Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From Burn The Witch

Hello Gotham Fans! It’s time for another of Caped Crusades slideshow reviews of the latest Gotham episode, and this week’s episode sure was a doosy! It was just packed with important events for our favorite characters! We here at Caped Crusades have done our best to narrow it down to the five most important scenes to review for our readers, so that you can enjoy the review in bite-sized segments. So without further ado, here are five standout moments from Gotham Season Three Episode Two: Burn The Witch…

Next: #1. Bruce Meets The Court Of Owls

Standout Moment No. 1: Bruce Meets The Court Of Owls

At the very end of last week’s episode Better To Reign In Hell, Bruce is kidnapped by Talon, the assassin working for the Court of Owls, they left the episode on a cliffhanger so we could spend a week wondering if the Court’s intention was for Talon to kill Bruce, but Burn The Witch… opens with Bruce being shoved into a chair and having a hood removed from his head and he meets the representative of the Court who sent Talon after Bruce, called Kathryn.

Bruce asks for the group’s name and although Kathryn says the name is unimportant, we the audience know they are the Court of Owls as we have known since the first time we caught a glimpse of Kathryn’s owl mask several episodes ago in season two. In the previous episode Bruce threatened to take proof of the existence of the Court to every newspaper and news outlet in Gotham and that is of course why he has been brought to meet with Kathryn. Bruce and Kathryn discuss the fact that while he began looking into the existence of the Court to solve his parents’ murders he has recently realized he has other considerations, like keeping himself and those he cares about safe and alive. The two come to an agreement that he will serve as a distraction for the Court and will cease all investigations into the Court, Indian Hill, and his parents deaths, and he and his loved ones will be safe from the Court.

This moment is obviously huge and will have significant impact on the story of Gotham, not least of which is that in the comics, Bruce didn’t encounter the Court of Owls for years, after he was well established and the Dark Knight of Gotham for several years before he becomes aware of the presence of the clandestine group that has been secretly running Gotham for centuries.

Next: #2. We Meet The New Ivy

Standout Moment No. 2: We Meet The New Ivy

In the last episode Ivy follows Selina (against Selina’s advice to stay away) back to Fish Mooney’s hide out with the rest of Hugo Strange’s creations. She immediately gets into trouble by threatening to reveal their whereabouts if they hurt her so Fish orders one of her minions to kill Ivy. The guy has the power to literally age people to death in an instant just by touching their bare skin. Ivy manages to break free of his grasp after only a moment though the struggle causes her to fall down into the open manhole her attacker would have dropped her body down after killing her. This episode we see Ivy was washed out into the bay and come ashore near the docks. But she is now significantly older than before and has an all new adult body thanks to her attacker’s strange power.

Ivy is quite shocked to see what has happened to her, and she is picked up by a trucker who offers to help her out. She says she is thirsty so he takes her back to his home and gives her a drink and a chance to shower. He also lets her change clothes as he still has a box of clothing his ex-wife left behind. The trucker finds Ivy’s new look very attractive, and would likely have tried something with her, but he made the fatal mistake of first neglecting his house plants for some time before meeting Ivy, and then throwing them in the trash in front of her. Her reaction is classic Poison Ivy behavior, she kills the man off screen and we later see her walk past his body where a potted plant has been smashed over his skull, and she tells him that next time he should remember to water.

Personally I’m quite upset that the writers have chosen to change actresses for Poison Ivy, going from the perfectly creepy performance of Clare Foley to the sexy new Maggie Geha. The writers wanted to change directions with Ivy’s character and be able to have her use her classic Poison Ivy feminine whiles, especially on Bruce, and instead of going in a new direction with Clare Foley which I think would have been the obvious choice they chose to age her up, probably so that it wouldn’t be creepy for grown men to find her attractive. I don’t see why they needed a new actress in order for Ivy to try seducing Bruce, Clare Foley’s Ivy has told Selina that Bruce is cute in the past, and Bruce is clearly interested in girls his own age as we can see from his attraction to first Selina Kyle and then Silver St. Cloud, who are both around his age.

Next: #3. Fish And Company Go After Hugo Strange

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Standout Moment No. 3: Fish And Company Go After Hugo Strange

After the GCPD’s raid on Fish’s hideout Fish and her monsters kidnap Harvey Bullock as he and Captain Barnes are the only two in Gotham who know where Hugo Strange is being held and Fish needs Strange to fix her as she is sick and possibly dying. Bullock doesn’t want to comply but Fish uses her power on him and he takes them to the laboratory where the government is debriefing Strange. Meanwhile Gordon and Lucius Fox have figured out that Fish is going after Strange and realize she must have Harvey who isn’t answering his phone and who’s badge has been left behind next to his police car. Gordon and Fox go to Captain Barnes with this info and Barnes agrees to take them to the facility that is holding Strange.

