Gotham, Season 1, Episode 20: Under the Knife
A great contrast to last episode's mess, episode 20 of Gotham shows how you can have multiple plot threads running together and still tell a solid, engaging episode. One of the biggest things going on for this episode is not having the stupid waste of space and time that is the Fish-Dollmaker plotline, which gives every other plotline room to breathe. In place of Fish, we see the return of Barbara Kean, who is one of the characters I loathe with all my heart and soul from... from all fiction in general, really.
But this episode made Barbara Kean relevant, and her inclusion plays off the creepiness of Ogre really, really well! In addition to being an awesome little twist with the whole 'wrong loved one!' thing, it actually builds up Barbara's "why does the world hate me nothing goes right" self-centered and now self-loathing characterization. That mindset is the reason why I abhor Barbara so much, but it works here really well here as Ogre's "I want to find the one" seems to have been tailor-built to play off Barabara's own insane self-loathing. And Barbara being a self-loathing destructive woman who hates the world is certainly far more fun than the witless, needy mess of a character when we last saw her. I do like the nice little moment when the Ogre stopped himself from killing Barbara, not only because she apparently isn't with Gordon anymore, but Ogre sees Barbara as a potential partner who's the same twisted freak deep inside.
And we see that the Ogre himself, through his relatively convoluted backstory, has his own history with self-loathing. Yes, the whole plastic surgery angle was played a fair bit too long since it's already obvious, but the whole mother complex thing and everything regarding the rich batty woman does probably give him a fair dose of craziness. Enough craziness to have that giant room full of bondage gear... though I do find it ridiculous that Ogre keeps a freaking morning star along with his collection of leather masks and straps and whatnot. I do find it rather odd that there's no mention of the whole bondage and presumed rape whenever they describe the Ogre, but I guess him being a 'serial killer' first in the eyes of the police instead of being a kidnapper and rapist does kind of make sense.
I do note that Barbara's kind of into Ogre, at least before the self-loathing kicks in and she kicks him out, and her expression when Ogre shows Barbara his big bondage room is one more befitting confusion instead of shock or horror. Are they building Barbara up to be a villain? Ogre's partner of sorts? I dunno. But I do like how they actually chose to develop Barbara's characterization instead of just using her as a plot device -- either as the Ogre's victim, or just a plot device for Gordon to save.
Gordon and Bullock's investigation and information finding is relatively, y'know, generic and procedural. Beyond Gordon panicking about Leslie (that cat scare scene was kind of dumb) there wasn't anything particularly of note. There were some nice little atmospheric scenes as they try their best to track down the Ogre, like Bullock finding the rotten corpse and the creepy scratched-out photographs, but the focus in this episode is clearly on the villains: the Ogre, the Penguin and the Riddler.
Penguin, again, contiues to be a crazy fucker. He's recruited this random mercenary, Connor, to kill Maroni when he comes into this bar he purchased last episode, which is all fine and generic and stuff, but it's always interesting seeing Penguin's crazy antics. The big scene for Penguin and the whole mob plotline here is when Maroni does his little jovial drink with batty old Gertrude Cobblepot, before basically confronting her with biting revelations about Oswald's murderous tendencies. It's great show for all three parties involved -- Oswald, Maroni and Gertrude -- and I do love how Oswald's actor just sells the seething rage when he realizes what Maroni is playing, and the silent sobbing when he is forced to lie to his mother and his mother knows it.
It's kind of obvious for Gertrude to die at the hands of Maroni or Falcone, but I'd argue having Maroni get at Penguin in this way, ruining the relationship and trust between him and his mother, is as devastatingly effective as it would be for Penguin to see his mother gunned down in front of him, which is relatively generic as far as these traumatic origin stories go. Maroni's really hamming it up and this scene is truly excellent. I do love how Penguin immediately commits a murder right after his crazy mother confronts him and goes off to pout because she doesn't know what to believe.
And contrasting with Penguin's sociopathic murder-just-because-he's-pissed-off moment in this episode is Edward Nygma's first murder, and most likely the beginning of his own descent into villainy. Ed's quasi-accidental murder of Kringle's abusive boyfriend plays off well with Selina's own kill last episode, and there is a nice little contrast to see how the different characters react. Nygma and Kringle's dynamic has been a relatively eyeball-rolling sometimes-funny sometimes-painful-to-watch part of Gotham that I don't criticize as much because it's got other, bigger problems, but I do like how it ends up paying off as the socially awkward Nygma tries to be a hero for this girl he likes and ends up accidentally killing Douchebag McBoyfriend.
Although, yes, I do admit, having Kringle's boyfriend be a generic and almost cartoonish woman-beater jock is kind of lazy, it is still effective nonethelesss. And I do like the little parallel between Maroni confronting Gertrude a couple of scenes back with the line "what kind of person plunges a knife into someone over and over?", while that is exactly how Nygma kills his victim. And Nygma just breaking down with "oh no oh dear oh no" gives him a pretty awesome descent into villainy, something that Nygma never really had going on for him beyond his unhealthy obsession with playing around with corpses.
Bruce and Selina continue their little interpid investigation into Bunderslaw, and their scenes are relatively slow. It's a lot better to see them actually have a plan to sneak Bunderslaw's key and make a duplicate of it instead of the aimless wandering around in the streets, and having Bruce and Selina actually having planned it out beforehand does make it a fair bit more plausible. Nothing particularly interesting in this part beyond it being connected tangentially with the Ogre plot since Selina and Barbara are roommates. That bit is still weird as fuck.
But Bruce and Selina still play off each other pretty well, even if them talking about crossing the line of murder is a bit of an unsubtle shout out to how Batman doesn't kill and all that.
Overall a great episode that doesn't just waste its time building up plot lines, giving exposition that don't matter or consumed with random uninteresting sub-plots. While I contest having the Ogre plot stretched over three of the four remaining episodes instead of focusing more on Loeb or the mob, it is relatively effective and promises for a relatively content-packed finale. Hopefully it's not that messy, though... I do hope the Ogre and, I dunno, Riddler and Wayne sub-plots get wrapped up relatively quickly in the next episode so we can focus on the mob bits for a big Gotham finale.
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