Gotham S04E12 Review: The Case of the Strange Multiple Identity Disorders

Gotham, Season 4, Episode 12: Pieces of a Broken Mirror

Gotham is not the most stable of shows. Its first season has a lot of questionable decisions, and huge chunks of its second and third seasons (which feel like two separate mini-seasons considering the sheer jump in quality of some of its arcs) being literal drags to go through.

Yet despite my brief frustration with the Pyg/Sofia Falcone arcs, Gotham is in a very, very good position right now. And I say that confidently as someone who's actually finished all of the episodes of the fourth season to date -- the show actually carries itself with its unique sense of style and confidence, with such a great balance of its disparate story arcs that's all running concurrently, that it really makes other superhero shows like Arrow and Flash look borderline embarrassing.

And, sure, there are some frustrating character choices being done in this season of Gotham -- but unlike, say, Arrow or Agents of SHIELD, these character choices are actually evidently done as part of a longer character arc. Sure, Bruce and Alfred are splitting apart, and Bruce is being a huge dingwad at the moment, but it's clearly in service of a longer story arc with the show making it relatively clear that, yes, both characters are questioning their changes, but this is what they're going for at the moment. Or Bullock being kicked out of the GCPD and is now a wash-out at a bar, or Gordon being tied to Sofia as a dirty cop... there's a neat confidence that the show does, establishing that, yes, at the moment this is what our characters are dealing with. No, this isn't going to be rammed down our throats as NEW STATUS QUO. We actually get to see our characters grow, and it's interesting.

One of the things that didn't work as well in the previous half-season was dragging out the Pyg/Soofia stuff way longer than it should, and it's quickly shuffled off to the background in service of a pair of cases-of-the-week without ignoring it. It's clear that in her brief appearances Sofia hasn't lost her bite, and Gordon is clearly chafing under her yoke. And it's this conflict that, while not a lot of screentime is devoted to, shows the motivations behind our main villain and how she ends up being connected to Lee in her small corner of Gotham City. It's not particularly plot-twist-y or groundbreaking, but there's a definite cleanliness in how the plot threads are lined out compared to, say, Arrow or Flash with their respective clusterfuck main plots.

And this episode's plot deals with the reborn (and recasted again, with Peyton List replacing Maggie Geha) Ivy Pepper. Who, thanks to some wacky plot device chemicals, found herself reborn into a metahuman with the ability to, with a simple scratch, cause plants to bloom within the body of her victims. She's full-in deep in her comic book persona now, becoming an environmental eco-terrorist doing it for the plants, but there are definite hints of her history within the show, noting that no one ever cared for her, everyone always counted on her as a secondary character -- Selina and Oswald being the primary offenders in this case. Ivy doesn't get to do that much in this episode, but her transformation in both the physical  and mental state are definitely well-delivered.

And while Ivy is definitely going to figure into things later on, the big plot of this episode happens when we get re-acquainted with Leslie "the Doc" Thompkins, who has risen as the de facto leader of the impoverished little people of Gotham, screaming for reform and being a strong leader for them... so of course someone tries to blow her up. Someone who does so with a goddamn exploding toy plane. Ladies and gentleman, welcome our newest Gotham City maniac... the Toymaker! Except other than the toy plane and the hideously creepy toy workshop with the machinegun nutcracker that Gordon and Lucius visits, the Toymaker doesn't actually figure out into the episode a lot.

Rather, it's the mystery of who wants Leslie dead that ends up driving the episode. Gordon goes to investigate the huge bomb, and after some fun trolling from Barbara, ends up discovering Leslie and Nygma in their newfound positions of power as the saviours of the Narrows... something that actually ends up being somewhat glossed over with a curt "you look well, stay out of my way" from all parties involved. It's a bit refreshing, since in an earlier episode of Gotham this sort of pissing contest might be dragged on for half a season. Gordon's little search ends up with him being brought into contact with so many characters of the city, and it's well done.

Of course, the Toymaker confronts Ed Nygma, and claims that he hired the Toymaker to kill Leslie. Ed would never! Well, Ed wouldn't, but apparently there is some glorious Jekyll and Hyde thing going on, with the titular "Pieces of a Broken Mirror" referring to poor, poor Nygma's psyche as the dormant Riddler has finally bubbled up to the surface, and he wants to be in control of their body -- and he's willing to cut out any attachments Nygma has to his 'good' life. It's gloriously done, and Cory Michael Smith plays both sides of the character amazingly well. Gordon ends up shooting the Toymaker before he can say anything, keeping Nygma's split personality secret for now...  but at the moment, Nygma is at war with himself, and it's well done. Was this their plan for Two-Face until they obviously wrote Harvey Dent out? If so, it's still probably the most interesting version of Riddler that I've ever seen.

Meanwhile, Alfred is going on his smaller mini-arc as he lives in the Narrows, content to keep to himself, but ends up being framed for the murder of a barmaid he befriends when he confronts her abusive boyfriend. It's not the most interesting of the storylines and is the most obvious filler since it doesn't really come with much consequence, but Sean Pertwee is always an interesting actor, and Alfred's story in this episode gets woven into Gordon and Bullock's orbit, in turn bringing those two characters together. Bullock's little mini-arc from being just someone running away and moping to ending up being decent enough of a dude to help out a friend when he sees Alfred about to take on four men alone, and putting justice over his obvious dislike of Gordon, is nice. Bullock's final confrontation with Gordon, refusing to be Gordon's "priest", as he puts it, is amazingly well-done and heartbreaking, showing just how far Gordon has fallen in his quest to be the tragic hero of sorts.

Oh, and Solomon Grundy is regaining his old Butch Gilzean persona. I guess as much as Grundy's existence in the show being a great comic-book callback they haven't actually done much beyond making him be a dumb grunting ogre, so it's neat to give the character some focus. We get a bit of Bruce being a dick, and a bit of the "Sirens" squad with Selina interacting with Bruce a little, but not much on that front. Otherwise, though, it's still a very solid and very entertaining hour of television, building up multiple characters and delivering a relatively satisfying re-introduction to all these characters.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Toymaker, a.k.a. Cosmo Krank, is a minor Batman villain from the 2004 The Batman cartoon series, a villain that's obviously supposed to be Superman villain Toyman but the production of 2004's The Batman is filled with a lot of convoluted "which characters can we use" stuff so they made up a new name. The version here is actually called Griffin Krank, though.  
• Poison Ivy's comic-book supervillain name is finally referenced because the plant that grow out of her victims are specifically poison ivy.
• Poison Ivy's metahuman powers and her usage of poisons and ability to control plants are all abilities that she ends up having in later stories which upgraded her from "scientist weaponizing plant pheromones" into "plant-controlling superhuman".