"Look Into My Eyes"
This week's episode of Gotham was, without a doubt, a major step up from the first two episodes of the season. With new and fascinating villains introduced and story arcs worthy of getting excited for being seeded here, let's dive into what makes this episode the first major sign of great things to come for Season 3.
The Mad Hatter Debuts
Here we get to see Jervis Tetch played more along the lines of a fancy, deceitfully delightful, and creepy showman with his traditional hat and powerful mind manipulating skills. I absolutely loved the idea of having him actually perform shows for people at a club (which so happens to be Barbara's club) where he basically hides in plain sight as a stage performer happily doing his job until he secretly seeks out his next victim in the crowd. Benedict does a fantastic job in the role as both the charming entertainer as well as the darkly sadistic criminal who confidently knows that he can control anyone at any given moment.
Not only is Jervis perfectly casted, but the show also goes another step by having the sound of his ticking pocket watch as well as his specially crafted phrase for hypnotizing as being sort of Jervis's signature sound. This is definitely one of those characters where the true brilliance and beauty lies in the details.
The scene where Jervis manipulates one of his audience volunteers that he personally chose after noticing the couple's luxurious appearance and intentionally asking the guy about his profession in order to secretly confirm that he is indeed a well payed target was probably one of the greatest villain moments on the show. The fact that he whispers his hypnotic trigger words at him during the show after underhandedly profiling him to be someone perfect for robbing and murdering later on was both terrifying and genius altogether.
The moment where Jervis eventually calls the guy's phone later that night uttering the trigger words, shows up in their luxurious home, and essentially mentally forcing the guy to kill his own wife, bury her body, then commit suicide leaving no trace behind without ever having to lift a finger shows just how powerful Jervis is at his craft. I also loved the fact that the scene played out like a horror film using dark shadows and the constant flashing of lightning in the background to show him in a more mysterious and sinister atmosphere. We're only three episodes into the new season and I've already found my favorite new villain thus far in hopes that we get to see more of him as Benedict is absolutely shining in the role.
Penguin For Mayor
As I mentioned in my previous episode review, I'm very curious to see just how far Gotham's version of the Penguin will go as far as being one of the highest ranking individuals of the city in several different incarnations of the character. As theorized, we did get to see "Oswald Cobblepot for Mayor" posters following up on a crowd inspiring speech given by Penguin after stealing the spotlight from Mayor James to announce himself as Gotham's best candidate for the job. Thinking back to Season 1 (despite my many complaints with the character back then), I must say that I finally see the share brilliance of this series as far as major character arcs go.
Honestly, who would've imagined seeing Fish Mooney's umbrella boy possibly becoming the city's future criminally insane mayor? It's pretty baffling in all the right ways and a good show that the series is indeed escalating in its storytelling as characters slowly but surely transition into the iconic individuals that we know them to be. The scene where Penguin meets Mayor James in the restaurant and absolutely defeats him after revealing that everyone eating at the restaurant is a hired gun under his payroll was both slightly over the top and pretty entertaining altogether.
But what makes this scene particularly clever is the visual message that it sends. Notice that Mayor James's bodyguards pop out of the shadows with guns to surprise Penguin whereas his bodyguards were essentially "regular citizens" surrounding him the entire time which goes along the idea of him being the leader that the city will always rally behind. Gotham continues to show its eye for visual storytelling and this episode is definitely no exception considering the intricate details at play.
Bruce Wayne's Ultimate Nemesis?
Revealed as "Subject 514A" in this week's episode, we finally get to see a more magnified look at Bruce Wayne's doppelgänger as Alfred and Bruce cautiously shelters him before he eventually escapes. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect after we first saw him during the season 2 finale as far as how he'd fit into the grand scheme of things. Although his story is still a bit of a mystery, we do get to see him interact with Bruce, Alfred, and Selena here which was pretty intriguing and slightly unnerving to say the least. There's a bit of an unhinged feeling to the way his character speaks as well as the fact that he strangely doesn't feel any pain whatsoever and can seemingly fight pretty well as he has proven to Alfred.
