Gotham S03E16 Review: Penguin and Ivy Villain Team-Up

Gotham, Season 3, Episode 16: These Delicate and Dark Obsessions

This episode of Gotham splits its screentime mostly between two major plotlines. Well, three, but the Bruce Wayne stuff is honestly just pretty much kind of there. It's a fun romp, again, and while more setup than anything it's also a very fun episode that once more owes more to the strength of its cast more than anything.

The Bruce Wayne stuff is more or less just there. I don't think we actually saw Clone Bruce or Alfred anywhere in this episode so I guess he's acclimatizing well, but Bruce Wayne finds himself in some weird Himalayan mountain thing as he goes through a Batman Begins style plot as a mysterious old man (who's totally Ra's Al Ghul or a Ken Watanabe-style decoy, right?) makes him relive his trauma and tells him that he needs to break free from his trauma and become a symbol from the city. Dude, you're the Demon's Head and a member of the Court of Owls, but the kid's, like, twelve or something (actor's growth spurt notwithstanding), what the hell. It's a nice, twisted version of the normal Batman origin story, because this time while the old zen master might seem like your average Obi-Wan mentor, he's definitely associated with the Court of Owls to some degree, so even if it sounds like he's going to mould little Bruce into Batman, he certainly doesn't have the boy's best interests in mind. It's a very cool thing, though -- there is no way in hell Alfred or Gordon or Selina can find their way to where Bruce is,  so this truly is a pickle he has to get out of on his own.

The rest of the episode is split more or less between two plot points, which is Gordon's deal with the Court of Owls, and Penguin's attempts to return to Gotham City, both of which are very entertaining in different ways.

The Court of Owls one is the baggage and plot-heavy stuff, with Frank being told by Kathryn (the only other member of the Court that actually does something) to eliminate Gordon. Gordon himself goes around investigating and finding out that his father's death was caused, ultimately, by Frank. After a confrontation with Don Falcone (always nice to see him back), Gordon goes off to confront Frank. Where does Frank's loyalties truly lie? Well, it turns out that he does want the Court to fall, it's just that the easiest way to do so without killing Jim is to shoot himself in the head, and allow Jim to take over his place.

Which seems unnecessarily convoluted, because you'd think that the Court would send even more assassins after Jim to kill him, but Jim plays the undercover man and goes to the Court and tells them about how his father's death was caused by his uncle and his uncle alone. It's a bit weird, but I guess it sort of works in terms of how the Court has always been presented in the show? Basically Gordon's big master plan is to stop some huge weapon developed by the Court via Indian Hill, so we've got that going on for us.

Meanwhile, Penguin and Ivy are a riot. I don't understand why Ivy really wants to be buddy-buddies with Penguin, though I guess she just sees him as a fellow 'freak'? Penguin, meanwhile, wants nothing to do with the crazy plant lady (ha!) and calls his buddy Gabe, who gets a lot more screentime in this episode. Until, of course, Gabe ends up being untrustworthy and tries to sell Penguin off to the highest bidder. Penguin ends up playing nice to Ivy, who uses her plant perfume deal to get Gabe's mooks to kill each other -- Ivy really hamming it up and Penguin telling the excited little villain to dial it down is hilarious -- before using the truth thing to get Gabe to tell Penguin what he really thinks.

And Penguin, the recently-dethroned King of Gotham, is told something that he didn't take very well. That despite his power, no one respects him. They're only afraid of him, crazy freak that he is, and everyone still sees him as that umbrella-carrying loser. Penguin snaps and murders Gabe (bye Gabe!) but it's definitely a nice, nice bit of character development. Like how Penguin was nursed back to health by Maroni in season one and Nygma in season two, his time with Ivy has taught him something else. With Maroni, he learned to be a greasy little manipulator. With Nygma (and Butch) he learned to be a mob boss and later a mayor. Here, we go back to a version of Penguin popularized by Batman Returns -- the freaky reject who craves respect. Yes, Penguin dresses up in a suit, is a mayor and eats caviar and shit, but deep within he's still a monster.

And while Gabe calling him a freak sets him off, Ivy identifies with Penguin and he calms down a little, learning to respect this wacky woman-child and buying into her plan of recruiting an army of monsters of his own.

Overall, it's not as strong as the previous episode. I'm not sure why -- maybe the Court of Owls drama isn't just that appealing, or the Bruce Wayne stuff seemed like a bit of a rehash of Batman Begins (as different as the context of the scenes are) but it's definitely still enjoyable.