Gotham, Season 2, Episode 10: Son of Gotham
To absolutely no one's surprise but Gordon's, Theo Galavan (who, I have learned, is spelled with only a single L) breaks out thanks to a false testimony from head-in-a-box former mayor Aubrey James. Whatever. We have Gordon and Bullock run around trying to solve the mystery of the cultists killing people for some strange satanic ritual. And to get Gotham CIty back because it originally belonged to them. Or something. It's honestly all kind of really freaking vague at the moment, and while it is a nice change in pace to have Bullock and Gordon go after fanatical monks -- absolutely love the "nonononononpleaseno" moment that Bullock did when he accidentally destroyed one of the pillars during the fight. And then Galavan gets free and kidnaps Jim Gordon, busts out some crazy monk martial arts moves, before having a bunch of corrupt cops beat him up while he goes off to get Bruce Wayne, who presumably is the titular son of Gotham. Some bullshit about blood sacrifices and utter ambiguity about the Dumas family's big plan.
I honestly don't quite care, because the ones that steal the show this episode is the kiddie cast, something that I don't say very often.
The kiddie cast ends up absolutely outperforming the adult cast here, with Bruce, Selina and even Silver putting in great acting moments. From the plot twist that Silver is kidnapped, to the strange plot hole that some unknown third party kidnaps them to find out what Galavan found out, to the moment of realization when I knew this was Bruce and Selina's plan all along, to Bruce subtly manipulating Silver, to Silver dropping the nice-girl act, to Silver realizing she's being played, to Selina basically going 'what now, bitch?' and to that final parting moment between Bruce and Selina... it's great. I don't say that about Gotham, not unless it pertains to Penguin or Jerome, but I absolutely loved this scene.
We do get a chilling Batman-esque moment as Bruce tells Silver that, no, the nice-guy act? That's just an act. And, yes, young Bruce Wayne just did a honeytrap on Silver. That was awesome and the poor girl just looked so broken at the end of that sequence. It was brilliant.
And, yes, Silver St. Cloud's adaptational villainy is annoying, but I've made my peace with Gotham basically taking a premise and running with it and damning the source material. I honestly don't care, since it's one of the least important problem the show has.
Also, 'M. Malone', a.k.a. Matches Malone, is Bruce Wayne's less-known third alter ego, which is basically Bruce Wayne with a sunglasses and a mustache and a weird accent that he uses to infiltrate criminal organizations. So I dunno. There used to be a real Matches Malone that Bruce Wayne impersonated in one of the older stories when Ra's Al Ghul debuted or something, so maybe? I don't even know anymore with this show.
Penguin and Riddler continue to have fun, playing a strange friendship as Penguin calls Nygma up to ask about the spicy mustard. That was funny. Nygma also unexpectedly plays off Leslie pretty well, though this seems to be setting it up to Leslie discovering what happened to Kringle (Nygma spins a 'she left with Doughtery' story) and possibly a hostage situation, which would be boring simply because of how predictable it would be. Penguin's informed that Theo Galavan is just set free, though, and he sets off for a gigantic rampage of revenge and rescues Gordon to presumably enlist his aid. Go Go Team Penguin!
Alfred gets to fight Tabitha Galavan in a pretty impressive moment, though Tabitha ends up getting the upper hand by stabbing Alfred... like three times over the course of their extended fight through the building. Dude's made up of iron. Also, judging from Tabitha's dialogue to Alfred, I sense her going a heel-face-turn and betraying Theo. Because obvious plot twist is obvious.
Overall it's still technically a bit of an uneven episode, but the absolutely powerful Bruce/Selina/Silver scene really impressed me. The main Dumas plot is underwhelming, though, since I don't really think the show knows where it's going with it. I honestly do apologize if the Gotham reviews seem a bit off, but it's just that, well, it's honestly just underwhelming. We get the occasional gems with Jerome and Oswald and Nygma (and Bruce and Selina this episode), but taken as a whole the show's still pretty messy all around. Granted, it's definitely entertaining as even the bad Gotham episodes are 'so bad it's good' kind of way, and the DC Easter Egg hunting makes me happy inside, but most of the time it's just tiring to watch bad storytelling and doesn't leave me much energy to write up a decent review.
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