Deception and keeping secrets are the best way to generate and maintain conflict, and that happens in great abundance with Gotham.
Penguin is lied to twice within the first ten minutes. Butch’s deprogramming allowed him to betray Penguin and lead him to Gertrude, and in the best tradition of Admiral Ackbar -“it’s a trap!” Galavan releases Gertrude and quickly has her killed; she dies in Penguin’s arms. After all that has happened to poor Gertrude, it was expected Penguin would snap and seek revenge on Galavan in a clever shoot out at his celebration ball, which he barely escapes with his life. In the best tradition of never fully telling the truth, Penguin tells Gordon Galavan’s true intentions concerns someone Gordon cares about.
One of the two best elements in this episode is Penguin’s assault on the celebration, where his men dress and walk like him to prevent anyone making a positive identification. The second is Nygma’s final step towards Riddler, but more on that later.
Gordon puts the pieces together about Galavan conveniently too late, just after he wins the Mayoral election, and there’s the rub; things are never easy on television, but Gordon is clever enough to put two and two together about Galavan’s arrival in the city and the timeline of events that have led to this point. The icing on the cake is Galavan ordering Gordon to shoot Penguin dead in their armed standoff. Gordon and Galavan trade taunts in a staredown, a throwdown, a showdown, and hell no, they can’t slow down. Galavan’s story arc seems like it will occupy the entirely of season two, with either Gordon or Penguin (or both) taking him and Tabitha down. We likely won’t see the last of Tabitha if she is to later become Tigress, though.
Bruce, meanwhile, has his hands and heart full with Silver St. Cloud, who is the Honey Pot she appeared to be, telling Galavan she has Bruce wrapped around her finger. On one hand it seems perfectly natural for a young man entering adolescence to be interested in girls, on the other it seems a bit out of character for Bruce who only a few episodes ago was determined to discover what his father was up to and train to be a bad-ass. So far, not much investigating and some lapses in training as he falls in puppy love with the new girl who happens to be Galavan’s niece. Galavan reveals he hopes to
Only Selina sees through the charade, though she doesn’t know the reason why, and her warning delivery smacks somewhere in between jealousy and contempt. Bruce, however, doesn’t listen because she hurt him previously. Alfred, being older, somewhat wiser, and accrued more worldly experience, should have picked up on the fact that his ward is being played, but his social-economic prejudice for Selina blinds him from seeing things clearly. Perhaps he is happy for Bruce, considering all that has happened to him.
Nygma gets more screen time in a battle of mind and body with Riddler, who has hidden Kringle’s body in the GCPD. Nygma plays a game of cat and mouse with himself and must find by solving riddles before she is discovered. After some tense, almost getting caught moments, Nygma finds her in the morgue and admits he likes that he got away with it. Nygma and Riddler have been presented as two people onscreen – Nygma the nervous, shy fellow with glasses and the more assertive and cool Riddler. Two become one after Nygma no longer deceives himself; Riddler and Nygma become one and the same, the dual personalities have reconciled. Looks like Hamlet’s Polonius was right when he said “To thine own self be true.” Also looks like there’s a new villain in town, but it’s highly unlikely we’ll see green suits covered in question marks anytime soon. After a real slow burn, it’s nice to see Nygma/Riddler come together considering he had at best two short scenes in each episode this season.
Now let’s see what pent-up energy an unseen and really bored Barbara has in store for us.
Tune in next week – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
