“It’s like trying to teach a halibut to put on socks.”
Harvey gets all the best lines as he laments the futility of training a junior detective. But the line also serves to sum up the futility that permeates throughout the episode and pretty much the entire season. “Wrath of the Villains: Pinewood” is essentially two different shows jammed into one. The first half sees Gotham cuddle up to its campiness and throw in some lighter, gumshoe elements for good measure. The result is an interesting, yet eccentric concoction that would feel at home in Hugo Strange’s lab. The second half attempts to consolidate the storylines into one, and that’s where things get so contrived I wish Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame would walk into frame as The Colonel, break the fourth wall and utter his famous line, “Stop that! It’s silly!” Gotham has struggled in juggling and balancing tonal shifts in the show, and balance is needed more than ever this season in its attempts to create drama out of the Wayne murders investigation while unleashing some campy fun in Indian Wells. “Pinewood” doesn’t quite reach that golden ring, like so much of the season.
The first half of the episode is fun, solely due to the return of Bat-Crazy Babs. Erin Richards has been a healthy scratch for most of the season, which is unfortunate as she is consistently one of the best actors on the show. Once she was unchained from being Gordon’s demure housewife (a role now occupied by Lee), she transformed into a wonderfully sadistic and playful character who puts her own interests above all else; that kind of motivation is completely understandable. Barbara is a major force in the season’s best episodes as, by Galavan’s side, she throws more than enough wrenches into Gordon’s plans and proves she is a top tier foe.
The first half of “Pinewood” works because several scenes tease out that version of Babs we all know and love. We wonder whether she’s playing Gordon when she shows up at his door, says she’s horrified with her past actions and wants to be a better person. Gotham needs more of that kind of intrigue; that same formula was used effectively in the cat-and-mouse game between Gordon and Nygma; it was interesting and filled with tension and suspense. These brief glimpses illustrate how the show can be compelling and less self-serious when the actors are allowed to indulge in the more comic book elements of their characters. Hamming it up isn’t the sole responsibility of William Shatner; though he should get a royalty cheque when others dip their toes in the scene chewing well.
In the case of “Pinewood”, it’s Erin Richards with the handcuffs off as Bat-Crazy Babs once again, but she also throws a dash of heart into the recipe. Gordon’s quest to search for the Wayne’s murder leads him to The Lady, the criminal who was hired to contract Matches Malone. Gordon tracks The Lady to a women’s only criminal club and can’t get in. Enter Richards and her best work in the episode; she becomes BFF with The Lady with her performance as her sociopathic alter-ego as she puts a knife to Gordon’s throat and delivers him to her new pal to gain her trust. We’re not completely sure whether Babs is playing Gordon or The Lady, and that makes it much more compelling to watch.
Turns out, Babs plays The Lady as she helps Gordon get the name of “The Philosopher” and helps him escape. Richards even gives Babs some depth to her soul and a humanity that is usually found in short supply on the show. Gordon confronts Barbara and asks why she’s helping him. She says it’s because of her memory when Bruce came to Gordon for help and how this is important to him. However, the subtlety sledgehammer is wielded once again when Babs spells out to Gordon how by solving this case he can start over in Gotham. That said, it’s a minor blemish in an otherwise outstanding performance on Richards’ part and she cannot be blamed; she does the best she can with the material she is given.
The rest of the episode lacks that kind of enjoyment, unfortunately. Bruce and Alfred track down Karen Jennings, who was in Thomas Wayne’s appointment book the week before he was killed. She reveals Pinewood was a bioengineering lab that ran very less-than-ethical experiments, one in which resulted in Karen having a talon/claw for a left hand. And oh yeah, Thomas Wayne founded Pinewood, but the experiments were undertaken without his knowledge. So Bruce, Alfred, and Karen head to Pinewood to find the identity of the person who ordered the murder of the Waynes.
This is where the two stories merge. Bruce fills in Gordon, Gordon reveals his findings about “The Philosopher”, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Hugo Strange is the man they’re looking for. The show only shovelled Strange’s experiments down our throats all season. For almost two seasons the mystery of the Wayne murders has been a presence on the show, either subtle or up front, and could have been an opportunity for potential creative freedom. That opportunity is dashed as the mystery is solved via merging storylines that have meandered throughout the season. Also throw in Strange, Mr. Freeze, a reanimated Galvan, and a noticeable absence of Nygma and Penguin, and “Pinewood” seems merely a vehicle to set up storylines and events for the season finale.
Tune in next time – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
