Only one episode left until the incredibly long winter break, and Gotham seems to be tying together quite nicely. Gordon has finally reached his breaking point. Bruce had a very Batman-like moment in tricking Silver St Clair. Alfred got into a fight with Galavand’s Sister and will most likely end up in the dump. And Penguin left Nigma’s house after hearing the news of Galavand’s release. If it weren’t for promotional ads last week, I might have been surprised that Galavand was released from jail. But then again next week is the finale.
Gordon continues his crazy spiral into being a workaholic. At this point, it’s no longer whether people believe him that Galavand is crooked but just how do you go about proving that. His scene towards the end in the courthouse where he blew up and cold cocked Galavand was a great moment of just the final straw breaking. His stumbling upon a cult thing was weird and a bit lazy. We are one episode away from the finale and Gordon is just now finding out about this super deadly cult that plans on taking over Gotham?! And in the most hamfisted way possible. And even more odd is that we only knew about the cult maybe three weeks ago.
But ultimately Galavand’s plan has been a solid one. Start by creating chaos and demanding a new mayor then you drive the people into the ground. As the great philosopher, Bane once said, “I will feed its people hope to poison their souls.” and his crazy special fight moves at the end were a special bonus. Theo has always been a very Charismatic if Crazy person but to see that he is just as deadly as his sister was a nice touch. He’s been holding back this whole time. And Gordon found out the hard way. And speaking of charismatic nothing annoys me more than Villains monologuing towards the end of their plan so the good guy can get a good picture As he hangs above a tank full of blood thirsty sharks. But seeing as Galavand is a charismatic douche I think it’s a bit warranted even though he’s been smarter than that all year.
For a street kid she is styled impeccably.
Another great moment was Bruce and Silver in the park. Silver has said similar things to Bruce before about her uncle and the way she feels about him but this time Bruce had all the right responses to her quips. Usually Bruce is left out and unaware it was nice just at that moment to see him be in control for a change. People this year have talked about how dark Gotham is just tonally. I usually don’t see that because it’s usually followed up by a dumb joke or an attempt at some Tim Burton weirdness. But seeing Bruce be carried away screaming, and Silver sits their helpless and screaming gave me a queasy feeling. Sure I know they aren’t going to kill Bruce. But still just the visceral image of a child being taken away to be tortured got to me. And once it’s revealed that Bruce was truly playing her the whole time I thought the Batman undertones that are usually being driven into our heads with rubber mallets was done very subtly.
I can see the finale playing out in a few different ways. Silver may come to Bruce’s aid in some measure. Simply because that’s what, that character represents in the comics. A girl with bad luck and has the best intentions for Bruce. Seeing Gordon get his ass kicked was an “Oh shit!” moment simply because he usually cleans house when he’s fighting the bad guys. So I imagine a rematch is coming. Leslie will continue to be wasted on this show and probably say the same thing she has been saying since they started dating. Bullock might buy that cat or go home to see his wife that we never revisited. Penguin will hopefully get sweet revenge on Galavand in some way, probably not in a fist fight, though. Nigma will continue to be odd and probably be set up for next half villain. But maybe that’s held off, and we get to see more of that weird underground that Firefly was taken too. Plenty of things can be answered next week but just like Gotham plenty of things won’t be.
