Gotham "Tonight's the Night" (REVIEW)
written by Omar Castillon (omar_castillon)
With Gordon against Galavan, it’s time for the real danger to begin between the two characters. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Barbara episode. Sure we all hate Barbara mainly because season 1 made her into an unlikeable and whiny character but now that she’s crazy, there is a bit more acceptance into her Harley Quinn-esque persona. Most of the plot kind of starts from there since Galavan has one more trump card in the form of Bruce Wayne and he already is the mayor of Gotham although he doesn’t seem like one.
After the attempted assassination from Penguin in the previous episode, Galavan now has to face Gordon and so he activates Barbara. She arrives at GCPD headquarters ready to confess to Gordon what happened in the Arkham escape. Of course she beats around the bush and manipulates Gordon into going to a “secret” spot in order for her to talk. Oddly enough she and Gordon share a kiss in front of Leslie and at first it’s a bit out of character for Gordon to just up and kiss Barbara, but it was only so he can get to the truth he wants no matter the consequences. This makes Leslie a bit uneasy since she senses a trap and of course so does Bullock. Thankfully Bullock supports Gordon’s idea since they both want to get down to brass tax on nailing Galavan with the series of crimes recently.
As for Galavan and Bruce, it’s civil and collected. Bruce is still head over heels for Silver St. Cloud and Galavan using that to his advantage to get close to Bruce. Galavan in a desperate move tries persuading Bruce into selling part of Wayne Enterprises promising that he would clean up Gotham once and for all. In exchange for the shares to the company, Galavan will give the name and motive of Bruce’s parent’s killer. This intrigues Bruce but is hesitant. More on this matter later.
Back to the Barbara/Gordon storyline, the place Barbara leads Gordon and Bullock is obviously a trap and several Strike Force team members are shot by Galavan’s henchmen. Gordon then ends up in captivity by Barbara at the church they almost married in. This is the time Barbara begins to shine in her crazy ways. It’s basically a cartoonish evil meltdown of scene chewing in part of Barbara. She walks around with a sawed off shotgun taunting Gordon and brings in Leslie just to mess with him. Barbara is 100% psycho mode at this point but of course Gordon doesn’t buy into her ways and eventually escapes the chair he was bound to and desperately saves his own life as well as the others in the church. One piece of information is mentioned before the escape and it is exactly what Gordon wanted since Barbara showed up at GCPD headquarters in the beginning; a lead to nail Galavan.
Bruce’s storyline then connects with Gordon’s storyline as Galavan finally gets what he deserves. Unfortunately Bruce does lose his chance on an answer for his parent’s murderer. One more thing to consider that was not really connected to this week’s episode is Nygma’s stroll in a forest with Kristen in his trunk as he tries to bury her remains. That is until someone else walks up and is immediately killed by Nygma bringing his murder count to three. He does notice a trail of blood after his sandwich is mysteriously eaten and that’s when the greatest connection of villains occurs with Penguin and Nygma crossing paths. This was an eventful episode and surprisingly entertaining since Barbara was the center of the show this week. Although after this episode, it may be some time until we do see Barbara again and that’s fine. As long as she stays away from the bigger picture dealing with Galavan and the potential Court Of Owls coming into play, I’ll be fine not seeing Barbara for the rest of the season. Definitely stay tuned for more.
