Gotham S3 Ep. 18 Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"Light The Wick"

Over the course of this season, Gotham has been on a streak of success with its lore building, character development driven, and visually entertaining episodes. This week's entry is no exception as we get our first look into the Court's sinister plans for the city, Bruce's training in becoming Gotham's protector, and Gordon throwing himself into a life threatening situation that is much bigger in scope than expected. As usual, Gotham is known for juggling through different character plots, so let's dive into the different interesting story points that takes place here.

Bruce Wayne's Destiny

Last week's episode of Gotham took an understandable break from the Bruce Wayne story in order to highlight the brewing power struggle taking place within the city's roster of criminals. However, this episode jumps right back into Bruce's journey as we open up his section of the episode with an amazingly choreographed training sequence inside of the monastery. Watching Bruce engage in vigorous combat training as his new mentor talks to him about overcoming his pain and anger towards his parents' death completely lit up my Batman loving heart.

These are the types of scenes that makes me wish that more viewers would give the series a shot despite the mixed to negative reception of the first season. Honestly, this is the greatest representation of a young Bruce Wayne slowly evolving into the legendarily known savior of Gotham that I ever could have imagined. I never would've thought that the series that I ranted about quite a bit during its first season run would end up being one of the greatest entries in the comic book TV genre due to its attention to detail and storytelling. The lesson here is that one shouldn't judge a book by its first chapter...or something along those lines.

Continuing with his training, the shaman decides to venture through another one of Bruce's traumatic memories that has damaged him in order to free him from his psychological prison. Comic-book elements aside, this is one of the most fascinating concepts to see realized in a visual medium as it allows the audience to actually see what a character is emotionally going through in the most deepest and darkest depths of their mind. Before diving into that memory, I loved the discussion between the two about Bruce having to choose to take away the pain of his past in order to fully move on.

The dialogue driven scenes between Bruce and the monk have been some of the greatest that the series has offered up so far. Every piece of dialogue given by the shaman has a powerful sense of weight and purpose behind it especially for Batman fans closely listening in and picking each sentence apart. The performances by both David Mazouz and Raymond J. Barry have also been nothing short of fantastic at this point reminding us yet again of Gotham's high caliber talent both behind and in front of the cameras.

As Bruce plunges into his childhood memory during the moment where he first felt the reality of being an orphan, we're given yet another amazingly directed scene interacting with his past. Instead of the classic alleyway sequence, the monk decides to place him during a time leading after the tragedy right before he decided to run away from everyone. By both a visual and dramatic means, the concept of seeing the two actually stand in the middle of a moment frozen in time as Bruce explains the emotional context behind it was pretty incredible to say the least.

What both Seasons 2 and 3 has been able to do better than I ever could have anticipated is giving us a Batman prequel story that not only shows the tragedy of Bruce Wayne losing his parents, but also the little intricacies of a child struggling to process the greatest lost of their life. The moment where he talks about all of his family's friends surrounding him speaking quietly about his suffering as a child instead of individually acting out in anger as he felt during that moment truly showed that inner mental prison that the monk was speaking about beforehand. Yes, we are talking about a kid who will eventually don a suit with the appearance of a bat to fight criminals, but what this scene does above anything else is perfectly present the more grounded human component of the Bruce Wayne character.

The highlight moment here however is the moment where Bruce speaks about a pair of cufflinks personally given to his father for his birthday that he was never able to let go. When the cufflinks appear in his hand, the shaman offers him an opportunity to finally let go in which he does by placing the pair into a safe. This is a pretty significant moment for Bruce implying that he is finally able to step forward in life without the anchoring baggage of his past.

However, the scene ends on a pretty ambitious note as Bruce snaps out of the memory and passes out while the shaman states that he has waited for that moment for a long time. His ending quote "We will make Gotham pay" implies a possibly nefarious ulterior motive behind Bruce's transformation. Let's not forget that we still have no idea what the Court's reasoning for placing Bruce in this monastery was. Is Gotham implying that the rise of Batman will strongly originate from the Court of Owls? That would be quite the interesting twist for comic-book fans to accept in the long run if that were the case.

