Gotham Season 2 Episode 5"Scarification" :Review
People getting burned. People getting beat. People getting blown up (by the cops no less). People losing body parts.
And Penguin doing what he did to Butch? Wow. Didn't see that one coming.
Gotham Season 2 Episode 5 was certainly bloody, but I'm glad Penguin finally found a way to out-scheme Galavan so he can rescue his mother. If his plan works, that is.
Gertrud needs to be saved. Penguin is losing his mind and becoming crazier, especially to have chopped off Butch's arm. He's really getting desperate, and being used as Galavan's "tool" is getting old.
Besides, Butch has been really twitchy lately,and I get the feeling that sooner rather than later it's not going to bode well for Penguin. I'm a bit curious about that twitchiness, though. What does it mean?
Is the conditioning Zsasz did to Butch wearing off? Or is there something more diabolical happening here? Like Fish coming back (it was talked about this hour)? Wouldn't that be a hoot seeing Fish face her repackaged self?
Galavan is still not that intimidating, though. Boring is more like it. I'd love to see Fish point her gnarly finger at him and slap him across the face for being so boring.
As I said in my review of Gotham Season 2 Episode 4, Galvan is just one lucky bastard. Always at the right place at the right time. Always. But he plays the part well.
You have to give him that. He certainly has all of Gotham fooled. Especially Jim, who just may have made a deal with the real devil this time when he agreed to endorse Galavan for mayor after Garrett is killed.
Why is Jim so blind and where are his cop senses? Shouldn't he have "feelings" about this guy? I mean, Galavan is just too convenient. I actually believe that Bullock is going to be the one to figure it all out. The hairs on the back of his neck are already rising when he sees this guy.
It was also interesting to find out Galavan may only be a puppet in his big production. Father Creel seems to have a bit more authority than good ole Galavan. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. I'd love for Galavan to turn out to be somebody's lackey.
Still, the whole backstory of why the Galavans are seeking blood seems a bit contrived...and stale. It's a story we've heard a hundred times before: girl gets into a tryst with a forbidden lover, gets caught, lies, and the lover gets punished. Yawn and double yawn.
Why wait 200 years to seek vengeance, anyway? It certainly doesn't seem fair that all these "warriors" are coming to take down a 13-year-old boy who's the last of his clan. Wouldn't it have been better to have killed Bruce in front of his parents and then killed his parents?
And it's pretty obvious these "warriors" are planning to use the very knife that maimed their ancestor to maim and kill Bruce. Otherwise, why steal it in the first place? It all seems rather obvious.
I also thought the whole Firefly story was a bit contrived and disappointing. The promos were a lot more exciting than what we actually saw this hour. Instead of a big bad villain, we got a Cinderella story in disguise. Instead of an evil stepmother, we got three evil and abusive stepbrothers. And, instead of a fairy godmother, we got Selina Kyle.
How can we even believe that Bridgit will be an effective villain when she is wrought with stupidity and meekness? She couldn't even figure out what to do after she lit the fuse. She just stood there waiting for her brother's instructions. Every action she took when setting those explosives was dictated by her brothers.
When she lost contact with them, she froze instead of doing something simple, like running, to save her own skin. She did the same stupid stuff the next night. Unfortunately, this time, she killed a cop while her brothers ran off. Fortunately, though, her fairy godmother was present to save her ass and help her escape. Wasn't that convenient? Another character always in the right place at the right time.
Why are women so lame in Gotham? That's a rant for another day.
One other thing I have to point out is something I mentioned in the beginning of the piece: the violence. I'm not really sure all of it was necessary. The scene with Evan Pike? Was it just too convenient that he happened to stuff a plastic explosive down his pants while shopping at The Merc? And was it really necessary for both Jim and Barnes to not only chase this guy down, but shoot him multiple times because he pulled out a gun?
The slo-mo of him getting shot before he blows up was way over the top. Even for Gotham. And the kicker? When Jim gets home to Lee's dinner party, he acts like nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened. Now, that's cold.
Though a dark and violent episode, "Scarification" stayed consistent, for the most part, throughout the hour. It didn't have me on the edge of my seat, but it intrigued me enough to want to continue watching to see what happens next.
