Tuesday, May 24, 2016

My Review of Gotham's 2x22: "Transference"


Written by Bruno Heller
Directed by Eagle Egilsson

Lucius: "Are we alive?"
Gordon: "So far so good."
Lucius: "Had to be sure."

The one thing I love about Gotham nowadays is that it's now but all abandoned it's initial attempts of being a small screen variation of the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy and has fully embraced the madness, no more so than in the second half of this season as this Indian Hill comes to something of a chaotic conclusion.

Hugo's determination to blow up his own creations at the behest of that not so mysterious Council would've gone a little better had Fish not put a spanner into the works by working her new found powers on Peabody but also because having Gordon, Bruce and Lucius in the place wasn't such a bright idea after all.

While he did manage along with Nygma to deduce that the three of them didn't know as much as his Council feared they did, the three of them also had Selina in their corner, who in turn also managed to get Firefly back in hers too. Not to mention the fact that Hugo unwisely got in between Mr Freeze and Firefly going after each other as well.

I'm glad that Strange made it out of the episode alive but I'm also rather certain that prison is going to be the least of his problems. The grey woman doesn't seem to suffer fools gladly and given that Strange's experiments are now loose in the general populace, he has more reasons to worry than he did beforehand.

Speaking of the monsters, we didn't get to see too many close ups of them, other than Fish leading them to freedom and a homeless woman unfortunately opening the back door of the bus after Butch and Oswald caused it to crash. The reveal of that Bruce clone (or Thomas Wayne Jr) was a good one to end on but the episode had plenty of good moments.

Fish taking control of Hugo's contingency plan was a highlight along with her brief encounter with Oswald, who looked horrified to see her. I'm surprised Fish didn't kill Oswald there on the spot but I'm also relieved that he didn't get a chance to kill her either. Their dynamic next season should be interesting to see unfold.

As for Gordon, he spent the episode being drugged while Clayface did a poor but OTT impression of him that Barbara of all people had to rumble. However when he wasn't defusing bombs with Lucius, he realised that he loved Lee and basically left town in order to get her back as well. Right now, that's probably the best thing Gordon can do for himself.

Also in "Transference"

Did we just see the Mad Hatter in the GCPD during one scene?

Nygma (to Bruce/Lucius): "Who runs Indian Hill? You have one guess. Think carefully fellas or die."

Oswald still has Grace's head. I did find his rapport with Barbara slightly amusing in this episode.

Fish (to Peabody): "Your mama may be number thirteen but I'm a human being. I'm Fish Mooney, bitch."

Strange: "Who controls Gotham, Jim? You've never heard of a secret council?"
Gordon: "Secret council? No!"

They've more or less confirmed Bullock as the new commissioner/captain now. I doubt we'll see Barnes at all next season.

Clayface/Gordon (to Alfred): "Complicated police business."
Bullock: "He's got a touch of the flu."

Fish (to Strange): "You would've made a great pimp."

Going into next season, I do wonder if they should scale some of the cast back. Nygma and Babs as recurring characters, Lucius as a guest (which was the actor made a regular when little has been done with him, etc?) and so on.

Barbara: "So now you like me again?"
Clayface/Gordon: "What's not to like?"

Oswald: "Impossible."
Fish: "Nothing is impossible."

Chronology: Pretty much from where A Legion Of Horribles left off.

Transference was pretty satisfying as a finale. It didn't so much resolve the Indian Hill storyline but more intensified it with a replica of Bruce on the loose and Fish also up to some mischief as well. It'll be fun to see where they'll go next season with the Court of Owls stuff too.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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