Review: Gotham Season 2 Episode 16, Prisoners [SPOILERS]

Wow, do I love the promo for the Episode 17, and wow, do I have a lot to say about Episode 16. As usual, most of it is about Penguin, who I have to admit I love as a character. Strangely enough, though, even though this was a Penguin-centric episode, my feelings for it consist of 60% pure confusion and only 40% yay. 

 Let's go through the highs, mediums, and lows.

[WORST CRIMES DISCLAIMER: This episode mentions rape a few times.]

LOWS

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None.

MEDIUMS

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1. Penguin

I'm not sure where to start. 

Penguin spends this whole episode with his long-lost father and step-family, and the tone of all Penguin's scenes is...different from the norm. 

I've grown to trust Gotham to present evil as evil. When watching Gotham, I can let my guard down, knowing that I won't be tricked into laughing at something horrible and feeling guilty about it later.

This episode gave me a couple of moments where I laughed at a joke and then felt iffy about laughing at it. I mean, it also gave me several moments where I laughed at jokes and then felt fine about laughing at them, so overall, it was a fun episode, but those iffy moments are...well, iffy.

Gotham has walked the line when it comes to dark humor before, but it never crossed the line. (Except possibly in the first episode when Penguin was beating a man with a baseball bat. I'm still not sure what to think about that, and I just try to block it out.) But the thing about dark humor is that it's difficult to tell if you've crossed the line or not, so it's difficult not to cross the line. 

I think it's better to avoid dark humor altogether, and Gotham has often avoided it, even when the opportunity for it presented itself. Gotham certainly didn't avoid dark humor in this episode, though, which made it a bit stressful to watch, as I said, because it took me off guard and I felt a bit weird about laughing at the things I laughed at. 

In short, the dark humor in this episode? Fun, on the one hand. Stressful, on the other.

What's more, Penguin's scenes have less of an impact when they have this strangely humorous tone. It left me unsure of what I was supposed to feel at any certain moment. I'm used to Gotham forcing me to take serious things seriously and encouraging me to take happy things happily. I'm used to Gotham inspiring the proper emotions in me for any certain scene. Basically, I'm used to Gotham doing the work for me.

I always know how to feel because Gotham tells me the right way to feel.

...That sounds weird, but if you ask me, that's what a good story does. It does the work for you. You don't have to question the emotions it gives you because the story is handling your emotions responsibly.

During this episode, though, I was so emotionally confused.

At first, it's fine.

For instance, a smiling Penguin turns somber for a moment when it is mentioned that his step-siblings had an abusive father.

Okay, good, the light-hearted tone turned serious when things got serious. 

However, the tone didn't get THAT serious or stay serious for long. So maybe, I thought, Gotham is purposely (because, like a good show, it does most things on purpose) leading me to believe that the abuse was a lie Grace told Elijah to get him to marry her.

THEN, however, Elijah discloses the fact that he has a heart problem and is basically dying very slowly. The tone is serious, but not as serious as it could have been, so...just...what? Maybe, Gotham is purposely leading me to believe that the threat of Elijah's death is not particularly high? It obviously is, though. I mean, Grace is switching out his real meds for mints.

THEN, Elijah actually has a heart attack (or something), and the tone is actually humorous. Grace asks her children what they did to Elijah and then tells them to "clean up this mess, AND call a doctor."

...Huh?

Am I supposed to care about Elijah dying or not?!

Of course, I actually do care about Elijah dying, because I care about Penguin. I don't want him to lose another kindly parent. 

It's just confusing when it seems like Gotham, the show, is purposely leading me to believe that Elijah dying is not a big deal.

But then, it IS a big deal when it actually happens. Not only is the tone serious, and not only does Penguin react with pain and sadness, but the step-mother also seems upset by it. 

What the heck is going on?

First of all, why DOESN'T she want him to die before he changes the will? It seems like an even better solution than killing Penguin. I mean, she's already killing Elijah, just slowly. 

Well, come to think of it, maybe that's the point. There would be less of an investigation into Elijah's death if he died slowly, of "natural" causes.

