Gotham, Season 2, Episode 11: Worse than a Crime
In this episode, the main plot involves an absolutely unlikely alliance between fugitive policeman James Gordon, his trusty friend Harvey Bullock, the psychopatic mob boss with a personal grudge Penguin, the child street punk Selina Kyle, the butler on a warpath to save his ward Alfred Pennyworth, unstable nerd with unlikely friends Edward Nygma, and, um, Lucius Fox. All of these characters we love are marching on Theo Gallavan's doors, ready to kick those doors down, beat up a group of ancient cultists bent on fulfilling a generations-old vendetta, and murder or arrest Gallavan. Or murder and arrest him. Whichever works. In addition to that, we were teased Hugo Strange at the end, and we actually see motherfucking Mr. Freeze!
The concept of this episode is honestly nothing special, but definitely worthy of a mid-season finale, and definitely cathartic considering all the bullshit that Galavan's pulled. And I honestly wonder how they can make such a technically epic scene feel so... perfunctory. Yes, the little rallying moment with Penguin just having an absolute blast arguing with Gordon, eye-rolling at the revelation that Leslie's pregnant, Nygma accidentally bringing Bullock and Fox to the Gordon-Penguin alliance, Bullock introducing Cat to Fox, Lucius Fox being in the whole thick of things in itself...
But it honestly felt really flat. Nevermind the fact that we really don't need the extended sequence of Alfred running around being chased by Tabitha -- it doesn't add anything to what we don't already know from the cliffhangers of the previous episode, as hilarious as it was to see Alfred run around a junkheap. The bulk of the plot ends up being the interactions between Bruce and Silver, which, while well-acted really felt tacked-on and doesn't have the gravitas needed for the mid-season finale to really deliver its impact. Also despite all his Batmanning from the previous episode, he really didn't do much here, though him being honest with Silver about knowing her plans does manage to earn her friendship, a fat load of good that did.
Also, being all "the ceremony must happen at midnight FOR REASONS" is just a dumb way to kill time and an excuse to waste half of the episode just dicking around. That owl joke was funny, though.
There are other things, too. Barnes being on the warpath to capture Jim Gordon and the whole Gordon operating out of the rules thing is really a bit unnecessary, Tabitha giving up with all of Theo Gallavan's shit and betraying him is telegraphed way too well and doesn't even come as a surprise, and for all they've been built up to be the assassin's creed of St. Dumas ends up being massacred relatively quickly by a bunch of policemen and mobsters with shotguns. It literally took like two minutes! Freaking anticlimatic.
(Also, where the fuck is Mr. Zsasz? You'd think Penguin would bring his deadliest murderer alongside him)
And for Gallavan's death, it really isn't hard to care about Gordon breaking his ethics when Gallavan himself is so unlikable and everything. It's handled pretty dull, when you'd expect it to be satisfying. Penguin beats himself with a bat for a bit, then Gordon shoots him. Not very interesting! And at the end... Gordon then finds Leslie and they're happy. And the whole 'I'm pregnant' thing -- yes, it's sweet that the real-life actors for Gordon and Leslie have actually procreated and are going to get married. It's also a bad, randomly thrown-in cliched plot twist and my reaction exactly mirrored Penguin's in that scene.
And I'm not sure just what the point of Barnes is, other than to ensure that he gets witnesses Gordon getting ready to kill Gallavan and maybe make him into a fugitive from law and that'll be the point for the second half of the season? Blah. I don't care. It's a boring 'plot twist' IMO and honestly there were so many ways this could've been interesting, so many ways that the St. Dumas plot could've been handled even with Gallavan killed off, so many ways to kill time other than having Silver try to play Sedutress Junior...
Pity. This episode had all the potential, but everyone just behaved like you'd expect them to behave, the big conflict gets ended in less than a minute, Gallavan dies, gets an umbrella shoved down his throat (which is hilarious) and... well, the last five minutes promises something more Batmanny, including the fact that Hugo Strange works in that strange metahuman facility and they've gotten Gallavan's body... and Mr. Freeze is alive, walking around and freezing people. YAY MR. FREEZE! Does it make a lick of sense to include Mr. Freeze in a show that's primarily about gangsters and policemen and serial killers and the odd gimmick villain or two? Who the fuck cares? We've got Mr. Freeze and I love him.
(Hopefully they don't ruin him)
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