Gotham Recap And Review - Worse Than A Crime

The eleventh episode of Season 2 of Fox’s Gotham, “Worse Than a Crime”, has to be one of the most lackluster mid-season finales I have ever seen. After setting Theo Galavan up as a mastermind criminal in the initial episodes of Season 2, the character was taken out by the most simplest means. The Order — which is portrayed as a very powerful entity in the comics — is nothing but a joke in this episode. It only took a small team of degenerates and a teenager to unravel the schemes of a powerful billionaire and his cult of so-called powerful monks.

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Spoilerific Recap: At a garbage dump, Alfred stumbles about trying to get away from a pursuing Tabitha.

At Wayne Manor, Lucius Fox emerges from the secret cave to find the study with evidence of a struggle.

Bruce is dragged into Theo’s penthouse. He reaffirms to Theo that he will not sign Wayne Enterprises over to him. Theo goes about giving Bruce a rundown of the Dumas family history and their namesake. He tells Bruce of the day the “Last Son of Gotham” will be sacrificed. Father Creel enters and dabs holy water on Bruce’s forehead. He then tells Bruce that his sacrifice will redeem the Wayne family name.

Alfred is still being chased by Tabitha. He finds a scrapped freezer and hides in it, which is quickly buried by trash and debris.

Jim awakens from a dream of his last moments with Barbara before she fell. He finds himself in Edward’s apartment and is surprised that Edward and Penguin are now comrades. Penguin proposes a team-up to bring down Theo.

Theo questions Tabitha if Alfred has been found. Tabitha’s nonchalant attitude angers Theo which in turn makes Tabitha further antagonize and taunt Theo. Silver enters, telling Theo that she’s fallen ill and won’t be able to attend the ceremony. Theo questions Silver’s loyalty and gives her a test with an ultimatum: trick Bruce Wayne into falling in love with her again or risk being kicked out.

Silver visits Bruce’s cell. She apologizes for what has happened and uses her loyalty to Theo as an excuse. She starts her attempts to charm him, but he tells her that he has no feelings for her.

Alfred emerges from the dump and stops a car. Pulling the driver out, Alfred is quickly tazed by an officer.

At GCPD, Barnes has a put a warrant out on Jim. Leslie supports Jim and doesn’t believe that Jim has broken the law. Barnes questions Leslie’s knowledge as to the whereabouts of Jim, but she denies knowing anything. Overhearing the conversation, Edward approaches Leslie and hints to her to visit his address.

Silver continues to attempt to make Bruce fall in love with her.

Leslie arrives at Edward’s apartment and is quickly greeted by Penguin and his men. She finds Jim who tells her that one of Penguin’s associates can safely take her out of the city. She urges him to go with her, but he refuses. He’s teaming up with Penguin to bring down Theo. Leslie then drops the bombshell that she’s pregnant.

Silver recollects to Bruce the happiest moment in her life. Bruce recollects his happiest moment — camping in the forest with his parents. Feeling guilty, Silver cries and admits that she can’t see him die. She plans to help him escape. Using her clout, she commands one of the monks to give her his gun. She takes the gun and shoots the monk in the leg. Bruce and Silver make a run for it. Going through a labyrinth of halls and flights of stairs, the two are finally intercepted by Theo and his men. This time, as punishment, Theo imprisons Silver with Bruce.

Fox tells Barnes that Bruce and Alfred have been abducted. Barnes feels that it’s not a missing person’s case yet, but initiates a search out of respect for Wayne Enterprises. Harvey backs Fox and believes that Theo is behind everything, but Barnes needs hard evidence.

Barnes, Fox, and Harvey later find Alfred in a cell in GCPD. Alfred gives them his account of being assaulted at Theo’s penthouse. Barnes believes that Tabitha had justification because Alfred was trespassing. However, Barnes tries his best and agrees to get a backdoor warrant for Galavan Towers. Meanwhile, Alfred requests the services of Jim who is nowhere to be found. Edward brings attention to himself when he chuckles after eavesdropping on their conversation. He can’t help himself, but give a riddle to Jim’s current whereabouts. The genius Fox quickly figures out that Jim is at Edward’s apartment.

As Jim and Leslie are about to leave Gotham, they see Harvey, Alfred, and Fox pull up. Knowing what Jim’s answer is, Leslie lets him go and tells him to call her when it’s over.

