Gotham, Season 3, Episode 8: Blood Rush
Gotham is a series that I've been somewhat neglecting, and I guess I might as well as finish reviewing the episodes since I cleaned up the CW shows last month. I'm not sure whether I'll keep doing Gotham when it comes back from its mid-season break. I sure as hell am going to keep watching it, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure and to be fair the quality of writing has improved a fair amount since the nonsense with Gallavan in season two... but it's still a very weird show, and while I don't think it's a bad one, it's never going to be treated as one of the 'good' shows.
This is a pretty fun episode, though. The Mad Hatter plotline kinda-sorta ended last episode with the crazy fucker being arrested, but it's clear that Mad Hatter's impact on Gotham City as a whole has not ended, not by a long shot. In particular, the previous episodes have all been building up to Barnes succumbing to his anger, and while he is a very phenomenal actor and it's sad to see such a likable character like Barnes go out and transform into a crazy villain... it's hella entertaining.
It is strange why Barnes kept his condition a secret from Gordon, Bullock and the others considering how by-the-book he is, but from Hatter's explanation about Alice's blood, it's like a little plague that unlocks your deepest, darkest desires, and for Barnes, it's his anger, his rage against the guilty and how they keep managing to elude capture by being 'the middleman' or by cheating the system. It's somewhat similar to Scarecrow's fear toxin where the effects are personalized, but instead of facing your own deepest darkest fears, this one forces you to face your inner desires, your demons.
And, well, Barnes gets absolutely pissed off when he finds this Paulie Pennies, some dude that chops up dead people and gets rid of them with a vat of acid. We don't quite get to see Barnes graphically murdering poor Paulie, only Paulie's piss-his-pants reaction to seeing Barnes angry... but the aftermath we did get to see and it's not pretty. Barnes spends most of the episode on a solo hunt for Paulie's superior, one doctor Symon, who's doing some very creepy 'steal people's faces to transplant into the mob' shit. Whether he's working for the Court of Owls or for a different villain (one of the criminals Barnes interrogates is called Toad, which makes me think Professor Pyg?) is not made clear. The episode makes it kind of look like it's building up to a bigger plotline, but then Barnes sees doctor Symon show up at Mario and Leslie's engagement party no less than a day after his arrest, and he just snaps. He beats the shit out of Symon and throws him out of a building to his death, but not before Gordon gets the name of Symon's killer from the dying bastard.
Again, it's a bit sad that Barnes' character is seemingly reduced to a crazy angry Judge Dredd wannabe, but it's certainly far more preferable to end with a memorable role instead of just having him stand in the sidelines and be this stern but ignored authority figure like how he was for the entirety of the second season. It was a bit of a strange writing decision for him to keep quiet about his infection for so long, again, but he was about to turn himself in for the murder of Paulie right up until Symon shows up and, well, something inside him just snaps.
The Barnes story is honestly the real meat of the story, because the rest of the B-plots aren't all that interesting. We get a lot of time in the Oswald/Edward/Isabella love triangle, and I'm sorry, Isabella isn't interesting at all. She's just this plot device shoehorned in to be a wedge between the Oswald/Edward pair and I honestly just don't give a shit. Oswald tries his best to fuck up the relationship, by being antagonistic to Isabella, but she's just this perfect girlfriend who, learning that Edward killed his previous girlfriend, instead goes up and plays dress-up as Kringle to make sure that Edward doesn't push her away. I honestly hope there's something more to Isabella than just a random lady who looks like Kringle and is super-duper-perfect. Is she one of the results of Symon's facial transplants, for some sinister purpose? Whatever she is, though, she apparently dies at the end of this episode because Oswald sabotaged her car, causing her to get hit by a fucking train. Really, what was the whole point of Isabella? It's just an injection of random drama and tragedy that's not even handled well, just a way to rob any form of happiness from the two people that might've had a decent chance at having it in Gotham City.
There's a brief drama where Mario Falcone is just angry and jealous at Jim, confronting him about the whole 'kill Lee' decision back during the Mad Hatter plot, and Jim's just being a cold son of a bitch about it. I mean, it's clear to everyone who cares to look that Jim still has feelings for Leslie, but honestly, dude, the woman's about to get married to a very nice bloke. Jeez. There's also a weird moment where Leslie gets confronted by Barbara, which is eeeh whatever. Carmine Falcone is always great to see on-screen, though, and his brief talk with Barnes is easily one of the strongest scenes in the episode. Such great actors. Is Barnes going to gun for Falcone and make him pay for the crimes he escaped justice from? That would be fun to watch.
