Gotham Review: Five Standout Moments From New Day Rising

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Gotham episode New Day Rising

Hey folks it’s time for another Gotham episode review! This week’s episode, titled New Day Rising, which aired on Monday Oct. 10, was quite exciting! Although there were many scenes I could talk about in this review I did my best to narrow it down to the five moments I felt were the most important, or had the biggest impact for the whole show as well as this particular episode. So without further ado here are five standout moments from New Day Rising!

Next: #1. Gordon Breaks His Hypnotic Impulse

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Standout Moment No. 1: Gordon Breaks His Hypnotic Impulse

In last week’s episode, Look Into My Eyes, Jervis Tetch had hired Jim Gordon to find his missing sister Alice, a former Indian Hill patient. When Gordon and Tetch had a falling out Tetch hypnotized Gordon and commanded him to kill himself. Just as Gordon was about to jump off the roof of the building where he confronted Tetch, Alice arrived with a gun and shot at her brother, breaking his hold over Jim. Or so we thought. As it turns out, Tetch has tapped into something deep seeded within Jim’s mind that he is desperate not to deal with and now whenever Gordon hears the ticking of Tetch’s watch ( or anything that mimics the same sound) he goes back into a trance state and begins to attempt suicide once again.

Gordon tracks down Tetch after he retrieves his sister from the GCPD and confronts him, both to save Alice and to have Jervis remove the hypnotic trigger implanted in Jim’s mind. Tetch starts up a large metronome and puts Godon back into the trance but this time, thanks to an earlier talk with Lee, Gordon is able to break free of the hypnosis permanently and shooting the metronome that is mimicking the ticking watch.

I felt this moment was important because it indicates that perhaps finally Jim is beginning to heal after everything he went through in the previous season. With any luck Gordon is now on the road to becoming Police Commissioner of Gotham, though that must still be quite a ways off as he currently isn’t even a cop. It is clear that on some level Gordon did in fact want to die, after all, that is the only reason why Tetch could not only effect him during that first encounter, but keep triggering him to attempt suicide over and over again. After breaking free of the impulse however I think he has taken his first step to recovery.

Next: #2. Alice Tetch Dies

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Standout Moment No. 2: Alice Tetch Dies

While Gordon is fighting the hypnotic impulse to kill himself, Jervis unties his sister Alice and attempts to escape while Gordon and Bullock are in a shoot out with Tetch’s goons the Terrible Tweeds. When Gordon breaks free Alice struggles to escape her brother, swearing never to go anywhere with him and calling him insane. In her attempts to pull away from Jervis’s hold she loses her balance and falls down a floor and is impaled on a long protruding pipe several feet below, as Tetch screams “you killed her!”  Sadly it took death to finally free her from her brother.

This scene stood out to me for a couple of reasons. For one thing, only moments before Tetch tells his sister that their connection is all that keeps him sane, so Alice’s death implies that this already unstable man will now completely lose it. The death of his sister is clearly a very important event on the road to Tetch becoming the Batman villain known as the Mad Hatter.

It is also important to note that Alice’s blood is dangerous, she has some unique poison in her blood that while harmless to her, infects other people in strange and creepy ways. We saw an example of this in the previous episode when her landlord kissed her after busting her lip open with a punch to the face. At first he merely collapsed in agony but by the time Gordon has tracked her down the landlord has gone insane, attacking Alice and Gordon, and practically foaming at the mouth. This means that Alice’s bloody crime scene is potentially hazardous to any who investigate the scene, and in fact this will lead up to my final standout moment.

Next: #3. Penguin Wins The Election

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Standout Moment No. 3: Penguin Wins The Election

One of the standout moments in last week’s review was when Oswald Cobblepot challenged Aubrey James’ right to resume the role of Gotham’s mayor, called for an emergency election, and announced his own candidacy. In this episode the election actually takes place.  During Cobblepot’s campaigning Nygma sees that Butch is bribing election board officials, and because he truly believes that Cobblepot will win the election, he goes around and takes back all the bribes so that Penguin can run a clean election. When Butch and Penguin find out what he has done they’re ready to kill him, until he points out that Cobblepot has just been announced the new mayor of Gotham.

