Gotham S03E15 Review: Illusory Drug Friend

Gotham, Season 3, Episode 15: How the Riddler Got His Name

Riddle me this.

Woo, I forgot about this show! Which is a shame, because it's actually a relatively fun and decent episode. Gotham's third season is one of those hidden gems because of how absurd it tends to be, relying solely on the strength of its actors to deliver compelling stories. It's been a show that has always struggled to find a right tone, going through many, many obvious 'retool' phases, but I honestly think the third season found a reasonably right spot between being dark and campy. Before the long mid-season break, we've got a fair amount of bombshells thrown our way, the biggest being the fact that the Riddler shot Penguin and left for him to die at Gotham pier.


And honestly, with Penguin appearing for the episode in the form of Edward's hallucination, you might be forgiven for thinking that it's the route their taking with everyone's favourite waddling villain. Of course, the ending scene reveals that Penguin is alive and well, nursed back to health by the returning Ivy Pepper, but the characters in the show don't know that.

This episode is basically Edward Nygma's final transformation into the Riddler. Yes, in season two we've got that tense showdown between Nygma and Gordon, but here, his insanity reaches a summit as he keeps arguing with his mental hallucination of Penguin about how he needs to find his 'true self'. The ghostly Oswald is a riot to listen to due to how aware both hallucination!Oswald and Nygma are of his nature, which actually works in the story's benefit. Penguin keeps taunting Nygma about how he's nothing without him, about how he'll never discover his true self and stuff like that -- and breaks into song hilariously at one point -- while Nygma himself goes on a killing rampage as he kills anyone who can't answer three riddles, in desperate search for a nemesis.

Obviously, in any average episode of Gotham, it'd be Jim "main character" Gordon. But the kicker? Jim's busy. He's reconnecting with his mysterious uncle Frank, who the audience knows is a member of the Court of Owls, and Jim learns about throughout the course of the episode. It's kept ambiguous and could easily go either way if Frank really was playing the long game to destroy the Court from within, or if it's just the right words to say to try and sweeten Gordon to get to join them.

So instead of Gordon, we get the unexpectedly large role given to Lucius Fox as Riddler's nemesis, which actually works well. In the show itself, Lucius hasn't really done much, but he has been one of the guys who actually have answered Riddler's questions several times in the past. Lucius and Bullock's race against time to fight Riddler is amazingly done, as is the sheer insanity that Riddler has as he goes from one scene to another -- like the opera, the chess game, and later to the GCPD cadet announcement, and to showing up in Lucius's back seat -- finally finding out that, hey, he's evolved beyond being plain ol' Ed Nygma and is now... the Riddler.

It's rather ironic that the very first episode of the "Heroes Rise" sub-season is how, well, a villain got his true identity, but whatever.

But, really, the best part of it is using Lucius as the main protagonist for this show. See, seeing Gordon go through something that he's been through numerous times (he's fought Nygma several times before, but other villains like the Mad Hatter and the Ogre have also used these methods before) so it isn't terribly exciting, but making a variation in the formula definitely is. And having Bullock being so tied up with fixing Gotham City after the gigantic mess that Joker put it through is definitely another great excuse to both tie in to the previous episode as well as to give a lesser star a bigger role.

Menawhile, there are some B-plots running along that aren't terribly as exciting in comparison. Bruce gets duped to go out and talk to Selina after several scenes of Alfred encouraging him to do so, and the Court replaces him with, uh... the clone, whatshisface? 5-something-something? The clone doesn't really seem to be able to be able to blend in perfectly, being a wee bit too nice to Alfred, but at the same time Alfred brushes it off as the result of the confrontation with Selina. Oh, young love. Not sure if the other characters actually did anything really meaningful, though.

Overall, an amazingly solid episode, which Gotham definitely has the potential  to deliver in spades. The Riddler definitely stole this episode, and it's a great, great moment to see him finally rise and claim the mantle of the Riddler, because after all he's been through throughout these three seasons -- as erratic as Gotham's writing can sometimes be -- the man certainly has grown to become the Riddler we all know and love.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• When Penguin randomly breaks into a song, he wears the iconic top hat of his comic-book counterpart and a tuxedo that resembles comics!Penguin, though it's only for a brief shot. Riddler straight-up dons a version of his classic green-suit-tie-and-bowler-hat getup, with the only thing being missing being the question marks on his suit. 
• In previous episodes of Gotham, Lucius Fox is indeed the only other person other than Gordon to give Nygma's riddles the time of  the day.