Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From Mr. Freeze

Warning: Spoilers for the Gotham episode Mr. Freeze

Welcome back Batman fans! It’s been quite a long time since my last Gotham review, but I’m happy to be back and sharing my thoughts on the show with my fellow Batman enthusiasts! Last night’s episode of Gotham, Mr. Freeze was the first new episode of the spring and with the return of Gotham comes the return of our slideshow review of the episodes. Turn the page to see the five moments of this week’s episode we thought stood out the most!

Next: #1:....Gordon Lies On The Stand

Standout Moment No. 1: Gordon Lies On The Stand

This is definitely the first moment that we need to talk about. Yes it is the opening scene of the show but it is still fairly important, especially as Gordon is supposed to be the main protagonist on this show. In the opening moments of Mr. Freeze we see Jim Gordon is in court testifying as to the events that took place four weeks ago when Bruce Wayne was rescued and Theo Galavan was murdered. In the version of events that Gordon relays to Mr. Dent and the court, Oswald Cobblepot alone was responsible for the murder of Theo Galavan. Due to a lack of evidence to the contrary, all charges against Gordon are dropped and he is reinstated as a detective.

I know I’ve mentioned it before but it bears saying again that Gotham is taking this character on a darker path than I am really used to. James Gordon has always been a stand up cop, and the only time he ever really flirted with the wrong side of the law was in his relationship with Batman. The Jim Gordon I’m familiar with is sort of like a shining beacon, the only straight cop in a crooked town, and the only one Batman really trusts. While it is true that he is developing a relationship of trust with young Bruce Wayne, he has been bending the rules and is now out right breaking the law in his war against the scum of Gotham. I’m really not sure that I like where they are taking his character, although I suppose one could argue that this is the only way a straight laced cop would accept a vigilante in his town and develop a repour with said vigilante. I am fairly sure that at some point this will all come crashing down on Jim’s head, if not in a legal manner than at least Lee is going to find out and it will be the end of their relationship.

Next: #2:....Oswald Cobblepot Is Arrested

Standout Moment No. 2: Oswald Cobblepot Is Arrested

This is of course, not the first time that Penguin has been arrested, but this time it does seem a lot more likely to stick, especially after he confesses to the murder of Theo Galavan, who although a criminal himself was still mayor of Gotham at the time of his demise. This moment is important as the GCPD has been after Cobblepot for most of the show, especially all this season and now they finally have him behind bars, or in this case, in Arkham. It is also important because Penguin has got the dirt on both Gordon and Nygma, and could have sold one or both of them out for some leniency on his behalf but he chooses to remain quiet about both men’s wrong doings. I think that at least in Nygma’s case Cobblepot chose their friendship, and the knowledge that someone would tend his mother’s grave over a chance at a lighter sentence. As for keeping his silence about Jim’s participation in Theo’s murder, perhaps he still thinks Jim will be useful to him, and perhaps he just no longer cares about what happens to him and doesn’t see the point in trying to make a deal.

You know, when Oswald told Captain Barnes that he was insane, I don’t think he expected that they would take him at his word and send him off to Arkham without so much as a psych evaluation. Actually I don’t think he expected anything thing to come of that comment, he seemed fairly genuinely surprised to be carted off to Arkham. It was probably quite a shock to Penguin when he made his little speech in the Arkham lunch room, in the past when his fellow criminals underestimated him he knew how to handle them and he would have known just what to do to gain respect in prison, but his methods do not work on the truly insane inmates in Arkham.

Next: #3:....We Meet Dr. Hugo Strange

Standout Moment No. 3: We Meet Dr. Hugo Strange

For those who are unfamiliar or mostly unfamiliar with the character Hugo Strange, a brief description: Dr. Hugo Strange is a psychiatrist who at one time was head of psychiatry at Arkham Asylum. He often performs unethical experiments on his patients in his effort to study their psychoses. He becomes obsessed with Batman and desires to study the man behind the mask and find out what kind of mind would be lead to this risky life of vigilantism. Strange, as it turns out, is just as mentally ill as the patients he experiments on and eventually finds himself one of Arkham’s inmates. Meeting him now in Gotham is significant as it means that he could be well established in his role at Arkham by many years by the time young Bruce first dons the cape and cowl. It could also mean that like some of the other iconic Batman villains in this show, that Strange may already be a patient at Arkham long before Bruce first becomes Batman. It’s going to be very interesting to see where the Gotham creative team plans to take this character. I also thought it humorous to note that he is one of at least three psychiatrists who go from working in Arkham to being patients at Arkham, including Dr. Jonathon Crane a.k.a. Scarecrow, and Dr. Harleen Quinnzel a.k.a. Harley Quinn.

