Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From Pinewood

GOTHAM: L-R: Sean Pertwee, David Mazouz and guest star Chris Chalk in the “Wrath of the Villains: Pinewood” episode of GOTHAM airing Monday, April, 18 (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Jeff Neumann/FOX

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the Gotham episode Pinewood

Greetings Gotham fans! It’s that time of the week again where we here at Caped Crusades review Gotham for our readers! I’ve been really enjoying the slideshow format I have been using for our reviews so you can expect that I will likely continue with this style for the rest of the season and beyond. There are at least four episodes left of this season and a lot can happen in four episodes of television, so without further ado I present to you five standout moments from the Gotham episode titled Pinewood!

Next: #1:....Bruce Finds Karen Jennings

Standout Moment No. 1:

Bruce Finds Karen Jennings

In the opening moments of Pinewood, Alfred joins Bruce and Lucius Fox in Thomas Wayne’s cave to try and pry the two away from Thomas’ computer long enough to have breakfast. Bruce has unlocked his father’s personal calendar and found that the week before his parents’ death, Thomas went to meet with a woman called Karen Jennings about something called Pinewood Farms. Lucius explains that all Wayne Enterprises off the book operations are given benign names like Pinewood Farms and Bruce gets a hunch that whatever this Pinewood Farms is, it led to his parents’ murders.

Karen Jennings, one of only a handful of the experiments at Pinewood, was very special to Thomas Wayne, who saved her from Pinewood when he discovered what went on there and shut the program down. He payed good money to hide her away so she would be safe, and then he would visit her to make sure she was safe and bring her gifts so she wasn’t so alone in the world. Because Thomas Wayne meant so much to Karen it wasn’t hard for Bruce to convince her to help him, to see if Pinewood had been started up again and gotten the Waynes’ killed.

Next: #2:....Barbara Helps Gordon Trick The Lady

Standout Moment No. 2:

Barbara Helps Gordon Trick The Lady

Barbara Kean has been released from Arkham Asylum and she seeks Jim Gordon out immediately. Their reunion goes about as well as one would expect but when she sees that he is investigating The Lady, the woman who sent contract killers after Gordon at Galavan’s penthouse, because he suspects she was the middle man for Matches Malone and the one who contracted for the Waynes’ deaths. Barbara finds The Lady before Gordon and comes up with a plan to trick her into telling Gordon what he wants to know. Gordon was not actually in on the plan so he was very unhappy with Barbara as her plan involved him being tied to a chair and almost killed.

This is a big moment for Jim and Barbara because it is at least a small step in the direction of getting back together and having their two kids. It will take a lot for Jim to trust Barbara again but the hints are there in this scene. It’s also a big moment because without the nickname that the Lady reveals to them Gordon and Bruce wouldn’t have realized later that Hugo Strange is the one who had the Waynes killed.

Next: #3:....Mr. Freeze Returns

Standout Moment No. 3:

Mr. Freeze Returns

Karen Jennings was one of Hugo Strange’s first successful experiments and when he cannot get her back from Alfred and Bruce he visits Victor Fries to send him out to kill Karen Jennings to keep her silent. Gordon, Bruce and Alfred bust Karen out of police custody as she is being transported back to Black Gate. As they were making their getaway they hit a very large patch of ice created by Mr. Freeze. Victor holds the foursome at freeze gun point and Karen, knowing he’s there for her she chooses to protect Bruce and runs in front of Freeze who ices her without a word.

This moment stood out for me because it is the first time Victor has made an appearance since his accident. It’s also the first time we have seen him in his modified suit that keeps him at below freezing temperatures so he can leave the freezer he lives in at Indian Hill. It is also the first time that our intrepid heroes come in contact with one of the many people taken to Indian Hill who are supposed to be dead. It will all hopefully tie in together soon for Gordon and company because with any luck their investigations into Hugo Strange, Pinewood Farms, and Arkham Asylum will lead them to the discovery of Indian Hill.

Next: #4:....Hugo Strange Is The Philosopher

Standout Moment No. 4:

Hugo Strange Is The Philosopher

The Lady revealed to Barbara and Gordon that the man who hired her to find a killer for Thomas and Martha went by the nickname The Philosopher. Near the end of the episode Bruce, Alfred, Gordon, and Lucius Fox meet in a diner to go over their case, and Lucius has found a photo at Wayne Enterprises of Thomas Wayne and the Wayne Enterprises cricket team. In the photo leaning against Thomas is Hugo Strange, and according to the photo Strange’s team nickname is The Philosopher. It doesn’t surprise me, and I doubt it surprises many fans to learn that Hugo Strange was behind the contract on the Waynes’.

Gordon and Bruce have been searching for the person behind the murder of Thomas and Martha since the very first episode of Gotham, so it’s a fairly huge moment in the plot of the show. But it means so much more than that because his parents’ murder has always been Bruce Wayne’s driving force to become Batman and very often in comics he never finds out who killed his parents. Other times Bruce finds out that it was just some nameless thug desperate for money who killed the Waynes and in either case he never gets the justice he seeks. Having a well known Batman villain like Strange be ultimately responsible gives Bruce at least the possibility of justice, though most likely for him to become Batman, and to keep Hugo as a villain he will face as an adult, Strange will likely get away with ordering the hit on Thomas and Martha.

Next: #5:....Azrael Rises

Standout Moment No. 5:

Azrael Rises

In the last few episodes of Gotham we have gotten multiple glimpses of Theo Galavan’s body in the secret medical facility of Indian Hill. The final moments of Pinewood finally reveal what all that has been about. Hugo Strange and Miss Peabody have been trying unsuccessfully to resurrect the dead for quite some time and at the end of Pinewood they finally succeed with Theo Galavan who is given the new moniker Azrael.

This is of course quite a huge moment, not only because Hugo Strange has resurrected a dead man, but also because that man was Theo Galavan and is now Azrael, a fairly well known character to Batman fans. A few characters have gone by Azrael, including an ally of Bruce’s who eventually became Batman for awhile as Bruce was temporarily dead.

Alright Batman fans that’s all from me this week, I hope you liked this week’s slideshow review. Make sure you follow us on Twitter so you can chat with us while we live tweet next week’s episode of Gotham, and be on the look out for my slideshow review of the episode to follow a day or two later!