#gotham s2e22

[honestmrdual]

[sunlitroom]

Gotham  s2e22 ‘Transference’

As I watched it, and some random summarising here and there.

Previously on Gotham: 'We’re on to you, Strange!’  All plot threads lead to Arkham.  The worst plan ever devised.  Owls.  The fantastic BD Wong, one of the very few good things about this half of the season.

As always, long post will be long.  There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot might sneak in (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)).  There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism.  Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.  General bitching about quality will also happen, because for fuck’s sake.

Harvey - back at the precinct - is talking to the a swat team at Arkham, telling them to go in and get our guys! 

It’s not needed, though, since Jim walks out - seemingly hale and hearty.  But we can see that the real Jim is being held underground, yelling for Strange.  We also see Peabody and Strange talking about arming a bomb and moving the basement patients upstate.  Peabody is worried, but Strange says it has to be done.

Ed is still taunting Bruce and Lucius.  Lucius calls Ed Mr Nygma and appeals to his good sense - trying to give him some respect, and hopefully sway him.  But Ed is too far gone for that.  He tells them both the game is life or death, and asks them who runs Indian Hill.

Strange injects Jim with honesty serum, and asks him how he feels.  Jim says he feels vulnerable, naked.  Strange reassures him that this is nothing to be ashamed of - a perfectly normal response to this situation.

Jim still manages to get angry when full of what must be some fairly potent psychoactive medication.  He tells Strange that GCPD will come for him when he doesn’t get out of Arkham.  Strange tells him to relax - because he’s sent fake Jim out to work.

Harvey calls for Jim.  Fake Jim makes many facial expressions - all of which are more fun than his usual judgey ones.  Harvey is apparently getting laid this weekend.  Good to know. 

Lucius and Bruce successfully guess that Wayne Enterprises runs Indian Hill.  For extra credit, Ed asks who runs Wayne Enterprises.

Peabody is moving the patients in order of risk.   Fish demands attention, and refuses to be referred to as #13.  Peabody tells her she sympathises with her aversion to being locked up, but says that she is a scientific specimen - and will be known as #13.  Fish reiterates her name, and tacks on a ‘bitch’ for good measure.  She’s trying to lure Peabody close enough for that cuttlefish bullshit, but no luck.

We’re in Oswald’s mansion.  Butch has just gone willingly back to second-in-command?  Barbara is helping Oswald decorate.  This is fun and all - but last we heard, Butch had thrown Babs out.  Did she make her own way back?  Did they find her?  Is Tabitha still alive?

Anyway - Oswald is trying to look for the best location for Grace’s head.  Ozzy, sweetie, it’s gone bad.  Throw it out.  Go watch that scene in Rome where Mark Anthony solves Vorenus’s brooding dead head problem.  Also - this really isn’t in keeping with anything you’ve done before.  If Oswald didn’t require a keepsake from Theo, who murdered his beloved mother, then I’m not buying that he’d feel the need to keep Grace’s head. 

Anyway - Babs says make it less central.  Oswald agrees, and is delighted.  Told you she’d be useful, he tells Butch.  Butch disagrees, and Barbara stares daggers at him.

Oswald hears the news about Hugo on the radio.  I’m glad that Oswald has the capacity to be angry at Hugo.  He still looks twitchier than usual though - probably due to the absurd quantities of angst he's had this season.

And honestly?  As I said, Os and Babs are fun together - and RLT and Erin Richards can both be very funny when it’s asked of them - but what the fuck is this scene?  There are so many unanswered questions about how this situation came to be that it’s absurd.

Back to Arkham.  Hugo is conducting some impromptu therapy - question and answer while Jim is drugged.  Jim loved Mum more than Dad.  Dad was too strong (huh?).  Jim wished him dead, and then felt guilty when the crash happened.  Jim feels guilty about his child’s death, too.  He still loves Lee, but doesn’t want to put her through more pain.

Strange tells Jim to imagine he’s God, and then absolves him of his guilt.  He asks Jim how he feels.  Jim says he feels good.  Better.

Hugo lounges and asks Jim what he knows.  Jim says Hugo is building monsters for the military.  Hugo says he’s doing much more than that.  He asks Jim who controls everything.  The rich?  Nope - a shadowy council.  Jim asks who that is - he’s never heard of them.

Hugo is pleased.  Jim calls after him - should he have gone after Lee?  Hugo says yes.  Guilt has compelled you to sacrifice your heart to your conscience.  Guilt is useless, Jim.  Love - love is our guide.

Anyway - the therapy was nice, but he’s going to leave Jim here with the bomb.

More mini-summarising.

When, exactly, has guilt been Jim’s big problem?  Not when he blackmailed Loeb with his mentally ill daughter.  Not when he went to Oswald to get his job back.  Not when he killed Ogden Barker.  Not when he made Lee an accessory to that murder.  not when he went behind Barnes back to get no-holds-barred support from Theo.  Not when he killed Theo.  Not when he let Oswald take the blame for killing Theo.