This moment is important for a couple of reasons. First of all it clearly solidifies Nygma and Cobblepot’s friendship, as Nygma has just proved how much he cares about Cobblepot and has proved how much faith he had that all of Gotham believed in him as well. With this one act he has taken Butch’s place as Penguin’s right hand man and that is going to cause some problems for the three of them in later episodes. Of course this moment is also pretty big because the Penguin has just been named mayor of Gotham. Having a criminal kingpin as mayor is kind of a new low for Gotham, although there has always been a trend of corrupt men holding that office. I mentioned when Cobblepot announced his candidacy in the last episode that this is a story line we have seen in Batman before, both in the movie Batman Returns and in Batman: Earth One, and I think I was right in saying that Gotham was going to be more similar to Earth One, after all, Penguin didn’t actually win the election in Batman Returns.

I just really want to say that I love the friendship between Nygma and Cobblepot, I’ve probably mentioned it before but I think it bears repeating. Probably the best thing about this show is how well it portrays relationships between all of its characters. The main reason I keep coming back week after week is to see Alfred and Bruce, Bullock and Gordon, Selina and Bruce, and all the other developing relationships on this show because they are all done so well. As a lifelong Batman fan I have no trouble seeing the cast of this show as all of my favorite iconic characters early in their lives before they become the heroes and villains I’ve grown up loving.

Next: #4. The Court Of Owls Abducts Five

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Standout Moment No. 4: The Court Of Owls Abducts Five

In last week’s episode Five (the Bruce clone from Indian Hill) left Wayne Manor after cutting his hair to look like Bruce and stealing a car. He finds Selina and, pretending to be Bruce, takes her out for a bite to eat. In this episode he spends most of the day with Selina, but because he saves her from some goons who caught her thieving from them, Selina sees the clone’s scars and realizes he isn’t Bruce. Instead of getting far away from him, and maybe going to Bruce for answers, Selina hears Five out and even reassures him that he really is more normal than he thought. When Alfred and Bruce catch up to him Selina has gone off to do her own thing and he tells them he is leaving Gotham and he won’t see them or Selina again. He makes a dramatic exit and we don’t see him again until the last two minutes of the episode.

When we do see Five again he is walking along a dark street when a limo pulls up, and surprise surprise the occupant is none other than Kathryn, the Court of Owls representative that Bruce met with in episode one of this season. She calls Five Bruce Wayne, and when he says that he isn’t Bruce she says that he could be. As Kathryn tells Five that they (the Court) have been looking for him for a long time, Talon (the Court’s assassin and the same man that kidnapped Bruce to meet with Kathryn) sneaks up behind Five and knocks him out with an injection to the neck.

I knew the Court of Owls had to be behind Five’s existence, for one thing, he was in Indian Hill for the last year that it was running, and the Court was behind Hugo Strange and Indian Hill. Kathryn’s comment that Five could be Bruce, that in fact he could be so much more, heavily implies that the Court wants him to replace Bruce. While that is the obvious conclusion after watching the last few episodes of Gotham, it’s still nice to see that I was right about that conclusion. I think at some point later in the show, maybe next season, maybe as early as this season, the Court will attempt to replace Bruce with Five and it will be up to Alfred and Selina to figure it out and to get their Bruce back.

Next: #5. Captain Barnes Is Infected With Alice's Blood

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Standout Moment No. 5: Captain Barnes Is Infected With Alice’s Blood

Just as I predicted three slides ago, Alice’s blood makes investigating her crime scene dangerous. Captain Barnes, who is still recovering from nearly being killed by Azreal at the end of season two, stands under the pipe which Alice was impaled upon, and looks up at it just as a drop of her blood drips off to land directly in Barnes’ eye. The episode ends here, just after Barnes shows the first signs of being infected, blood shot red eyes, and veins popping out on his forehead. He clearly knows that this is very bad as he utters the word ‘no’ just before the credit screen rolls.

We here at Caped Crusades predict that Barnes will not go to Lee to get help for the infection, and will instead try to hide it. We think that eventually people will catch on to what is wrong but by the time they try to save him it is too late, and our editor Eric Chrisman believes that he will become Solomon Grundy. We’re basing this on the fact that Barnes has a lot of anger in him, that he does a good job of controlling, but the poison in Alice’s blood clearly brings out a darker side to people.

Even if we are wrong about Barnes becoming Grundy, his infection will have a big impact on the show. Perhaps this is the catalyst to getting Jim back on the force, and a step closer to becoming Commissioner. Who knows, Gordon could end up having to replace Barnes as Captain, the only other real candidate is Bullock and I think Bullock would rather have Jim do it.

Okay, well that concludes this week’s Gotham review, I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll be back next week with another slideshow review for your reading pleasure. Follow Caped Crusades on Twitter and join the conversation as we live tweet each episode of Gotham!