The Mediocrity Of Fantasy
Back for another episode, Gotham returns this week for another stand-alone episode that unashamedly feels like filler, offering little in the way of plot development. While the content itself is good and the various inhabitants of Gotham that do feature here do well with their roles, much like last week there isn’t much to get excited by here after Gotham’s amazing episode several weeks ago. The episode begins with Jim Gordon rallying the troops together, trying to form some sort of truce between the gangs in the face of a critical issue involving a lack of clean water. As he arrives at Penguin’s hideout, someone shoots him, causing the G.C.P.D. to retreat and tend to Jim’s wounds. As Lee attempts to remove the bullet, Jim hallucinates, falling into a dream-like state as a fantasy court trial ensues in his head. Meanwhile, Bruce and Selina wind up on an impromptu date but Ivy shows up to spoil the fun, along with an old foe she had a run-in with back at the start of this season. As Ivy leaves, keeping Selina busy, she causes Bruce and Victor Zsasz to fall under her control in order to carry out her plan. This involves sneaking into the precinct and killing Jim Gordon. Zsasz shoots up the place to keep the police busy while Bruce and Selina go toe to toe. Ivy’s plan is inevitably thwarted and as Jim returns from dreamland, he marries Lee, leaving Barbara to stew over this turn of events. Penguin, ever the master manipulator, tries to get into her head, riling her up over the wedding. While things are left wide open going forward, the episode itself is largely indifferent to its own plot, wrapping things up with a neat little bow at the end ready for next week’s episode. While Gotham is still an enjoyable show, the past few weeks have seen several filler episodes fall into this final season that’s ultimately disrupted the pacing and flow of the series. This week in particular feels like a “nothing” episode and aside from Jim and Lee’s wedding, doesn’t do an awful lot to push the story forward. The episode is still entertaining, with enough action and tension to keep things interesting, given this is the final season of Gotham the episode is a little disappointing. Still, fans of the show will continue to watch despite the mediocrity of this week’s episode and hopefully things picks up going forward as Gotham looks toward its final few episodes to go out on a bang.