The whole doppelgänger concept has been one giant question mark for me so far this season and I'm loving every single second of it. David Mazouz does an incredible job at portraying a completely different character with a different voice, personality, and overall screen presence. I also have to give credit to the editing here for having a seamless transition between both characters interacting with each other without ever feeling as if smoke and mirrors were being implimented to give off the effect. The scene where Subject 514A starts to slowly copy Bruce's voice followed by cutting his hair to match his appearance was something right out of a freaky science-fiction story where evil clones invade and destroys people's lives. Now that he's basically on the loose with Bruce's image and reputation (and a clueless Selena Kyle), I'm more than curious to see what bizarre plans the writers have in store for us.
Who Is Alice?
Flashing back to the scene in Season 2 where Strange began reading "Alice In Wonderland" hinting at his future creation of the Mad Hatter, I was intrigued by the way Jervis was presented here as being someone from outside of Gotham looking for his sister [Alice] who so happens to be one of Indian Hill's mutated escapees. I'm interested to see what his connection to Alice truly is and where her character will go in the future. It's strange to actually see the "Alice" character in a Mad Hatter story as actually being a real woman and not figment of his delusional illness. The fact that she was one of Strange's experiments and attempted to kill Jervis in this episode makes their relationship even more interesting. Hopefully, we get to learn some of that backstory next week.
Jim Simply Can't Catch A Break
Who would've imagined Jim Gordon's life as being so tragically exhausting before having to deal with a bat dressed vigilante and an endless supply of city destroying criminals. When I first started watching Gotham, I honestly wasn't fully onboard with the way Gordon came across being that I never felt interested or deeply invested in his character's story whatsoever. However, continuing along the beginning portion of Season 3, I'm finally starting to realize just how seriously messed up Jim must be mentally speaking all things considered.
In one episode we see Gordon begin to question his decision of sleeping with Valerie who basically reacts to the incident as being nothing serious to her, he then later encounters his ex fiancé who tells him that she's staying in town permanently with her new successful doctor fiancé (who so happens to be the doctor that stitches him up), then finally almost leaping off of a building to his death while under the influence of hypnotism by a psychopathic criminal. The fact that Gordon just brushes it off to the best of his ability the next day in order to keep moving forward makes him one of the most interesting characters of the show and it's really all thanks to this week's episode of pure torture on the guy's psyche for showing me that. Well done.
Overall Thoughts
Just when I was beginning to have slight feelings of doubt that this season might end up being a small step down from the previous in tone, characters, and storytelling, Gotham more than delivers this week by putting those fears to a rest. Here we're introduced to a new villain, Jervis Tetch, who is not only perfectly casted by a talented character actor, but also offers up some of the most creepiest and brilliantly done villain moments on the show thus far. We also have a new and refreshing character arc to keep our eyes on this season with Bruce Wayne's doppelgänger as well as Penguin's rise to power as possibly being Gotham's future mayor.
With so many interesting things to look forward to this season just from this episode alone, I can now safely say that Season 3 is starting to look pretty good right about now. Let's just hope that this rise of quality isn't just due to a certain Fish that is completely absent in this episode. We'll just have to wait next week to see I suppose.
Bonus Content
1. The Riddler Is Back
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| With Penguin soon to be pulling strings in the political realm of Gotham, it was only a matter of time to see Nygma getting his feet out of the insane asylum thanks to his good friend Oswald. What I liked about this scene isn't just the fact that arguably my favorite character of the series is making his big return back, but the fact that he begins to question his ability to leave now to the warden just before Penguin shows up to surprise him was a nice reminder of how logically Ed processes the world around him. |
2. The Return of Falcone
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| A character that I was never really expecting to see on the show again, the twist of Lee's new fiancé being the Falcone's son was pretty unexpected to say the least. I actually wasn't sure how to react despite him being one of the only central characters that I enjoyed from Season 1. It's one of those twists that I'll be speechless about until it begins to work itself out throughout the show. |
3. Favorite Shots From This Week's Episode
Episode Rating: 9/10
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