Anyway, awesome episode. Highs, lows, and mediums, here we come.
LOWS
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1. Pacing
That was the only thing off in this episode, really. It just seemed a little rushed. Everything that happened was very exciting, but it gave you no time to digest any of it or to show the characters digesting any of it.
For instance, at one point or another throughout the episode, everyone casually mentions that they heard that Penguin was released from Arkham. This, even though it was implied that Dr. Strange was not going to tell anyone that he was releasing Penguin, and the fact that Penguin is an infamous criminal who took over Gotham's underworld once, evaded police capture for months, and could probably do it all again.
Butch doesn't seem worried about it. Gordon and Bullock don't seem worried about it. Nygma doesn't seem like he ever intended to reach out to Penguin, if Penguin hadn't reached out to him first. Captain Barnes doesn't even say anything about it. And so on.
Also, Gordon gets put in jail and Penguin finds his (possibly legit) long-lost family. These are very intriguing developments, but they happen so quickly. There's even a time jump over much of their proceedings, which doesn't allow any of it to sink in.
In fact, in terms of pacing, this episode reminds me of the first episode of Season 2b. I thought that that episode was so rushed because it was setting up the story elements for the rest of the season. However, most of those story elements played out in just two additional episodes. And now another set-up episode?
It makes me wonder if Season 2b is going to be composed of a series of 2-to-3-episode story arcs. It wouldn't surprise me if the Gordon-jail storyline and the Penguin-family storyline play out in just two more episodes.
I'd prefer longer, more intricate story arcs.
However, come to think of it, Season 2a started with a short, 3-episode story arc with Jerome, and the rest of the season carried out only a few, specific storylines. Maybe that's the structure we can expect from Season 2b as well.
Yes, now that I think of it, that seems most likely. If that's the case, I'm super excited to see the Gordon-jail and Penguin-family storylines play out over the whole rest of the season.
MEDIUMS
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1. Butch and Tabatha
I know that Butch and Tabatha were mostly in this episode to show Penguin's struggles as a newly "sane" person. Butch also provides some comic relief. And all of that's done very well, and Butch's style of crime-lordship is interesting to contrast with Penguin's.
Overall, crime in Gotham doesn't seem to be any worse in Gotham under Butch's reign. Who knows? It might even be better. However, Penguin was always dressed to impress and having business meetings with his underlings (specifically telling them not to bother decent Gotham folk, which is one of the lines that endeared Penguin to me, by the way).
Butch, on the other hand? Butch seems to lounge around all day in his bathrobe with Tabatha, ignoring calls from his nephew about Selina robbing them. Butch and Tabatha are living the good life. It's just an interesting contrast.
Nonetheless, I have a couple of problems with Butch and Tabatha as characters.
First of all, I thought it was strange that Butch and Tabatha blamed Penguin for: 1) messing with Butch's mind and making him a slave, and 2) killing Tabatha's brother, Galavan.
With regards to complaint #1, that was Zsasz. And sure, Penguin never tried to un-brainwash Butch, but still. If Butch were going to blame Penguin for something, I'd think he'd blame him for the whole hand-chopping thing.
(By the way, where is Zsasz, anyhow? Well, he probably skipped town when Butch came into power. Zsasz'll be back when Penguin returns to power. Mark my words. Zsasz'll be back...Zsasz'll...zazzle, lol.)
With regards to Galavan, well, Tabatha is just being hypocritical in blaming Penguin for that, since Galavan never would have died if she hadn't left him for dead.
If you ask me, it's obvious that she never actually cared about Galavan. She was just scared of him.
My overall problem with Tabatha is her lack of redeeming qualities. It seemed like the writers were giving her a redeeming quality with her protective attitude toward Silver, but now Silver has disappeared along with anything that might make Tabatha the least bit likable.
She spends all her time mocking Penguin's poor mother, tar-and-feathering Penguin, and pretending to be upset about her brother's death. (I mean, like I said, I can't believe that she's genuinely upset about it.)
I'm not sure what the writers are doing with Tabatha. You usually don't keep such an utterly unlikable villain around for this long. We'll see if they can give her some redeeming qualities or what happens.
HIGHS
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1. Penguin
Penguin is finally out of Arkham, so thankfully, we no longer have to watch him being horribly tormented/brainwashed/"rehabilitated". Sadly, I can't say that watching him outside of Arkham is exactly pleasant. But I CAN say that everything concerning his character continues to be brilliant.
The writers are skipping no steps in Penguin's development. There are basically three or four people he interacts with in this episode, and these interactions show where his character is at emotionally.
a. Butch and Tabatha
So, Dr. Strange brainwashed Penguin into having this sense of remorse, a desire to be good, and a need to make right what was wrong. Which is why he visited Butch and Tabatha with an offering of cupcakes and a sincere apology.
Well, that turned out badly. Quite predictably, it almost got Penguin killed. And it DID get him tar-and-feathered. Thankfully, he didn't seem to sustain any real injuries from the tar. But this scene also revealed something else.
Like I said earlier, Tabatha made fun of Penguin's mother's suffering, and Tabatha did it right to Penguin's face. It upset me, and I'm not even Penguin. How did Penguin react?
He laughed and complimented Tabatha on her impression of his mother.
...Remember how in my review of last episode I said how I wasn't sure I wanted Penguin to go back to normal? I mean, he seemed so happy and good-hearted last episode. And even though I knew it would never happen, I thought maybe he could leave Gotham and live happily ever after if he didn't revert back to his old self.
Well, now I see that he is neither happy nor good beyond a superficial level.
Strange didn't really fix Penguin. In fact, in the end, I'm convinced Strange made Penguin worse.
