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sunlitroom · 5 years

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Gotham – s5e02 – Trespassers

As I watched it, and some random observations here and there.

Previously on Gotham:

Did you miss the finale of season 4 and only now tune in? For anyone who somehow forgot, Jeremiah’s bid to get Bruce to notice him helpfully coincided with Ra’s need to speed Bruce’s destiny along by destroying the city. Jim helpfully tells us that the city is now up for grabs. Tabitha made an absolute mess of attempting to get revenge for Butch – going out not only irritating and unsympathetic, but really, really dumb. Barbara wailed. Jim shot Oswald in the leg, for which he has put a bounty on his head. We are reminded that Jeremiah shot Selina – and a nurse with very distinctive eyebrows recommended that Bruce go find the witch. A lisping big-eyed orphan child pleaded with Jim for help.

As always, long post will be long. There are likely to be rambling digressions. Gobblepot might appear (although I welcome all shippers and non-shippers alike :)). There will be naked favouritism and naked not-favouritism. Broader comments at the end on plotlines and parallels and general direction.

We open on the boy, Will, from the last episode. Jim and Harvey watch from the doorway as he is examined, and fill us in on his situation. His parents were killed in a home invasion and he was taken to a factory, to be a slave alongside lots of other children. The people responsible are known as the Soothsayers.

Harvey’s never heard of them before – but can hazard a guess as to the location of the tunnel they’re building near the docks.

Winsome orphan boy begs Detective Gordon to save his friends, because they’ll be punished for his escape.

Jim and Harvey leave – Jim resolved to go rescue the children. Harvey reminds him, though, that Oswald has a bounty on his head and he can’t safely leave the station. Someone appears and tells Jim that there’s a call for him from the mainland

Jim goes to take the call. The voice on the other end tells him that confrontations must be avoided. Jim tells him to please think of the children. The voice says that his dedication is admirable but he lacks perspective – he runs the risk of sacrificing many to save a few. He’s told that it’s the ‘collective opinion’ that he stand down and keep the green zone safe.

Jim protests – and says they need supplies. The voice says they cannot risk any more pilots. Jim snaps that they can preserve the lives of a few over many, but he can’t. The conversation is seemingly over and Jim stares consideringly into the distance.

Harvey enters with Lucius. Jim immediately starts to plan a rescue mission. They need to go through the Dark Zone. Harvey reminds Jim of the ammo situation. Jim says he’ll talk to Barbara. Harvey reminds Jim that she might not be amenable. Turning to Lucius, Jim asks him to sort out some sort of housing for the children they’ll rescue. Harvey makes an unhappy face about the general risk of it all.

(An aside – in a desperate bid to extract something of interest from an episode that was pretty turgid.

I know we’re probably not supposed to complicate matters to this extent– but anything this straightforward is boring, so I feel like some over-analytical meta is needed to problematise everything.

It occurs to me that this desperate time of suffering is maybe the happiest Jim has ever been in Gotham.

St Jim of Gotham. They love their Jim Gordon. Detective Gordon can save us.

He constantly gets to be heroic – Jim Gordon keeping everyone safe, bringing them supplies. His word is law – Harvey and Lucius might pull faces, but they do what they’re told. He has no boss, no troublesome politics to play. There’s no awkward shades of grey – just good guys and bad guys. The voice of authority is just that – a voice – and so perfectly unreasonable and hateable and removed �� so absolutely in the wrong. Hell – Jim should send Jeremiah a bouquet for this.

It’s telling, I think, that when Harvey later spots the candle burning in the abandoned building Jim’s head goes straight to the Wild West. If you want to sell me that Oswald is enjoying playing benevolent leader over in City Hall, then it must also be accepted that Jim’s equally loving playing Gary Cooper at GCPD)

We hear night time noises and see Bruce at the gates of an abandoned mansion. He’s looking for the witch. As he enters the house, we see ivy climbing over the walls. As he progresses, we see it weapped around statues, and – more alarmingly – twisted around various corpses.

We see movement behind him. Someone has sneaked up on him – but Bruce had spotted them, and easily disarms him.

