The episode is told partly from the perspective of the Ogre, as we see flashbacks of how he kidnapped his latest victim and held her prisoner before killing her. Ventimiglia is a convincing and downright creepy villain, and it’s refreshing to see that he won’t be another of Gotham‘s case-of-the-week baddies. However, seeing the flashbacks does little to elevate the suspense of the episode, so the Ogre doesn’t feel quite as dangerous as he could have had the writers chosen to reveal his methods later on. We learn about him long before Gordon does as well, which makes any reveal of his true identity obvious instead of compelling.
Unfortunately, much of the episode is spent on Fish, who is stuck in the middle of the show’s worst subplot to date. She’s now free to walk around the Dollmaker’s compound, as long as she stays inside, but is slowly trying to find a way to escape. How easily she fools the Dollmaker is almost comical and truly undercuts how ruthless of a villain he’s supposed to be. The fact that she lets him live later on, rather than letting the fellow captives beat him to death, is also a real head-scratcher and an obvious setup for his inevitable return. Luckily, her scheme works well enough that she gets the hell off of his island, meaning we as an audience get the hell out of this boring side story.
Fish’s escape doesn’t come without consequence though, as she’s shot in the gut while piloting the helicopter to safety. Again, it’s a reveal that’s poorly handled and shot through the camera lens of a true amateur. It’s almost hard to take the show seriously in moments like this, and I’m not quite sure if we’re in campy Batman Forever territory or “gritty” Nolan Batman Begins territory. The show’s gotten better about bouncing between over-the-top, cringe-worthy humor and an overly bleak tone, but is now struggling to deliver true drama.
The biggest example of this is the Bruce subplot, which features the young billionaire hitting the streets of Gotham City looking for the man who tried to kill Alfred. I do like that he mistakes the term “shooting gallery” for “gun range,” only to be taken to the correct place by Selina Kyle. Once there, they have a confrontation with Alfred’s former army buddy, Reginald, who’s apparently taken to heroin and is easily bullied by two kids who threaten to drop his “medicine” out of a window.
It’s here that we get the slight push toward the Wayne Enterprises corruption plot, which I appreciate. While I hope that we see more of that story in the episodes to come, the scene here is handled so poorly that it’s hard to truly appreciate. The dialogue is sloppy, the camera work is terrible, and the “dramatic” moments fall flat. Bruce’s hands shaking as he almost pushes Reginald out the window, and Selina’s sudden decision to kill him, are jarring and awkward. I get what the writers are doing here, by presenting the dichotomy between Bruce and Selina and displaying the moral divide that will eventually inform both of their future masked personas, but there’s still something off about seeing a twelve year-old girl push a man out of a window and think nothing of it. And all because Reginald literally threatened to tattle on them to the Wayne board. Yikes.
Hopefully, Gotham makes a course correction in the next few weeks. It really would be a shame for the show, which has more or less found its footing over the course of its first season, to go out with such an uncomfortable whisper instead of a bang.