Gotham’s Dr. Hugo Strange is played by the actor B. D. Wong, who has played a psychiatrist at least twice before this, once as Dr. Wong in the Christmas movie The Ref where he is giving couples therapy to two of the main characters, and he also played FBI psychiatrist and profiler Dr. Wong on Law and Order Special Victims Unit for several years. I am actually pretty familiar with his portrayal as both characters, and I personally thought that he was a great choice for Hugo Strange when I heard that he had been cast. I’m excited to see what he does with the role.

Next: #4:....Nora Fries Finds Her Husband's Victims

Standout Moment No. 4: Nora Fries Finds Her Husband’s Victims

I think it’s important for me to note for fans who don’t know much about Mr. Freeze, that in previous incarnations of this character, he had never committed a crime before his wife Nora was already frozen and he had his cryogenics accident. So Nora Fries went into the ice with the confidence that even if her husband couldn’t save her, he was still the good and honest man she loved. Not until after his employers pulled the plug on his research to save her, nearly killed her by unplugging the cryogenics machines that kept her alive and also caused the accident that should have killed Victor but instead turned him into a freak did Dr. Fries turn to a life of crime as Mr. Freeze in an effort to save his beloved Nora.

I feel so bad for Nora, she felt guilty enough about her husband’s efforts to save her when she thought he was experimenting on laboratory mice, and to find out what he was really doing must have been a painful shock. I’m also not sure I like the way Gotham has changed Mr. Freeze’s origin story, as he has always been one of the more sympathetic villains in Batman’s world, only committing crime because it was his only option to further his research to save poor Nora. I also felt more for the character because he didn’t commit crime until his accident which were said to have permanently damaged his emotions. Now I have a bit less sympathy for someone who is fully capable of emotion and knows right and wrong and is still killing people while justifying it with his wife’s terminal condition.

Next: #5:....The Frozen Pharmacist Thaws Out

Standout Moment No. 5: The Frozen Pharmacist Thaws Out

Earlier in the episode Victor goes to a pharmacy to refill one of Nora’s more important prescriptions, and encounters a quite nasty pharmacist who refuses him a refill because the prescription had no refills on it. He starts a fight with Victor about it who comes back later with his freeze ray to force the pharmacist to give over the medications. He freezes both the security guard and the pharmacist and forces the other patrons present in the pharmacy to help him stash the bodies in the back of his van. This is the first time that he has acted so rashly and in the open so of course the cops are called and arrive on the scene before he can get clean away with both of his victims. Gordon and Bullock sadly smash their car into the hapless security guard shattering the poor man’s body and decapitating him. The police are able to recover the body of the pharmacist when Nora discovers the horrible truth about her husband’s experiments. While sitting on an exam table waiting for the medical examiner, the nasty pharmacist thaws out, but unlike Fries’ previous victims this one survives the process. Unluckily for the police Victor is in the police station and witnesses the pharmacist’s stumbling re-entry to the world of the warm and living.

This moment is significant for a number of reasons, not least of which is that this means Victor will be able to freeze Nora with the confidence that he will be able to revive her once he can cure her. This is of course cannon in both comics and other media like Batman TAS, where Mr. Freeze could have revived Nora at any time if only he had the cure for her terminal illness. It’s also significant because it means that he no longer has to kill his victims. From now on anyone he freezes with the super cooled liquid helium can be revived as long as he uses the correct solution, and barring any accidents like what happened to that poor security  guard from the pharmacy. The series of events in this episode do mean however, that Nora is likely not going into the ice willingly, she is probably more than a little afraid of her husband now, and Victor may actually have to attack her with his freeze ray to save her life.

Well that’s all from me this week folks but Gotham is all new again next week so be sure you follow us on twitter so you can live tweet with us during the next episode and be ready for my next review as well!