Are you with her?

What? I’m not sure why Gotham went with characters from a Hammer Horror - but, whatever. It’s all corduroy waistcoats, flat caps, and English accents.

Basically – they’ve decided Ivy is a witch who can talk to plants and knows magic and can take souls. They’ve trapped her in a windowless room with no food or water, and salted the floor. Eventually, they’re going to burn her. A few months of isolation and apparently parts of Gotham have turned into small superstitious English hamlets from the eighteenth century. There’s terrible doings up at the manor! His Lordship’s up to no good!

Bruce quickly makes up a story about a missing brother. Credulous villager from another film says he’ll let Bruce talk to Ivy. Bruce shines a torch into the room – and we see a sleeping Ivy. She’s wearing a sequinned jumper that also impressively manages to look like slimy moss.

Hello Ivy

At Sirens, where people are eating and drinking and generally having a good time. Barbara, meantime, swigs from a bottle at the bar.

Jim enters. We see there are lots of other men there. Jim tries to make small talk about how busy the bar is. Barbara points at his head and reminds him of Oswald’s bounty. She asks if he’s out for one last hurrah. Jim says he wants a favour.

Barbara laughs

A favour? That’s why you stood back and did nothing while my best friend on this earth was stabbed through the heart?

(Best friend. Best friend. Wow.)

Jim protests weakly that he put Oswald down – but Barbara shrieks, eyes bulging with rage.

You restored his limp - he should be dead!

Jim takes what I think the Marquise de Mertueil described as ‘a marital tone’, and delivers an admonishing

Barbara

On this – Barbara starts shrieking

Everybody out!

Jim asks if she’s planning revenge. Barbara retorts that

Someone has to do something about that freak

(An aside - Again with the ‘freak’ word. It really does nothing to make her more likeable. Also – the only things she could pair with it in the warehouse were the fact that Oswald has a beaky nose and a limp. That’s all it takes for Barbara to decide you’re a freak. Writers - if you want to cultivate any sympathy whatsoever for Barbara and her lost ‘best friend’ – it’s perhaps best not to remind the audience that they’re both beautiful entitled rich girls who looked right down their noses at almost everyone else who failed to fit that description.)

Jim tells her he has an army – it would be suicide. Barbara angsts it up and tells him to look around – they’re all slowly dying. Some get to choose how. I think this is meant to be about how she’d choose to die killing Oswald – but all it does is remind you that Tabitha most definitely opted for her fate – and renders it all less than sympathetic again

Jim tells her he’s sorry about Tabitha, and that things got out of control. What things? When she ran into a warehouse filled with Oswald’s men and a bunch of ammunition?

He goes on to say he’s trying to keep the city from falling apart. Barbara stares back at him and tells him he’s too late. Jim frowns.

She goes on – though, and asks him about the favour. He asks for trucks. She asks what for – and Jim stodgily replies that it’s a police matter. Barbara laughs at the absurdity of it – catapulted back to the compartmentalising days of their engagement – and says they could write that on his tombstone.

She caves, though, and gives him the trucks. She then bizarrely screams after him, though

Knock yourself out - drive into the nightmare you created. Here he comes, Gotham – your judge, gaoler, most hated son. Have at him - rip him to shreds. No-one deserves to die more than he!

So don’t give him the trucks, then. Make your mind up, Barbara.

Her lip wobbles and she drinks again. I’d give it a rest, Barbara – that was mental. You’re one drink away from a self-indulgent karaoke song.

Jim and Harvey drive through the city – specifically under a bridge, where we can see bodies hanging. Apparently, this area was a cesspool before – but is now even worse. People dressed in gothy, skull-heavy outfits suddenly appear alongside them, flinging Molotov cocktails and firing arrows.

Welcome to the Badlands.

We’re at the location the place Will mentioned, where there’s child slave labour overseen by some tools in gasmasks. One complains that the oldest boy we see – Gabriel – allowed Will to escape. He thought Gabriel had promise – and offers a chance to inhale whatever is in his mask for energy or to see the future.

