There’s a lot of interesting stuff in “The Son of Gotham,” but by and large it mostly feels like filler. In the end, so many stakes are raised that it really needed to be better than it was to get me excited for the fall finale.
Let’s start with the good. Once again, the Bruce Wayne stuff proves to be some of the most interesting stuff. He’s learning one of the most important things that will help him when he eventually becomes Batman: deception. While the interrogation of Bruce and Silver got really, really cartoonish and silly, it led to an excellent reveal. We saw Bruce at his coldest and most morally gray in this episode and these are major aspects of the character he’s destined to become, for better or worse. Galavan was also at the top of his game in this episode, proving himself as an unstoppable threat by easily getting the former mayor to lie in court. More than that, he’s finally shown himself as a physical threat in a very one-sided fight against Gordon.
That’s sort of one of the unfortunate things about Gotham. There are all these amazing villains being introduced, but we don’t see them get to do too much because there’s no hero for them to face off against. This isn’t a superhero show, so we’re rarely treated to an exciting fight. This wasn’t that, but at least it came close.
Alfred’s fight with Tigress was interesting, but was there for absolutely nothing more than length. It had no bearing whatsoever on the larger plot, except for almost explicitly foreshadowing that Alfred is probably going to be the one to kill Tigress for harming Bruce, once all is said and done.
Gordon hunting down the monks was also not nearly as exciting as it should have been. This show is getting to be pretty bad at teasing larger plot points. Just about the moment that something is shown in full, it is thrown directly into the spotlight and burned out until we move onto the next thing. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Galavan was killed in the fall finale and the entire season plot up to this point was wrapped up.
Like I said, there are some really good moments in this episode. But this is an important one, it shouldn’t feel like it’s just coasting until the finale, especially as the first in a two-parter.