Later on in the episode, we see Bruce training again against what I assume to be one of the Court's subjects judging by the mask in physical combat. What makes this particular training sequence by far my favorite thus far is the comments made by the monk during the fight. It's just a personal favorite concept of mines that I've seen in several different films and shows where a hero would intensely train to become stronger while his mentor speaks down to him in a sarcastic tone. There's something both funny yet engrossing about the idea of showing just how far our protagonist has to go in order to reach the level of power that is essentially ridiculing him right before his eyes.

In this case, you can see the determination in Bruce's eye as he doesn't quit despite getting knocked around a little while successfully countering the majority of his opponent's attacks. After eventually defeating him, there's a great moment where he states that he should be able to leave due to his victory to which the shaman asks him if he'd actually want to leave behind the one chance of fully ridding his life of his pain. Again, there are so many things to take out of the dialogue here such as the shaman saying "You can return to Gotham with a power you never thought possible" as well as the fact that Bruce decides to continue the training by demanding his opponent to get up. Yep, the Batman geek out meter has pretty much shattered into pieces at this point.

Gordon Infiltrates The Court of Owls

After the previous episode ended on a pretty big cliffhanger with Gordon now becoming a member of the Court of Owls, fans like myself were swimming around in a sea of speculation as to what might happen to our beloved detective. During the beginning quarter of the episode, there's a scene where Gordon attempts to secretly obtain fingerprints from Catherine which ended up being one of my favorite Court of Owls related moments yet. This scene takes the dark, mysterious, and creepy atmosphere of the Court's lair and ranks it up to a whole other level with an amazingly sinister sounding score. Yes, I've praised the artistic direction of the show to death by now with my episode reviews, but it begs to be repeated regarding scenes like these.

Presentation aside, the moment where Jim almost gets caught by one of the board members was legitimately intense being that it showcased the dangers of his mission emphasizing on the immense paranoia and life threatening component that Frank alluded to before his death. It's great seeing Gordon embark on his own mission here into the abyss-like world of the Court as it offers up a whole new level of suspense, mystery, and thrills that the series has never really displayed on such a heightened scale. This is the type of darkly atmospheric noir feeling that I absolutely loved about the classic Batman animated series, so it's nice to see those elements shine within the show.

When Gordon discovers Catherine's full name and address with the help of Harvey (who has been a fantastic supporting character this season), we get yet another intense and beautifully presented infiltration scene. Only instead of the Court's lair, we see Jim sneaking into Catherine's home in hopes to unveil new intel regarding their plans for the city. What I love about this scene, aside from the gorgeously displayed and distinct color palette of the new setting, is the continuing feeling of dangerous threats lurking around every corner as Jim cautiously traverses her home. What looks to be a simple luxurious apartment setting on the surface now comes across as an eerie feeling domain where any one of the Talons can surprisingly show up and take Jim out in a split second.

When Catherine appears with one of her bodyguards walking up the stairs, you could feel the tension rising through the roof as Jim seems to be completely cornered given his position in the room. With quick snappy thinking however, Jim uses the situation as a way to seem as if he's there as a desperate board member desiring to reach a higher rank by disclosing information about the Penguin directly to her. It's a great scene as it shows Gordon's experience as a cop (alongside other professions) who has been through tougher situations in the past having to talk his way out of danger whenever violence wasn't an option.

After discovering a secret Wayne Enterprise access card in Catherine's home, Jim goes to Harvey and Fox to which Lucius suggests that the two investigate one of the company's locations possibly holding Barnes captive. It's interesting to note that several episodes later and we're still seeing the Mad Hatter arc highlighted in some form as now being a component in the Court's plans to weaponize the Tetch virus. Although I honestly haven't been much of a fan of the constantly yelling "guilty" villainous twist of the Barnes character, I do like the fact that they didn't make him a wasted side plot that went absolutely nowhere in the end. Everything in Gotham for the most part feels like it's leading to something greater and the Tetch virus storyline is no exception to this fact.

The scene where Harvey and Gordon investigate what looks to be the set of a sci-fi/horror movie eventually encountering a Tetch infected subject was a nice injection of energy for the episode. Seeing this guy wildly leaping at them like a zombie right out of World War Z was a cool tease for what the Court had planned for the city when Catherine said that she wanted to show the people their darkest selves. After Jim nearly dies from the infected subject's attack, Hugo shows up and saves him by injecting the patient which immediately put him down. Following up on his momentum as an unexpected alley, he offers up his vial of the virus, personal research, and information about the Court as a trade off for his freedom.