He then witters on about the tunnel they’re building that will give them exclusive access to the mainland for trade. Until the situation is resolved. Or, you know, someone just comes in and takes it from them.

Gabriel points out that the tunnel is too narrow. Progress is slow, the roof is leaking, and it’ll collapse when they hit the river.

Beardy gasmask guy gets cross at this. He had high hopes for Gabriel. He points his gun at him, but is disturbed by one of his minions telling him to get out front.

Outside – we see trucks parked. Beardy irritably asks who was on watch. One of your tedious stoner mates?

Put your weapons down

Is that the James Gordon?

We get western-style music

Beardy comments that if they kill him they’ll get bullets and be in Oswald’s good graces. They draw guns – but are surrounded by GCPD. There’s a bit of back and forth – but Jim takes his keys, and goes into the building, telling Harvey to kill him if he moves.

The children all stare adoringly at Jim. He gives the keys to Gabriel, who starts to release all the other children’s manacles/cuffs/whatever. It was a pretty tooth-rotting moment.

Outside, leader man asks Harvey why he’d be a cop in this town. Harvey says the costume shop was out of gas masks – so it was either this or sexy nurse.

As they talk – the leader’s eye flits to one of his men, creeping up. There’s a disagreement that quickly turns into a full rammy. Most of the children escape in the trucks – but Jim, Harvey, Gabriel and two little girls are left fleeing on foot.

Back at the mansion, Bruce approaches Ivy. She seems relieved – asking for his help. She says she didn’t kill the men in the vines – it’s the park. The trees, plants, roots – speaking to one another. The men came to kill her – but the plants saved her

Bruce tells her that he needs help for a friend who was shot – not naming Selina. The nurse directed him to The Witch – and here he is. Ivy said she would usually help – but this park is behaving so oddly.

We hear a knock at the door – jaunty waistcoat villager. Bruce asks him to wait. Ivy says there’s a magical seed under the oak – she’ll help him find it if he protects her.

Back at the Library, Ed wakes up. He's chained himself down – and is exultant that it seems to have stopped his sleep walking.

Doesn’t he…. have the key? Jfc, Ed.

He unlocks the padlock and gets up, heading to the bathroom

Why am I seeing this?

I don't need Ed peeing

As he relieves himself – he talks to himself in the mirror about how the sleepwalking was likely just stress.

We hear grunting from somewhere else in the room. Ed pulls back the shower curtain, and finds a burly biker man tied up in the bath.

Ed looks away, back into the mirror and tells himself there’s nothing there – laughing hysterically. His laughing fades and he closes his eyes.

He pulls back the shower curtain again – this time wielding a plunger. Without washing his hands.

He asks the biker who the hell he is. The biker is massively disgruntled.

Are you serious?

Ed admits he doesn’t remember. The man’s name is apparently Tank. He’s part of the Street Demons gang.Ed asks if he hit him, etc. Tank is still sullen – and says Ed wanted information, but he wouldn’t give it. Ed eyes him

I’m gonna guess you gave it to me

Oo-er, missus.

Ed says he can't remember the info – so they’ll have to do it all again, and hauls him out of the bath.

Jim and co running through the streets, hunted. Shooting Oswald was dumb, Jim. I know he’ll forgive you shortly – but it’s inconvenient in the meantime.

They run into a nearby building. Harvey points to the candle burning, and warns that someone else is there. Jim’s all caught up in the romance of his sheriff fantasy, and says that settlers in the Old West would sometimes leave a candle burning as a sign of sanctuary. Maybe there’s still good people left in Gotham

Harvey raises an eyebrow at this romanticism, and then complains when Jim sends him to search the basement in this creepy hotel. Jim meanwhile heads upstairs. The children are left behind – and we see a shadowy figure pass behind them, looking sort of Victorian.

(An aside because this episode is boring – it’s odd how our collective imagination heads straight to Victorian stuff when it comes to ghosts)

Jim walks along the upper floor. It’s a nice, creepy atmosphere. There’s a room with a flickering bulb. Jim offers a very tentative GCPD. A small boy dressed in a school uniform runs out. Jim reassures him.