But, still. Why was the tone so different when Elijah actually died than when he almost died earlier in the episode? Why did even Grace happen to take his actual death so seriously and appear at Penguin's side so quickly?

It's emotionally confusing, and it's already sad -- Elijah dying.

When Penguin screamed , it took me right back to when his mother died. In this episode,  the moment when Elijah died is the only moment I can decidedly say came across with the proper impact. 

In order to understand this episode and its tonal weirdness, I have come up with a couple theories:

- Theory #1:

The Gotham writers were trying to show us how horrible the step-family is. 

After all, Grace and her children were the ones who were blatantly disregarding serious issues. 

For example, there's a scene in this episode where Grace claims that they could have all been "raped and murdered" in their beds by Penguin. Obviously, that was her attempt to use fear-mongering to get Elijah to send Penguin away. At the same time, however, the humorous tone of that scene had me worried that Gotham, the show, was making light of rape. 

See, Penguin informs his step-family that he never raped anyone.

And, of course, if you ask me, they shouldn't have assumed that he did. The newspapers certainly didn't say that he did...because he didn't. 

Most likely, Grace and her children did not really believe that Penguin had raped anyone. They -- the step-family, not the Gotham writers -- simply take rape lightly enough to use the idea of it in their manipulation of Elijah. That's what the Gotham writers are showing us with that scene: the evil step-family's complete disregard for anything but their quest to inherit Elijah's money. 

At MOST, that's the case, I decided. But it took some deliberation. 

I mean, after Penguin says he never raped anyone, Grace comes back at Penguin with a sarcastic, "Well, that's a mercy, isn't it?" Which, taken a certain way, could mean that the Gotham writers think rape is not a big deal compared to all the stuff Penguin did do. Taken a certain way.

Taken another way, though, her sarcasm could mean something more along the lines of "That's not something to brag about. That should be a given. It's bad that you even have to say that you never raped anyone." 

Basically, then -- Worst case: Gotham writers and the step-family were making light of rape. Less bad case: The step-family alone were making light of rape. Best case: Gotham writers and Grace were pointing out the fact that NOT having raped anyone should be a given. 

I choose to believe either the best case or the less bad case. I choose to do so because I have a good amount of faith in the Gotham writers. 

(By the way, I know there's a pattern in my Gotham reviews: I worry that the writers might be going wrong but I choose to believe they're going right. And the fact is they always do. Or HAVE, so far. But I've been burned many, many times by shows that seem good but eventually go bad. Thus, I worry, and I have to voice my worries because what if they turn out to be right? But, like I said, the Gotham writers have built up a good amount of trust in me because they always seem to go the right way, and the more they do that, the more trust I'll have in them.)

- Theory #2:

Penguin is dreaming.

I didn't come up with this theory until a second viewing of this episode. In the "Previously on Gotham" segment, the episode replays the scene of Penguin asking his father, "Is this a dream?" 

Why did they replay that? 

No reason, maybe. In fact, "no reason" is probably slightly more likely than the case that Penguin actually is dreaming.

However, if he IS dreaming (or hallucinating), it would explain so much:

-- It would explain the tone of this episode, which is nonchalant, as if the Gotham writers are purposely leading us to believe that none of it matters that much. If none of it is actually happening, none of it does matter that much. 

-- It would explain why Penguin seems to subconsciously know that something's wrong with his father's pills. If all this is in his subconscious, he does subconsciously know that something's wrong with his father's pills.

-- It would explain why Hugo Strange seemed to have an ongoing plan for Penguin. If this is a dream or hallucination, it could be an ongoing effect of Hugo's experiments on Penguin, experiments meant to transform Penguin with hallucinations.

-- It would explain why the emotion feels realest when Penguin loses his father. If this is a dream or hallucination, the death of one of Penguin's parents might feel realest because it's the only part based on something real.

-- It would explain why Elijah Van Dahl showed up right when he did. If this is a dream/hallucination, it could have been brought about by Penguin's despair and his need to find a way to go on without his mom. 

