Gotham keeps going crazier in the funniest way possible as this week’s episode had more Azrael, Hugo Strange and a hot twist towards the end that begins to setup these two remaining episode of Season 2.
Someone that I haven’t talked a lot about this season has sadly been Harvey Bullock that became a quick favorite of mine in the Gotham’s first season where the series was still trying to find itself. It’s not that Bullock hasn’t been written well, especially since Donal Logue takes everything he gets and makes it awesome, it’s just that he hasn’t really gotten to stand out much. That is totally understandable when you have a show with about 15 series regulars (sorry, I can never get over that number) so it gets tricky. This week however he got to do that as he became an encouraging voice for the GCPD with their captain now fallen. Now that I think of it, Captain Bullock has a good sound to it — maybe a promotion for Bullock in Gotham Season 3, Gotham writers? I also just love when he gets to be sassy and witty because that’s one of the things that Logue does the best.
Speaking of being sassy, Hugo Strange is officially one of the best TV villains of the 2015-2016 TV season because B.D. Wong continues to kill it. The scene at the beginning where the GCPD and Gordon are searching through Arkham was so much fun because of the shade he threw at Gordon for the fact that he isn’t a cop anymore. Whoever they get to play Hugo Strange in the DC movies (whether it’s in a Batman franchise from Ben Affleck in the coming years or something else) will have big shoes to fill from what Wong is currently doing. He is slick, sophisticated and just generally fun as a villain and while I’m not certain that they would use him for Season 3, I wouldn’t mind seeing him again for a few episodes next season.
Something that “Unleashed” gave a sad reminder of was the fact that again, Tabitha serves no purpose and hasn’t done so this whole season. All she did this week was to deliver useful exposition to Gordon and then get seriously injured by Azrael. While I thought that was the end of her, I was surprisingly relieved that she was still alive because I know at the writers can do better with this character if she is allowed to be put to use and not just be used the way she is right now. It also made me feel so sorry for Butch who deeply loves her and luckily for him, he did get put to use in the coolest way ever which we will get to later. I do miss that consistent dynamic (even though he was brainwashed) between him and Penguin which we did get back in some capacity this week.
We got one of the show’s best fights of all time between Azrael and Alfred who made re-appreciate this take of the character (heavily based on the Batman: Earth One version). I liked that there was barely an score in the fight as we just kept hearing things being smashed and destroyed in what has to be the biggest-yet-tightest-living room ever. I’m just glad that Alfred didn’t get too injured like he did last year around this time. I don’t know how to feel about Gordon just having an easy time with shooting Azrael multiple times — even though it was to save Bruce — because it’s just another step to getting down that darker path more and more. However it doesn’t work as Azrael gets up again until Penguin arrives with Butch and delivers one of my all-time favorite scenes in the whole series.
Butch with a bazooka and that butt-kicking music while blasting Azrael to pieces is something I can watch over and over again. Heck, even seeing Bruce getting into a car and just running him over was a blast and something I can re-watch again and again. Although I’ll admit that I expected Gotham to keep Azrael around until at least the end of the season, unless he magically rises again somehow. Hugo can’t be thrilled though whose reaction I would love to see, but I doubt we will. However, Hugo is keeping himself distracted as he tricked Selina down to the Indian Hill where we discover that Bridgit has been brainwashed as well and is now going by “Firefly”. Even though the circumstances were sad, I did like her new costume quite a lot as it is slicker and feels closer to what the Firefly costume looks like in the books. Although I’m sure Selina doesn’t share that view point as she fears for her life in quite the hot situation (you knew a pun was coming).
Overall, “Unleashed” was a really enjoyable episode that was quite intense and has that tone that makes you really feel that we are close to wrapping up the season.
Gotham airs on Monday nights at 8/7c on FOX.
[Photo: FOX]
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