Gotham this week was not about the Mad Hatter’s revenge attempts, it was all about love. “Follow the White Rabbit” may have started out as race to make choices about who to save but it turned into an almost stand alone tale of amore.
All the characters, with the exception of Barnes, were driven by the love they felt for someone else. The main storyline, Tetch’s thirst for revenge and his focus on punishing James Gordon paralleled the one-sided love story of Oswald and Ed.
The Penguin has fallen head over heels for Nygma, not realizing that his chief of staff has a far different goal in mind for the current mayor. Now that Ed has met Isabella, the riddle loving doppelgänger of Kristen Kringle, all bets may be off.
Although, is Isabella real? Ed is already is schizophrenia territory, a country he knows very well, Arkham Asylum did nothing to cure that. Has Ed conjured up Isabella? He did love Kristen but his “alter ego” did not.
Meanwhile Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter, zooms in on James forcing him to choose between two possible bad endings. The first was whether to save a child or a newly married couple.
The kid won and the newlyweds took a dive. Literally.
The second choice was between Lee and Valerie. The two, out of three if one counts the still Gordon obsessed Barbara, women are locked in Lee’s bathroom and amazingly, Valerie tries to grill Lee about Alice’s blood.
Which brings up another aspect of love, Barnes may be falling in love with all that power Alice’s claret has produced in his ailing body. One drop in the old eyeball, a’la 28 Days Later, and Nathan Barnes is crushing the frames of chairs. If it is not love, it could well be addiction, which is, after all the same thing.
Back to the triangle of Lee, Valerie and James, with Tetch as the emcee. Gordon enlists the aid of Falcone’s son and Lee’s fiancé, Mario. The Mad Hatter has the three love interests at an enforced tea party and wants James to choose which woman will die.
Mario retrieves his hidden gun from the basement and gets the drop on Tetch. Unfortunately the madman replaced the magazine in the gun and Falcone is holding an empty gun. (One would have thought that the son of a mobster would have checked…)
After confusing the Mad Hatter, James finally choses Lee. Tetch immediately decides that it is Valerie whom Gordon really loves and shoots her.
Lee and James rush to Vale and an ambulance is called. Mario, who is a surgeon, will operate on the reporter. James and Lee sit in the waiting room.
As all the Mad Hatter business was transpiring Oswald practices telling Ed that he loves him. This was never going to go well and Nygma’s meeting his dream girl (which she may well be as mentioned above) can only make matters worse.
Butch is still in hiding and there was no mention of Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle (another love story in the making) or Poison Ivy.
Gotham airs Mondays on FOX. Tune in and see if Oswald reveals this true feelings to Ed.
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
- Benedict Samuel – Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter
- James Carpinello – Mario Falcone
- Maggie Geha – Ivy Pepper
- Chris Chalk – Lucius Fox
- Chelsea Spack – Isabella
Mikes Film Talk 