Gotham, Season 1, Episode 21: The Anvil or the Hammer
Another relatively strong episode, this. That is despite the Ogre plot not being quite that interesting. Honestly three episodes is kind of stretching it. One-and-a-half or two episodes, tops should really be enough for the Ogre plot... but the episode is relatively strong as it builds up to the finale as we build up to the mob war that the first episode has teased, which is definitely the strongest of the many stories running through Gotham. The otherwise dull Wayne plot is injected with a huge amount of interest in the form of Lucius Fox, which is what everyone expected to happen -- Batman he may be, but a ten year old Bruce Wayne bringing down an entire corrupt corporation by himself is stretching the realms of disbelief way too much.
And having the Penguin's plot extend from a simple 'assassinate Maroni' to 'frame Falcone for attempting to assassinate Maroni and start a gang war' is an inspired choice, with Penguin fanning the flames of, well, everything involving the gang wars always being a highlight of the show. It's a shame, then, that we only have one episode left and with so many plot threads running around it's inevitable that some parts of the show will be inadequately explored.
But still, how awesome was Penguin, manipulating that assassin, Connor, to successfully try to kill Maroni while giving the little 'talk' about being from Falcone. I thought it was Penguin just trying to be hammy and dramatic as always, but no, it's actually a major plot point! And the final scene as Maroni personally channels his inner Godfather and goes around with a shotgun and his mafia attacking Falcone's people is awesome. This could really easily be the season finale, with the large cliffhanger being Maroni beginning a city-wide gang war, but alas, it's likely to be resolved in a single episode. Which is a shame.
Also of interest is Barbara Kean, as bizarre as those words might seem coming out of me. Or rather, the portrayal of Barbara Kean. I have always hated Barbara as she's portrayed in Gotham, and seeing her as a hostage of the Ogre and subjected to the emotional tortures of the Ogre who, in addition to being completely fucking insane, also preys on Barbara's own emotional problems which he sees as being somewhat similar to his own. There's brainwashing in addition to the whole emotional trauma and implied forced-sex. Plus what with Barbara herself already having problems even before he met the Ogre (the whole "if a bus hit me tomorrow no one will miss me" mentality) but that makes her all the more susceptible and this really feels like the origin story for a new Batman serial killer villain.
Ogre keeps telling Barbara to choose who she wants him to kill to show his devotion, and after being broken down from being defiant early on in the episode (a bit too fast, but then Barbara is kind of twisted in the head) she ends up choosing... not Leslie or even Gordon as I expected she would, but Barbara actually chose her parents, who we saw a grand total of one time and they were your general 'my daughter can never please me' types. Of course, Barbara is a self-entitled jackass, but her parents aren't exactly nice people too. Granted it would've made a tad more sense if we saw more of the brainwashing process, because as it is Ogre didn't really do much but make a few threats and Barbara's suddenly all for revelling in his insanity? Or is she just channelling all her repressed anger at her parents and Ogre simply made her snap? Girl's been through a lot throughout the season, after all, and I actually do kind of am interested to see where she goes next from here, whether she'll just be a broken bird locked up in Arkham or... something. I'm legitimately curious to see where she'll go from here.
And by the end of this episode, they are most certainly dead, arranged by the Ogre in a Zsasz-esque 'posed as if they're alive' display with them holding their teacups. Barbara's neutral expression throughout the short scene when Ogre moves in for the kill, and the blood splatters on her dress and her whole nonchalant attitude throughout the ordeal is a really spectacular show of just how much broken down Barbara is mentally by the Ogre.
Of course Ogre gets put down by the end of the episode, which is cool. His story and whole 'she's the one! No wait I'll kill her!' schtick was kind of getting stale through three episodes, but he certainly is a delightfully creepy monster and an effective villain. Gordon and Bullock hunting him down is also relatively generic CSI plot searching, which is fine but, again, formulaic and not that interesting.
The whole Wayne Enterprises plot is slightly weaker, with Bunderslaw being relatively generic beyond second-guessing Bruce poking around and Bruce discovering that idealism doesn't function in the dark depths of society being relatively m'eh and formulaic. I also don't like just how involved Thomas Wayne is to the whole Wayne Conspiracy thing, though then I've never really been invested in this plot. In theory it could be interesting, but I've always never liked it when origin stories are expanded way too much and have ties to every single conspiracy in the story.
We did get freaking Lucius Fox, which I totally did not expect, and he was awesome. Lucius Fox, of course, affirms that Thomas Wayne is a good man, and Fox seems to be an ally of Thomas Wayne before his death. I don't think we'll be seeing much development on this front, because this seems to be just seeding for the second season. But how cool was it seeing Lucius Fox?
I also liked the little talk between Bruce and Alfred about Reggie, and I'm thankful that wasn't dragged on as thie big hanging secret throughout the finale or the next season, and that's just done and over with. Thank you, show.
Riddler's getting more and more crazy as he brings in Doughtery's chopped-up body parts to the police precint and starts trying to get rid of the evidence, growing more and more psycho by the moment, as he goes from playing around with Doughtery's skinned skull (holy shit, how creepy it is imagining Nygma peeling the flesh and skin to leave that skull in pristine condition?) and talking to it, before going all nuts on it with a hammer? The scene where Kringle shows up at Nygma's work station and actually sees the chopped-up body parts was really tense as all signs point to Nygma, accidentally or otherwise, killing Kringle and that being his true point of no return... but no, Kringle just accepts Nygma's excuse that it's a factory accident.
Nygma faking a typed letter with that curious little 'clue' about his name? That was pretty on-the-nose, but fun as Nygma starts to divorce himself from GCPD's resident kooky forensics expert into embracing his future self as the Riddler.
There was that point in the episode where Bullock goes into this fucking weird fetish sex club with dudes in bunny masks being fed milk and all kinds of fucking weird stuff. I mean, the show refrains from showing Ogre doing anything particularly Fifty Shades of Grey beyond putting a mask on Barbara and chaining her up a couple of times, and some implied sex inbetween this episode and the previous, but the gigantic fetish sex bar thing was a bit... weird. Bullock clearly thinks so too, though, when the "show" that apparently involves a pig and a chainsaw that's mercifully kept offscreen freaks him out so much that he arrests everyone present.
Also relatively weak is Leslie Thompkins' arc in this episode, where in the beginning when Gordon is all panicked about saving Barbara, Leslie seems to be a bit jealous and pissed off, and then later admitting she's just afraid of losing Gordon. It's a bit annoying and reduces Leslie into nothing but a love interest, so no points for that.
Overall, with the finale being only a single episode, I really wished they condensed the Ogre arc into two episodes, because as it is the two major plotlines: the mob war and the Wayne plot, plus if they're going to show Barbara recovering or the Riddler being discovered by Kringle or something, would be way too much to fit into the finale. And there's the matter of Fish's comeback, because let's not delude ourselves -- that bullet probably didn't kill her.
No comments:
Post a Comment