Before going into Gotham “Mad City: New Day” and the death of sweet Alice, let us address the elephant in the episode. Captain Barnes’ infection. Cribbing the heart breaking scene from 28 Days Later Barnes gets a single drop of blood in his eye and Alice’s poison affects him.
Really? The build up was there, Barnes calling Jim Gordon “son” which proves he obviously cares about the big lug after all. Barnes even stops Jim from shooting himself. So, in essence, the drop of blood in the captain’s eye is a recreation of the cabby in the Brit horror film’s turning in front of his kid’s eyes.
The big question is whether this was intended as some hackneyed homage or Heller and his writers thought no one would notice. (At least one other reviewer pick up on it…just saying.) All that was missing was a crow pecking out a corpse’s eye.
Still the episode, despite carrying on with the Batman Returns plot where Oswald runs for and is elected the mayor of Gotham was interesting. This placement in office will not end well for Mayor Cobblepot as the squabbling and back stabbing between Nygma and Butch will clearly mess things up in the long run.
The Bruce Wayne lookalike contest winner, number 5, is picked up by the owl lady at the end of the episode. This seems to signal that the “Man in the Iron Mask” hypothesis was not wrong after all.
“I’m not Bruce Wayne,” says 5. “Oh but you could be,” croons Owl lady. With all that added strength and the inability to feel pain, this clone of Wayne would make a better Batman than the real deal. Is that where this is headed?
The Mad Hatter, aka Jervis Tetch turns out to be one sick puppy. His sister reveals to Gordon that he had feelings that were not conducive to a nice normal family atmosphere. (Or as she says, “he had feelings a brother shouldn’t have.”)
He also wants to use her blood in the manufacture of monsters. Tetch is defeated by Gordon and Harvey when Jim fights off the urge to shoot himself and plugs the metronome instead.
During the brief gun battle between Tetch’s goons and Gordon and Harvey, the wrestling team suffer a few casualties. Tetch gets away with Alice and takes her to be bled.
Gordon and Harvey catch up to Tetch and Alice falls onto a huge bit of metal or wood and dies. The Mad Hatter is beside himself with grief but not so much that he cannot escape from the two men.
Back at the election, Penguin wins and Nygma proves his point by taking back all the money that Butch gave city officials. “They really love me,” cries Oswald, a’la Sally Field, as Gilzean looks daggers at Nygma.
Cobblepot makes Ed his new Chief of Staff and Butch is furious at the move. Lee and Jim clear the air and the faux Bruce Wayne is kidnapped. It is at this point that Barnes gets blood in his eye.
There was no sign of Valerie Vale this week and it looks like Lee will stick with her new love. Gordon may be working on getting out of his bounty hunter rut and getting back into being one of Gotham’s finest.
The Mad Hatter is still lose and may still make good on his threat to make monsters with his dead sister’s blood. Nygma is clearly up to something, the man is not quite the “bestie” that Oswald thinks he is.
Gotham airs Mondays on FOX. Tune in and see how Alice’s blood affects Barnes and how Butch will pay back Nygma.
CAST:
- Ben McKenzie – James Gordon
- Donal Logue – Harvey Bullock
- David Mazouz – Bruce Wayne
- Sean Pertwee – Alfred Pennyworth
- Robin Lord Taylor – Oswald Cobblepot
- Camren Bicondova – Selena Kyle
- Erin Richards – Barbara Kean
- Jessica Lucas – Tabatha Galavan
- Drew Powell – Butch Gilzean
- Michael Chiklis – Captain Nathaniel Barnes
- Jamie Chung – Valerie Vale
- Cory Michael Smith – Edward Nygma
- Morena Baccarin – Leslie Thompkins
- Naian González Norvind – Alice Tetch
- Benedict Samuel – Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter
- James Carpinello – Mario Falcone
It was a bit too obvious the drop of blood would end up in his eye. I did not enjoy this episode as much as I thought I would have, after all that happened last week. It seems the pace has picked up, but at the cost of the story.
Well written review, Mike.