With so many things riding on not only last week's amazing villain moment showing Theo completely beating down Gordon, but also with this season's overall high quality in introducing new and interesting story arcs, I was really amped up to see what was in store for us. However, I may have to consider this episode as being the weakest of the last 5 or so episodes, but do not take that statement as a major negative as the last few episodes have been magnificent to say the least. Let's see what worked and didn't work in this week's episode.
First off, being a an ongoing fan of the Theo Dumas character as being the new season villain this time around, I was a little disappointed by the way they ended his reign of power over Gotham as well as the character overall. I was really hoping to get something special with the whole ancient family grudge story and how Bruce factored into a much bigger story than just someone coming after his company. It was interesting and gave the Theo character a lot of weight whenever he had scenes with Bruce.
The actual Order of St. Dumas scenes weren't as interesting as I'd hope, but it did work greatly as an extension of Theo's character and motives. When it finally came down to the Order being taken out by Gordon, Penguin, and the others, I felt as though I was about to see a significant story arc get completely erased from the series once the episode ended after such an amazing build up so far in this season. It would feel like a complete waste of a villain if this is how the writers plan on ending this story.
Seeing Theo attempting to escape only to get knocked out by his sister for almost killing Silver felt completely out of left field and randomly tossed in. I actually have no problems with having Tabitha escape with Silver as it does open the door for possibilities down the line connecting Bruce to that underground agency of assassins we saw in an earlier episode, but that randomly inserted betrayal scene felt forced with absolutely no development whatsoever. One can only fill in the blanks by throwing in the idea that Theo has constantly abused Tabitha and Silver behind the scenes, but that's simply not enough when handling a major antagonist.
Speaking of Silver, I honestly didn't know what to make of those scenes involving her and Bruce's conversations in the cell. On the side of Bruce himself, I really liked how much confidence and fearlessness was shown even during such a tragic and terrifying situation. This is one of the rare occasions where I started to see a tiny spark of Batman coming through as he boldly and arguably quite coldly tells Silver that not only was he not afraid but that he saw right through her every move and had absolutely no feelings for her despite what she felt for him. There was something inside me that really lit up during that scene as I felt the series was finally giving us hints of what to expect in the future with our favorite cape and cowl wearing vigilante.
As for the character of Silver, I'm not too sure how I feel about her character overall except for maybe being a tool to develop Bruce's character as being the man who trusts no one but his closest allies: Alfred and Fox. She's not a boring character per say as I like the idea of Theo using any means necessary to break down Bruce's will bit by bit, but on her own, I'm not entirely sure that there's really much to go on. Perhaps Tabitha might train her to become an assassin who Batman encounters down the line having a sort of Catwoman-Batman type of crazy relationship (that's actually not a bad idea).
However, I'll have to say that unfortunately her scenes with Bruce, despite them being significant in the long run, felt as though it slowed down the pacing of the episode a little bit to me. In the scale of everything else, I believe you could've at least taken out 5 minutes of their screen time together and replaced it with a couple more scenes involving the Order. They are the main force behind everything in this episode after all.
Now, let's talk about the more mixed part of the episode being Theo's death. For those of you who have followed me on various social media, you know that I completely hated the Penguin character from the first season. However, I have warmed up to him significantly in this season's run so far due to Gotham's massively improved direction. I loved the scenes between him and Gordon where the lines between justice and the law began to blur regarding Theo's situation. Seeing the Penguin push Gordon to help him kill Theo without any form of manipulation but instead a genuine sense of emotional encouragement was pretty engaging to see.
As I said before, I'm not a big fan of how they treated Galavan being completely powerless, especially after last week's fight scene, but it did rank up the Penguin's character for me as a strong enough character to pay attention to in the future. Watching him beat the life out of Galavan with a bat to the point that Jim had to stop him was intense at least on a visual level. Of course the icing on the cake was the umbrella through the throat finishing move (I was wondering why he grabbed that umbrella when Jim was leaving). So, what makes this a mixed scene in terms of reception is the fact that you ended off a major villain in a slightly weak manner, but you also gave more power and development to a much weaker and hardly beloved character for me.
Now, for the part of the episode that I was a little upset over since it got spoiled for me while searching through my Youtube subscriptions. We have a new villain debut with Mr. Freeze making his first appearance on the show chasing after someone. Who's the guy he's chasing? Was Mr. Freeze the man that we saw in the Firefly episode being shrouded in what appeared to be freezing temperatures in a room? Why is he chasing this guy and did he break out of that room? Is he going to be the new season villain with Galavan being eliminated?
So many questions to ask, but as for the debut scene itself, it was okay at best. His look wasn't that impactful like Firefly's for example who completely sold me from the moment I saw the mask. When I saw this Mr. Freeze incarnation, the only thing I could think of was "Wow, that's pretty cool that they have this character in their rogues gallery now." without really getting hyped up on the character itself. His look overall is pretty descent for Gotham's tone, but hopefully they do the character some justice in the upcoming episodes.
Bonus Content
1. Fish Mooney Easter Egg?
2. Enigma's Priceless Reaction to Fox Solving His Riddle
Episode Rating: 8/10
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