Gotham: Mid-Season Finale Wrap-Up

Gotham celebrated it’s mid-season finish line with the episode “Worse Than A Crime.”  Though Fox had promised viewers a thrilling cliffhanger, the episode was extremely lackluster and wrapped up almost every plot that has happened so far in Season 2.  I guess the cliffhanger they were thinking about was the introduction of Mr. Freeze — which was more of a teaser for the season’s second half.

In terms of characters — who Gotham just loves to murder — we only had one death in the finale with the rest acting their usual crazy selves.  Hey, blame it on the writing.  Gotham‘s Season 2 moniker of “Rise of the Villains” has so far been misleading and disappointing.  Nonetheless, we do have a status report as to how our major characters have fared.

Jim Gordon

Our white knight continues to tarnish his armor and move into some dark territory.  Actually, I think he’s fully embraced the darkness in himself.  The mid-season finale had him working with Penguin to give Theo Galavan a torturous death.  I’m not sure how Jim is going to come back from that.  Sure, Theo was a despicable human being, but isn’t Jim supposed to be the embodiment of the law in Gotham City?  Stick a fork in this character because he’s pretty much done.

Penguin

Well, what can we say about our favorite bird?  Nothing much has changed.  After the murder of his mother, Gertrud, he proclaimed that he’s a changed man.  However, we still see him doing the same things.  Maybe in the world of Gotham the word “change” means “still the same.” The only transformation I saw in this character was an update to his relationship status.  Yep, we’re talking about his becoming best friends with riddle-loving Edward Nygma.  Though there was some slight friction at the beginning, the two soon hit it off and are now like peanut butter and jelly.

Bruce Wayne

He’s still searching for his parents’ murderer and this season he has grown a little in terms of character.  He’s learned how to play people and manipulate them for his own needs — something that’ll come in handy when he becomes the greatest detective in the world.  Though he discovered that someone named “M. Malone” was linked to his parents’ murder, not much of this was explored in the season finale.  After being saved from Theo and the Order of St. Dumas, and patching things up with Selina Kyle, everything seems to be back to the norm for our young billionaire.

Harvey Bullock

After quickly getting back in the game in the second episode of the season, not much has happened with Harvey since.  It seems that his character arc of becoming Jim’s friend is complete.  For most of Season 2, Harvey has been in a supportive role and overall comic relief.  I’m wondering when we’ll be getting some Harvey-centric episodes on Gotham again.

Barbara Kean

Yes, Barbara Kean, the character that has diverged the most from her source material.  Who knew that on Gotham Barbara would go completely insane and become a murderer also.  It doesn’t really matter anymore because she’s now in a coma after falling out of a church window and landing on a bush.  A ridiculous ending to a ridiculous character.  Actually, we can’t really say it’s the end for Barbara.  She could wake up anytime in the second half of the season and continue the crazy train.

Selina Kyle

We all thought Team Wayne and Kyle would be forever, but Silver St. Cloud entered their lives and tried to break them up.  Selina got her heart broken when a duped Bruce abandoned her for Silver.  It wasn’t long before Bruce discovered that Silver was manipulating him and that Selina was telling the truth.  The two re-teamed and was able to pull their own ruse on Silver, who gave the name “M. Malone” as someone involved in the Wayne murders.  The most interesting aspect to these events is that Selina was shown to have a soft center after all — crying at the notion that Bruce had found someone else he cared more about.

Edward Nygma

The Riddle-Man probably had the most roller-coaster-of-a-change this season on Gotham.  He first saves Kristen Kringle’s life, making her see something in him.  However, Edward also developed a strange split personality which taunted him every time he wasn’t being assertive.  Things seemed to be going well for him and Kristen until he thought it would be a good idea to confess his murdering of Dougherty.  It went downhill rapidly after that.  And when I mean rapidly, I’m taking about killing Kristen within a few minutes.  Though it wasn’t on purpose, Edward did own up to enjoying it and finally merged with his dark side.  Later, while burying the remains of Kristen, he runs into a wounded Penguin which developed into a friendship between two psychopaths.

Leslie Thompson

Always the rock in their relationship, Leslie seems have gone through the ringer with Jim.  I’m really wondering how much more she can take.  It seems that she’s now in it for the long haul because the season finale has her announcing her pregnancy to the future commissioner.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred, this season, seemed to be all over the place.  There were some pretty crazy moments with the loyal butler.  Where do I start?  How about cocking his hand back and slapping a 14-year old Selina.  Then getting tazered in the face by an officer.  I’m beginning to think that on Gotham, Alfred is to Bruce as Harvey is to Jim.

Captain Nathaniel Barnes

The strict and rule-governed Barnes was brought in to clean up the GCPD after the death of Captain Essen.  Jim is happy with Barnes’s hard-nosed stance against crime in Gotham City.  But at times, Barnes can be a bit too much of a stickler.  As Jim becomes more frantic in apprehending and putting away Theo, Barnes becomes more of an obstacle.  Though Barnes tells people he’s hard on crime, his rules to Jim seem to benefit the criminals more.  He’s always seeking “evidence” even when it’s staring at him in the face.  The character could use a bit more development.

Theo Galavan

The main villain for Season 2 was a total open book, which is not a good thing.  Gotham needs to inject some mystery into its writing.  The character laid his plans out to the viewers from day one and has made every move predictable.  Who in the world didn’t see his death coming?  For a threatening bad guy, he really wasn’t all that scary.  However, at the end of the season finale, his body is brought to the research facility at Indian Hill.  Perhaps this means that we’ll be seeing him in another incarnation down the line.

Tabitha Galavan

Sister of Theo — although we have out suspicions if they’re really related by blood — Tabitha was set up as a loyal henchman-type for her brother on Gotham.  However, out-of-the-blue she started to butt heads with Theo in the season finale.  During the final scenes, it was she who saved Silver from being murdered by Theo.  Both she and Silver then made an escape by parachuting out of Galavan Towers.  The two are sure to resurface before Season 2 ends.

Silver St. Cloud

Bruce was immediately smitten by Silver after meeting her during a lunch with Theo.  It was later revealed that Theo wanted Bruce to sign over control of Wayne Enterprises, and Silver was the one to manipulate him into doing it.  A glimmer of goodness seemed to surface at the very end when she uttered the word “stop” right before Bruce was about to be sacrificed.  We won’t know how she really turns out until she resurfaces again with Tabitha on Gotham.

Next: Catch up on Gotham with a Recap of 'Worse Than A Crime'

We have a good three months before the second half of Season 2 starts.  From the final post-credits scenes, the most likely candidate for “main baddie” would be Mr. Freeze.  Wait, can we even call him “Mr. Freeze” yet?  Or should we say Victor Fries?  Knowing Gotham, they’ll have Freeze’s origin, life, and death all wrapped up within a few episodes.  Or he’ll be an inspiration for the real Mr. Freeze (See “Rise of the Villains: The Last Laugh” and you’ll know what I’m talking about).

Fox’s Gotham returns with new episodes on Monday, February 29, 2016 at 8:00PM EST.