Gotham, Season 3, Episode 17: The Primal Riddle
As the title might imply, the episode is very Riddler-centric, and, boy, it's an interesting way to pit the various forces in Gotham against each other. There is Gordon's chase to find whatever the Court of Owls is planning to use to destroy Gotham, which indirectly leads to Team Barbara finding out about the existence of the mysterious Court of Owls, which in turn gets Riddler's interest absolutely piqued. Meanwhile, in the sidelines, the Penguin does what many a villain have tried to do before and assemble a Legion of Doom. An Injustice League. A Secret Society.
Oh, and more Bruce stuff, which I'll just mention here before we completely gloss it over. And Lee being kept out of the loop, which I bet will come back to bite Gordon in the ass when she inevitably snaps.
The Penguin stuff is absolutely entertaining, with the Penguin/Ivy pair recruiting two of last season's most colourful villains, Mr. Freeze and Firefly, treating the whole thing similarly to how a 'gather the members' part of an ensemble movie might play out. As always, Poison Ivy and the Penguin's team-up has been one of the best parts of the show after its inception last episode, and they don't disappoint in this episode. They recruit Freeze from where he's disappeared to, giving him his freeze suit, and apparently Firefly's working at a smelter. I really liked how the two approached their various quarries. Penguin knows what Freeze wants -- reversal of his condition -- and offers money and power and the resources he needs. Ivy knows what Firefly wants -- a family, for lack of a better term, and points out that freaks belong together and don't need validation from others. Oh, and Firefly's thankfully no longer in her insane "I AM THE GODDESS OF FIRE" phase.
The Court of Owls stuff has honestly been one of the least entertaining bits of the show, mostly because everything else is so freaking interesting. Throwing Gordon in the wolves' den to try and blend in while simultaneously trying to stop the whole thing. To this end, he tries to get Barbara to investigate a particular dock, resulting in Barbara meeting Talon and getting like a dozen men slaughtered by this uber ninja. Barbara, who has clawed her way to the top of Gotham City's underworld (very, very interesting to note that two seasons ago she's just Gordon's ditzy clingy girlfriend, huh) and tasks someone who's smart with questions, the Riddler, to, well, do his thing.
And therein the big flaw in Riddler's mentality shows. One of the things that makes Riddler such a strange and unique villain is his insane compulsion to make a show out of everything. "Why don't you just kidnap the mayor?" Tabitha and Barbara ask, and Riddler's answer is confusing, but mostly because, shit, that's his game. That's his thing. It's so much harder to do it when Gordon and Bullock have the entire police force going in to protect Mayor James, but that's how he proves he's so superior, by leaving clues yet still causing enough chaos to literally abduct James under their noses.
It's amazing stuff for the Riddler this week, for sure, and as he's pit against Jim Gordon -- who inadvertently unleashed this in motion when he asked Barbara for help, and also is forced to do the Court's bidding when Kathryn calls him -- and suddenly all the players are moving on the board in wild directions, something that should by rights be convoluted but is instead absolutely fun to watch. The confrontation at the precinct is well-done, and their brief, melancholic talk about their life as work colleagues before Nygma became the Riddler, is amazingly done. And Riddler gets into the car with Kathryn, intent to find the answer. If he wasn't, y'know, the Riddler, I would've bet that the Court would just shoot him and dump his body in a lake, but Kathryn assures Gordon and the audience that Riddler's talents will prove useful and the Court will make use of him. More importantly, Gordon is now in deep with the Court.
The weakest part of the episode is easily the Clone Bruce storyline. Selina has been a character that this season has no idea what to do, especially when the long-awaited reunion with Mama Kyle ended up being kind of a crap development. Clone Bruce ends up revealing his existence to Selina to save him from the upcoming destruction that the Court will unleash, but the ensuing fight (because of course no one will listen to what Clone Bruce has to say and not freak out) causes Clone Bruce to push Selina off the window in a Batman Returns homage. Hopefully we'll get Selina back in action without having to use weird supernatural and barely-explained cat powers, please.
Oh, and Clone Bruce is dying. Which I'm sure will cause the showmakers to ramp up the sympathy points.
So yeah, all the moving pieces are interesting. The Court has Riddler, who is so interested in what's going on with the Court. Barbara is gunning for the Court, and a wild card in all this. Oswald has an army and is gunning for Riddler, with Oswald not knowing that Riddler has been abducted and Riddler not knowing that Oswald is alive. And Gordon is playing all sides, pretending to be part of the Court while trying to dismantle it. Man, Gotham's a lot better, huh.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- After Selina gets thrown off the building by Clone Bruce, the scene is one huge homage to Batman Returns where Selina Kyle's body gets surrounded by alley cats that seemingly cause a supernatural healing... though the scene in Gotham cuts off before Selina's actual resurrection.
- While we're on the subject of homaging older live-action movies, Riddler hiding a plot device inside a man's stomach is totally a reference to how Joker stitched in a bomb into one of his mook's stomach, isn't it?
- "The Primal Riddle" borrows its name from a 90's arc in the Batman comics that, of course, starred the Riddler.
- Barbara recalls her last meeting with Aubrey James and the box, which happened when she tortured James while working under Theodore Galavan in season two.
- Firefly and Mr. Freeze, while now on the same side, voice their displeasure against working against the other, recalling their last meeting which ended with them trying to kill each other in season two's finale.
- Ivy reminds Firefly of their previous meeting and their mutual association with Selina.
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