By

John McGee

Welcome one and all! Time for the epic annual Gotham Halloween episode. Every year we get something pretty special given the nature of the show. We’ve seen eyeballs get ripped out of skulls and throats get bitten open. Time to get into the freaky spirit of the year.

The good news:

Tetch is giving Jim impossible choices in order to try and drive him mad. Jim chooses to save the child about to be run over by a truck rather than the newly married couple jumping off the building. Interesting fact: Jim would have been crushed by the couple. He had no time to call the fire department and he can’t catch them. So he really made the only choice he could in the situation. The couple was doomed from the beginning, pretty clearly.

It turned into a fun goose chase of sorts ending with the ultimatum: the two women in Gordon’s life, Vale and Lee, threatened by the Mad Hatter. Tetch’s plan was to shoot the woman Jim loves, so Jim told him to “kill Lee” knowing Tetch would shoot Vale. Jim just gets darker and darker these days.

Vale (other than getting shot) didn’t play a huge role here. She was mostly just the catalyst to Jim to possibly wake him up. Other than hounding Lee about Alice Tetch’s blood she didn’t have much of a stake here.

Alice’s blood is really starting to affect the captain. What’s next for this guy? He really needs to find a cure before it’s too late.

Nygma met a girl!! She’s basically a reminder of his former love lost, whom he killed (mostly by accident). She’s a quiet sweet librarian who believes in love and second chances. What a sweet story.

Honorable mention: the teaser for next week’s Halloween episode, The Red Queen looks fantastic!

The bad news:

I disagree with this Penguin subplot. It doesn’t make much sense that just because Ed helped him out and believed in him that suddenly we have love. Penguin is far more affectionate than he was in the past. Maybe he’s growing soft since he’s mayor? I dunno. But I find it really odd that this is how Gotham represents LGBT: only the utmost psycho on the show (and that’s quite a competitive field) experiences such feelings. I don’t think Penguin is the right man for the job. On top of that, Penguin being denied something he wants (remember Nygma is straight and in love with this librarian lady) sending him off on a murderous tantrum is going to become a Gotham cliché if they keep it up.

Gordon needs to really wake the heck up. He’s getting so far off track that he’s just moping around crying for himself. The teaser for next week shows that this might improve though.

Great episode! We’re getting back. Usually Gotham picks up on/after/around Halloween, and damn is that the case this year again.

9/10