Welcome back to Gotham! Time is ticking as Ryan, Luke, and Sophie try to save one of their own, as Mary undergoes some severe changes. The only problem is, what if she doesn’t want to be stopped? As the team continues to splinter and threats to the Batfamily continue to grow, Ryan has her work cut out for her. So don your cape, grab your antidote, and join us as we give you five thoughts on the midseason finale, season 3, episode 7, “Pick Your Poison.”
1. The growing conflict in Mary Hamilton
Much like last week’s episode, “Pick Your Poison” has Mary Hamilton going through some serious changes. In “How Does Your Garden Grow,” Mary was very much like a Jekyll/Hyde character, with her transforming into the savage killer when the sun goes up and the helpful doctor when the sun goes down. Honestly, pretty useful for when your vigilantism occurs at night. While Mary isn’t entirely sold on the whole “embracing her dark side,” she is going through. She is still helping Alice out of some degree of self-preservation. However, Alice is persuasive, and Mary believes that her friends might put her in Arkham.
The thing is that as “Pick Your Poison” goes on, Mary seems to enjoy the changes she’s going through. Sure, there is conflict, and Mary still has lines she’s not willing to cross (like helping a sheriff Alice runs over with their motor home), but there are elements of being Poison Ivy that make Mary feel powerful. During the episode, she’s able to exert power over others using mind control, and all the while, Alice is helping her realize that feeling the power is good. Alice and Mary is an unlikely pairing, but the show does make it compelling. Watching their evil road trip was a highlight of the episode.
2. Making a deal with the devil
As Mary starts to come to terms with her changes, Ryan turns to the help of her family. After the reveal that while Jada isn’t necessarily a good person, just not the villain we all thought, Ryan, asks for her company’s help in saving Mary. There is one condition, however, that Ryan has to agree to take out her half-brother Marquis. “Pick Your Poison” starts with a rather abrupt abduction of Marquis Jet to get him off the streets of Gotham until a cure can be found for his Jokerfication. Throughout the episode, Jada is as cold and professional as ever, until the one scene where she shows some vulnerability, allowing Marquis to escape.
Throughout “Pick Your Poison,” people question Ryan’s decision to trust her mom, that Jada Jet doesn’t offer help without conditions. The thing is, though, that Jada’s team revealed a shocking discovery. By the next sunrise, Mary Hamilton will fully become Poison Ivy. It’s an effective ticking clock, especially paired with Mary’s growing fondness for her dark side. The team, it seems, has all the odds against them.
3. A final plea for friendship
After a few weeks of the team slowly starting to splinter, “Pick Your Poison” really puts the team to the test and makes Ryan and Luke reanalyze how they treated Mary. Both characters get moments where they confide in Sophie that they took their friend for granted and put her off to the side as they search for where she might have ended up. Eventually, Luke has the realization that Mary might have been buying coffee to stay awake (which, sure, I guess that makes sense), and Ryan is off to talk sense into her.
In their final standoff before Mary’s total transformation, Ryan pleads with Mary to come back and get cured of her infection. She talks about how they found her, how they want to save her, claiming this is all things friends do. The thing is that “Pick Your Poison” kind of frames the whole situation in Mary’s favor. The things Ryan keeps saying are a bit shallow and simplistic. In her time of need, only one person has been there for her, Alice. It was cool to see the show hold Luke and Ryan accountable for taking Mary for granted and now seeing the consequences because of that.
Continued below4. An incredibly hostile takeover
After the resolution about Marquis, it felt odd that the show wasn’t giving him time last week, but “Pick Your Poison” more than makes up for that discrepancy. After escaping from Jada, Marquis becomes a force of chaos and destruction. He steals the antidote for Mary, makes quick work of beating up Luke, and even kills a Wayne Enterprises security guard. Any semblance of that character he had been in previous weeks was gone. Except that’s not true. While Nick Creegan might be playing the character with a bit more intensity, all mannerisms are similar. Marquis revels in the chaos and realizes that the Joker seemed to be the only one having fun in such a miserable city.
“Pick Your Poison” is also when he springs his real trap, a hostile takeover of Wayne Industries. While Ryan tries to reason with him and apologize for betraying him, Marquis reveals that it was all a ruse to get into her trust. No matter what was going to happen, he would take over Wayne Enterprises. Now he just has a better bargaining chip, Mary’s future.
5. A dangerous alliance to shake up Gotham
“Pick Your Poison” ends with the team at probably their lowest point to date. With Marquis’s hostile takeover complete, they are shut out of Wayne Tower and all the resources needed to fight crime. In a press conference, Marquis tells the city that while he needs to appease stockholders, he’s more interested in putting a smile on the faces of Gotham’s citizens. This is dangerous enough. The problem is that his message has seemed to reach a dangerous audience in Mary and Alice.
Now that they don’t have resources and that there seems to be an alliance brewing between three of their foes, Ryan, Luke, and Sophie have their work cut out for them. They now can only rely on one another’s skills and experience. But, with an alliance that potentially has access to all of Batman’s toys, it seems like Gotham is about to be in for their biggest threat yet.
So there we have it, dangerous alliances are forming in Gotham, and the team will have a hard time pushing back. What did you think? Sound off below and see you after the break!
