Gotham S02E21 Review: Clayface and the Court of Owls

Gotham, Season 2, Episode 21: A Legion of Horribles

Sometimes I forget that all this Hugo Strange business only runs for half of the season, which is a shame -- done properly as a 20-episode season, there would've been ample time to really explore Hugo Strange and develop the plot threads of characters like Oswald to make them actually relevant to this. As it is, this episode is one big 'put everyone in place for the finale' episode, which honestly isn't all that bad... if things just didn't get lobbed at us hard and fast. After the Azrael-centric episodes prior to this, the show just loses focus and drops everything on us.

Where to begin? First up, the main plot between Bruce Wayne investigating Hugo Strange comes to a head as Bruce Wayne, Lucius Fox and an undercover Jim Gordon heads off into Arkham Asylum to investigate and confront Strange, which leads to some great moments between Bruce and Alfred (after the latter chews out Bruce for being an irresponsible little twat that very well would've gotten Selina killed if she wasn't protected by plot armour) and a great confrontation between Bruce and Hugo.

But then, everything kind of falls apart as the show tries to introduce so many facets to the plot. Hugo Strange is apparently doing everything to serve the Court of Owls, which honestly just came out of nowhere. And that's the main goal of the whole raise an army of the dead thing. Also, Fish Mooney, the character no one wants to see return... returns. And because Hugo grafted some cuttlefish DNA and electroshocks her, she returns with full powers and... can control people with a touch. Fish just returns, delivers a crapton of horribly-written dialogue and just ends up being a big strange part of the episode -- obviously she's not going to usurp Hugo Strange as the main villain, so it's more of a setup piece for season three... which, really, didn't need to happen here. Having Fish return isn't the most exciting thing ever, but it would've served better if this was like the big stinger at the end of the next episode.

Also, there's the question of bringing Fish Mooney back -- she's a horribly annoying character, and while that's effective when she's a villain we're supposed to hate (a'la Theo Gallavan) the show's first season really loves putting her in the spotlight quite undeservedly, spinning off random subplots revolving around her... and I certainly hate that, because honestly who really cares about Fish Mooney?

There's also Hugo's newest creation, Basil Karlo, a.k.a. Clayface... who, in this version, actually only is able to transform his face. Into Jim Gordon's, naturally. Also completely goofy and crazy, and is more a plot device than anything. Also, Selina gets Firefly to stand down and accept her as Firefly's servant... because, uh, Hugo and Peabody just didn't stick around to see Firefly kill the intruder. Because. Um. The confrontation between the two also doesn't have an emotional punch either, which I really had wished we would get from the two former friends.

Bullock is always great stuff, though, with every single scene that he shows up in being hilariously fun, and him having to adapt as the acting commissioner is a great, inspired move to give him something interesting to do.

While Bruce Wayne's bit wasn't honestly that bad, it also felt rushed and dragged out both at the same time, and he finds himself at the tender mercies of Ed Nygma, who seems to have degressed from a slightly-unstable schemer to straight-up batshit crazy. Which is honestly annoying, as entertaining as it is.

Overall, while the episode is inconsistent in juggling its many minor villains (Firefly, Riddler, Ms. Peabody, and now Fish's thrown back into the mix which is entirely unnecessary), we did get a couple of great scenes courtesy of Bruce Wayne. But overall it does lend a sense that this episode really could've been much better executed.