At long last, Gotham has seen the resurrection of Jerome Valeska with a little help from ineffectual Jerome copycat Dwight. In “Smile Like You Mean It” Dwight has some issues with bringing The Joker back from the dead and resorts to cutting Jerome’s face off.
Wearing it like a mask, a’la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of a 1000 Corpses, or The Devil’s Rejects Dwight gives a live speech via Channel 9 to the Jerome fan club. While the re-emergence of Valeska was the big storyline here, there was also the Penguin take down, by Ed, Barbara and Tabby as well as the Kyle storyline.
It is Selena’s tale that is the most far reaching in this episode of Gotham. We now know just what caused the falling out between the future Cat Woman and Bruce Wayne. (It was also nicely worked into the “spat” between the two as Wayne is getting better at the whole taking care of himself business. Kyle only hits him twice…)
Some of this episode required major suspension of disbelief for the thing to work. Tabitha, whose recently severed hand has healed incredibly fast, was able to dispatch Oswald’s former associates very easily. Shooting Tommy Bones and the men in the nightclub with no hesitation or difficulty using that right hand stretched credibility a good bit.
Granted, Tabby’s incredibly healed hand was no less impressive than Jerome’s re-attached face. However…Jerome’s wincing performance while stapling back his visage was funny enough that one could ignore the lack of sag and drag around the eyes and mouth.
Gotham this week required a lot of forgiveness when it came to certain plot lines. Another problem arises with the Oswald Cobblepot and Ed Nygma story. Oswald has always been mad as a box of frogs but he is not stupid.
The teaming up of Barbara and Ed, along with Tabitha – who reminds her partner that Oswald will die by her hand (pun intended) when Nygma’s exercise is through – is coming to a close. It is hard to believe that Cobblepot has not worked out just yet that the whole thing is a ruse.
By the end of the episode, Jerome blows up Dwight and the Gotham power plant plunging the city into darkness. Valeska’s closing message is one of madness and mayhem, one that his fan club will act upon, and James Gordon is, quite rightly, concerned.
Selena has “gone off” Bruce Wayne. Her issue is his having not told the truth, which, as any man should know, is the same as lying to any woman. Lee is also annoyed with Gordon, she helps out with the interrogation of the cop/mole but tells Jim to keep his mitts to himself and that he cannot tell her what to do.
Gotham airs Mondays on FOX.
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
- Chris Chalk – Lucius Fox
Guest starring Ivana Milicevic as Maria Kyle, Cameron Monaghan as Jerome Valeska and David Dastmalchian as Dwight Pollard.
Mikes Film Talk 