Gotham – S3 E2 “Mad City: Burn the Witch”
“That’s strange weird, not Strange the guy.”
What’s strange is Harvey not getting any sardonic one-liners, the citizens of Gotham are technologically anachronistic when convenient, and a super, faster than Flash introduction for Poison Ivy. What isn’t strange at all is my continued indifference regarding Gotham so early into the season.
Four stories are presented in Mad City: Burn the Witch, though the two main ones are really two sides of the same coin, with the two minor stories being the more interesting ones this week.
Gordon teams with Valerie Vale to find Fish Mooney, who in turn searches for Hugo Strange to help with her failing health. Vale’s offer from last week stands – Gordon gets the million dollar reward from Penguin and Vale gets to write the story of the century. She’s stuck, as her source, Selena, has disappeared. A visit to Babs at the club fixes that, though Babs’ initial price for the info is a kiss from Gordon upon learning he and Lee are no longer together. He refuses and, being the good sport she is, Babs tells him the location of an old bank that Fish uses as a hideout.
The problem with Gotham is it’s insistence on stuffing five pounds of story into a three pound bag; what could have been a slightly longer and more playful interchange between Gordon and Babs that has more meaning, both characters are let off the hook and Gordon gets his info way too easily. And Vale fills the time they have together spouting exposition the audience already knows rather than any real meaningful interaction between the three. Once enlightened, Vale dumps Gordon as payback for him leaving her the night before to find Peabody. All’s fair in love and war, and El Predicto got it correct as the two locked lips at the end of the episode, at the same time Lee arrives back in Gotham on an Art Deco train. El Predicto now states that Gordon will be more than distracted with this new love triangle in upcoming episodes.
Fish, meanwhile, continues her search for Strange and is gifted Harvey, who is captured by her henchmen after he leads a raid on the bank and the cops are taken down with the gang’s super powers. Fish uses her to persuade Harvey to deliver her to Strange, which he does. Cue the next big raid later in the episode where Barnes, Gordon, and the GCPD surround the building that imprisons Strange. Penguin also arrives and holds yet another press conference on how the monsters are out and Fish needs to die; but this time he has a mob with him who are ready to rock and roll at the flip of a switch. A nice moment here is when Penguin hobbles to the front of the police barricade, cane in hand, and Barnes hobbles to meet him face to face, with cane in hand as a mirror image. Gotham can be subtle when it wants to be; not everything needs to be a sledgehammer to the face, and this is a nice example of that subtlety.
Just when you thought it was going well, the subtlety ends. Why the press, and Vale, use 35mm film cameras with flash bulbs is beyond me; this is a world with computers and cell phones, yet there are anachronisms peppered throughout the episode, and the series for that matter. Perhaps it’s to give a timeless quality to the show and its world without really nailing down a precise date. Tim Burton did the same thing in the 1989 film Batman but that seemed more organic; here is seems forced.
In another example of things going easily, Gordon makes a deal with Penguin for Fish; all he needs to do is provide a few diversions for Gordon to get inside. Then Gordon proceeds to strike a deal with Fish; her freedom in exchange for Harvey’s. Cue Penguin’s riot outside, Barnes calls all the cops surrounding the building to the front, and voila – an opportunistic escape route out back and into the forest. Only Penguin is waiting to shoot Fish, who has Strange in tow; this is one of the best moments in the episode, as Fish confesses she didn’t kill Penguin on the bridge six months back because she is proud of what he has become, of what she created in him. No longer associating with the name Oswald, a choked up Penguin lets her flee with Strange. Out front, Penguin’s mob has killed Fish’s henchmen and burned their bodies on a giant bonfire. A rather disturbing moment, but it becomes a fleeting one when you realize an angry mob defeated meta-humans with super powers.
Bruce meets with Kathryn, who is at least for his purposes the face of the Court of Owls, even though she refused to reveal the group’s name. David Mazouz finally gets something of quality to work with in a meaningful scene. The Court kidnapped Bruce to find out what evidence he had on them, and he reveals it was circumstantial at best. A bluff, but a good enough one to force the Court’s hand and reveal themselves to him. Mazouz plays the scene cool as a cucumber, presenting some of his finest acting since he starred in Touch. Bruce strikes a deal with Kathryn; he will give them total control of Wayne Enterprises and they no longer bother him or those closest to him. Kathryn counters with Bruce agreeing to stop investigating the Court and his parents’ death and they have an accord. Once back at stately Wayne Manor, Alfred opines that the group might not keep their word, just as Bruce’s clone shows up on their doorstep. What was a solid scene once again loses some impact with the easiness of how our heroes get what they want or need.
Amid all this action, Ivy wakes up on the other side of the river after being touched by henchman Marv in her escape from Fish. Remember that Marv can age a person by touching them, and he grabs her for a second before she jumps into the sewer. That was enough to age her 15 years and she is now physically an adult with a teenager’s mental and emotional state, which, if not played properly, might be a little creepy. She is rescued by a Good Samaritan who brings her to his house to clean up. This fellow might as well have been wearing a red shirt, as Ivy kills him for neglecting the plants in the house. After cleaning up and putting on his ex-wife’s green cocktail dress, she leaves him on the floor and emerges as Poison Ivy, though no word yet on any super powers.
A less sarcastic Harvey, rushed villain introduction, and more reliance on action set pieces make Mad City: Burn the Witch an uneven episode that does contain some solid elements.
If only those elements could have more emphasis.
Tune in next time – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