See, the fact that Penguin wasn't upset by the idea of his mother suffering shows a deep lack of empathy. Now, Penguin has always lacked much empathy, EXCEPT with regards to his mother. That was his only real redeeming quality: his love/empathy for his mother. And if he's lost that?
Well, I don't think he really has lost it for good, but I also don't think it will come back until he reverts back to his old self.
Basically, then, Strange has done nothing but leave Penguin naive and vulnerable (old Penguin would have known that Tabatha and Butch would hurt or kill him) and stripped Penguin of his actual redeeming traits.
You could say that Strange made Penguin kind and remorseful, but those are very much outward qualities. If they don't stem from empathy (as most, if not all, good qualities do), then they're not sustainable. I've seen now that Penguin's kindness and remorse do not stem from empathy. They're basically fake.
Now that I think of it, I'm actually very impressed with Gotham for not sending a message that you can fix a person with horrible mental torture. I didn't think about it before, but that actually would be the message they were sending if Penguin did turn into a good person.
Long story short, I see now that it's necessary for Penguin to revert back to his real self. He can't develop as a person unless it comes from a real place. Even from a real place, it's going to be hard enough for him to develop anyway.
b. Nygma
So, again, Strange instilled in Penguin a need to right the wrongs. In an effort to follow through with what Strange brainwashed him to do, Penguin visited Nygma and told him that violence and anger are not the answer.
Nygma could tell that Penguin is not right in the head, but he sent Penguin away anyway. I think this is important because of what I've said previously: Love is the only real motivator. I've been thinking about that since Nygma told Penguin that the promise of freedom comes with having nothing to love.
See, Penguin has a friend in Nygma, and Nygma's not a bad friend...depending on how you define "friend." It was very sweet when Nygma agreed to visit Getrude's grave for Penguin. But that wasn't a great inconvenience to Nygma. It would have been a great inconvenience to babysit a brainwashed Penguin and try to get him help. So, Nygma wouldn't go that far.
Of course, it's Nygma's choice how far he's willing to go to help Penguin. But if he really loved Penguin as a friend, no amount of inconvenience would matter. He would try to help Penguin.
Old Penguin knew not to ask Nygma for too much, but new Penguin seems surprised by the fact that Nygma doesn't want that much to do with him, just like new Penguin seemed surprised that Butch and Tabatha wanted to kill him. Like I said, Strange made Penguin naive and vulnerable.
After being turned away by Nygma, where does Penguin go but to his mother's grave. See, if you ask me, Nygma reminded Penguin of the fact that he really has no love left in his life. That remembrance brought about a new bout of despair because, as I said, love is the only real motivator. Without love, how can Penguin continue?
Penguin expresses such thoughts out loud to his mother, "To be honest, I don't know if I'm gonna make it without you."
I'm just so impressed with the Gotham writers for not just dropping this "no love" issue with Penguin. They continue to show the falsehood of the whole "no love = freedom" idea as long as it stays relevant, and it's relevant as long as Penguin has no love. What's more, the writers show how complex this issue is because it can seem to go away for just a little bit, but it always comes back, and will continue to come back as long as Penguin really has no love.
To go through it all:
1. Penguin was in despair when his mother died, but then a quest for revenge gave Penguin a sense of purpose and Nygma gave Penguin a sense of hope for freedom. The quest ended, though, and it turned out Penguin wasn't so free without anything to love.
2. Penguin was in despair when he was put in Arkham, but then Strange instilled a new sense of purpose and hope in him. The purpose, however, was fulfilled after Penguin apologized and tried to do good to everyone, and the hope was not based on solid ground (good things don't always happen to good people).
3. Soon, therefore, the despair came back.
But now we get to the long-lost father.
c. Penguin's long-lost family
This might actually be a lasting revenue of hope and motivation for Penguin. We'll see. But as soon as Penguin finished expressing his despair, his father showed up.
At first, I thought that this guy and his family were hired by Strange as part of his evil plot for Penguin. But now, I'm not so sure.
Elijah, Penguin's alleged father, claimed that his parents paid Gertrude off and sent her away. That would explain why she seemed to have money even though she didn't seem to have a job. Also, Penguin and Elijah kind of look alike.
Besides, there's clearly something wrong with Penguin's step-family, so if the whole family were fake actors, that would be ridiculous. It would negate all the drama Penguin is going to experience within the family.
Also, it would help Penguin return to power if he actually is the heir to a fortune.
ALSO, if this family doesn't work out in some way for Penguin, what will be his lasting source of hope and motivation? What's going to keep him going? Is he just going to keep hopping from one false source to another?
Maybe, yes. That wouldn't be so bad. Hard to watch, yes, but at least, it would make sense, as long as it doesn't continue on for too long. If the cycle is endless, Penguin is sooner or later bound to give up.
At this point, I have a ton of faith in the writers to be creative and, only with legitimate psychological motivation, keep Penguin going, living, and rising back to the top of the crime world.
2. Nygma
This is basically The Riddler's coming out episode, his introduction to super-villain society. And it's awesome. It's intense, smart, and produces lasting consequences for Jim Gordon at least. Not to mention Bullock is determined to find who framed Jim, so Nygma's little plot will likely produce lasting consequences for himself too.
Poor, crazy Nygma still doesn't know that Gordon never even suspected him in the disappearance of Kristen Kringle. Nygma probably just made himself even more likely to be discovered. Paranoia's a killer.
3. Gordon and Lee
I never expected Gordon to actually get put in jail for Galavan's murder. I felt sorry for Lee and for Gordon when they said goodbye, but I'm excited to see where this whole storyline goes.
4. Barbara Kean
Barbara's alive! Aliiive! Well, I mean, we always knew that, but she's awake now.
It think it's intriguing that she woke up because she heard about Gordon being arrested, and I'm excited to see what she'll do.
RATINGS
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General: 9/10
Compared-to-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 8/10
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