And Penguin doing what he did to Butch? Wow. Didn't see that one coming.
Gotham Season 2 Episode 5 was certainly bloody, but I'm glad Penguin finally found a way to out-scheme Galavan so he can rescue his mother. If his plan works, that is.
Gertrud needs to be saved. Penguin is losing his mind and becoming crazier, especially to have chopped off Butch's arm. He's really getting desperate, and being used as Galavan's "tool" is getting old.
Besides, Butch has been really twitchy lately,and I get the feeling that sooner rather than later it's not going to bode well for Penguin. I'm a bit curious about that twitchiness, though. What does it mean?
Is the conditioning Zsasz did to Butch wearing off? Or is there something more diabolical happening here? Like Fish coming back (it was talked about this hour)? Wouldn't that be a hoot seeing Fish face her repackaged self?
Galavan is still not that intimidating, though. Boring is more like it. I'd love to see Fish point her gnarly finger at him and slap him across the face for being so boring.
As I said in my review of Gotham Season 2 Episode 4, Galvan is just one lucky bastard. Always at the right place at the right time. Always. But he plays the part well.
You have to give him that. He certainly has all of Gotham fooled. Especially Jim, who just may have made a deal with the real devil this time when he agreed to endorse Galavan for mayor after Garrett is killed.
Why is Jim so blind and where are his cop senses? Shouldn't he have "feelings" about this guy? I mean, Galavan is just too convenient. I actually believe that Bullock is going to be the one to figure it all out. The hairs on the back of his neck are already rising when he sees this guy.
It was also interesting to find out Galavan may only be a puppet in his big production. Father Creel seems to have a bit more authority than good ole Galavan. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. I'd love for Galavan to turn out to be somebody's lackey.
Still, the whole backstory of why the Galavans are seeking blood seems a bit contrived...and stale. It's a story we've heard a hundred times before: girl gets into a tryst with a forbidden lover, gets caught, lies, and the lover gets punished. Yawn and double yawn.
Why wait 200 years to seek vengeance, anyway? It certainly doesn't seem fair that all these "warriors" are coming to take down a 13-year-old boy who's the last of his clan. Wouldn't it have been better to have killed Bruce in front of his parents and then killed his parents?
And it's pretty obvious these "warriors" are planning to use the very knife that maimed their ancestor to maim and kill Bruce. Otherwise, why steal it in the first place? It all seems rather obvious.
I also thought the whole Firefly story was a bit contrived and disappointing. The promos were a lot more exciting than what we actually saw this hour. Instead of a big bad villain, we got a Cinderella story in disguise. Instead of an evil stepmother, we got three evil and abusive stepbrothers. And, instead of a fairy godmother, we got Selina Kyle.
How can we even believe that Bridgit will be an effective villain when she is wrought with stupidity and meekness? She couldn't even figure out what to do after she lit the fuse. She just stood there waiting for her brother's instructions. Every action she took when setting those explosives was dictated by her brothers.
When she lost contact with them, she froze instead of doing something simple, like running, to save her own skin. She did the same stupid stuff the next night. Unfortunately, this time, she killed a cop while her brothers ran off. Fortunately, though, her fairy godmother was present to save her ass and help her escape. Wasn't that convenient? Another character always in the right place at the right time.
Why are women so lame in Gotham? That's a rant for another day.
One other thing I have to point out is something I mentioned in the beginning of the piece: the violence. I'm not really sure all of it was necessary. The scene with Evan Pike? Was it just too convenient that he happened to stuff a plastic explosive down his pants while shopping at The Merc? And was it really necessary for both Jim and Barnes to not only chase this guy down, but shoot him multiple times because he pulled out a gun?
The slo-mo of him getting shot before he blows up was way over the top. Even for Gotham. And the kicker? When Jim gets home to Lee's dinner party, he acts like nothing out-of-the-ordinary happened. Now, that's cold.
Though a dark and violent episode, "Scarification" stayed consistent, for the most part, throughout the hour. It didn't have me on the edge of my seat, but it intrigued me enough to want to continue watching to see what happens next.