-- It would explain why his father seemed unreal, in the sense that he was an ideal parent but not much else besides. See, one of the things I loved about Gertrude was that she seemed like a real person, because she had many interesting nuances. She was a boy-crazy former dancer AND a parent with an unconditional love for her son. Elijah was the latter, but that was about it. Maybe that's one reason his connection with Penguin seemed inferior to Gertrude's connection with Penguin. Elijah just didn't seem like a fully fleshed out person/character.

-- It would explain why Penguin's whole family seems isolated from the outside world. Do Grace and her children have ANY friends outside of the mansion? It seems they don't. They spend their off-time lounging around the mansion, and they seem to have nothing but off-time. It could be that they simply don't fit in with anyone outside of their own family, which would almost -- almost -- endear them to me. But it could also be that Penguin didn't bother to conjure up friends for them in his imagination. 

-- It would explain why Penguin's old musical theme, the lighthearted mischievous one, was reintroduced, but for his evil step-family, not for Penguin himself. As far as I can remember, Gotham creators only ever played that theme for Penguin, they haven't played it since his mother died, and in this episode, they play it for his evil step-family. If this is a dream for Penguin, it's all Penguin, so the theme should be able to play at any time and still be Penguin's theme. 

-- It would explain why it feels like less time has passed for Penguin than for Gordon. We know the trial took four weeks, and it seems like Gordon has been in jail for a long time. Yet, Penguin seems to barely know his family. I mean, he just this episode learned about the pills his father was taking regularly. Hmm. Hmmmmmmmmmm...Could mean nothing...Could mean something.

-- It would explain why Penguin's story doesn't seem to be going anywhere new. I mean, I hate to say it, but we've already seen Penguin lose a parent. We've seen him go after the people who killed his parent. We've seen where that gets him. How will this be different? Well, maybe it's not supposed to be different. Maybe it's supposed to be a subconscious retread of where Penguin has already been. 

I usually hate it when exciting events turn out to be hallucinations. In this case, however, a hallucination might in fact be more exciting than the actual events. It might be interesting to be able to say that we spent a whole episode in Penguin's head. It might be interesting to see how Penguin gets out of this dream/hallucination, especially if it was designed by Hugo Strange. 

I'm not saying this storyline isn't interesting, as is. It obviously is interesting, and I do have faith that the writers will take Penguin's story somewhere new if they continue down this path. I just can't currently see where that new place might be.

But, you know what? That's okay. In fact, it makes me even more excited to see what they'll come up with. 

2. Penguin's nightmare

I have a bit of a problem with the nightmare Penguin had in this episode. In it, he was: 1) killing Frankie Carbone, 2) chopping off Butch's hand, and 3) killing Fish. My problem is that those were among the lesser of Penguin's crimes, I feel. 

I mean, all those people were decidedly bad people. Penguin has hurt plenty of seemingly innocent people. 

What about the old man he killed by the river in the first episode? What about the guy he killed for delivering flowers from Maroni? What about the young couple he broke up by cutting the guy's fingers off? (In my opinion, that last one is the actually the worst. I mean, I guess you could say that the guy chose guitar-playing over his girlfriend, so it's not THAT sad...but it is. It is sad.) 

I mean, those people could have been bad people, but they could have been good people.

So, Penguin should have nightmares about THOSE crimes. Yet, he only has nightmares about the crimes he committed against more prominent characters. It's a little unfair and irrational, but I guess I understand why the writers did that. Viewers remember prominent characters better.

However, the nightmare scene did make me think about how I would feel if I had a nightmare of myself doing things like that. I think Penguin's reaction is quite right. So, that was an interesting journey into my imagination.

3. Penguin's goodness

I have to say I kind of started to believe in Oswald's goodness again. When he was with his dad, I truly believed that Oswald's actual goodness was shining through. Not his brainwashed-ness. Actual goodness. Or at least, as he was faking it, he was making it. And if allowed to go on faking goodness for long enough, with encouragement from his father, Penguin might have become a good person.

This idea kind of throws out my conviction from last episode that Penguin is not truly good or happy and cannot develop as a human being unless he reverts back to his old self first. 

