Gotham Review: Scarification

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Gotham episode Scarification

Hey Batman fans welcome to your weekly Gotham review by Caped Crusades! I apologize for being a day late in writing this but Tuesday my husband took me on a date to the zoo and I just did not get around to writing this up. Anyway I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the episode Scarification!

So I’m thinking I really prefer Tabitha with her hair up, I like the look she has when she’s doing her brother’s dirty work, like breaking into Arkham, better than her socialite look. I guess it just doesn’t feel right to me, the fake socialite look she’s got going on in this scene where Penguin and Butch have come to plead for Mrs. Cobblepot’s safe return. I actually think Butch has gotten far more interesting since his brain washing. I know that sounds horrible but it’s like he now has to fight his conditioning to allow his own personality through so he has gotten quirkier and more fun.

Wow, even Tabitha Galavan thinks Barbara Kean is crazy, there’s a pun in there somewhere about a pot and a kettle I’m sure. Maybe I should feel bad about the Galavan’s getting their hands on Sid Bunderslaw and what they subsequently do to him, but I don’t, I really don’t. I’m starting to think that one of the writers on Gotham has a fascination with eye trauma, first Fish gauges out her own eye with a spoon and now the Galavan’s remove Bunderslaw’s eye. Also I have to seriously ponder whether you could actually salvage an eyeball whole and undamaged when removing it from a struggling and unsedated patient. I would imagine that Tabitha’s knife would have done serious damage to the eye, rendering it useless for their intended purpose, given that Sid would have been putting up a fight.

I think Captain Barnes and Bullock make a good comedy pair, the overly enthusiastic police Captain who isn’t familiar with the city of Gotham, and the jaded detective who is all too familiar with the city of Gotham. “a damn rocket launcher?” “welcome to Gotham, Cap” these two together make my day. Oh yeah, Captain Barnes is funny, declaring that the first money counter who talks gets his pants back for the ride down to the station, and then when Gordon tells him about the Merc, he says “Pinkney, belay that order, no one gets pants.”

So Butch obviously reads Penguin pretty well, as soon as that guy mentions the cops hitting the count house he goes “ooh!” and gets the hell out of Penguin’s way. Speaking of that unfortunate guy, Mrs. Cobblepot clearly never taught her little boy that the saying is don’t kill the messenger, as this is not the first time Penguin has brutally killed someone who delivered him bad news.

I’m pretty sure that when everyone who watches Gotham saw the scene where they propose a double date, it was assumed that it was going to be super awkward for everyone involved. Or maybe just uncomfortable for Jim and Lee, after all Jim certainly thought it would be. I truly think the most amusing line Ben Mckenzie has had for the entire run of Gotham so far has got to be his complaint to Lee “it’s at your place. We can’t leave, we’re already home. Trapped.” He may appreciate Nygma’s brilliant mind when he’s working a case but he clearly does not want to spend time with him outside of work, which is a shame since Nygma considers him such a good friend.

Gah! Gordon and Galavan’s interactions drive me crazy, and I know I’m not the only one! Theo Galavan is a terrible actor, it’s as plain as the nose on Penguin’s face that he is up to no good! Jim Gordon is supposed to be this great detective, especially on this show (where people have actually complained that the writers are making Batman obsolete with the way they’ve written Gordon) and he should really be able to read Theo Galavan better. I can understand the rest of Gotham trusting him but Gordon should have been suspicious of him from the moment he set eyes on the man. The way I see it, Lee and others should be reassuring Jim that Galavan is a good person and wants nothing but to better Gotham while Jim keeps saying he’s got a gut feeling that something is off with this guy.

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My husband (the Caped Crusades co-editor Eric Chrisman) and I have a theory about who tipped off the cops about the count house. We think it was Butch Gilzean. We think that his conditioning is either wearing a little thin or was never whole to begin with. He clearly has to do anything Penguin directly tells him to do, but that doesn’t mean that he actually has to be loyal to him or act in Penguin’s best interests at all times. Because Penguin most likely wouldn’t have thought to order Butch never to snitch about the location of the count house, there would theoretically be nothing preventing Butch from tipping off the cops.

Selina was definitely proud to hear that Fish Mooney loved her. It makes sense really that a street kid like her would look up to a woman like Fish. Sure Fish was a criminal but she had power and respect on the streets, she was also beautiful and confident, and every young woman should have a role model to look up to.

Selina looks ready to punish Bridget’s brothers for the way they treat her, but since Bridget is going to become Firefly I’m sure she’s going to get her own revenge on them. Honestly one of the things I’ve always loved about the character of Selina Kyle is that while she may be a master thief, she has never been a brutal criminal like many of Gotham’s other villains. Selina has always cared about her fellow women, especially those out on the streets, and she has always cared about cats. In BTAS (Batman The Animated Series) she used the wealth she had gotten from being a cat burglar to work towards big cat conservation and was trying to purchase a large piece of land that would have made an excellent big cat sanctuary. Selina really can’t help but care about other people, for all her flaws, and for all the crap life has thrown at her, she’s still a caring person at heart.

It’s amazing how socially normal Nygma can be around people with Kristen at his side. They are absolutely adorable together I swear.

I’m not supposed to enjoy violence, really it’s against the harm none mandate of my religion but I am really looking forward to Bridget’s brothers coming to a nasty sticky end. They threaten to pimp her out as a hooker if she refuses to commit arson with them. Abusers all deserve to rot in the Hell I admittedly don’t believe in. I know Bridget becomes a serious criminal when she’s Firefly, but I still feel bad for her because she was pressured into it and felt she had no choice, as do many abuse victims who end up committing crimes.

This story about the five prominent families of Gotham, and what the Waynes did to the Dumas family, with the religious order that Caleb was taken in by after the Waynes cut off his hand, it all makes me think of the Crime Syndicate, the DC Comics cult that follows the Crime Bible, the same one that has tried to ritually kill Batwoman because they believe she is the twice named daughter of Kane ( one of the five ruling families of Gotham at the time of the Dumas fall). Seeing the priest who comes to meet with Theo Galavan just cemented the idea in my head, although most people think that this is either a hint at the League of Shadows or the Court of Owls.

Poor Butch, now I’m really hoping he’s behind the raid, and I hope he can do more stuff behind Penguin’s back, he certainly deserves some revenge on the guy, for Fish, for his conditioning, and now for his hand. And yes I would say that cutting off the hand of the only person you are sure you can trust is very paranoid and crazy!

Gordon and Bullock’s relationship just gets better every episode, I love their banter while they’re on stake out, about it being the duty of every cop to sit on his ass when it’s called for, and that if that were true Bullock would be police commissioner by now. Oh hey I just realized that Alfred and Bruce aren’t even in this episode, I can’t believe I didn’t notice before. Actually, that’s one of the good things the writers have been doing this season, they aren’t trying to cram all the main characters into every single episode. There was no need to include Bruce and Alfred in this episode so they aren’t in it. Edward Nygma wasn’t in, episode two I think it was, and I’m pretty sure we’ve had an episode without Penguin in it as well. I know there was probably one without Selina as well. I think it’s working to their advantage to that they aren’t cramming quite so many story lines into each episode anymore.

And the first member of the Strike Force to die passed away only two episodes into the creation of the Strike Force. This Strike Force may do some good for awhile, but in the end I think it’s just going to get a lot more cops dead, at least that’s my guess, considering the state of crime in Gotham when Gordon is Commissioner and Bruce is Batman, we know they haven’t successfully cleaned up the streets long term.

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