Harvey in the basement, which is actually a proper kitchen like you would get in a big old house. Less traditional are the containers on the table containing jewellery, glasses, teeth, and fingers.

Harvey starts to quietly panic. He’s then accosted by the masked Victorian woman wielding a razor, and starts to loudly panic.

Jimmmm!

Back at the library, Ed hits the biker in the face. Am I expected to believe Ed was able to overpower this guy?

He caves and passes the info – which is pretty pedestrian: Ed wanted to know where the Street Demon base was and whether their boss, Emmanuel Vazquez, would be there.

Ed asks the man what his demeanour was like last night. Was he confident, flamboyant, charismatic? Or a little repressed? Conservative? Nerdy?

The man says he seemed stiff – in a daze. Ed digests this, and then they leave.

Back at Ivy's impromptu 60s horror film. Bruce leaves the room with a faux terrified Ivy. Bruce tells the villagers to stay calm – he’ll take responsibility for her. Ivy promptly kills them all.

She turns to him – a hand on his throat – and tells him he’s utterly naïve. Bruce says she didn’t have to kill them, but she replies that she wanted to.

Bruce stares balefully at her. He tells her the friend he’s here for is Selina – she’s paralysed and has lost the will to live. Ivy glares back at him.

Good. That bitch destroyed the last drop of Lazarus water. Let her suffer

Bruce says he doesn’t believe her. Ivy avoids answering him like Jim has avoided awkward discussions about killing Oswald. She tells him she wasn’t lying about the park. She’s been feeding it corpses. It consumes them then flourishes. She says she’ll plant Bruce. What will grow, she wonders.

He tells her those men she killed were right. She’s a murderous, callous witch. She smiles

Trying to bait me, boy?

Bruce says he wouldn’t waste his breath. There’s no good left in her. The park isn’t beautiful and colourful and flourishing. It smells of death.

Ivy doesn’t like this. She purses her lips and tells him it’s a work in progress. Bruce says it’s a nightmare. She looks at him, and says if she helps him, he’s to leave her alone. They leave for the garden.

Back with Jim and the kid from the room

(An aside – it struck me here that the pacing in this episode felt really off. This should have been tense – but we spent too long with Ed and Bruce, and now we’ve lost a lot of tension.)

The boy tells Jim that his parents are dead – the woman here found him – the ghost. She was kind at first.

They’re interrupted by Harvey. He says that there’s a crazy woman here. Jim tells the boy that they’ll protect him. As they start to run, the boy says she makes him call her mother.

They head into a room off the corridor, but the boy slips out and shuts Jim and Harvey in. We see the lights in the room flicker and strobe. The boy, stone-faced on the other side of the door tells them

The lights will make you dizzy. Then fall asleep. You won't feel a thing

Harvey starts to fold. Jim kicks at the door. The boy calls that he should give into it. As he does, we see the woman behind him, and she slashes out at him with her razor.

There’s a scuffle. Harvey smashes the window – allowing light into the room. Her mask falls off, and the ghostliness is all gone. She screeches at Jim – she’s the only mother the boy knows. Harvey tells her she’s a crazy bitch – but she protests that she’s protecting him: she taught him how to survive.

She also manages to kick and slash Jim, and makes her escape.

At the biker hideout, which is apparently deserted. As we look round, though, we see lots of stabbed bikers – including the boss. Tank asks if Ed does this, to which Ed honestly responds that he can’t remember

Turning, we see a really boringly painted message on the wall

Penguin was here.

The biker growls: Penguin did this

Ed looks dubious. I think not

Tank replies that whoever it was, someone started a war

Back at Ivy’s park. She reaches into the earth as Bruce watches and extracts a seed. It looks incredibly gross.

She hands it to Bruce. He asks her if that’s human blood that it’s coated in. She tells him that if Selina ingests it, it will find the way to the wound. Bruce asks if it will cure her. Ivy shrugs. Everyone responds differently. The only thing that’s sure is that she’ll be altered forever – the darker angels of her nature unlocked and set free. You very rarely see that one listed in the side-effect section of the information pamphlet.

