Gotham, Season 2, Episode 18: Pinewood
Oh, this episode is pretty neat! It's very focused into its plot, just like last episode was focused with the Nygma plot. I honestly never cared all that much for the Wayne killer plot, and thought it would be over for the moment after Matches Malone's death. But, nah, Bruce wants to go all the way up and find out who ordered the hit, and the investigation into this mysterious Pinewood facility with the help of Alfred and the now-civilian Gordon is pretty well-done, tying in all the myriad plot points the show has quite nicely.
Their little crusade has them encounter a lady with a hawk's talon as an arm, one Karen Jennings (who isn't based on any of Batman's many colourful characters, surprisingly), who tells them all about Pinewood. She doesn't give us much, but Team Bruce are at least on the same page as the viewers here, knowing that Wayne Enterprises is dealing with some insane human experimentation. While Karen doesn't survive the outing thanks to Mr. Freeze coming in and literally shattering her, at the end of the episode Lucius Fox manages to piece together that the Philosopher is actually Hugo Strange. So now, the problem, is how to take down Hugo Strange.
Bruce also finally puts to rest a point of conflict that's been bothering his insufferable ass throughout the series. Does Thomas Wayne know about all the atrocities that Wayne Enterprises did? Turns out, he did not, and he tried to stop people like Strange from abusing his company. I did like that bit at the end where Karen reveals that Thomas Wayne cared for her and only saw a scared little girl instead of how everyone else viewed her as a monster.
Bruce's moment of horror and reflection in the manor after Karen's death is also pretty sobering. Throughout this all Bruce has been quite insufferable and focused on himself, only caring about finding out information about who killed his parents. It's like that scene where he just blurts out his identity to Cupcake and got Alfred beaten up all to shit. Here he has to reflect on the fact that, hey, him self-smugly demanding answers from Karen Jennings, as important as those answers might be, has indirectly led to her death. And, well, probably actually be more sensible in his little crusade from now on instead of just being an insufferable kid. He only gets away with it, because, y'know, he's the future Batman.
Oh, there's a bit with Barbara in the beginning, where Gordon is looking for the Lady (an interesting villain broker who showed up earlier this season), and ends up apparently betraying Gordon to the Lady and is all psychotic and whatnot... but turns out it's just a ruse to fool the Lady and get the Philosopher's name. I bet Barbara will continue to be crazy, and at least Gordon knows that too, staying the hell away from the lady as much as he can. Barbara's insanity is a bit more subdued, but her hamminess is still fun. Though honestly I'm a bit annoyed that her motivation is, once more, to get Gordon to love her again. I guess that's insanity for you. At least they didn't go through the same thing that they did with Oswald, though. Barbara is always crazy throughout this episode, working through what's going on in her own twisted mind, but she's simply moved on her focus from killing Gordon to making Gordon love her again.
Oh, meanwhile, in Arkham, Hugo Strange and Ms Peabody (who I really like having around as Hugo's voice of sanity, even if I never commented on her before) finally reanimates a test subject... who proceeds to massacre a chunk of the Arkham staff. It's Theo Galavan, all insane... and he apparently thinks himself to be Azrael. Ah, finally. You can't have the Order of St. Dumas and not introduce the most iconic part of that bit of DC lore. If Galavan turns out to be Azrael, it's nothing like what the character should be, but hey, it's something. So long as he doesn't do what he did before... Gallavan is very effective as a villain you hate, but he's not the type of charismatic villain like Oswald, Nygma, Strange or Falcone who you wouldn't mind returning again.
Not sure what Strange's big plan is other than to do things for the science, but I don't honestly care. Hugo Strange is awesomely hilarious enough on his own, and while his little penchant on releasing inmates like Oswald and Barbara just to see what the fuck will happen is questionable, the fact that Ms Peabody questions it in-show means that it's probably a strange (heh) character quirk of his which may be relevant to his eventual downfall.
Overall, a nicely done episode. It's not particularly great, but it was fun enough and decent enough to watch.
Oh, meanwhile, in Arkham, Hugo Strange and Ms Peabody (who I really like having around as Hugo's voice of sanity, even if I never commented on her before) finally reanimates a test subject... who proceeds to massacre a chunk of the Arkham staff. It's Theo Galavan, all insane... and he apparently thinks himself to be Azrael. Ah, finally. You can't have the Order of St. Dumas and not introduce the most iconic part of that bit of DC lore. If Galavan turns out to be Azrael, it's nothing like what the character should be, but hey, it's something. So long as he doesn't do what he did before... Gallavan is very effective as a villain you hate, but he's not the type of charismatic villain like Oswald, Nygma, Strange or Falcone who you wouldn't mind returning again.
Not sure what Strange's big plan is other than to do things for the science, but I don't honestly care. Hugo Strange is awesomely hilarious enough on his own, and while his little penchant on releasing inmates like Oswald and Barbara just to see what the fuck will happen is questionable, the fact that Ms Peabody questions it in-show means that it's probably a strange (heh) character quirk of his which may be relevant to his eventual downfall.
Overall, a nicely done episode. It's not particularly great, but it was fun enough and decent enough to watch.
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