Fish forces Harvey, who is no longer under her control to bluff the guards into letting him in to see Strange but when that fails she sicks her monsters on the guards, killing not just the two at the front door but many more along the way to Strange. Mooney confronts Strange, demanding that he fix her and then make her an army so that she can take over and rule Gotham, but Strange claims that he cannot fix her and that she is dying. While all of this is going on, the GCPD arrive in force and surround the facility intending to capture Fish and her remaining monsters.

This moment is very big, and directly leads into our number four standout moment as well. I feel that this moment is so huge because it is the first time that Gotham really recognizes how big of a player Fish Mooney is, before Cobblepot’s announcement to the press about her leading the Indian Hill escapees, the average citizen of Gotham was unaware of Fish Mooney. Now I think she is going to be a major villain in Gotham, and one that all it’s citizens will recognize.

Next: #4. Penguin Lets Fish Mooney Escape

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Standout Moment No. 4: Penguin Lets Fish Mooney Escape

Oswald Cobblepot has insighted a mob of Gotham’s citizens to attack Fish and company and has brought the mob to the government facility, forcing the GCPD surrounding the building to hold back the mob instead of storming the building.

Gordon goes inside to free Harvey from Fish and does so by getting Penguin to move the mob against the cops at the front of the building so that the cops at the back are forced to come to the front and help hold back the mob. Gordon convinces Penguin to do this by giving up where Fish will be when she escapes the building, allowing Cobblepot to confront her alone without the police or the mob getting in his way. Penguin confronts Fish, but before he can kill her he wants to know why she spared his life when they ran into each other just after her escape from Indian Hill. Fish confesses that she couldn’t kill him that night because like Strange feels about her, she felt proud of having created him, turning her umbrella boy Oswald Cobblepot into the powerful Penguin of Gotham. It seems that Mooney’s words hit home because Penguin tells her goodbye and to never come back, and allows Fish to run off into the woods with Hugo Strange, avoiding both the angry mob and the GCPD.

This scene is important because it shows just how much power Penguin really has in Gotham. Not that long ago he was one of the GCPD’s most wanted and was regarded as one of the scariest criminals in Gotham. Now he can get the average citizens of Gotham to follow his whims, and this scene shows that his popularity in Gotham is quickly growing, and when he runs for mayor, as the producers of the show have stated he will, Penguin is likely to have quite the following and may win his election as easily as Theo Galavan did.

Next: #5. Bruce And Alfred Meet The Clone

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Standout Moment No. 5: Bruce And Alfred Meet The Clone

After their earlier adventure dealing with The Court of Owls Bruce and Alfred and having a quiet evening at home, having a snack in the kitchen and discussing what Bruce is going to do with all his free time now that they will no longer be investigating the Court and his parents deaths. Alfred suggests that Bruce take dancing lessons, as someone of his station ought to be able to gracefully lead a young lady around a dance floor. As they are joking about whether Alfred will be Bruce’s dance instructor there is the sound of shattering glass from elsewhere in the house. Alfred arms Bruce with a knife and grabs a handgun for himself and the two go to investigate.

As the two enter the room they find the source of the noise is a broken window, and an intruder who came in through that window. Bruce demands the identity of the intruder and both he and Alfred are quite shocked to be confronted by the Bruce clone (twin?) that escaped Indian Hill at the same time as Fish Mooney and her monsters. The episode ends with the clone asking them to please not hurt him!

Well obviously this has got to be one of the biggest moments in all of the Gotham series so far. For one thing Bruce just promised at the beginning of the episode that he would no longer look into the Court of Owls and everything they are involved in. Now he won’t be able to keep that promise as it looks like either they secretly took his twin from his family, or they cloned him, with the most likely intention of being able to replace Bruce with someone under their control without anyone ever noticing. It’s going to be exciting to see where the writers will take the show with this new twist! When I saw the clone at the end of season two I didn’t think he and Bruce would cross paths so quickly!

Well folks that’s all from me this week but you can be sure that I’ll be back next week for the next episode of Gotham! be sure to follow Caped Crusades on twitter so you can get in on the conversation as we live tweet next Monday’s episode!

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Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From Burn The Witch…

By Amanda Chrisman | Sep 28, 2016