Gotham episodes 15-17 review

Sorry it's a day late, but here is my take on the next 3 episodes of Gotham, which seems to be the only series not taking a break.

The Scarecrow

So, has Leslie’s IQ dropped a few points since we last met her?

Anyway, she’s joined the GCPD and stuff happens there, James is annoying blunt which might explain a lot really, anyway, to the A-plot which is our Crane issues. So apparently Crane Sr let his wife die in a house fire, because he was pyrophobic, and seeks a way to eliminate fear, and apparently succeeds, and becomes an idiot in the process, and gets shot. Not afraid to experiment with his son, Jonathan he overdoses him, and brings him into a constant state of terror, his fear Scarecrows (of course)

But there’s so much more going on this week, in the aftermath of Penguin being ratted out last week. Falcone is entirely unphazed, telling the Penguin to re-open Fish’s club under his own branding (wait, wasn’t the club his already?) Falcone has a word with Marone, and convinces him to back down on his Cobblepot manhunt, but Marone warns if Falcone dies, the deal is off.

Falcone thinks Oswald is a smart man who knows his place, honestly I can’t wait for Falcone to be proven very very wrong on that point.

What else. Fish wakes up in fight club mark 2, and she uses her feminine wiles to take control of the place in a ludicrously short amount, also someone gets their eyes chopped off, a reference perhaps to the 10-eyed man? Or possibly the blind Fortune-teller title the next episode gets.

Then we have Bruce Wayne’s subplot, it’s… One of the best the show has ever offered, I still wish Bruce got a little more involved in the matters at hand, rather than being forced in side-plots all the time, but this one is touching, and the best bit is it lacks the awful dialogue that’s been plaguing his stories. So, Kudos

Rating 8/10

The Blind Fortune Teller

So, we have a very busy episode this week, we get the Graysons, the Joker (maybe), Fish being Fish, Penguin being cr*p at music, a Wayne Enterprises Board Meeting, and… Barbara, oh

So many plotlines we have to squeeze them all in, so let’s get started. We have a trip to the circus where fueding families fight over something, only to find a dead snake dancer and her ‘distraught’ son, Jerome. So, the families blame each other owing to a possibly stolen horse (and yet it’s still resolved better than Avatar’s The Great Divide) back before WWI which is nice… Anyway, a blind man comes along and says he has a message from the deceased, which despite all the ‘have an open mind’ comments from Leslie, turns out to be baloney anyway, as it’s a ploy to make them think an ancient called the Hellfire club (stealing from Marvel much?) is responsible. Actually it’s Jerome, who wanted to stop his mother being a whiny whore essentially.

Why is all this so interesting? Well the feuding families include the Graysons, and hence the parents of the would-be Robin. (The mother is in the other) also Jerome, who put in one of the best performances I’ve seen by an actor that young, might be the Joker, might… possibly, maybe… who knows?

Meanwhile Fish Mooney has decided to organise the troops in the organ donor ship.  She manages to get a meeting with the manager (yeah) and basically what she’s done here is raised her new fellowship for when she gets back to Gotham. I’m certain the Penguin will be a sitting well Penguin now (right…).

Anyway, the club isn’t doing particularly well under the Penguin’s umbrella (if you will) so Falcone tells Zsasz to help, by bringing him butch, who has been… tortured so badly he’s now under the Penguin’s thumb? Since when is hypnosis in Zsasz’s bag of tricks?

Also, Bruce Wayne decides to be Bruce Wayne rather than Batman Lite for a change, and against Alfred’s better judgement goes to a Wayne board meeting, revealing that he’s aware of the corruption in the board, and will seek legal action (I’m pretty sure that will come back to bite him next week)

Oh, and Barbara returns, bonds with her squatters (Selina and Ivy) and erm notices Leslie and Jim kissing. You know, if you weren’t such a b*tch, I’d feel sorry for you. But unfortunately, you are such a b*tch and I don’t, not even slightly.

So, that’s everything in a nutshell really, rating?

Rating 8/10

Red Hood

OK, so we have the Red Hood gang, first introduced as part of Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” Story. OK, the Red Hood is infamous with being the hood the Joker war before he dived into the vat of crazy juice, but… That’s by-the-by.

So, today’s episode. The Red Hood gang believe the mask makes them invincible when a near-blind couldn’t shoot one of them. They keep dispatching each other to wear the masks, whilst pulling off elaborate bank robberies.

I loved the first guy, but… That’s the only one in those masks I enjoyed. He was a joy to watch as he bragged and claimed that he was invincible. It was hilarious, and intentionally so

Speaking of hilarious moments, but this time they were not intentional. It seems Dollmacher (because it’s German, so it sounds more deadly apparently) is responsible for this human organ-house, and Fish finds another barrier to confronting him. Threatening to take out her eyes, Fish takes a spoon and carves out her own eye. I’m rolling on the floor laughing at this point. This is too gory and ridiculous to take seriously.

OK, so to subplot #2 – An old friend of Alfred’s comes to Wayne Manor, and Bruce offers him help. This will come back to bite them as the guy stabs Alfred, and departs, he had a debt to settle with the Wayne Board, and was tasked with putting Alfred out of commission. To me, it seemed kinda obvious that Alfred’s friend would be a traitor of some sort because why else would he be in the story?

In subplot #3 – We have the Penguin struggling to supply his bar with alcohol, when Marone holds all of the alcohol outlets and is refusing to sell because, well, put it simply, he hates the Penguin with a passion. Butch uses his connections in the police department to get a truck load confiscated for him, earning his trust? I really don’t know where Butch stands anymore. Is he biding his time, or has he really been turned.

In a subplot so short it barely qualifies. Barbara Gordon tries to patronise 2 people who have the spent the last few months living on the streets. Love how her old apartment has becomes a homeless shelter. I don’t care about Barbara, and until she becomes interesting (and relevant) I’m still not.

Erm, I really don’t have much to say about the main plot, it’s actually one of the shorter ones, and frankly it didn’t leave much of an impact on me, which is really what I consider about most of the episode (aside from the whole carve out her eye bit)

Rating 7/10

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