Gotham "Beasts of Prey" (REVIEW)
written by Omar Castillon (@omar_castillon)
After a long and almost unnecessary hiatus, we are now down to the final 4 episodes of the season. Bruce, Gordon, Cobblepot and Fish have some chores to do in this episode and trust me when I say that it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in the end. First off, let’s get Bruce’s story out of the way. Continuing with what Bruce had in his investigation of his parent’s death and the attack Alfred endured by his former colleague, it is up to Bruce alone to go out and find Reggie Payne. Obviously, Gordon questions why Bruce would lie to him about Reggie in order to steer clear from his investigation, but hey, Bruce is slowly becoming Batman right? (Sarcasm). Bruce then meets up with Selina in the streets of Gotham and the two go and find Reggie in the middle of the city just hanging out in his drug den. One would think that a guy like Reggie would put up a better fight against two children, but he really just sort of gives up the information Bruce was looking for; his parent’s true killers. It turns out that a board member from Wayne Enterprises is behind the killings. The “why” factor is still up in the air, but Bruce now knows that his father’s company is in serious trouble.
Gordon’s storyline this week was…strange. He gets the heads up on an investigation from a patrol officer to look into a woman who was found dead. Her death connects to a serial killer by the name of The Ogre. At least that’s how the precinct would call him. Gordon dives a little deeper to the investigation and even gets some advice from Leslie on where he should look. It turns out that speak eases are still a thing and that is where The Ogre likes to catch his prey. The Ogre goes by another name, Jason Lennon. So in this strange editorial choice, we have flashbacks of the possible meet up with the woman that was found dead and The Ogre. These flashbacks look like something from the show Criminal Minds. Not to rag on the quality of Criminal Minds, but that’s their signature thing when it comes to their series. Here in Gotham, it looks terrible. Almost to the point of it being a blatant rip off. Speaking of rip offs, The Ogre “supposedly” dives into some S&M territory with a secret room with his toys. He uses them to torture his victims into becoming the perfect woman for him. This is reminiscent of Christian Grey in the 50 Shades of Grey series of awful Twilight fan fiction that made it to the mainstream for the only reason of it being accessible S&M smut… Anyways, the writers really got lazy in creating this “original” villain that will last one more episode. I was so close to turning the TV off after realizing how terrible this plot point went. The big surprise though is that the whole Ogre set up was orchestrated by Commissioner Loeb who is trying to inadvertently get back at Gordon for blackmailing him. At least there is some semblance of conflict. Unfortunately thanks to previews for the next episode, we see Barbara in The Ogre’s place…go to hell plot point.
a chance meeting for future altercations?
Cobblepot had a brief albeit relevant plot point this week. It was nice to see him and Bruce during one scene where they cross paths in their storylines. His chore consisted of trying to obtain one of the Italian restaurants in his area. The problem is that the owner doesn’t want to give it up that easily. She (the owner) tells Cobblepot the only way he could get the place is if he takes care of the owner’s nieces’ loser boyfriend from being around her. Cobblepot and his crownie go out and find the loser boyfriend who ends up being a musician. Cobblepot has the musician’s fingers cut and of course gets the business. The motive behind the newly acquired business is so that he could eventually kill Don Falcone. Vague but a relevant plot point nonetheless.
And finally we have Fish Mooney’s chore of the week. She is as dull as ever trying to find a way to escape the Dollmaker’s compound. She uses henchmen from the underground prison to hatch a scheme to escape. Fish then goes out of her way to steal a key to the boat to escape. Dollmaker catches Fish and there is some pitiful sequence between her and not being one of Dollmaker’s latest experimental projects. I’m not sold by her performance but whatever. In the end she backstabs the henchmen, saves some of the victims and for a moment I cheer for her eventual demise. I say this because at this point in the season I could care less what happens to Fish. There has been word that since a second season has been picked up; Fish would die by the end of the season. I wish she had died earlier since she has been nothing but a distraction to the other storylines in the city of Gotham.
a sick killer terrorizes Gotham... as per usual
I’ll say it once again; I could care less what happens to Fish Mooney and Barbara in the series. Maybe the writers have struggled to really sell these two as characters to care about. Instead I just want them out of the picture. Specifically Fish since by the time she was taken out of the equation among the criminal network in Gotham, there was no need for her character to continue. She should have died so much earlier. But alas we finally get to see a weak point in Gotham finally be almost out of the series. I think you can tell that the writers were scrabbling for something different to write about in the world of Gotham. To be honest, I really hope they still have some form of plan for the next season. If this sort of shaky quality continues for the rest of the season, my hopes for the next season are going to be low at best. That hiatus didn’t help Gotham so much either. If only Fox continued the rest of the season and finish it earlier, it wouldn’t feel so disorienting coming back to Gotham and having high expectations only to be disappointed in the end. Three more episodes left; let’s hope they don’t ruin the season finale.
