Review: Gotham Season 2 Episode 17, Into the Woods [SPOILERS]

This was a very good episode. It was surprising, intense, and emotional. It was definitely worth the two-week wait, even if the two-week wait did leave me overly attached to a certain Penguin-is-hallucinating theory.

 Let us begin. Here are the highs, mediums, and lows of the episode.

LOWS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

None.

MEDIUMS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Penguin

a) Penguin is not hallucinating?

With every episode that Penguin spends in the mansion and/or with his family, it becomes less and less likely that Penguin is hallucinating all this stuff with the mansion and/or his family. At this point, it's very unlikely that Penguin is hallucinating it. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem because, normally, I hate it when large, exciting portions of a story turn out to be hallucinations.

However, I spent the last two weeks thinking about how much sense it would make if Penguin was hallucinating (see my Review of Episode 16 to see why I thought so), and how good a twist it would be if it turned out to be the case.

If it turned out to be the case that Penguin was hallucinating, it could still be very exciting, depending on the reveal of what Penguin was actually doing this whole time. Maybe he found an abandoned, broken-down mansion near Gotham and wandered around it for weeks, surviving off of who knows what.

Or, maybe -- and here's the really exciting option -- maybe he wandered straight into another of Hugo Strange's "medical establishments."

I think that's the exciting option because it would demonstrate the terrifying extent of Professor Strange's power. Imagine if Hugo could program everyone to wander straight into one of Hugo's establishments, all the while hallucinating that they had found happiness. (Even if he had that power, he probably wouldn't use it, though. This episode basically established that Hugo just likes experimenting on people.)

And Hugo did say he had plans for Penguin, post-Arkham. The longer we, the audience, go without knowing what those plans are, the bigger our expectations grow. If an ongoing hallucination had been the extent of Hugo's plan, I would have been satisfied. It would have been an immediate and adequately shocking plan.

I can't say I'll be as satisfied with whatever it turns out Hugo's plan for Penguin actually is, especially if it's very far off in the future.

But the thing is, I'm still not mad. I LIKE that Gotham knows how to keep it simple. See, a lot of shows these days are like, "Here's an exciting story development...Psych! It's really this other exciting development." Which is entertaining enough the first couple of times, maybe.

But when the "twist" is used too often, it negates every exciting development, because who knows what the truth is anymore?! When everything's a plot twist, nothing's a plot twist.

If Gotham had been like, "Here, Penguin found his long-lost family and then lost another parent...Psych! It's really a hallucination designed by Hugo Strange," I think it would have worked for Gotham because Gotham has been saving up its twists and keeping things simple.

Most Gotham story developments are just as they seem. For instance, Lee really did move down South and, almost definitely, lost the baby. She hasn't been kidnapped (a possibility that didn't occur to me until after I wrote the review for Episode 16). And it's intense enough that she lost the baby and moved away. Gotham does not need to replace that story development with another intense story development. I appreciate that the Gotham writers seem to know that.

b) Penguin is Penguin again

Anyway, back to Penguin. It seems he is once again himself. At first, he begged to stay with his step-family because his father loved them all so much and wanted them all to be together. By the end of the episode, though, Penguin had discovered the truth about his step-family, murdered and cooked his step-siblings, tricked his step-mother into eating them, and stabbed his step-mother to death.

I have to say, for a moment, I was shocked that Gotham went that far with the cannibalism thing. However, for a moment BEFORE that moment, I thought Penguin had cooked the dead dog and was feeding it to Grace. THAT idea was upsetting to me. As a vegetarian, I personally feel that it's no worse to eat humans than to eat other animals, so upon reflection, I realized I wasn't that upset about the cannibalism thing.

I was still upset about the dead dog, but let's talk about that.

At the start of the episode, Penguin said that he couldn't hurt a fly even if he wanted to. Maybe he was mistaken...or maybe -- after all, Strange brainwashed Penguin pretty well -- he wasn't. See, later in the episode, when he finds the bottle his father last drank from, he offers some of the beverage to the family dog, who drinks it and dies. At that moment, Penguin turns evil again.

Now, either Penguin consciously tried to kill the dog to prove the wine was poisoned (in which case Penguin COULD hurt a fly) or Penguin inadvertently killed the dog because Penguin COULDN'T consciously distrust his step-family.

If so and if that inadvertent murder triggered Penguin's evil side, that scene might be an interesting statement on how sometimes two perfectly good values (trust and kindness) conflict with each other, and a Catch-22 like that can break a person.

I'm probably reading too much into it, but if the Gotham writers explore such an idea further, I'd be very interested in what they have to say.

c) Penguin still has nothing/no one he loves

Finally, on Penguin, I'm still concerned by the fact that he hasn't gone anywhere new as a character. As I said in my Ep 16 review, we've seen Penguin lose a parent and exact vengeance on the people who murdered his parent. We've seen where that gets him: left with no one to love and no reason to go on.

