner with her father, who is a bit distracted with the cable car commission. Mayor Blake promised Byron the contract, and if it doesn't come soon, he'll be forced to declare bankruptcy and lose the house. Penny offers to talk to him, but Byron replies that talking isn't what he's after. Penny is in disbelief that her father is pushing her to have sex with Samuel in order to further the family business. Nevertheless, Penny returns home, slips into bed, and reluctantly has sex with Blake for the first time since their marriage.

Penny asks Ah Sahm where was he the other night, as she waited for him, for hours. Ah Sahm wanted to be there, but he had no choice, relating back to his business with the Hop Wei. And now she's hearing about dead hatchet men in the streets of Chinatown. She worries that one day he'll leave and won't come back. She doesn't even know what she was thinking by ever pursuing any type of relationship with him. They don't even exist outside her apartment, and they have no type of genuine future. She's the mayor's wife and he's a criminal. They could never work. Penny tells him to leave and never come back.

Later that night, she attends a dinner with Mayor Blake and Senator Crestwood, during which she points out that unlike the Chinese, their ancestors arrived on the shore and murdered the natives. They came to a county, found a people they deemed inferior, and stole their land from under them. And since then, they have imported different races they deem inferior to do their dirty work.

Penny secretly attends Ah Sahm's fight against Li Yong in Chinatown, though her presence doesn't go unnoticed by Sergeant O'Hara, who saves Ah Sahm's life and prevents him from getting his neck snapped, before escorting Penelope out. He suspects that her attendance at the fight wasn't a coincidence, and Penny asks Bill why he saved Ah Sahm, but Bill avoids the question, instead telling Penny that Chinatown isn't a safe place for her, which is exactly why she'd rather her husband not about tonight's events.

With Ah Sahm having lost the fight, Penny comes by Ah Toy's brothel to check in on him, as he lies on the bed. She grabs his hand and tells him that she misses him. He pretends to be asleep, but he hears her word.

Penny approaches Buckley at the bar, certain that her husband is somewhere, whoreing. Buckley naively thought that encouraging Blake to marry Penny would curb some of his more unsavory impulses. Penny blames Buckley for putting her father in an impossible situation and forcing him to hire Chinese labor, which resulted in a visit from Leary, which Penny fears will eventually turn violent. They need protection, but Buckley encourages her to take it up with her husband. When Penny threatens to have him fired, he reveals that he knows that Penny was at the duel in Chinatown between the tongs. While they can't be seen to be protecting a private company, as a kind gesture, Buckley can have a small squad of men on stand by.

Penny attempts to help her father with expenses, but he assures her he can handle it. But if he continues to do so, the business will go under and her sister will be on the street, and she didn't make the sacrifices she did just for her father to squander the opportunity. Byron retorts that he never asked Penny to do anything, to which she replies that he didn't stop her either. Penny then exits the office and notices Ah Sahm working as a coolie. She approaches him offers to get him a better job, like translating for the foreman, but Ah Sahm is content with the position he has.

### Taking over Mercer Steel

Penny has since taken over Mercer Steel following her father's heart attack and subsequent death on his office floor. The mayor's wife having 100 coolies working for her isn't a good like for Blake, but Penny isn't concerned. Penny's sister, Sophie, joins them, and she urges Sophie to answer the call of a possible suitor, but she isn't interested, and Penny gets upset at her sister's uncanny ability to write off every man that comes her way. Penny later receives a visit from Merriweather, who has made her an offer to buy the business, but she isn't interested. It's then that Penny discovers a group of her hired laborers were attacked by the workingmen.

### Employing the Hop Wei

Penny attends an emergency meeting hosted at Mayor Blake's office for all business owners after the recent bombing, which Penny suspects was Leary's doing. She then questions if they intend to do anything to protect their sites from Leary and his thugs. However, with the mayor failing to protect her business, Penny makes Ah Sahm a proposition: she wants to pay the Hop Wei to guard Mercer Steel and protect her workers, which Ah Sahm doesn't think is a good idea and initially turns down only to return later and accept the offer. But he does questions why Penny is going through all this trouble of running a company. She tells her sister it's their father's legacy, which is true, but the real reason means that she doesn't have to depend on her husband's money.

Penny is confronted by Blake and Buckley for employing the Hop Wei as security, but they left her with no other choice, given how other businesses were being firebombed. However, Blake threatens to pull the city contract if they aren't gone by tomorrow.

Despite their current stand-off, Penny and Blake attend a dinner at Nellie Davenport's home, where they discuss Nellie's occupational hazards and generous contributions to the city's cultural and political life. She asks Penny if her marriage gives her purpose. Penny replies that marriage means different things to different people. For her, it's her work that gives her purpose. Nellie agrees and notes that the city needs more fearless woman like Penny.

Penny pays Ah Sahm for the Hop Wei's security, as her factory has remained well protected. She asks Ah Sahm how he's been, as she wasn't sure he'd ever recover after his fight with Li Yong. She asks if this is what Ah Sahm wants to be doing. He reveals that he has bigger plans to build something for himself. Just as they're closing in on one another, they are interrupted and Ah Sahm exits.

Penny confronts Blake after his statement at city hall, as he's alienated the industrialist who backed his first campaign. Penny believes that he's broken his promise to them and warns Blake that Merriweather has been talking about fielding a new candidate Who can navigate these issues in their favor. When Blake threatens to pull the cable car contract, Penny informs him that he can't do that. Any cancellation of signed purchase orders will not only leave Blake responsible for payment in full, it will incur penalties as well. It would cost him more to pull the contract than see it through. She sought counsel and suggests that Blake do the same to protect his interests.