Giving little hints about backstory as you go - and allowing the audience to infer character from that  - is more effective than spewing it all forth in five seconds.

I don’t think it’s a good thing to be instantly freed from guilt.  Some guilt is unproductive - like Jim and his dad - but usually, guilt is a good sign you’ve done something wrong.  I don’t think Hugo - pretty deficient in guilt himself - is the guy you want guiding your treatment in this respect.

Hannibal did these scenes better.

BD Wong is marvellous, and has made Hugo enjoyable - and has delivered stuff that surpasses the actual writing by miles.

Bruce and Lucius fail to guess the right answer, and Ed gleefully gasses them - laughing hysterically.

Bruce dreams of drowning, his parents’ deaths, and jumping roofs with Selina.

Bruce and Lucius come round in a room with Jim.  That was unpleasant, says Lucius.  I commend that British level of understatement.

Jim apologises to Bruce for making a promise to him in the first place.  He was arrogant and naive - what a fool I’ve been.

It’s not untrue - but there’s too much emotion behind it, and it feels off.  Lucius asks what drugs they gave him.

Ed and Hugo are walking down a corridor.  Ed asks who the Council is.  Hugo says he’d have to lobotomise him if he told him.  Ed laughs - but Hugo’s not kidding, Ed. 

Ed wants approval, a job, something - but Hugo points out that while he’s smart, he’s also insane: we have much to learn, from a madman like you, but not that much.  Ed is dragged back into his cell: No no no no!  You will not treat me like a crazy person.  It’s actually pretty sad, even given what we just saw Ed do with Bruce and Lucius.

Strange triumphantly reports to owl woman that the prisoners don’t know a thing, so everything is peachy.  She demands that they’re killed anyway - and we see a little flicker on Hugo’s face that says he doesn’t like that at all.  She also says letting Galavan out was a mistake, and there should be no more releases.  Hugo is rattled, and his usually smug tone becomes forced.  Again - he’s fab.

Fake Jim is still at the station, pulling faces and sounding like a pirate.  Alfred shows up asking where Bruce and Lucius are.  Fake Jim comes up with  ‘complicated police business’ and winks. Harvey and Alfred look incredulous.

Selina arrives in the prisoners’ room with an armed guard.  She asks Bruce how he is.  He’s middling, she’s chillin’.

Bruce apologises for being self-righteous and manipulative.  His seems more grounded than Jim’s - which was weird.  Selina shrugs this off, and tells him she has him wrapped around her little finger.  No-one’s wrong here.

Selina tells them about the bomb.

Strange’s experiments are being evacuated.  The noises are horrible.

Peabody pointedly tells thirteen to stay calm, and wields a syringe with a smirk.  Fish gets close enough, and cuttlefish bullshit ensues.  Peabody is sad and anxious.  Fish promises to be her friend if she helps her.  Peabody smiles.

Remember on the island, when Fish won loyalty through sheer force of personality?  Remember how that was rewarding, and in keeping with her character - as opposed to this nonsense?

Strange is panicking at the evacuation gone wrong.  He runs into Fish and co, and asks Peabody what she’s doing.  Peabody seems hypnotised.

Stange is impressed - even in his panic.  You have special talents.  Marvellous.  His voice really is great.

Always was, responds Fish.

Hugo tells Fish she’s breaking his heart.  I love you like my own daughter, but I will kill you.  This is pretty much the same line that Fish gave Oswald way back in 1.1 - all the parental, ‘breaking my heart with your betrayal but I’ll kill you anyway’ stuff.

Strange asks her to choose life, but she hits him and then sends Peabody after him as he runs off.  She tackles him, but he elbows her face and arms the bomb.  Hugo is very scared of the Court of Owls.

Fake Jim snacks a lot.  Harvey - who knows Jim better than anyone, and is the best detective in GCPD, still doesn’t see anything wrong.

Babs shows up.  Jimmy, my love, a word in private.

Just a reminder at this point that the last time Babs saw Jim, she was tearfully begging him to see her as a person, just to help her go on.  Did the writers of this episode watch that one?

Anyway - they have some back and forth.  Fake Jim hits on her.  Now you like me again?  And again - wtf continuity?

Jim calls Lee a ho - and that’s what tips Babs off.  It’s pretty sad that Barbara knows Jim well enough to know that this isn’t the real Jim - but at this point, fuck knows if the writing meant to elicit that from me.

Strange, Selina, Brigit and Victor.  Strange says they have to kill them.  Selina asks why he’s so mean.  Strange tells Victor to kill Selina.  Brigit doesn’t like that - Selina is her friend.  In the inevitable ice and fire fight, Selina runs off to release Bruce and co.  And given that Selina cared enough about Brigit to break into Arkham in the first place, just running off like that felt ooc.