She asks if Selina can live with it, then eyes him shrewdly and asks if he can. Bruce tells her he doesn’t know any other way. Ivy smiles – and tells him to go then, give her the seed. She adds that he still doesn’t know if he can trust her. Bruce agrees and she replies.

Good – you’re finally becoming a man

Bruce asks where she’ll go, and she says that’s none of his business. He needs to hurry: the seed will die if exposed to the air for too long.

(An aside - if I desperately scrabble to get more fro this episode - I could say that there’s maybe a Jim and Bruce parallel. Jim’s doing good - but he’s definitely getting something from what he’s doing now. Bruce’s actions are to save Selina - but also to salve his own guilt at how she ended up shot in the first place)

Back at the haunted hotel, Harvey and Jim run downstairs and usher the children out. As they do, Harvey turns to Jim

Not everyone wants help, Jim Gordon

They run out into the street. We get a slightly too loud bit of dialogue between Harvey and Jim to let us know that Jim only has two bullets left. It had a real look out for snakes! quality.

The soothsayers and the goths show up. There’s a standoff where they both have guns pointed at Jim – both keen to collect the bounty.

Bruce is back in the ward. Alfred tells her that Selina’s not great – hasn’t uttered a word since he left. Bruce tells him the witch is actually Ivy. Alfred looks dubiously at the seed – which does look really nasty.

Bruce says it might help. Alfred says Ivy is a maniacal cold-hearted killer

Selina suddenly pipes up

Give it to me

Bruce says he has doubts. Selina says that she’s suicidal anyway – so if Ivy wants to kill her, she can have at it. Bruce hands her the pill. She asks if she’s just to swallow it, and then does so without hesitation. Bravo, Selina. That seed looked gross.

They watch. She exhales

Still here

Alfred laughs.

Selina says she knows Ivy has lost her mind – but Selina found her when she was first on the street, after her parents died. It was a cold winter – and Ivy got really sick. Selina took her under her wing: showed her how to find food, a roof. Eventually she got colour in her face – and Selina kept checking in with her every day.

I know she looks old now – but she'll always be that little girl to me

Alfred and Bruce look fondly at her – but as they do, she starts to sweat and convulse. Doctors and nurses rush in, and Alfred holds Bruce back

My God. What have I done?

Back at the standoff. This is really unforgiveably boring.

Blah blah - Jim has two bullets. Basically, Barbara arrives before things can go very wrong. She’s had a change of mind since their chat. Beardy guy takes aim at her from the ground, but Jim shoots him. Barbara comments that it must be love, since it was his last bullet.

She steps closer and tells him to

Help me do what needs doing - kill Penguin

(An aside -I’m so very done with this stupid notion that Oswald is the big problem in town. It makes absolutely no sense. If anything, the only reason we don’t have all-out gang warfare is because there’s not enough ammunition to go round, because Oswald has a grip on it. As for the notion that Barbara is somehow better – she’s hoarding food and drink to run a brothel while there’s not enough to go round. If they show doesn’t make clear later that Barbara’s stance is entirely personal and irrational, I’m going to be very grumpy.)

Jim says they’ll table this discussion for later.

(An aside. Barbara. Harvey. Jim is not going to kill Oswald. If you don’t know this by now, then you haven’t been paying attention. He didn’t do it to placate Falcone. He didn’t do it to string Theo Galavan along and get a conviction. He didn’t do it to guarantee silence after Theo’s murder. He didn’t do it when Oswald’s actions threatened to disrupt his work with the Court of Owls. He didn’t do it when he was apparently all darkness and rage with the Tetch virus. He didn’t do it at the bequest of Sofia Falcone, and he didn’t do it most recently, when the city is a wasteland and Oswald controls virtually all the weaponry. It’s a no, guys. If he changes his mind on this, then it’s an ooc swizz.)

In the Green Zone - where the lighting is all idyllic. Lucius shows off the new lodgings he’s found/created. It’s not ideal – but it’s better than anywhere else. Citizens are gathering, and it’ll be full by lunchtime.

