Mad Lee Party.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Gotham rebounded this week with its best episode since Season 2's "Mad Grey Dawn." This series can easily get bogged down in ridiculousness, but it seems to be at its strongest when torturing Jim Gordon and putting him through an extremely dark emotional wringer. Here, thanks to the murderous return of Mad Hatter, Gordon faced down a little bit of Killing Joke and a little bit of - well - the end of Batman Forever when Riddler tried to force Batman to choose between Robin and Chase.
Over in the B story, Penguin WAS IN LOVE WITH RIDDLER! Man, that was so great. No, nothing was resolved this week so it's still "Will They?/Won't They?" (or even "Does Ed like Oswald back?"), but I'm so happy they decided to turn this into an actual love connection/romance and not a "bromance." Because this show could easily just tease a deeper connection between these two for years and never pay it off. Last week's missed kiss and longing hug felt like a big cop out, though now we know it actually did mean something huge to one of them.
I'm just happy they went all the way with this and made Oswald be in full-bloom love. Ed's sexuality is still up in the air, if one were looking to label him (which I don't think we do), so we still don't know how he'll respond to Penguin's big declaration, but a bigger question might be "Does Ed really see Oswald as a friend or is he trying to manipulate him?" I thought of this last week when he played Butch for a sucker, so all of this, given how Riddler is, may be part of an even longer con so that Ed can seize power for himself. We'll see.
Ed being distracted by the Kringle doppelgänger was kind of the ultimate buzzkill here given how Oswald's entire story was him trying to work up the courage to profess his love. Not only is the show keeping these two apart now, but it's also refusing to let us know Ed's true feelings at this point. It's a little maddening. Still, as mentioned, I appreciate that we're no longer teasing the love element. I mean, we are, but on a different level. Now there are just "obstacles."
I guess the biggest problem with "Follow the White Rabbit" was the tonal whiplash between the two main stories. I liked both of them, but one was super dark and the other was sort of giddy. Batman will always be a character rooted in anguish and trauma, but Gotham, now in Season 3, has basically shifted that trauma over to Gordon. Bruce, despite losing his parents, is a picture of mental health at this point compared to the s*** Jim's had to go through. Jim lost a fiancé, an unborn child, went to prison on a murder rap, and now just made a choice that got Valerie shot in the stomach. If anyone deserves to don the cape and cowl at this point, it's him. He even has the growly voice down.
The showdown at the end, with Jervis, dragged a bit, sure. First Mario showed up (and then didn't get killed when he was taken into the other room), then Gordon tried to trick Hatter into killing him instead of the women (not knowing if Jervis would just kill the two women afterwards anyhow), then finally, having to choose between Lee and Valerie. It went on a bit too long, but the end result was pretty devastating. Gordon had to choose who died and he said "Lee." What a sick game to have to actually see through to the end. No one rescued him. The show didn't have something happen so that he was saved from having to make the choice at the last second. He said a name and Valerie paid the price.
Now did he know Jervis would swerve right then and kill the person he loved more, or did he think he'd kill the person who he actually named? We still don't know the full answer here, and I'd kind of prefer not to. I like how it stands here, right now, as a dark choice that Gordon can never take back. How will Gordon be after this? Last week, he seemed to be on the road to recovery and this is a huge setback.
The Verdict
Gotham went dark this week by adding even more coal to Jim Gordon's already-formidable furnace of excruciating trauma. Mad Hatter sought to drive Jim mad and my *hat* goes off to the series for not rescuing Gordon at the last minute, forcing him to make that final choice between his two loves.
And speaking of love, I also applaud the show for making the Penguin/Riddler relationship be much more than a tease. Even if it is just one-sided right now.
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