But, now that his father has died, and this whole episode might have been a dream for Penguin, I'm once again unsure of whether Penguin can develop as a human being. 

I mean, I know he'll never be a good person. The Penguin has to rule Gotham's crime world eventually. But he could, maybe, be better than he was before. Who knows? 

I don't know how I feel about this topic anymore.

HIGHS

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1. Gordon and Lee

The writers and actors did a good job of making me empathize with Gordon in this episode. I really felt the boredom and sadness of Gordon's first few minutes on screen. It already felt like his life was over while he was in protective custody, doing the exact same thing every day and missing Lee. Moving Gordon to general population, with the threat of actual death, didn't seem that bad.

Losing the baby is also sad, especially since I was excited for Batgirl. (Excessively excited. There's no way that baby would actually become Batgirl within this series.) However, it does raise the stakes for Nygma if Lee lost the baby because of the stress and heartbreak of losing Jim. That is the likely cause, and Jim's not just going to let that go.

Also, poor Puck. And poor Jim for losing Puck.

2. The lies. The lies!

I was impressed with how good a liar Grace is. If I was Elijah, I'd believe Grace was only trying to help me. 

This is something I like about Gotham. Lying characters are good at lying whether the audience knows they're lying or not. In a lot of movies and TV shows, characters are only bad at lying when the audience already knows the characters are lying. It's silly and cheesy and insulting to our intelligence. We know that they're lying. You don't have to make it blatantly obvious that they're lying. Doing that just makes it weird when the other characters believe the lies. 

Gotham never makes that mistake. Not when Penguin is pretending to be a loyal minion to Fish, Maroni, or Falcone. And not when Grace is pretending to be a loving partner to Elijah. 

3. The promo for Episode 17 

Nygma is turning into a really creepy, badass villain. That riddle about death that he tells in his voice over for the promo? Chilling. 

I could totally see Nygma being THE villain for Season 2b at this point. But I suppose that's unlikely. It's more likely that Gordon will defeat Nygma in the next episode and send him to Arkham, from whence he will escape, as is the tradition among supervillains at Arkham. 

Also, Barbara's going to be in the next episode. Seems like she'll be working for Dr. Strange now. Fascinating!

RATINGS

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General: 8/10

Compared-to-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 7/10

Review: Gotham Season 2 Episode 14, This Ball of Mud and Meanness [SPOILERS]

[WORST CRIMES DISCLAIMER: This episode shows a character being tortured.]

Wow! This episode was so incredibly good!

Let's go through the low, medium, and high points of it.

LOWS
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None!

Everything was so good!

MEDIUMS
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...None?

Everything was so freaking good!

HIGHS
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1. Penguin
I am just so impressed with everything regarding Penguin: Robin Lord Taylor's acting (as always), the fact that he is still haunted by his mother's death, and the direction the writers seem to be taking him in.

At this point, I think it's safe to say that Penguin did not intend to be captured by the GCPD or to be put in Arkham. I only suspected he might have intended for that to happen because he was so calm and he claimed to be crazy when Captain Barnes dragged him into the department.

But, no. If Penguin had planned for all this to happen, I'm sure he would have planned to have some recourse available to him, someone looking out for him maybe. Penguin wouldn't have let things get as far as they have.

Hugo Strange has now successfully brainwashed Penguin.

Strange did this by inducing horrible hallucinations in Penguin (using Dr. Crane's fear formula, it sounds like).

In a very vivid scene, Penguin hallucinates about an evil version of himself killing his mother with a baseball bat. His real self (who's still evil, but would never hurt his mom) can only watch from the chair he's tied to.

That hallucination seems to confirm that Penguin still blames himself for his mother's death, which is a sentiment he expressed to Nygma in Season 2a. In Season 2a, Penguin says that his mother died because of his weakness. He was saying how her death was an example of how the murder-road that Nygma wants to follow only leads to pain.

It's true that Penguin's mother never would have been murdered if Penguin hadn't been so evil and power-hungry. So, considering that, Penguin was right to feel guilty for her death. Well, maybe not guilty for her death, exactly. But guilty for all the evil things he did that obviously caught up to him.

