Gotham Review: By Fire

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Gotham episode By Fire

Greetings Batman fans and welcome once again to Caped Crusades’ weekly review of Gotham! I must apologize for being two days late with my review, I just celebrated my anniversary with my husband and just didn’t make time to write up my review. I will try to have next week’s review done on time. At any rate, here are my thoughts on Gotham season two episode six titled By Fire!

The cast of Gotham is pretty darn amazing in my eyes, specifically I’m thinking about Drew Powell who did an amazing job with his monologue to open the show. Butch has already been through quite a lot on Gotham and the writers aren’t done torturing him, he gets so abused in this one episode alone. Tabitha and Barbara are just as entertaining as ever, suggesting what to put on Butch’s stump, like a little tiny chainsaw.

I gotta hand it to Theo Galavan, he definitely knows how to read people. He can tell which influential people of Gotham he should approach with his good guy hero of Gotham persona (like Gordon) to get their support for his mayoral run, and which people to abuse and threaten as himself ( like this congressmen in the opening seen) in order to get the support he needs. There are good people in the world like Gordon who Galavan can approach and ask for support, and then there are shady people who Galavan must threaten with death to get their vote. It’s interesting to see that though he sucks as an actor (just to clarify I think Theo Galavan sucks as an actor, I think James Frain is awesome!) he can read people pretty accurately.

I was right, Captain Barnes is naive and he doesn’t understand how Gotham works. In most other cities writing up Gordon for hitting that informant would absolutely be the right call, it certainly is what we would want in the real world, to have police punished for unnecessary use of force. But in Gotham that’s how things work, crime is rampant and the criminals are used to corrupt cops who will let them get away with most shit. In order to get information out of them you need to get forceful, you need to be a hard ass like Gordon. I’m watching these green kids Barnes hired for his strike force and I keep thinking that Luke Garrett is just the first of many cops who will die while Captain Barnes runs the GCPD. He’s going to get all his kids in the strike force killed for a start. he’s hard, but he’s idealistic like Gordon was when he first showed up on the force. The main difference is that he has the authority to make the veteran cops do what he wants and put themselves at risk. The rookies won’t be the only potential casualties the way I see it.

Oh yeah, we see it right here in his discussion with Gordon, Barnes is far too willing to lose cops, the way he says “you lose people in war, and trust me this is a war” shows that he expects more casualties to come, and combine that with an unwillingness to bend or break the law and Captain Barnes makes for one hell of a dangerous leader for the GCPD, dangerous to his fellow cops, and probably dangerous to the innocent of Gotham as well.

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Meanwhile we get to see that although I like to praise Selina Kyle for how much she cares for others, she has survived all this time by looking out for herself first, as evidenced by her refusal to risk both Bridget and herself to save the women being sold by the human trafficking ring they rob. And yes, for an arsonist turned cop killer, Bridget does seem awfully square when it comes to committing more crime. Then again, she was forced to set the fires (although she did start to enjoy it) and killing the cop was mostly an accident, she was scared and only trying to burn Luke Garrett enough to get away. Sadly, it looks like that strike force protective gear is bullet proof but not fire retardant, which is exceedingly stupid if you ask me.

Aw, isn’t Bruce so cute, with his first, well no I guess this is his second crush, since he definitely has feelings for Selina as well. And yes Alfred is right, Bruce isn’t really ready as he thinks he is, at his age he is too easily distracted by girls, because being attracted to them is still far too new. Once he becomes Batman and is able to push women away and ruin all his relationships in the name of his calling, Alfred will wish he hadn’t pushed Bruce so hard into focusing and being ‘ready’ for whatever is on Thomas Wayne’s computer.

Poor Penguin is cracking under the pressure, he needs is mother back before he completely looses his grip on reality. I guess given his criminal dealings I shouldn’t feel sorry for him, but honestly he and his mother, especially his mother, don’t deserve this. And meanwhile Butch is suffering quite a bit because of Penguin’s cracking.

Silver seems all sweet and cute, but I’ve heard a rumor that she has a ‘heart of darkness’ and she is pretty much in on Galavan’s plans, that she takes pleasure in the kind of violence that Theo and Tabbitha are into. If the rumor is true it means that she is fully aware that Theo is using her to manipulate Bruce, is a willing participant in the whole scheme, and is likely aware that Galavan’s eventual goal is to kill Bruce.

Oh poor Edward and Kristin, they make such an adorable couple, if only he weren’t destined to become the Riddler, maybe they could have been happy together. I was honestly hoping that she would get some sick pleasure from knowing he killed her abusive ex, that maybe she would become his psycho side kick, sort of like the Riddler’s own version of Harley Quinn. That would have been so cool. Instead, the writers went in a more predictable direction and had her freak out like any sane person would, and Nygma panicked, trying to hold her still to explain himself he ends up choking her to death. Which is the straw that finally breaks the camel’s back I believe, and there will be no turning back, he will be the Riddler very soon.

I think Tabbitha has probably successfully changed Butch’s brainwashing, he is likely leading Penguin into a raid that instead of saving Mrs. Cobblepot, will lead to the Galavans killing her before Penguin can save her. I am basing this theory on my suspicion that Butch didn’t escape, that Tabbitha let him go when she was done with him, and from what I saw of Penguin in the preview for next week’s episode, he looks very very upset, not like someone who just saved is mother, more like someone who just saw his beloved mother killed right in front of him.