So far, the Gotham writers have done an excellent job of not just dropping Penguin's issues (of having no love and therefore no motivation to do anything). I'd hate to see them come this far just to drop Penguin's issues now and have him inexplicably begin re-conquering Gotham.

His situation is no different now than it was at the start of Season 2b. I mean, sure, he has a mansion now, but is it even legally his? And how is it going to help? A mansion can't replace a parent.

As I said, I'm concerned. But I'm going to wait and see what happens.


2. Easy Three-Episode Wrap Up

By the fourth episode of Season 2b, I was seeing a pattern: the three-episode story arc. I had hoped the story arcs would be longer than that, but this episode wrapped up the Gordon-as-a-convicted-criminal arc, the Nygma-in-his-first-outing-as-a-supervillain arc, and the Penguin-family arc. It seems three-episode story arcs are to be the format for this half-season.

On the downside, this format gives us some artificial-seeming wrap-ups, like the resolution to the conflict between Gordon and Captain Barnes. On the upside, this format has been giving us a particularly kick-ass episode every third episode, and there are some threads that do continue, like Lee being gone and having lost a child.

HIGHS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Nygma

This was one of Nygma's best episodes.

It revealed Nygma's insecurities about his "friends." For instance, Nygma couldn't convince himself that Penguin was a good friend who wouldn't snitch, and Nygma outright asked Gordon if he was really his friend or if Gordon just felt sorry for Nygma.

The emotion felt extremely real when Gordon confronted Nygma in the woods. I very much appreciate the fact that Gordon did not jump straight to "Me good. You bad. Me puts you in jail." He expressed the confused, hurt emotions anyone would feel in Gordon's position. I like that that whole scene was allowed to happen. It made sense.

See, a practical villain would have shot Gordon right away, but we have already established that Nygma is not a practical villain. He's a narcissistic, hammy super-villain who voices his evil thoughts out loud to himself. He WOULD have a whole conversation with his prey at gun-point or reveal to them the reason he framed them for murder.

It makes perfect sense and it's emotionally satisfying to see Nygma and Gordon have the conversation they had in the woods.

I also enjoyed the conversation that Nygma and Gordon had in Nygma's apartment. I'm glad Gordon was at least called out for being a murderer. That is, I'm glad that the Gotham writers are bringing up the spectrum...of evilness.

I mean, I think it's clear that Gordon doesn't need to be locked up like Nygma probably should be. I think Gordon is not as dangerous as Nygma. Nygma thinks murder is thrilling, while Gordon is in fact basically a good person. Just this episode, he put himself in jeopardy to save someone else from a mugging, for example. However, the difference between Gordon and Nygma is by no means crystal clear, and I'm glad that fact was brought up.

Also, I was surprised when Nygma knocked Gordon out by electrocuting him after Gordon found out that it was Nygma who called internal affairs. I genuinely didn't expect that.

I wasn't surprised when Gordon got Nygma by having Captain Barnes and Co. hide behind the trees to overhear Nygma's confession, but Gordon's plan was smart, start to finish. And once again, it made sense with Nygma's character, since we'd previously established that Nygma is paranoid and would absolutely fall for a plan like Gordon's, which preyed on Nygma's paranoia.

2. Barbara Keane "just really needed some sleep."

Is that really the explanation they're going to go with? Well, I'm all for it. I've always thought that there would be, like, half as many wars in the world if people just slept more. If only because they'd have less time to fight.

Make sleep, not war.

On the other hand, it does seem a little too convenient that Barbara just woke up all sane and good. If it turns out that Dr. Strange actually brainwashed her in her sleep somehow, I'd accept that explanation too.

Either way, I think I'm seeing a pattern here of the villains returning to a state of innocence in order for the writers to answer the question, "Can people change? Explain why or why not."

Obviously, Penguin couldn't change, and from the promo for next week, it seems like Barbara can't either. For both Penguin and Barbara, I think it's a bit early to explain why or why not.

I'll need some time to think on it.


CONCLUSION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall, this was a very exciting, emotional episode and offered a lot of food for thought.

RATINGS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General: 9/10

Compared-to-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 8/10

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

None.

MEDIUMS

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General: 8/10

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

Review: Gotham Season 2 Episode 15, Mad Grey Dawn [SPOILERS]

I just now checked my email and saw that Twitter emailed me tweets about how Gotham has been renewed for Season 3! Yayyyyyyyy! (I really need to keep up better with the social medias.)

Anyway, awesome episode. Highs, lows, and mediums, here we come.


LOWS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General: 9/10

Compared-to-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 8/10