Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From A Dead Man Feels No Cold
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Gotham episode A Dead Man Feels No Cold
Hey welcome back Batman fans! It’s time once again to review this week’s episode of Gotham! It seems like our fans enjoy our slideshow style of review so we have picked out another five moments from the show we thought stood out the most to talk about!
Next: #1:....The GCPD Decides On Arkham Trap For Freeze
Standout Moment No. 1: The GCPD Decides On Arkham Trap For Freeze
In the opening scene of A Dead Man Feels No Cold, Victor Fries robs ACE Chemicals for more of the super cooled liquid helium he needs for his cryo-gun. The police arrive on the scene just twenty minutes after he does, to find ice everywhere and several frozen security guards. Fries has also left them a message carved into the ice encasing one of his victims, “free my wife”. Back at the GCPD Captain Barnes and Gordon and Bullock concoct a plan to deal with Fries. His demand of “free my wife” makes it clear that he will be coming to free her when it becomes clear that the police will not be letting her go. Nora Fries is in a very fragile state and could die if she is not taken to a hospital very soon. Barnes realizes that the police have no way of securing Gotham General, no way to keep all the patients safe from Fries when he comes looking for Nora. So they come up with the plan to take Nora Fries to the medical wing at Arkham where they can lock the whole building down and keep her safe while baiting a trap to capture Victor.
This moment is significant because it sets up the main plot of the episode, a good portion of the story revolves around this plan and seeing it through. It also sets up a bit of conflict between Lee and Jim, as Lee is very unhappy that the police want to take her patient, a dying, innocent woman, and use her as bait for her murdering husband, by putting said patient in an insane asylum. What bothers me the most about this whole plan is Barnes’ refusal to let Nora Fries go. Yes she needs to be in a hospital, and yes taking her to Gotham General would have endangered the staff and patients there but, and this is a big but, the police cannot hold someone against their will, not if they have nothing to charge them with. I’m pretty sure they have nothing to charge Nora Fries with, since she had no knowledge of, or part in, her husband’s crimes! If they suspected her of taking part in Victor’s criminal activity they would have been able to hold her for 24 hours at the most while they attempted to find evidence against her. Like many police dramas out there, Gotham is taking some creative licensing with how the law actually works in this country. If you ask me the writers should have had Nora in protective custody, fearing for her safety given her husband’s actions but that is not how things went down in this episode.
Next: #2:....Alfred Finds The Name Of The Waynes' Murderer
Standout Moment No. 2: Alfred Finds The Name Of The Waynes’ Murderer
Last episode we didn’t see Bruce and Alfred at all, and that is because apparently after the events of the Fall finale and Bruce’s kidnapping, Alfred whisked Bruce off to Switzerland for a month to keep the boy safe and give the boy time to recover from the admittedly traumatic events. This episode we see Lee Thompkins acting as a therapist for Bruce for the first time, something that is fairly standard for the relationship in Batman cannon. While Bruce is talking with Lee, Alfred was down town finally finding out the identity of the “M” Malone who Silver St. Cloud told Bruce and Selina killed Thomas and Martha Wayne. In order to get this information from Alfred Bruce must swear that they are in this together and that he will do as Alfred says. Alfred tells Bruce that when they find and confront Malone it will be Alfred who kills the man once he confesses, and not Bruce. Bruce agrees to this and then of course goes behind Alfred’s back to ask Selina for a gun so that he can kill the man on his own.
I think it’s obvious to anyone who has been watching the show, and to any Batman fans who know much about Bruce, why this is a significant moment. This is what Bruce has been searching for for the last two years of his life, the man who killed his parents in cold blood, right before his very eyes.It is also important because it is another milestone in the burgeoning relationship between Bruce and Alfred. Under the eyes of the law, Alfred should have taken the information that Bruce and Selina extracted from Silver and gone to Jim Gordon with it (Jim Gordon being the one police officer we know would take the matter seriously enough to look into it). Gordon could then have found “M” Malone, investigated him and when Jim had the proof he needed Malone would have been arrested for the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Instead, Alfred intends to give the boy the revenge he wants, Alfred plans to kill Malone once he and Bruce can verify from the man’s own words that he killed the Waynes. This is pretty intense, Alfred is planning on killing someone for Bruce, it’s premeditated murder. I always knew that Gotham’s version of Alfred would be willing to kill for Bruce, but I was thinking more along the lines of when they stormed Theo Galavan’s place to rescue Bruce. Anyone who was taking part in the ritual to kill Bruce who was gunned down or otherwise slain by Alfred had it coming and Alfred would not be held accountable for working with Gordon to rescue Bruce. As Bruce’s legal guardian anyone who attempts to end Bruce’s life has forfeited their right to life and Alfred is in the right to protect Bruce with deadly force. Justifiable homicide and premeditated murder are very different things!