A woman approaches with her children to thank Jim for delivering them. Barbara rolls her eyes and leaves – calling over her shoulder:

See you around, killer. We have unfinished business

I have to ask – is anyone invested in this? Anyone?

Back with Selina. The doc says whatever she took put her into shock – but she’s now stabilised. Bruce looks solemn. There’s a statue of Jesus behind him. Hi Jesus!

Alfred says they should go. He walks on, but Bruce lingers to peek in, and is shocked to see Selina’s bed empty and the window open. He rushes in and looks out the window. Selina walks up behind him

Bruce says it's a miracle. Selina’s eyes are closed, and she smiles beatifically. She says she feels no no pain. Bruce says he thought he’d killed her, but Seline says she’s even better than before.

They hug, and over Bruce’s shoulder, we see Selina open her eyes – which momentarily look just like a cat’s eyes.

General Observations

Ugh. With a couple of exceptions, that was a slog.

No Oswald at all. I’m not sure why this would be the case – but the episode palled badly without him. If it’s to try and easily paint him as a flat villain in his absence, it failed. Life in Gotham is mind-bendingly boring without him.

It’s not that I’m not interested in Ed, but there’s not really much need for interpretation or further examination for what’s going on. It’s either part of his own subconscious (we’ve seen that this can happen with Ed), or something to do with Hugo’s tinkering. I’m not quite sure why I feel a sort of weird lack of tension with this plotline, but there it is.

Barbara

Likewise – Barbara’s revenge plot is really just tiresome. I will admit to being nakedly biased towards Oswald, but even if that weren’t the case - it’s hard to feel real sympathy here. Babs – Oswald didn’t invade Sirens, seek Tabitha out and then stab her in the heart. She went looking for him, and then left him with no other options. Not only that – but she was fully aware that getting revenge for Butch meant leaving you alone. Last, but not least: She. Murdered. His. Mother. I know the big female solidarity thing really only extends to women 18-40 who can turn a profit for you – but still. Take a moment to think this over.

Look I get that it’s easier for her to be angry at Oswald than it is to be angry at Tabitha – but it’s still a bit tedious. A lot tedious.

Jim

As previously discussed, there’s more meat to Jim’s story right now – but I’ve no idea whether it’s intentional. I’m sure Jim does genuinely care about the citizens who need help. However, Jim is also loving this. All that murky stuff from the past is gone. Here, he’s Big Jim Gordon, the heroic sheriff in a Wild West town. His deputies do what he says, and Miss Kitty who runs the brothel can help out when needed. Big-eyed children rush to him for help, mothers thank him, and he gets to rush headfirst into fights outgunned whenever he wants.

I’m not sure where that fancy-dressed guy with the European name and the limp fits in to his story, but maybe Jim’s watched more Westerns than I have.

Hopefully this might head in a more complicated direction. A couple of the scenes with Jim and the children seemed deliberately too saccharine. Harvey warned him that not everyone wants his help. Let’s see where things go.

Jim and Barbara

I remember, way back when, commenting that the lack of real closure between Jim and Barbara felt unrealistic. Jim’s serious-minded and quite traditional (or seemed so at that point, anyway). He and Barbara were engaged to be married – church booked and dress bought, as Barbara told us. The relationship did have had its problems: Barbara was depressed and day drinking, while Jim was busily emulating his father and compartmentalising like crazy – but it always felt like they would have more definitively closed the chapter, as opposed to just moving on like it was a short-term relationship. I think what we’re seeing here is basically unfinished business being played out. Probably better for it to play out with the help of contraceptives, but hey, we know where they’ve decided to go with this.

Again - if you want to make it more problematic in a desperate bid to make things more interesting - killing Tabitha, having Barbara trade in ‘information’ instead of all out violence, masking what goes on in Sirens, putting a nice white coat on her: it’s all to ‘purify’ her character to make her suitable for the pregnancy storyline later. Not too, pure, though. My guess is she’ll die nobly at some point, and Lee will wind up raising the baby with Jim.

Recaps are a lot faster and easier when there’s no Oswald and the episode is a bit lacklustre.

Thoughts?

#gotham commentary #gotham s5e02 #trespassers

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