I expected he would feel guilty for doing them simply because they put his mother in danger, and not so much because they were horrible things to do.

However, there is also the fact that Hugo brings up "remorse."

He brought up "regret" when he first met Penguin, and this episode makes it clear that Hugo's priority in brainwashing Penguin was to make Penguin feel remorse for his crimes.

Therefore, it's possible that Penguin's guilty hallucination was designed by Hugo to make Penguin feel remorse, and it wasn't so much a reflection of Penguin's real feelings of guilt.

However, at the very least, Penguin's hallucination shows how much pain he's still in over his mother.

The hallucination is just the latest in a long series of such depictions, showing Penguin's lasting pain over his loss, and I love it because it's realistic and relatable. Any real person would still be feeling the pangs of loss after going through what Penguin has. It's just that a great many TV shows don't allow their characters to remain depressed for very long. Real-ness be damned.

And I was afraid Gotham would be no different. They gave Penguin three episodes in which to mourn his mother in Season 2a, and I thought, "Well, I guess that's it." And I thought three episodes was generous, as TV shows go. But, nay! It seems Gotham is being truly generous.

As horrible as it sounds, I'm glad Penguin has remained sad since his mother's death. It simply makes sense for him to have done so.

How does the hallucination scene prove that Penguin remained depressed since his mother's death?

I mean, it doesn't PROVE anything, really. I just feel like we can assume that Crane's formula brought Penguin's worst fears and regrets to life. It just caused him to suffer more acutely. He's been suffering ever since his mother was first kidnapped, just less acutely.

I now feel pretty confident in my theory that Penguin became too depressed to competently lead his men, and that's how Butch took over.

I was scared that it would turn out that Penguin planned to let Butch take over and that Penguin planned to get captured by the GCPD, as part of some sort of hammy plot. That, to me, would indicate that he very quickly got over his mother's death and moved on to making new evil plots.

Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case!

So, Hugo brainwashed Penguin into being kind, remorseful, and normal. Obviously, Penguin has to revert back to being a villain at some point. Up till now, I couldn't wait to see Penguin rise to power again as a gentleman of crime, King of Gotham's underworld.

However, after the scene in which Penguin plays that word association game, after actually SEEING Penguin as a good, kind, normal person...I'm not at all sure I want him to go back to the way he was.

Wouldn't it be nice if Penguin could just be a good person, leave all the bad stuff behind, and maybe move away from Gotham and live out his life peacefully somewhere else?

I remember having similar pointless hopes when Penguin was recovering from his gunshot wound in Nygma's apartment. Penguin actually said that he was leaving Gotham. As much as I knew that that would never happen, it didn't stop me from hoping.

Oh, well.

But this brings up the very important question of where his character could go from here. Really, he could go anywhere, and that's very exciting. I mean, obviously, he'll end up being some sort of crime lord again, but will he be a kinder crime lord or a crueler one?

Some people might think the answer is obvious, but I think it could go either way.

What's even more interesting is how he's going to get there. Basically, he's starting from scratch. He has the emotional disposition of a baby and he has no power left in Gotham, so how are the writers going to get him from point A to point B?

I think the answer will have something to do with Hugo's promise that "good things happen to good people." Obviously, the truth is that bad things sometimes happen to good people, and good things sometimes happen to bad people.

Therefore, when Penguin discovers (or re-discovers, more likely) the truth of "good things for good people", it will likely impact his desire to be good. If you're only good because good things are promised you, and then you don't get good things, why would you continue to be good?

But the real question is, why would Penguin continue to be anything? As I've said in previous reviews, love is the only real motivator, and he lost the only love in his life when he lost his mom. Then, because he had no real motivation to hold on to his power, he lost control of his men. (I theorize.)

So what's going to happen to Penguin? What actions will he take while he's under Hugo's control? What are Hugo's uber-mysterious plans for Penguin? And once Penguin is no longer under Hugo's control, what's going to motivate Penguin to go forward and reclaim his throne?

