Well, we are officially living in a Post-Jerome-Neck-Shank world, and forgive me if I am still a little bitter. I mean, come on, the show’s writers kinda screwed us over last week, and I think they know it. We were clearly led to believe that Jerome, with his rubber-faced grin and master-of-chaos showmanship, was meant to be The Joker – only to have the whoopie-cushion pulled out from under us out of nowhere. But, as they say, “the show must go on,” so let’s try to put the Great Betrayal behind us and take a look at this week’s episode, “Strike Force.”
SPOILERS AHEAD
If this season is all about villains rising, then the Poster Boy would surely be Theo Galavan, who continues his ascent after turning on his aforementioned protege, Jerome. Theo has his dark, shifty eyes set on the office of Mayor, and his plan to achieve it seems straight out of the Gotham Bad Guy Manual. He entices Oswald Cobblepot, also known as Penguin (unless we are wrong about THAT TOO… ok, I’ll behave), to kill off all the other candidates. Penguin’s – ahem – “incentive” is revealed when Galavan shows him his dear old Mama on TV, held hostage somewhere secret. You knew it had to happen sooner or later; Penguin’s Achilles Heel has always been his kinda sweet, kinda creepy love for his Mama – and now Galavan is exploiting that weakness for all it’s worth.
On the Gordon front, there’s a new Sheriff in town – actually a new Captain, but you get the idea. Nathaniel Barnes has arrived, all big and in-your-face, like a bull in a china-shop of police officers, vowing to clean up Gotham once and for all. This seems like a gift for Gordon, who seems to be totally on board with the new Boss. But as a viewer, my Gotham-trained radar of cynicism was bleeping off the charts at Barnes and his bully-boy act. This just has too much of a too-good-to-be-true feel about it. And the more Barnes plays to Gordon’s ego, and the more Gordon unquestioningly laps it up, the more I am waiting for the “real” Captain to show up.
But for now, things are looking up for Gordon. He is given a shiny-new Strike Force to lead, made up of fresh recruits hand-picked directly from the apple tree. And yes, I am aware of the Untouchables parallels – are the show’s writers? Hmmm. At any rate, Gordon’s Strike Force sets out to stop whoever is behind the killings of Mayoral candidates, and their search leads them straight to Penguin. Gordon confronts him about the murders, but Penguin is defiant – hey, this is about Mama. You can’t blame Penguin here – I mean, wouldn’t any of us do the same in that situation? This show has always been about the thin, very blurry line between good and evil, and Penguin’s current predicament is another perfect example. Everyone in Gotham does what they need to do to survive – and that includes Gordon, as he is painfully reminded by Penguin.
Over in Bruce Wayne’s world, we see moral lines blurred again, this time by Alfred. Warning Selina to stay away from Bruce, he full-on hits her – a little girl – with a very adult right hook to the face. The scene is possibly one of the most shocking we’ve seen yet on Gotham. While mostly a very upstanding and principled guardian of Bruce so far, Alfred’s punching of a child definitely puts him squarely in the “moral grey area” group on the show from now on. And it also seems to have pushed Selina – so far a character with at least a hope of redemption – over to the dark side forever. The look on her face near the end of the show definitely indicated that she’ll be looking for payback in the future.
And Selina doesn’t even know yet about Silver St. Cloud, the angelic new girl that has stolen Bruce’s heart. But, to alter the famous saying, in this case the silver cloud has a very, very dark lining: Silver is Galavan’s niece. While she herself seems nice enough, Galavan surely has plans to use her as a pawn in his twisted game of mayoral thrones, and now Bruce is unwittingly caught up in his net. We know from the DC universe that Silver St. Cloud is a recurring love interest for Bruce Wayne/Batman, and is one of the few people who learns about his secrets. So, the possibilities for danger on Gotham are immense as Bruce and Silver become closer. I’m guessing there will be some hard choices this season for both of them.
Finally, there’s Edward Nygma, who battles his inner voices while trying desperately to woo Kristen Kringle. Having gotten her to have dinner at his house, Nygma almost blows it by letting slip that her old boyfriend is dead. Oops. It seems that he is toast at that point but then he somehow wins back her good will by … mentioning that he hears voices?! Yes folks, Kristen actually can relate to that, and we see the two kiss and become closer than they’ve ever been. Wow – maybe these two are meant for each other after all.
Overall, this episode continued the second season’s pattern of big plot twists and character shake-ups. With Jerome’s death last week, Gotham served notice that we are to trust no one, and take nothing at face value in Season 2. Ok, I can get behind that. But if that is true, we can probably expect Captain Barnes to show a dark side at some point, and that spells big danger for Gordon. And while we know that Silver St. Cloud poses a threat – however unintended – to Bruce Wayne, we don’t yet know exactly how. But then, last week’s episode also showed us that everything I just said could end up being wrong too. Yup, still bitter – give me another week.