In the Gotham recap for the mid-season finale, Jim teams up with Penguin to find Galavan before he can kill Bruce Wayne….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Season two of Gotham has gone through similar ups and downs as the debut effort last year, but focusing on one major villain as opposed to a criminal of the week is one of the better plot points to happen most recently.
The only downside of Theo Galavan’s rampage through Gotham City was his ultimate goal to kidnap and kill Bruce Wayne because if there’s one untouchable piece to the Batman puzzle it’s the person who actually grows up to become the Caped Crusader.
Gotham creators have made some fun choices — most notably putting Jim Gordon with Leslie Thompkins as opposed to Barbara Keen — but the idea that Bruce Wayne is in mortal peril just doesn’t work because no matter what happens, we already know he’s not actually going to die.
Bruce Wayne in the tonight’s episode – including his tween tryst with Silver St. Cloud — was a high point during the hour but it’s just unfortunate when he’s the carrot being dangled out in front of the viewer in a perilous situation because we already know by definition of the series that he’s never going to get bitten.
With that said, let’s recap the Gotham mid-season finale titled ‘Worse Than a Crime’….
Mission Impossible
Galavan holds Bruce hostage while revealing that Gotham City’s new mayor is also a member of the Dumas family — a clan that once helped to rule this borough until the Wayne family drove them out — and he’s going to reclaim his rightful place on the throne in just a few hours.
Galavan’s plan is to kill Bruce with the same knife the Wayne’s used against a member of the Dumas’ family all those years ago before they were scattered to the wind like dandelion spores. Bruce is now resigned to living in a cage for the next 12 hours but he’ll soon have company after Silver convinces her uncle to give her one more chance after failing him the last time.
Silver promises to make Bruce fall back in love with her within the time they have until his death and if she can pull that off, Theo will know she’s worthy of the Dumas name and doesn’t need to be cast out or killed for being worthless. Tabitha has a problem with all of this because her brother is turning into a giant, power hungry asshole.
Meanwhile, Gordon wakes up in Edward Nygma’s apartment with Penguin tending to his wounds. Penguin tells Gordon that they are going to work together to bring down Galavan because the police are already compromised and their choices are limited. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That sort of thing.
Back at the police station, Captain Barnes has issued a warrant for Gordon’s arrest because he disappeared from the court house after striking Galavan and then two cops sent to get him were found dead later that night. Rather than believe in Jim, Barnes decides to arrest him instead and then listen to his story later. Barnes has been a wholly dissatisfying character since first arriving on the canvas earlier this season and while Michael Chiklis is fantastic, even he can’t save this bozo from himself.
Nygma shows up at work and passes along a message to Lee on where she can find Gordon and reconnect before the assault on Galavan commences later that night.
Battle Lines are Drawn
Lee tries to convince Gordon to stand down and let someone else fight for once. He’s taken enough hits in this battle already and now he has something bigger to live for — a baby because Leslie is pregnant! Jim decides it’s best if he leaves town with Lee tonight for their safety while he leaves Penguin in charge of getting revenge against Galavan.
Alfred escapes a trashy grave after evading Tabitha’s clutches, but when he tries to commandeer a car from a random passer by, he ends up getting tased in the face — IN THE FACE!! — by a police officer who just happened to be nearby.
Lucius Fox (where the hell has he been for the past 10 episodes?) shows up at he police station barking at Barnes to search for Alfred and Bruce Wayne, who he believes are missing and/or kidnapped. Bullock is also searching for any way he can get at Galavan now that his partner is in the wind and on the run.
Barnes finds out that Alfred was actually arrested so they wake him up — his two stab wounds are apparently healed now — and he claims that Galavan is up to no good but once again he has no evidence. Technically, according to Barnes, because Alfred broke into the Galavan penthouse, they have every right to defend themselves against an intruder.
