As Gotham begins to reach the midway point of its second season, this week’s episode may have been the darkest installment of the season so far, as we get introduced to one monstrous villain from Batman’s rogue gallery. Meanwhile, Nygma and Oswald start to get to know one another, and Gordon struggles with his inner darkness.
You would think with a villain named “Flamingo” that this week’s Gotham would be a more comedic episode, but anyone who thought that would be the case couldn’t have been more wrong. As if the episode wasn’t dark already, with all the attacks between the baddies and the cops at the start, Flamingo somehow managed to go from looking harmless to absolutely terrifying. But what this villain brought out of Gordon was what got the episode to be as dark as it was. At least it’s becoming visually clear that Gordon is suffering from this struggle between being on the edge of light and darkness. There was also a great moment between Gordon and Barnes, as his new captain gave him a strong speech on the lack of boundaries, which plays a major role later on, as Gordon almost shoots Flamingo to death.
After their encounter last week, Nygma and Oswald have one twisty interaction as the two super-villains get to know each other. As someone who has been appreciating Cory Michael Smith since Season 1, it’s a joy to see him finally get to sink his teeth further into this character. His and Robin Lord Taylor’s scenes also make it perfectly clear that the Nygma we first met last season is absolutely gone, especially as he encourages Oswald to give up mourning his dead mother and reclaim his power of the city. Even though the season is already dark as it is, just seeing the birth of this glorious team-up, makes me look forward to seeing how much further Gotham can go with its darkness in future episodes.
“A Bitter Pill to Swallow” also explored Bruce’s determination to get answers to who killed his parents, information that Theo claimed to have knowledge of, by trying see Silver as much as possible. Luckily, however, Alfred isn’t letting anyone from the Galavan family near Bruce, as he refused to let Bruce be visited by her or leave the mansion. Even Selina showed up at the end to warn Bruce and present some proof about the evilness in the Galavan family.
Speaking of the Galavan and the Sacred Order of Saint Dumas, this week’s Gotham concluded with several Dumas members killing a GCPD officer after arriving in Gotham City. Whatever their full intentions are, it should probably be revealed either next week or in the following episode, which is the fall finale.
Overall, “A Bitter Pill to Swall” was mainly a setup episode, even though it did feature of a lot of action; however, what was more appreciated was the inner character struggles from people like Gordon, Bruce, and Oswald. While it was heavily dark, perhaps even Gotham‘s darkest episode of the season so far, the show is proving that it has improved a great deal over the course of its second season.
Gotham airs Monday at 8/7c on FOX.
[Photo credit: Nicole Rivelli/FOX]
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