Now everyone is in the ice and fire battle room.  Hugo gets caught in the cross fire.  Well, fuck - Hugo.  You’re one of the few things I’d like to salvage from this season.  Jim calls his name and runs out - perhaps another sign that he’s been left a little scrambled?

Harvey is sending another swat team out.  Babs calls Oswald and tells him about Strange.  Oswald is thrilled - you have pleased me.  Babs looks pretty happy about this.  They seem to be allies now - but I still have no clue how or why that happened.

Jim straddles Hugo and slaps him about, like Oswald did with him, and demands to be taken to the lab.

Hugo  - apparently fine - says there’s radioactive material there, but that a bomb with radioactive fallout is unlikely - and still better than releasing his experiments,

Jim eyes Hugo: tell me how to shut off that bomb or I’ll batter you to death right here!

This sounds pretty sincere, very violent, and gets raised eyebrows from Lucius and Bruce.  Again - I would suggest that Strange maybe didn’t put everything back neatly when he was done in Jim’s head.

Hugo would rather die - anyway.

Jim and Lucius release Ed to get his help opening the doors.  He asks what the big rush is.  Can Ed not hear the various alarms?  He wants to know what’s in it for him, and Jim tells him he’ll get to live as a reward.

Jim and Lucius have no idea how to defuse a bomb.

Hugo weeps alone.

Ed bangs on his door and demands to be told what’s happening.

Fish is driving the bus full of patients out of the asylum, now that the doors have been opened.

Strange is being taken away in a police car.  He says he needs to know where his people are.

Harvey hugs Jim.  Jim tells him they can’t let the bus get away.

Police chase after Fish.

She ends up driving straight at a police car.  But here comes Butch with a very big machine gun.  Bombastic music.  Here comes Oswald.  He thinks Hugo is on the bus, and is understandably keen on revenge.

Fish appears behind him.  Oswald’s eyes are wide.  Impossible!  But Oswald saw  resurrected Theo like an episode ago - so, what?

Fish tells him nothing is impossible, and then cuttlefish nonsense.  So - she just implanted a motivational message in his head which - given what we saw of Peabody earlier - will wear off fairly fast?  I have no fucking clue.

Butch and his associates run away at the sight of Fish.  That’s not really how I thought Butch would respond to seeing Fish again.  She strolls off.

Jim is telling Bruce he won’t see him for a while.  He’s going off to find Lee.  He tells him to say goodbye to Harvey for him.

As he walks off, Alfred says approvingly that Jim has his priorities right - love of a good woman and all that.  Poor Lee - her function as a trope actually explicitly stated.

Alfred is hoping that Bruce is done with all that police business.  But now Bruce is obsessed with the secret council.  Selina laughs.  Where’s Brigit - and why does Selina suddenly not care?

Harvey asks Jim where he’s going.  The city is in danger, and there are monsters on the streets.  Jim says he has something more important to do.  I don’t really think you do, Jim.  Harvey is incredulous.  Jim takes off in Harvey’s car, with Harvey yelling after him.

Yep - something’s definitely not right with Jim.

Back on the bridge.  Oswald is still unconscious.  A homeless woman hears the moans and scratching from the overturned bus.  So - Fish just left them in there?  How noble.

She releases them, and Strange’s experiments wander onto the streets.

General observations.

Posting a link to the AV club review of this - which I largely agree with.

http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/gothams-second-season-fizzles-out-237194

Well.  That was.....well.  It felt like Gotham in a nutshell.  it has good ingredients - but no idea how to cook.  It has characters I care about, and characters I am at least interested in - but keeps wasting them, flipping motivation from week to week to fit whatever plot is on at the time.

Plots and pacing are all over the place.  Themes are taken up, but then dropped with no explanation.  Character arcs are abandoned.  Questions are never answered.  So - how did Oswald figure in Strange’s plans?  We’ll never know.

Much like Hannibal - Gotham can be seen a fanfic type show, having creative fun with source material.  But this feels like a bad fanfic - with poor plotting and ooc-ness becoming intrusive.

You can have an outlandish universe, but it needs internal consistency and logic.  This affects tension, and how emotionally invested you are in the story.  But why should you care when Gotham drops its own plots and character developments from one episode to the next?  Why worry about anything when there’s constant deus ex machina and asspulls?

There are relationships which anchor the show.  Jim and Harvey.  Bruce and Selina.  Bruce and Alfred.  Jim and Lee is not one of them - because the show has been chronically lazy at writing Lee’s character and selling the relationship as a whole.  It’s always felt flat.  As a result - Jim’s running off is just meh in terms of emotional engagement for me.  It’s mostly notable in that he seems to be acting without conscience after Strange’s therapy, which might have repercussions later.

Overall:

Thoughts?