For the driving force of tonight’s episode, Tabitha Galavan hired some hitmen to kill Jim Gordon. It’s strange she had so much influence while also having maybe five lines of dialogue altogether. This week Nigma and Cobblepot had some bonding time, Gordon struggled with his inner demons, someone named Flamingo ate a couple people, and most importantly, Bruce got his first turtle neck! No, but seriously, it was kind of cool seeing tiny Bruce Wayne dressed exactly as the animated Bruce Wayne I love so much.
But Tabitha’s quiet vengeance took her to Michelle Gomez (Missy for you Doctor Who fans)! She was great in her scenes, though she wasn’t given nearly enough of them if you ask me. It seems strange to cast that good of an actor and not use her again, so I get the feeling we will see her in the future at some point, or at least I hope we do.
As for Nigma and Cobblepot, things went pretty well considering that they are both psychotic. In a strange way, Penguin needed Nigma to show him what comes next; to get back on the murdering horse, you just need to get back up again. Or so they say. Their scenes together were great, showing the similarities the two have even though they’re pretty far away regarding criminal past. Although the scenes would’ve had more punch if three out of the four didn’t end with Cobblepot trying to storm out and either collapsing or giving up.
Bruce Wayne being ‘out of the loop’ on this show is weird. This kid grows up to be Batman, but at the moment, he’s helpless and dumb. Silver is playing him like a fiddle. Although he did acknowledge to Alfred that he just wants to know what happened to his parents, and she is the best way of finding that out, he only ever looks dumbfounded. Alfred calls him out, Silver asks for his help, Selina offers him proof, and every single time he has that look on his face! I’m not saying this kid should be a suave ass kicking savant at the age of 14, but at least give him a little credit.
Gordon’s demons seem a lot like the thing Batman deals with and has already dealt with. It’s an interesting take on this character struggling with his moral compass in a grey world. It’s also something Leslee has seen and worried for weeks now. On a side note, I want Morena Baccarin to have more to do. All she does is worry over Gordon and patch him up. Why not make her be Bruce’s therapist or something. I don’t know; it seems like her talent is being wasted on this show.
At some point, we need to see a culmination of Gordon’s anger, because every week he gets a little closer to nuts, and the person pushing him in that direction this week was the Eduardo Flamingo. So if Gotham is good at anything it’s developing villains, but this week all that fell flat on It’s face. Sure, every one of those assassin’s looked like they belonged to the Red Triangle Gang (Deep Batman Returns cut.) but Flamingo was on next level stupid. This bad guy felt like the writers room was out of characteristics and started throwing darts at a peg board filled with bad ideas. His name is Flamingo first off; he has a pink flare in his hair, and to top it off, he eats people. And the last person he eats is another cop that we never got to know or care about even though the show clearly wanted us to care about her.
The final few scenes are very indicative of what the show is. It starts at the docks with a few hooded figures walking up to meet that old man who is partnered with Galavan, and it’s all very cool and even a bit tense, but when the security guard finds them they all–I repeat ALL–take out a shiv and stab him to death. That is so much overkill that I burst out laughing. That, in a nutshell is what this show is like: striving for more but falling short in funny ways.