I'm so very excited to see what the writers have planned!

2. The Joker Cult/Nightclub/Whatever
The nightclub was a like a character in itself.

Apparently, people will put on punk clothing, clown masks, and Joker-esque makeup and come to this club to rock out to live music while footage of Jerome is projected onto the walls.

It's scary.

I mean, the last time we saw people watching footage of Jerome, these people were so immediately and massively affected by the footage that they started laughing maniacally and murdering people left and right.

But the people in this club don't seem quite that crazy. And that's part of what makes it creepy. Is it just that Jerome's footage has lost its power and these people aren't that bad?

Or are they vicious barbarians who have simply learned to reason?

It's like these people are SECRETLY evil, and they're just biding their time, being smart, plotting in secret to take down civilization, rather than making the mistake of creating chaos in the open and going to jail for it.

Combine the stagy costumes and makeup with the secret Jerome-cult undertones, and you get a theatrical, creepy, mysterious delight of a fictional nightclub.

3. Jeri
And Jeri is the obvious leader of said secret Jerome-cult. I mean, like I said, it's not clear if such a cult even exits, but if it does, I'd totally buy Jeri as the leader of it. She's perfect for it. She embodies the nightclub.

She embodies "theatrical, creepy, mysterious, and delightful."

Her appearance (very much inspired by Joker/Dead-Jerome), singing, and some of her antics are theatrical. She's creepy and mysterious when she tells Bruce about Malone and gives no reason for her actions other than "Who doesn't like to play God?" And she's delightful every time she speaks with that cute, Southern accent.

I hope Jeri comes back. I think she'll make a great villain.

4. Bruce Wayne
David Mazouz is just getting better and better as Bruce Wayne. His facial expressions were heartbreaking when he was talking to Malone.

Also, his massive character growth in this episode is very convincing.

To paraphrase Bruce, "You can't kill murder. The only way to start fighting these things is to not do them." I was surprised that I actually understood Batman's "no killing" policy, for once. (Has it ever been explained before? I just thought it was a given part of Batman's character.)

I believe he came to the right conclusion. And it was very well-explained HOW he came to that conclusion. Matches Malone was a horrible, horrible person, but he was a person, and Bruce saw that.

I personally believe the golden rule is always supposed -- SUPPOSED -- to apply. No matter how much a person might want to be cruel, a truly good person will do unto others as he/she would have them do unto him/her. That means always forgiving and never hurting.

The fact is, though, that no one is truly good. Everyone is at least a little bad. And is it even possible to always follow the golden rule? Sometimes, maybe you're caught between a rock and a hard place.

Moreover, sometimes, maybe a very deep aversion to doing something can be considered the same as an inability to do it. Not wanting to do something can make it extremely hard to do. Can it maybe become so hard as to be considered impossible? Where is the threshold of impossible?

That is a discussion for another time.

Anyway, Bruce sounds very much like a pacifist in his closing lines. This episode explains his belief that one should not kill others. But as Batman, he does physically attack others. I wonder what will happen to him to make him think that it is okay to physically attack other people if it is not okay to kill them.

I am looking forward to finding out. The Gotham writers sure are taking us on a heck of an emotional and philosophical journey!

5. Matches Malone
Malone fascinated me because he was an unusual example of why Gotham needs Batman.

Malone talked about how tired it can make someone to keep getting away with his evil deeds. It makes him wonder whether there really is a God. I can totally imagine myself thinking that in his position.

The story of Job tells us that sometimes bad things happen. God lets them happen for reasons beyond our understanding. God gives us the promise that it's always for the best in the end. In the end, Job was happy, and his story inspired billions and billions.

But I've always struggled with the conflicting ideas that God loves us and yet He lets bad things happen to us. I struggle with the idea that I'm supposed to have faith in God to help and protect me, when I know that something bad could happen to me at any time. If it's for the best, it will happen.

For instance, if I'm driving into a blizzard, I don't worry about crashing if I remember that God is protecting me. If, however, I remember that it might be for the best that I crash, I get worried again. Because God might let it happen.

