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This was a good episode, but, due to the absence of Penguin, it was not as captivating an episode as the average Gotham episode. At least, not in my opinion. Let's go through the lows, mediums, highs of the episode.
LOWS
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1. Penguin
This episode suffered from a severe lack of Penguin. A complete lack of Penguin, actually. Combine that fact with the fact that the promo for Episode 19 showed no signs of Penguin either AND the fact that I was finishing up my classes and graduating college, and you have the explanation for why I didn't finish up Season 2 of Gotham until quite recently.
(Now, having finished Season 2, I do recognize that Penguin's lack of screen time in the last few episodes allowed other characters more screen time. And I did really love seeing more of Nygma, for example. But the simple truth is that Penguin is still the main draw for me when it comes to this show.)
MEDIUMS
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1. Freeze
Freeze was back, and I was glad to see that he had changed drastically as a result of his wife's death and his own near-death. I was glad to see that he was angry. That makes sense. He was only in the episode for a couple of minutes, though, and so, we didn't get much of an insight into what he's really going through.
2. Karen Jennings
First off, I liked Karen for the fact that she, with her awesome crocodile hand, helped edge the show into the supernatural realm it sprang neck deep into at the end of the episode when Strange brought Galavan back from the dead.
I love me a good helping of the supernatural.
However, I feel like Karen was supposed to be -- and genuinely could have been -- this really awesome female version of the type of badass, lives-alone-in-the-woods, tragic-past, heart-of-gold character we all love.
But something about her just didn't click. I don't know if it was the dialogue or the actress they chose for the part (even though she did a fine job, nothing against her, sorry) or what, but it felt like a major missed opportunity.
I feel like, if she had clicked as that type of character we all love so much, we, the audience, would have been much more heartbroken by her death and Bruce's intense reaction over losing her would have been more poignant.
HIGHS
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1. Barbara
I like how well Barbara manipulated "The Lady." Barbara really did have all the answers. And as a viewer, I never really thought that Barbara wanted to team up with The Lady and kill Gordon, but if I were The Lady, I totally would have believed it.
This episode used Barbara and her journey to bring up an interesting paradox -- no one is an island, and yet, at many of the most crucial points in our lives, we all HAVE to be islands.
I mean, when Gordon told poor Barbara that, if she wanted to be a good person, that was entirely her responsibility and he couldn't help her at all? Half of me said, "Well, how can you expect her to be a good person with no support from anyone?"
The other half, however, said, "You know what? You're absolutely right, Gordon. To be a good person, the desire to be good has to come from inside yourself." If Barbara wants to be a good person, she has to do it because it's the right thing to do, and not simply to please Jim. If she does it simply to please Jim, it won't last. It can't.
And it made me realize the answer to a question I had been pondering. Remember how Penguin couldn't change and be a good person, and I was like, "Why not? What are the Gotham writers trying to show by having Penguin and Barbara return to a state of innocence only to relapse?"
The answer was so obvious that I completely missed it: the desire to be good was simply not an authentic desire of Penguin's. It was a product of his environment (if you can call Strange's horrible experiments an "environment"), and it was dependent on his environment. Placed in a murderous environment, of course Penguin relapsed into his murderous ways.
Barbara gave me a lot of food for thought this episode. I still don't see how she can be a good person without any support, and yet, I see why she has to be.
2. Gordon
I liked that Gordon didn't appreciate what Barbara had done. I liked that he didn't feel "gratitude" just because she'd gotten him the information he wanted. After all, she accomplished her task by kidnapping Gordon and threatening him with a electric...zapper thing.
The emotional damage from something like that doesn't just go away because it "turned out alright in the end," although the narcissists and manipulators of the world would have you believe otherwise.
This is what I love about Gotham. It's a smart enough show to consistently express the fundamental truth that emotional damage is the only real damage you can do a person.
3. Timeless Atmosphere
Another thing I love about Gotham is the timeless atmosphere of the show. I know that this atmosphere was purposefully created in the show by combining elements from several different eras. Cell phones from the early 2000s, computers from the 80s, architecture from the Middle Ages, etc.
When I binge-watched the first season of Gotham last Fall, I KNEW that it was a current show, barely more than a year old, but I FELT like it was an old classic from the 80's or 90's. It was in fact jarring to start watching the show weekly, as new episodes were released, because it forced me to acknowledge the fact that... well, it's not an old classic from the 80's or 90's.
Now that I've gotten used to watching it weekly, however, it's just like it was last Fall. I KNOW it's a current show, but it's so hard to remember that as I'm in the midst of watching any particular episode. It feels so much like a timeless classic, and I love that about it. =)
RATINGS
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General: 7.5/10
Compared-to-All-the-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 7
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