Gotham is hurtling towards the mid-season climax with a breakneck speed. Last week, it appeared that Galavan was finally finished – but come on, this is Gotham. Nothing is ever that easy. Let’s take a look at “The Son of Gotham.”
SPOILERS AHEAD
I have never tried to hide the fact that I am not a fan of the whole Galavan storyline this season. To recap: hundreds of years ago, somebody in the Wayne family did something horrible to one of the Duma family members. Now, Galavan has embarked on a vendetta to avenge this old wrong by … killing Bruce Wayne. Right. And Galavan has a bunch of homicidal monks working for him for some reason – it was explained very well at some point, I’m sure; I just didn’t care that much, honestly. The whole thing seems so unlikely, convoluted, and just not that compelling; it feels like the writers tried so hard this year to make Galavan out to be some brilliant, Machiavellian mastermind, with an intricate plot that unfolded slowly, and would make you go “wow!” once you finally realized what it was all about. But it just didn’t quite gel.
The problem is, his “master plan” just wasn’t very brilliant or complex. A great example was last night – after all of his maneuvering, it came down to Galavan just breaking into Bruce’s mansion to kill him with a knife. He could have just done that right at the start – hell, you don’t need to be Mayor to jimmy a lock, right? And Galavan also gloats to Gordon after he gets out of prison, saying Gordon helped him without realizing it. How? Again, all Galavan did was intimidate and/or pay off witnesses (and it looks like the Judge possibly) to win in court. No matter how much the show’s writers keep trying to convince me that Galavan is an evil genius, all I keep seeing is a pretty garden-variety Gotham thug. Which is fine, I have no moral problem with that – it just isn’t enough to carry an entire season on its back, that’s all.
Thankfully, though, there are lots of other, more interesting threads to follow on Gotham. Cobblepot and Nygma as some psychotic version of The Odd Couple was genius last night. This whole thing has huge potential for a sitcom – I could almost hear the laugh-track as Cobblepot informed an exasperated Nygma that he had clogged his toilet. I say, spin these two off with their own show – come on, it can’t be any worse than Mike and Molly.
On a more serious note, things are not looking good for Gordon and Lee. Gordon has been on a bit of a downward spiral lately, giving in to his dark side, much to the chagrin of Lee. The whole thing has a very Anikin and Padme vibe to it, with Gordon seeming to be in serious danger of chasing away the woman who loves him. Gotham has never shied away from “borrowing” good ideas from other pop-culture works, and this thread is yet another example – if we follow the logic, then, Gordon will go too far, get sucked in by his hate and anger, and lose Lee in the process. The question is, will they pull and Padme and actually kill Lee off? I really hope not, because that would definitely send Gordon – and the show – in a dark direction that we have not seen up to now.
Lastly, there is Bruce, who finally got his “mojo” this week and exposed Silver for what she truly was. His plan to trick her into revealing his parents’ murderers was pretty smart – and it was great to see him back in with Selina. If I am nitpicking, I might say that I saw his trick coming a mile away, and it was pretty easy to tell that the hired goons were working for him. But still, it worked. It is clear that we are supposed to see Bruce as somehow growing up and maturing after all this, and I welcome that if it is true. I think the show possibly made a bit of a mistake in hiring David Mazouz (who I always see as a young Dr. Oz for some reason). He is possibly a teeny bit too young, so that even if he matures a fair bit this season or the next, he just won’t be old enough for a good while to become anything more than a precocious kid. Let’s hope that I am wrong.
Well, we are getting to crucial point in Gotham: next week is the Season Fall Finale – in which we will likely see a lot of progress in the Galavan plot, but also a major cliffhanger for the 3-month hiatus. Galavan clearly still has a lot of work left to do before he is brought down, and the end of last night’s episode seemed to indicate that Penguin will have a hand in that. He is informed by his man that Galavan has been released, and the look in his psychotic little eyes tells us that he will be going after his sworn enemy with all the fury he can muster. My rule has always been “never underestimate Penguin,” and if that holds true, revenge will be served ice cold. Let’s hope so.