“The best liars always tell the truth”
What makes Gotham more entertaining this season compared to last year’s is the continuous series of twists and turns that keep an audience interested.
Gordon does his best Michael Corleone “just when I thought I was out, they pull me right back in” moment when, after he seemingly reconciles his conflict between law and bloodlust last week, finds himself in a larger cesspool of doubt and guilt over allowing Eduardo to live as he killed Officer Parks at GCPD headquarters. Is he lying to himself that he can tow the line of law and order?
At the same time, his gut tells him something isn’t right with Galavan and his upcoming hearing, and Barnes allows him to continue the investigation. Gordon and Harvey learn of the Order of St. Dumas, robed monks responsible for the killings of eight seemingly unrelated individuals, prophecies of killing nine people to cleanse Gotham, and the sewer system the monks use to traverse the city without being seen. They eventually learn the remaining death is known as the Son of Gotham and that will usher in the next phase of the monk’s ritual. While Gordon is torn between guilt over Parks’ death and adherence to the law, his intuition is always sharp and we feel for him when others don’t believe his “crazy theories”. But the hero needs to go through these tests and trials to ultimately prevail, so we buckle up and go along for the ride with Gordon.
That means we sympathize when he’s onto something and faces resistance from Barnes or Harvey but pushes ahead and pays off, such as uncovering the Order of St. Dumas and the connection to Galavan, though the cleansing of Gotham has yet to be revealed. But it wouldn’t be a fulfilling story if we only celebrated the victories; certainly we have seen the body count pile up (criminal and police) on Gordon’s watch as well as his coming to terms with it, or not. Clearly he wanted to kill Eduardo last week, but he made a choice inspired by Barnes’ war story of “there’s no line, only the law” and now he has to live with the consequences of his choices. He’s angry at himself but he still shows he’s on side with the law when he tells Harvey to call for ambulance to help the monk he shot. Harvey wants to question and torture him right then and there for information, but Gordon shows restraint. His is an inner struggle that will likely not be fully resolved in the series, as we know Gordon tiptoes the line in the comics.
Bruce takes a giant leap into the world of deception and lies this week that pays off a previous set up in which Alfred says he does not possess the level of deception necessary to pull one over on Silver. Chalk one up for young Master Wayne who, in a particularly impressive and inventive con to learn the name of his parents’ killer, demonstrates his “mettle and guile” (as Galavan says in the closing scene) with the staging of his and Silver’s kidnapping at the hands of The Knife, played by Sons of Anarchy Tommy Flannigan. Under threat of counting fingers she doesn’t have. Silver spills her guts and names the killer as M. Malone. The look on Silver’s face when she realized she had been played was priceless. Even more so was Bruce’s ruthlessness to see the job through, another big step forward in becoming Batman. However, he still has much to learn though. By leaving Alfred in the dark on the plan, Bruce inadvertently put his trusted butler in danger when Alfred visits Galavan’s apartment in search of Bruce, only to find Tabitha and a fierce exchange of punches. Nice to see Alfred show off some badassery in his tussle with Tabitha, though we will have to wait until next episode to learn of his fate after escaping with several stab wounds.
Bruce may have moved forward in his deception and manipulation skills, but he fails miserably in not placing his trust in Alfred. Such teamwork is vital for Bruce to be able to operate in the future as Batman when he relies on Alfred heavily. As such, we see baby steps in his progress and Alfred will likely not be in peril. More likely Alfred will do his best Rambo impression and stitch himself up while knocking back a bottle of Scotch whisky.
The most entertaining moment of an entertaining episode was the Nygma/Penguin Odd Couple dynamic by way of telephone conversation. One can hope this will continue, if not in such a overt manner, but at least have a Penguin/Riddler team up when both come of age as master criminals, complete with costumes, gadgets, and riddles.
This episode, like much of season two, demonstrates that this series has been successful in moving away from the constant referencing DC Comics characters that polluted season one. The show is moving full steam ahead towards what should be a riveting and mid season break point. Since FOX has revealed that the second half will also include the “Rise of the Villains” subtitle, it seems not everything will be resolved in one more episode, which is more satisfying. Season two overall is much more satisfying.
Tune in next week – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