Bullock and Alfred are fed up and decide to take the law into their own hands, but before they can launch an independent investigation, Nygma chimes in and reveals (in a riddle) that Gordon is at his place awaiting the chance to go after Galavan.
Eventually, everyone ends up back at Nygma’s place and just as Gordon is about to leave with his girlfriend and unborn baby, he finds out that Galavan is not only a criminal but he’s also a kidnapper who has taken Bruce Wayne. Lee just assumes that Gordon is going to help so she drives off by her self while he jumps back into the fray to stop Galavan and save Bruce.
Prison Romance
Probably the best scene all episode that didn’t really play into the actual plot or outcome of the story were the moments shared between Bruce and Silver in the cell while he awaited his execution at the hands of the Dumas family.
The two tweens talked about their favorite moments and got to know each other for the first time really and Silver eventually offers to help him escape, but that only fails miserably when she runs directly into her uncle and his monk-like guards.
In all actuality that was part of the plan as well to help Silver sink her hooks into Bruce even deeper, but he sees through her the entire time. She eventually comes clean about why she was doing this — because if she fails her uncle will boot her out and disown her or possibly kill her — so just before Bruce gets yanked off for his sacrifice he hugs and kisses Silver and says that he loves her just for the sake of Galavan’s ears. In reality, Bruce told her a few minutes earlier that he pitied her for what she’s going through.
Crossing the Line
Thanks to some sneaky help from Cat, who showed up to help bail Bruce out of trouble and lead the cavalry inside Galavan’s secret lair, Gordon and the Penguin army show up and take out the vengeful monks before they can kill Bruce. His execution was delayed just in the nick of time by Silver, who finally lashed out at her uncle just before the knife hit Bruce’s throat.
Gordon and Penguin’s men take out all of the Order of St. Dumas — including the lead monk who morphs into some kind of creature just before Bullock shoots him dead in mid-air. Amidst the chaos, Galavan escapes but not for long after he runs to the penthouse and prepares to get out of the building before the cops arrive.
Unfortunately, Galavan’s repeated offenses against his sister and niece force Tabitha to turn on her brother and steal the only two parachutes available to jump from the building and escape the authorities. Gordon shows up and arrests Galavan, but the current mayor of Gotham City taunts the detective and dares him to shoot because when it’s all said and done, he’s going to get out of this just like he did the previous arrest.
Barnes shows up and tries to get Gordon to walk the straight and narrow but Penguin smacks him over the head with a vase before he can talk any sense into the morally compromised detective.
Gordon battles with his own inner demons but ultimately gives into the notion that sometimes doing the ugly thing is the best thing — so he watches as Penguin beats Galavan with a bat and then the Gotham super cop puts a bullet in him to finish the job.
Gordon then retires home without facing any repercussions for his actions because why would that happen in the same episode? Gordon finds Lee and rather than explain how his inner demons won yet again, he pops the question and asks her to marry him. Lee smiles while being oblivious to the fact that the father of her unborn child is beginning to listen to his primal instincts more and more lately and the body count is piling up.
— Following Penguin striking the death blow to Galavan by shoving an umbrella down his throat, the mayor’s body is taken to Indian Hill — the same facility where the Firefly was taken earlier this season — and we find out that this Wayne Enterprises funded facility is actually come kind of testing laboratory for a new bad guy we’re going to meet when the season returns in 2016.
His name is Hugo Strange and he’s a famous character from the Batman canon (this time played by actor B.D. Wong) and his experimentations including Galavan, Firefly and Fish Mooney, who was also captured in one of his holding cells.
— And just after the credits roll we get a look at Dr. Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze, who stalks down some guy running down an alley before trapping him behind a garbage dumpster and using his freeze gun to kill him. Fries will be played by House of Cards vet Nathan Darrow while his wife Nora — who he is trying to freeze cryogenically until he can cure a deadly disease that’s killing her — will be played by Being Human favorite Kristen Hager.
Gotham returns for the second half of season two on Monday night, February 29, 2016!
