The penultimate episode of Gotham aired last night, and it marked exactly the third episode of the show I’ve ever seen: the pilot, one episode last season I reviewed, and now this episode. Suffice to say, I had no trouble picking up on the overall plot, but I still have no idea what the fuck was happening. Let’s dig in!
1. An even sillier Bane
This bane is somehow even more hilarious than Tom Hardy’s Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, and that’s saying a hell of a lot. This bane is essentially a Dark Vader chest plat, some clear plastic molded like armor, an emo haircut, and a ventilator. It is absurd, and I love it.
Side note: there’s a subsection of creative types who see Bane as the ultimate Bat-villain. If you’ve ever read Chuck Dixon’s “Knightfall,” there’s a really good argument to be made for that fact, but no one seems to get it right. Christopher Nolan didn’t, Gotham didn’t, and Tom King sure as shit isn’t right now.
2. Everything is just so easy
I know this is a dumb show, but I don’t think anyone really struggled at any task they set out to accomplish last night, and this was supposed to be the end of a fucking city. Gordon just casually snuck into enemy territory, Barbara just so happened to be able to stab an al Ghoul (twice!), everyone is getting around in a war zone with surprising ease.
Even the big conclusion, that Bane would be turned on by his soldiers, no one had to make a crazy, impassioned speech. The evidence was just sort of laid out there, and then it happened. If life is this easy on Gotham, then how the hell did it get to this point?
3. Commissioners get medals?
I understand that this show, almost more than Bruce becoming Batman, had to end with Jim becoming commissioner. But the ceremony was just so hokey: villains standing next to baby carriages, while Gordon gets an Olypmic Medal draped over his neck. This show, in my very limited experience, seems to treat the GCPD as essentially the fifth branch of the militaryy, and so the pomp and circumstance seemed more or less appropriate, but it was a really weird image.
4. See ya, Brucie
The show appears to be taking a massive time jump before the finale, which makes a lot of sense, and the catalyst for that is Bruce getting on a plane to go learn some shit. This is fairly comics accurate, and there was a really well played scene by a silent Selina, who saw Bruce leaving (again, this city is so easy, she just walks through an airport to the tarmac), and you could see it just turn her against the world. It was a scene that easily sets up her for more villainy in the future.
5. Random thoughts
– Both on Arrow and here, the show decided to go with Nyssa al Ghul instead of Talia. That’s bizarre to me (unless Talia was already on the show and I missed it).
– It is hilarious to me that through all the grit and grime, we sort of got a comics accurate Riddler costume.
– I forgot that Penguin was young Benjamin Linus
– “I know you haven’t seen your kid yet, but the GCPD needs a leader.” This is an actual line delivered by national treasure Donal Logue.
– Somehow, Fox paid for worse CGI than the CW. I didn’t know that was possible.
– What did Bruce Wayne actually do for Bane and Nyssa to want to destroy Gotham? I’m really curious how much harm a teenager could’ve done.
– It was pretty telegraphed that ‘Project Failsafe’ was going to have the general kill himself, but the goofy motion that he did was basically something out of Davey and Goliath, but instead of tripping over something, it was a broadly played “and now I shoot myself!” motion. I literally laughed out loud at it.
– So, Bane was batted to…discomfort? I really didn’t understand the point of that.
I hope everyone enjoys the finale!