Silver cries and proclaims her love for Bruce. Asking if he in turn loves her, Bruce answers “no.” He sees through her ruse to make him fall in love with her and knows that their attempted escape was staged. In actuality, Bruce pities her and wants to know why she’s doing this. She again uses Theo as the source for her manipulation.

As Jim, Penguin, Alfred and the rest of the men load up on weapons, Selina pays them a visit. She has knowledge of an alternate entrance into Galavan Towers. Penguin wants to kill Theo when they get him, but Jim is against that and wants Theo to stand trial for the things he’s done.

As Bruce is being led to his execution, he tells Silver that he loves her and kisses her — all in the presence of Theo. Theo congratulates Silver on the success of manipulating Bruce. Bruce is led into a large room where the Order is awaiting his sacrifice.

Selina sneaks up on one of the monks and takes him out. She opens one of the garage doors and lets Jim and the team through.

The Order starts to chant “death to the son of Gotham.” Moving up flights of stairs, Jim and the team hear the echoing chants.

Father Creel commands the chanting to stop and takes out a ritualistic dagger. As he’s about to kill Bruce, Silver commands him to stop. Everyone pauses, giving Jim and his team enough time to burst in. After a quick standoff, the Order charges Jim and his team which, in turn, fire a barrage of bullets.

At GCPD, Fox give Barnes Jim’s current location.

With Creel the only one left standing, Jim commands him to drop the knife. Creel lunges into the air to attack Jim, but is quickly shot down by Harvey. Theo escapes with Tabitha and Silver. Arriving at his penthouse, Theo hands Tabitha a parachute — the two plan on escaping Galavan Towers by jumping through a window. Theo’s last task is to kill the disloyal Silver, but he’s knocked out by Tabitha who takes his parachute. She hands it to Silver and pushes her out the window. Tabitha then jumps out where we see both parachutes deploy.

Jim enters and has Theo cuff himself. When Theo starts taunting Jim, Jim raises his gun to Theo’s head. Barnes bursts in and commands Jim to drop his weapon. As Barnes is about to arrest Jim, Penguin knocks Barnes out. Penguin urges Jim to think of the greater good, to think of the future of Gotham if Theo is left alive.

In the garage, Bruce tells Alfred and Selina that he had an escape plan, to which the two find amusing.

At the docks, Theo is dragged out of a trunk of a car where Penguin brutally beats him with a bat for the death of Gertrud. Unable to take the pain, Theo begs Jim to kill him. Jim pulls Penguin away and executes Theo with a gunshot.

Jim meets Leslie and tells her that it’s over. He then proposes to her.

At Indian Hill, a body is brought into the research facility. One of the staff echo the high hopes of Professor Strange. They unzip the body bag to reveal Theo’s body with an umbrella stuffed down his throat.

After Gotham‘s logo freezes over, we’re treated to a post-credits scene. An unknown man runs through a dark alley. He finally hides behind a dumpster. The pursuer is seen wearing cold-weather gear with a freezing apparatus. The man is finally discovered and shot with the freeze gun.

Next: Catch up on Gotham with a Recap of 'The Son of Gotham'

Best Moment: Alfred being tazed in the face. Like most of Gotham‘s episodes, there were no real great moments. But like they say, it’s the small things in life that matter.

Final Thoughts: As a mid-season finale, Gotham really brought a weak story that had some extremely silly moments — even for this show’s standards. Where should I start? A police captain who keeps refusing to believe anything presented to him. Even after he’s been wrong for the last few episodes. A kid, Selina, pops up and says she knows how to help two cops and a bunch of thugs infiltrate a cult. They then proceed to not only follow her, but have her gear up. And Jim having no consequences after the execution of Theo. Wasn’t Barnes about to arrest Jim before Penguin knocked him out. What happened to that continuity. What was Jim’s excuse when Barnes asked him about Theo?

It’s blatant plot holes like these that make Gotham completely laughable. On top of that, I think the writers need to understand the definition of what a cliffhanger is. For a week, Fox has been telling viewers that this episode will leave on a cliffhanger. I saw no cliff or any sort of hanging. It was just Gotham up to its usual boring storytelling. Well, the show isn’t returning until February 29, 2016. When it does return, we’ll see how much of its viewership has been retained.

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Gotham Recap And Review – S02E11 – “Rise Of The Villains: Worse Than A Crime” – Mid-Season Finale

By Steve Lam | Dec 1, 2015