After a strong season opener for Gotham last week, the series stepped it up even more in last night’s episode, with the rise of the villains continuing as the heroes lose one of their own in a bloody attack.
This episode really shows that Gotham is taking the opportunity to improve step by step, and even though I’m still trying to get used to the whole “rise of the villains” aspect of this season, it can’t be denied that this was an enjoyable episode. Jerome continues to be the one character that steals the show scene by scene, and this was only his third episode. I can’t help but wonder if we are being set up to think that Jerome is in fact our future Joker, only to have him be killed off in the new season at some point. Cameron Monaghan is absolutely nailing this character, and even as the comic book enthusiast that I am, I can accept this version of Joker actually having a clear backstory.
At this point, Gotham sort of needs Jerome in one way or another because it’s challenging for a show like this to have a lot of comedic moments when you are telling the story of the darkest city in the DC Universe. As psychotic as Jerome is, his moves are the only thing that I can think of where I actually find myself laughing with the show. Theo Galavan is a great villain himself, but he still is coming off as a very stiff baddie. It’s Tabitha, however , that I’m waiting to get impressed by, because so far, she is barely a secondary villain.
The Bruce and Alfred dynamic definitely had one heck of an episode this week as they continue to argue about Thomas Wayne’s secrets in the lair. Although, it was pretty odd when Bruce fired Alfred, not because he is a kid, but because Alfred is, as far as I know, his guardian, just as he is in many adaptations of the Batman mythology. So even if Bruce wants to fire him, Alfred could have simply said “Well, guess what Master Bruce: it ain’t happening,” but let’s not be too nitpicky. It was also so odd (in a good way) to see an Alfred and Lucius Fox that weren’t Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, since I got so used to seeing those two in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. This version of Lucius is really likeable, and someone that I’m glad to see more of.
However, as great as all the Jerome stuff and Bruce and Alfred’s little drama was, we also had a tragic character death in last night’s Gotham, and it bothered me a lot. Commissioner Essen was killed by Jerome in the big GCPD massacre, and while deaths were expected, her death is a big problem to me. It took a while for me in the first season to get into her character, but once I did, she was someone that I loved to follow, especially as she got promoted to commissioner just a week ago. Regardless, though, it bothers me that not only did they have to kill off a character that has barely gotten to be used well enough, but it was another female character that is also a person of diversity. It just bothers me because Gotham is almost overwhelmingly male-dominated; out of the 15 series regulars, only 4 are women. Then let’s look at the fact that we have two people of color while the rest are white.
If this has to be the case, then it’s Gotham‘s responsibility to not kill off the few female characters or people of color that it does have, especially as Essen was someone that could have had some really cool things to do with Jim now that she was commissioner. I get that the writers were going for the shock effect and that we shouldn’t necessarily think that we know who is going to be alive by the end of the show because of their established roles in the Batman mythology. However, at the same time, that doesn’t make Essen’s death fair, and it goes without saying that she is someone that will be missed.
Gotham airs Monday nights at 8/7c on FOX.
[Photo credit: Nicole Rivelli/FOX]
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