Next: #3:....Hugo Strange Assists Victor Fries For The Cryonic Formula
Standout Moment No. 3: Hugo Strange Assists Victor Fries For The Cryonic Formula
We found out in last week’s episode of Gotham that Hugo Strange was also working to find a cryonic formula that would allow a living person to be frozen alive and later revived. He clearly expected to be the first to crack it and was expecting it to take several more years to accomplish. When he learns about Mr. Freeze’s first recovered victim it is clear that he wants to get his hands on the formula. He attempts to extract traces of the formula from another of Fries’ victims but is unsuccessful. He is delighted then to know that the GCPD want to use Arkham as the location for their trap to capture Fries. When Victor Fries arrives at Arkham to take his wife from police custody, Strange delays the police and opens doors for Victor, who is quickly suspicious of the miraculously unblocked path through Arkham. We find out Strange’s plan soon enough when Fries comes to one of the treatment rooms and finds the keys to one of Arkham’s transport vehicles on a chair. Strange speaks with Fries through Arkham’s P.A. system and the two make a deal, one canister of Victor’s cryonic formula in exchange for Nora and a get away vehicle. Victor, who is at this point pretty desperate to get his wife on ice before she dies, takes the deal.
This moment is significant as it leads to the climax of the episode and because it is such a blatant example of Strange’s disregard of the law and all things moral and ethical. As long as Strange gets what he wants he has no qualms about how he gets it, as a matter of fact he almost seems to prefer using nefarious means to reach his ends. Back to what I was saying about the climax of the episode; if Strange had not hampered the police and helped Victor along, Gordon, Bullock, and their backup would likely have reached the medical wing in time to capture Freeze, or at least try to, and protect Nora and Lee. If Victor hadn’t gotten Nora and Lee out of there, what Nora does next might not have happened.
Next: #4:....Nora And Victor Die By The Cold Gun
Standout Moment No. 4: Nora And Victor Die By The Cold Gun
It was Victor’s plan all along to be able to safely freeze his beloved wife Nora with is cryo-gun until such time as a cure could be found for her illness. However, with all the death and strife her husband has put the city and especially the GCPD through to get his formula right and get her back from police custody, Nora decides to take matters into her own hands and changes the cartridge on the cryo-gun while Victor and Lee aren’t looking so that when Fries freezes her she dies. Just as the police show up and Victor is preparing to turn himself in for his crimes Nora’s body begins to shatter and what she has done to herself is revealed to Lee and Victor. The police call for Fries to surrender peacefully in a plea for no more sadness and Victor agrees, sending Lee up to tell the police he will surrender. Victor then sends a blast of cold through his cryo-suit with the intention of ending his own life.
This is a huge moment in the lives of these characters, they are almost like the Romeo and Juliet of Gotham. True the pair are not star crossed lovers, and their families weren’t fighting, but they do kill themselves in a very Shakespearean fashion. It’s also important to note that this is another divergence from the classic back story of these two characters. In the comics, and other Batman media like the movies and Batman TAS, Victor Fries is able to successfully freeze his wife, and he had never committed a crime up to that point, so Nora had no reason to deceive him and end her own life. Also, what happens to Victor to turn him into the Mr. Freeze we are familiar with, who must live in subfreezing temperatures, was a lab accident that was caused by his boss who was pulling the plug on Victor’s research for Nora.
Next: #5:....Victor Fries Wakes Up In Indian Hill
Standout Moment No. 5: Victor Fries Wakes Up In Indian Hill
Victor Fries wanted to join his wife in death, that much was obvious from the moment he uttered the words “no more sadness”. So the last thing he was expecting was to wake up in some super secret illegal lab stuck in a room that is minus twenty below. Although he may have wanted to die, it seems fairly obvious that after talking with Strange who is just outside of Fries’ containment room when he wakes, Victor is going to embrace being the bad guy, and in all likely hood, work with Strange at Indian Hill. The show’s explanation of just how Fries survived his suicide attempt works rather well for me. We all know a story of a scientist who should have died when exposed to his experiments and miraculously survived because he had been exposed to trace amounts of the substance he worked with over such a long time that instead of killing him it drastically altered his DNA. I also appreciate that this scene tells us where Fries will be during the next however many episodes before we see him on screen again. He doesn’t just fall off the radar and reappear from nowhere, he will be at Indian Hill, working with Strange and Peabody.
This moment is significant of course because this is Gotham’s explanation for how Victor Fries becomes Mr. Freeze. It also tells us what Victor will be up to in the foreseeable future while the show deals with other things (he will be working with Hugo Strange in Indian Hill). This scene also gives us another peek at just what Strange is up to at Indian Hill, we see large tanks with the bodies of Theo Galavan, and what appears to be Jerome, among others. Clearly Indian Hill is working on bringing these people back to life. And it also seems that Indian Hill will be the explanation given for all of Batman’s villains being as insane and messed up as they are. We know they have Mr. Freeze and Firefly already, they could explain the Joker, Two Face and more with the work of Indian Hill.
Okay folks that’s it from me this week, but Caped Crusades will be back next week with another Gotham episode slideshow review. And don’t forget that if you follow us on twitter you can be part of our live tweet discussion as we watch next week’s episode!