Following her confrontation with Blake, scolds Sophie for being at the Banshee. Sophie questions why that is. Maybe because Penny thinks she's better than the Irish, but Penny insists that is not the reason. All they have is the factory, but Sophie never asked for Penny to run their father's business, the same way she never asked her to marry Blake. Furthermore, she accuses Penny of being just like him. She makes sympathetic noises about the poor but doesn't truly care about them, only what they can do for her. Penny accuses Sophie of being entitled, never having to work a day in her life or finish a single thing she's started.

### The destruction of Mercer Steel

Penny returns to find what remains of Mercer Steel following the explosion. Before long, she is joined by Jacob, who reveals that there were boxes of opium hidden in the storeroom, as well as Hop Wei bodies. When Ah Sahm finally arrives, Penny confronts him, though she blames herself for trusting him. She then informs Ah Sahm that while his men are dead, Jacob took their bodies away before the police arrived. Shortly after Ah Sahm leaves, Blake arrives and genuinely asks how long it will take to rebuild, which is anywhere from 4–6 weeks. He then reminds Penny of their contract and how it's only legally binding as long as all parties adhere to the terms. Penny assures Blake that she'll deliver on time, but they both know she can't, and she pleads with him for assistance, but Blake refuses.

### Samuel's death

The factory was all the freedom she had from Blake, but now that it's gone, she won't be able to fulfill any meaningful orders. So, Sophie pushes her to sell the company, which Penny considers. While circumstances have changed, Penny is willing to accept Merriweather's deal he previously proposed, which enrages Blake and leads to a confrontation. He demands that she call off her deal with Merriweather and sell her company, but Penny pushes him to divorce her in order to solve both their problems instead. But that's not what Blake is after, and he strikes Penny after she pushes him away. Penny then punches Blake in the face and tries to run, but he continues his assault of her, punching Penny in the gut, pulling her by her hair and pinning her to a wall. Sophie comes to her defense, but he knocks her into a wall and turns his attention back to Penny. He gets on top of her and nearly strangled the life from Penny until Jacob intervenes and bashes him over the back of the head with an iron poker, killing Blake almost instantly.

Following Blake's death, Penny and Sophie call the authorities, and not long after they arrive, so does Buckley, who asks what happened. Penny reveals that Samuel was drunk and attacked her. He was strangling her and she couldn't breathe. Sophie tried to help, but he threw her into a wall. When Penny is reluctant to reveal that Jacob saved her, Sophie reveals it. Penny explains that he was just defending her, but Buckley simply wants an arrest. And it not long after that Penny learns from Sophie that Jacob is dead.

### Placed in an insane asylum

Penny blames Buckley for Jacob's death and for not telling the truth, as he used Mayor Blake's death to cast himself as a hero for his new constituency. Penny is going to see that he pays for this. She does this by seeking out the press at the San Francisco Chronicle in hopes of convincing the publisher, Mr. Raice, in publishing an exclusive. However, when Buckley shuts that down, Penny is forced once more to confront Buckley personally. He asks why she's so determined to soil her husband's legacy. She's been through a terrible time these last few months; her father died, her business was destroyed, and lastly her husband was killed in front of her. Any one of those events would be more than most could bear. Angered by his insinuation, she slaps Buckley, who becomes so enraged that he grabs a letter opener from his desk and stabs himself in the shoulder, for which he blames Penny. He accuses Penny of stabbing him and has her taken away by authorities and placed in a mental hospital.

## Skills and abilities

Penelope is a skilled artist and painter, spending much of her time painting in the apartment building owned by her father.

## Appearances

* There's No China in the Bible
* John Chinaman
* The White Mountain
* The Blood and the Sh\*t (credit only)
* Chewed Up, Spit Out, and Stepped On
* The Tiger and the Fox
* They Don't Pay Us Enough to Think
* Chinese Boxing
* If You're Going to Bow, Bow Low
* The Chinese Connection
* Not How We Do Business
* If You Don't See Blood, You Didn't Come to Play
* Not for a Drink, a F\*ck, or a G\*\*damn Prayer
* To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail (credit only)
* If You Wait by the River Long Enough
* All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic
* Enter the Dragon
* Man on the Wall

## Behind the scenes

* Penelope is portrayed by Joanna Vanderham.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Season 2, episode 2: ***The Chinese Connection***
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Season 2, episode 4: ***If You Don't See Blood, You Didn't Come to Play***
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Season 2, episode 7: ***If You Wait by the River Long Enough***
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Season 2, episode 8: ***All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic***
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Season 2, episode 10: ***Man on the Wall***
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Season 1, episode 4: ***The White Mountain***
7. ↑ Season 1, episode 1: ***The Itchy Onion***
8. ↑ Season 1, episode 2: ***There's No China in the Bible***
9. ↑ Season 1, episode 3: ***John Chinaman***
10. ↑ Season 1, episode 7: ***The Tiger and the Fox***
11. ↑ Season 1, episode 8: ***They Don't Pay Us Enough to Think***
12. ↑ Season 1, episode 9: ***Chinese Boxing***
13. ↑ Season 1, episode 10: ***If You're Going to Bow, Bow Low***
14. ↑ Season 2, episode 1: ***Learn to Endure, or Hire a Bodyguard***
15. ↑ Season 2, episode 3: ***Not How We Do Business***
16. ↑ Season 2, episode 5: ***Not for a Drink, a F\*ck, or a G\*\*damn Prayer***
17. ↑ Season 2, episode 9: ***Enter the Dragon***