Knowing Strange however, there's definitely a price to this trade off which Strange himself even alludes to during the offering. I remembered thinking how much I loved the Hugo Strange reveal during Season 2 and the way that they made him this all-powerful villain without the need of actual "powers" but instead a high intellect for manipulating people. I can't say that I have the same excitement seeing him here as he continues to come across as someone's lapdog more than anything else. I do hope that we eventually get to see him go off on his own path as one of Gotham's most interesting standalone villains given his mad scientist-like image and traits. This can be said for several of Gotham's villains tied to the Indian Hill experiments.

After getting a phone call from Catherine about his request to move up in the ranks, the Court's leader herself gives him the opportunity to show his loyalty by witnessing a small scale test of the virus unleashed. The Catherine character has always intrigued me being the central face of our season villain yet we've never really delve into her character's history or background…until now. One of my favorite things about this episode is the fact that we do get to learn more about her character through different outlets such as briefly exploring her home as well as little pieces of dialogue during her conversation with Jim.

When looking over a social gathering of some of the city's prestige individuals, Catherine talks down about their positions stating that they only think that they hold all of the power but is instead misleading everyone with their image. She also mentions that her family was one of the first in Gotham and was present during the founding of the Court. Although not specifically offering up her individual backstory, it's a nice scene in that it shows a little bit of perspective with her motivation given her background.

I'm a complete sucker for lore building when it comes to anything Batman related, so little scenes like these really sticks out to me perhaps more than the average viewer watching. Following this conversation is an additional tension driven scenario thrown onto Jim as his actions are closely watched by Catherine as she sets the bomb up to detonate. Adding to the tension is the fact that she placed one of her Talons in the room with the order to kill him if he tries to disrupt her plans.

This leads to another awesome action sequence this season showing us yet again why the Talons are one of the greatest additions to the show's roster of villains. After Jim desperately dials Penguin in an attempt to have him show up to save him, he decides to take the Talon head on in a last minute struggle. Not only is the fight scene itself amazingly directed, but I was happy to see that Gordon wasn't able to overpower Talon, a highly skilled assassin, alone in some lazy "he's the hero so he has to win" mentality. Instead, Jim is saved by Firefly, who showed and ambushed Talon right when he was about to kill him.

Although I dislike seeing another one of the Court's badass assassins killed off, the scene worked perfectly as a way of showing the peculiar but beneficial partnership between Jim and Oswald. Also, this is our first real look into the idea of Penguin having his own army of metahumans at his disposal. With this version of Talon out of the picture, we see Jim saving the party from the Tetch virus bomb while Penguin demands that he finally meets with the Court. The party saving scene was a nice way of showing us a tiny version of the Court's mission, so even though I nitpicked about the fact that she just disappears during Gordon's betrayal and the whole incident altogether, I do like that the writers are teasing us with the supposed forthcoming apocalyptic event.

An Unexpected Reunion

Here's where things get even more interesting as Oswald is kidnapped from his home by a new Talon and is placed into a cage adjacent to Ed's. I loved the reactions from both of them seeing each other for the first time after the incident. Ed's shocked expression and Oswald's enraged and psychotic look made for a pretty entertaining reunion. Being that we don't see Firefly after being knocked down by the Talon or Mr Freeze for that matter, one does have to question where Penguin will go from here in his current predicament. It also begs the speculation as to whether or not we might actually see a new alliance being formed out of desperation between Oswald and Nygma in order to take on the Court or escape their clutches. Ah yes, the plot thickens indeed. 

Bruce Wayne's Manipulated Destiny

After Catherine gets a call from the shaman about his part of the plan being ready, this is the first time where I felt profoundly reminded at the fact that Bruce's training is actually a planned component in our season villain's grand scheme. It's pretty perplexing when you think about it, but it does make me curious as to what they're planning on doing with our hero in the end. Again, I can't imagine that the writers are planning on making the creation of the Batman persona a mere pawn in the Court of Owls story, but one does have to keep an open mind being that this is a different iteration of the mythology. However, I am hoping that the series is indeed able to satisfy fans of the character by not downplaying his solo destiny of becoming a hero at the end of the day. 