Anyway, the fact is that it hasn't ever happened. In general, the things we worry about don't happen, because God does protect us and want us to be happy. But when the bad things do happen? It can be hard to keep having faith. When they happen regularly? When you're the one DOING them? I imagine it's a million times harder.

Well, Matches Malone did horrible things regularly, and it tired him out. There's no rest for the wicked, because they don't or can't have faith. Without faith, they have to worry.

So, if Batman protects the good people of Gotham from the bad people, it might benefit not only the good people, but also the bad people. It might keep their faith alive, too. Interesting, no?

7. Nygma
Nygma was so wonderfully over-the-top this episode, talking to himself all evil and crazy-like, out loud, in public, and no one seemed to notice. I mean, Nygma's always been weird, so maybe the people around him just don't notice anymore, but whatever. It was great. Classic villain. I absolutely loved it.

The only thing that disappointed me was that I expected Penguin to show up at Nygma's apartment at the end, which he didn't. It would have been hilarious if he did, but it's intriguing that he didn't. Where else does Penguin have to go?

Guess we'll find out next week, on Gotham! (This show is making me feel like a kid again, watching a Saturday morning superhero cartoon!)


RATINGS
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General: 10/10

Compared-to-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 9/10

Review: Gotham Season 2 Episode 13, A Dead Man Feels No Cold [SPOILERS]

[WORST CRIMES DISCLAIMER: This episode shows a character being tortured.]

Another great episode. Let's go through the low, medium, and high points of it.

LOWS
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None, really. It was a very Gordon- and Wayne-centric episode, and therefore, it wasn't overly exciting to me personally. However, I have no complaints about the Gordon and Wayne aspects of the episode. In fact, they were pretty good. You can see both Jim and Bruce have changed a lot since the start of the series.


MEDIUMS
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1. Nora and Victor "Freeze"
I am amazed that the writers of this show, in just two episodes, got me to care as much as I do about Nora and Victor. "No no no no no," I whispered when Victor was freezing Nora with the wrong freeze formula.

I was so hoping he would notice that Nora had switched the formulas, because I really wanted her to live. I believed in their love for each other, and I wanted them to be together eventually. (Maybe they still can? Maybe Nora's brain is still frozen and intact and they can re-animate her in a different body? I'm not ready to give up hope.)

On the other hand, I'm not sure what Nora was thinking when she switched the formulas. I saw Victor's suicide coming from a mile away. Did Nora really not see that coming as a result of her death?

I realize that maybe she thought she would prevent further violence on Victor's part, since he promised to be out of jail when she unfroze and he would likely kill to keep a promise like that. And I realize that she was very sick and maybe not entirely in her right mind at the moment, but still...it bugs me a little that she didn't seem to realize how much her death would affect him.


HIGHS
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1. Penguin
Robin Lord Taylor's acting is massively delightful even when the circumstances of his scenes are the exact opposite of delightful. My only complaint is that I wanted more Penguin. Not more of Penguin in those particular circumstances, though. No, it would be nice if we could skip all the bad parts, but it looks like the writers are building to something with Penguin, and it's better if it's not rushed, I suppose.

2. Lee
I'm starting to really like Lee. In this episode, she stood up for poor Nora when the police wanted to use her as bait. Lee is not a complicated character, and she never shows much fear. Even so, her kindness to Nora and understanding attitude toward Victor made Lee likable.


RATINGS
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General: 8/10

Compared-To-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 7/10

A Short Note on the Format of My Reviews

When I give a "Worst Crimes" disclaimer at the top of a review, it means that the show/movie/etc. that I'm reviewing depicts or mentions rape or torture, which I consider to be the worst crimes imaginable. I warn people about such depictions because I myself am highly sensitive to them, and I always wish other people would warn me about things like that when they recommend a movie to me.

I give two different types of ratings for a show/movie/etc., and they are:

- General (Just in comparison to most content out there.)

- Compared-to-all-the-Content-I've-Ever-Loved (With 10 being Digimon Tamers or Spiderman the Animated Series (1994), and 1 being content I really didn't love at all.)