Gotham returns after its winter hiatus, blasting us with rich Batman lore! The Court of Owls is building. Spoiler alert.
The previous episode ended with Edward Nygma killing off his teacher and friend, Oswald Cobblepot, and episode sixteen begins with how Nygma handles the murder. He’s been taking drugs that indulge in the hallucination of his former relationship. The soundtrack, along with the rapid panel movement fits Nygma’s mental state. I also appreciated Cobblepot dropping a single in the midst of Nygma’s psychosis.
“Enough! I admit that killing you killed a part of me.”
Indeed it did, Nygma. The series is constantly challenging the sanity of each character, and it’s when it fully breaks, we come to see the creation of our desired rogue gallery of villains. At the end of the episode, we get the Riddler.
“The greatest villains have always been defined by the men that try to stop them.”
When Jim is trying for peace and reconnecting with this distant uncle, there is a power struggle. The directors do a brilliant job with demonstrating this through the camera. Do people have power over the environment or does the environment have power over people? The first image below, Jim is viewing the deer through his gun scope, while the second image, the camera zooms out and the two men blend into the grim forest.
Jim missed his shot on ‘purpose.’ We want to see the good have power, but it’s tricky. Frank appears to be playing on both sides. We know the Court of Owls doesn’t represent the good guys, but the people involved aren’t all bad guys, are they?
My favourite component of this episode, rather than the riddler’s dashing suit, is Lucious Fox. Up until now, Fox was more than a background character but was lacking interactions with the other characters. I don’t only want to see the villains rise, but also the heroes behind Batman as well.
The Riddler has intertwined Fox into his plans, I’m looking forward to the domino effect this relationship will start.
Terrific return, Gotham!