Overall Thoughts

Overall, this episode was a fantastic "Detective Gordon" episode as we really got to see the character spotlighted as an investigator searching the most dangerous of surroundings in order to take down Gotham's most powerful villain yet. As usual, the visual flare of the series shines within every single frame of the episode while the strong sense of atmosphere seeps through the screen via the show's incredible direction and amazing soundtrack.

Bruce Wayne's journey elevates highly in significance during this episode through powerful physical and dialogue driven scenes while Gordon's infiltration of the Court opens up the door to several intense and thrilling encounters. With Catherine now discovering Jim's betrayal (which I honestly was expecting her to know this entire time) and Barnes being presented as the Court's weapon against him, I look forward to seeing next week's episode with eager eyes.  

Bonus Content

1. The Mad Hatter Narrates

The scene showing Jervis joyfully narrating from his cell window as he watches Barnes take out a couple of Arkham guards was a surprising delight. He continues to describe the scene as a Talon shows up eventually taking Barnes down. This is by far one of my favorite episode openings yet from the action, visual direction, and Jervis's entertaining rhyming.

2. Ivy Brings Back Selena

In an unexpected turn of events, Ivy ends up being the one to bring Selena back by utilizing her special plants. Selena then wakes up with a vendetta to storm Wayne Manor after Bruce's clone. Although forgettable during the episode, this was a nice scene setting up a forthcoming showdown with Alfred possibly being at the center of it all.

3. Firefly Being Put To Use

Going against my previous thoughts on Firefly hopefully branching out into her own as a standalone future villain of the week, it was nice seeing her utilized as Penguin's personal guard. I'm still getting used to the new casting, but it was nice to see her in action once again. However, I'm still hoping for a badass looking new suit. Maybe one with a badass jetpack attached?

4. The Tetch Virus

It's interesting to see the Tetch name still carrying weight to it this far up into the season after the Mad Hatter's arrest. Catherine mentions that the affects of the Court's Tetch virus weapon will only last minutes which will give the city enough time to see their darkest selves before completely killing each other. I do wonder if we'll actually see the citywide poison gas explosion take place or are they saving that type of spectacle for a future villain.

5. Fish Mooney Lives

During an easily forgettable discussion between Strange and Catherine, Hugo tells her that he was able to save Fish Mooney despite her having one foot in the grave. This is our first tease in quite a long time hinting at Fish's return as a major player in the city's power struggle. Despite not ever really liking the character, I look forward to seeing her army of "freaks" properly spotlighted this time around.

6. Ivy's Power

During the episode, we get to see Ivy utilize her self created fragrance in order to fully take control of the hospital staff. The fact that we're getting to see this trait more tells me that we just might get to see that Poison Ivy arc possibly sooner than expected. 

7. Lee Resigns

During an emotional confrontation scene between Lee and Gordon, Lee reveals to be resigning from the GCPD their continuous and closure lacking conflict. It'll be interesting to see where this turn of events take her as the Falcone name still rings loudly in the background with a family position currently opened up.

8. The Court's Book of Spared Names

After getting caught by one of the board members, Jim quickly pretends to be interested in placing a name in the mysterious book of names. It is revealed that the Court keeps a list of loved ones who will be spared from their wrath. This was an interesting new layer of morality and lore building given to our sinister season villain.

9. Talon

It's been awesome getting to see the Talons in action more, but I do wonder if we'll constantly see them show up only to get taken out then replaced right after. I hope the season doesn't end before giving us an absolutely spectacular scene with perhaps more than one Talon in action. 

10. The Executioner

As I've stated earlier, I haven't been the biggest fan of the whole Barnes becoming a new villain idea, but I am liking the concept of the character itself being a visual continuation of the Mad Hatter arc. I also admire the overall Hannibal-like aesthetics of his appearance making him look dangerous in presence alone.

11. "You Logical Bastard"

By far the most hilarious line from Bullock yet. I literally laughed out immediately after he said it towards Strange. Bullock has been one of the best supporting characters of the series as he's always able to bring a natural sense of levity to any scene that he's in. I enjoy seeing his hilariously ignorant personality paired up with Gordon's more straightforward and serious demeanor.

Favorite Shots

Episode Rating: 9/10