Gotham S04E19 Review: What Is Dead May Never Die

Gotham, Season 4, Episode 19: To Our Deaths and Beyond

I am not a fan of this episode. The whole Demon's Head plot moves in a breakneck pace with so many random plot devices and plot points that are just expositioned to us quite randomly, and it honestly feels mostly like a trainwreck. First up, we get Barbara being reduced to a one-dimensional maniac talking about destiny and how she's pissed that everyone from the immortal cult from Zombie Ra's to her own followers wants something more than 'take over Gotham City'. Meanwhile, Tabitha and the dude members of the League of Assassins (the fact that none of these guys even get a name is telling, isn't it?) end up recruiting Bruce and Selina to help resurrect Ra's al Ghul, who spends much of this episode as a weird hooded zombie who's intent on getting the Demon's Head power back from Barbara. 

Which is some sort of bizarre Ultra Instinct ability here that lets you see five seconds into the future or 'rewind' time like quicksaves or something? I dunno. That also felt weird. We get a bit of hijinks as Bruce, Selina, Alfred and Tabitha steal the magic plot device dagger, and as Selina gets dragged back and forth between her friendship with Bruce and her supposed allegiance with Barbara and Tabitha. And when she realizes that Barbara's gone super cuckoo, she leaves Barbara. Again, Erin Richards really hams up her role and makes it really entertaining, but the character ends up feeling one-dimensional regardless. Barbara ends up doing the sane thing and relinquishing the Demon's Head to Ra's in order to prevent Tabitha from dying, but in the same vein, apparently the lady members of the League of Assassins somehow thinks Barbara is still a worthy leader? Somehow? As Ra's points out... Barbara is just a crazy nightclub owner with delusions of grandeur. 

I dunno. I'm just glad that Barbara, Tabitha and Selina are apparently removed from the exhausting League of Shadows plot, because I've always felt Barbara's inclusion was a bizarre and utterly pointless plot development. Again, we get some really great acting moments from Barbara and Selina in particular, but that doesn't excuse the shitty storytelling. 

Meanwhile, the Riddler struggles as he finds that he's now the one tormented by the alternate-psyche-in-a-mirror as Ed Nygma begins taunting him over his own love with Leslie Thompkins, and Riddler is dragged in two directions -- his (Ed's) love for Lee, and his attempted allying with Penguin and Grundy to betray Lee and work together with them. As they go on a fun little bank-robbing spree (for a Batman adaptation, we've had scant little of those, actually) Riddler ends up betraying Penguin and Grundy instead, locking them in the vault as he recognizes his love for Lee -- or rather, the darker sides of Lee awakened by the Alice Tetch virus. It's a bit of a weird reveresal where instead of Lee getting Nygma to re-emerge from the Riddler, it's a storyline where Riddler is pushing Lee into embracing her evil personality. Okay...? I like this bit a lot better than the League of Shadows storyline, but it's still clunky. 

Overall, it's a very clunky episode overall. And as much as Selina and Alfred like to lampshade the absurdity of the situation, it doesn't really make it any less poorly-told and rushed. Still, Ra's mentions some huge reckoning in the future that involves Gotham City burning, and based on the next few episode titles, it seems we're getting an adaptation of one of the more iconic storylines from the comics. Which hopefully is a bit better than this. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Ra's Al Ghul returning to life after being dead is nothing new, as it's an aspect of his character that is most iconic, beyond his seeming immortality. It's actually the first time that a live-action Ra's Al Ghul has done so, with neither his appearnces in Arrow or the Nolan Batman movies ever managing that. 
• That said, everything else about Ra's here -- having to be killed with a specific dagger, stealing the weird glowy hand power and the ability to see the future -- are all original to Gotham. 
• Ra's Al Ghul, of course calls Bruce a "Dark Knight", one of Batman's most enduring epithets and titles. Ra's also wants to train Bruce to embrace his destiny, something that he's often done in various incarnations.