But nah, knowing Gotham, next episode we'll have more Edward/Oswald romance nonsense and maybe Jim and Mario will fight to the death for Leslie. Was there a Bruce storyline here? I cannot freaking remember. Oh well. It's an enjoyable episode... from the Barnes plotline, at least, but the rest of the plotline seems to be meandering to some kind of weird nonsense I just find it hard to care about.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
This is a pretty fun episode, though. The Mad Hatter plotline kinda-sorta ended last episode with the crazy fucker being arrested, but it's clear that Mad Hatter's impact on Gotham City as a whole has not ended, not by a long shot. In particular, the previous episodes have all been building up to Barnes succumbing to his anger, and while he is a very phenomenal actor and it's sad to see such a likable character like Barnes go out and transform into a crazy villain... it's hella entertaining.
It is strange why Barnes kept his condition a secret from Gordon, Bullock and the others considering how by-the-book he is, but from Hatter's explanation about Alice's blood, it's like a little plague that unlocks your deepest, darkest desires, and for Barnes, it's his anger, his rage against the guilty and how they keep managing to elude capture by being 'the middleman' or by cheating the system. It's somewhat similar to Scarecrow's fear toxin where the effects are personalized, but instead of facing your own deepest darkest fears, this one forces you to face your inner desires, your demons.
And, well, Barnes gets absolutely pissed off when he finds this Paulie Pennies, some dude that chops up dead people and gets rid of them with a vat of acid. We don't quite get to see Barnes graphically murdering poor Paulie, only Paulie's piss-his-pants reaction to seeing Barnes angry... but the aftermath we did get to see and it's not pretty. Barnes spends most of the episode on a solo hunt for Paulie's superior, one doctor Symon, who's doing some very creepy 'steal people's faces to transplant into the mob' shit. Whether he's working for the Court of Owls or for a different villain (one of the criminals Barnes interrogates is called Toad, which makes me think Professor Pyg?) is not made clear. The episode makes it kind of look like it's building up to a bigger plotline, but then Barnes sees doctor Symon show up at Mario and Leslie's engagement party no less than a day after his arrest, and he just snaps. He beats the shit out of Symon and throws him out of a building to his death, but not before Gordon gets the name of Symon's killer from the dying bastard.
Again, it's a bit sad that Barnes' character is seemingly reduced to a crazy angry Judge Dredd wannabe, but it's certainly far more preferable to end with a memorable role instead of just having him stand in the sidelines and be this stern but ignored authority figure like how he was for the entirety of the second season. It was a bit of a strange writing decision for him to keep quiet about his infection for so long, again, but he was about to turn himself in for the murder of Paulie right up until Symon shows up and, well, something inside him just snaps.
The Barnes story is honestly the real meat of the story, because the rest of the B-plots aren't all that interesting. We get a lot of time in the Oswald/Edward/Isabella love triangle, and I'm sorry, Isabella isn't interesting at all. She's just this plot device shoehorned in to be a wedge between the Oswald/Edward pair and I honestly just don't give a shit. Oswald tries his best to fuck up the relationship, by being antagonistic to Isabella, but she's just this perfect girlfriend who, learning that Edward killed his previous girlfriend, instead goes up and plays dress-up as Kringle to make sure that Edward doesn't push her away. I honestly hope there's something more to Isabella than just a random lady who looks like Kringle and is super-duper-perfect. Is she one of the results of Symon's facial transplants, for some sinister purpose? Whatever she is, though, she apparently dies at the end of this episode because Oswald sabotaged her car, causing her to get hit by a fucking train. Really, what was the whole point of Isabella? It's just an injection of random drama and tragedy that's not even handled well, just a way to rob any form of happiness from the two people that might've had a decent chance at having it in Gotham City.
There's a brief drama where Mario Falcone is just angry and jealous at Jim, confronting him about the whole 'kill Lee' decision back during the Mad Hatter plot, and Jim's just being a cold son of a bitch about it. I mean, it's clear to everyone who cares to look that Jim still has feelings for Leslie, but honestly, dude, the woman's about to get married to a very nice bloke. Jeez. There's also a weird moment where Leslie gets confronted by Barbara, which is eeeh whatever. Carmine Falcone is always great to see on-screen, though, and his brief talk with Barnes is easily one of the strongest scenes in the episode. Such great actors. Is Barnes going to gun for Falcone and make him pay for the crimes he escaped justice from? That would be fun to watch.
But nah, knowing Gotham, next episode we'll have more Edward/Oswald romance nonsense and maybe Jim and Mario will fight to the death for Leslie. Was there a Bruce storyline here? I cannot freaking remember. Oh well. It's an enjoyable episode... from the Barnes plotline, at least, but the rest of the plotline seems to be meandering to some kind of weird nonsense I just find it hard to care about.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- "Toad" might be a very simple name and it might just be a coincidence, but him being associated with someone who deals in the mutilation business makes me think that he might be the show's adaptation of Mister Toad, henchman to Professor Pyg... who I genuinely think Symon was supposed to represent -- I mean, they both change the 'i' in their names to 'y', damned hipsters that they are.
- Barnes' mantra of 'guilty guilty guilty' and his self-assumed role as Gotham's judge, jury and executioner makes it look like his villain persona is based on Harvey Dent's third persona, the Judge, who first appeared in Batman: The Animated Series.
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