Thursday, January 19, 2017

My Review of Gotham's 3x12: "Ghosts"


Written by Danny Cannon
Directed by Eagle Egilsson

Zsasz (to Gordon): "You've had a good run."

It's been a little over a month since the last time the show was on the air and things had ended on a sour note. Gordon blundered yet again by shooting Mario Falcone and Nygma threw his question marks in with Barbara/Tabitha/Butch in order to take Oswald down while Selina met up with her mother for the first time in over a decade. This episode continued on all three with a little something else in the mix too.

First of all, Gordon continues to excel in picking his moments badly by actually showing up to Mario's funeral. Not only that but we had a fairly tedious scene where Leslie demanded his arrest while Falcone went one better and utilised Victor Zsasz's services in order to take Gordon out, only for Leslie to later talk him out of the hit.

I did love that there was this weird sense of jovial banter between Zsasz and Gordon prior to the attempted hit going down. Gordon weirdly has gotten a respect from Victor but at the same time, Zsasz had no qualms with trying to kill him. Even if Falcone hadn't called off the hit, I don't think Victor would've succeeded though. Annoying as Gordon can be, the man's knack for survival is impressive though.

As for Leslie, parts of the episode weren't great for her but I did like that we saw her acting out of grief (even if I had no investment in her and Mario) and upon seeing how batshit Barnes was, we also saw her loosen on her hatred for Gordon in this one too. Falcone didn't seem pleased to call off his hit on Jim but he did for Leslie though, which was interesting.

However with Falcone going for the direct approach to deal with Gordon and changing his mind at the last minute, Edward, Barbara and Tabitha went for something more brutal. Hiring Clayface to mess with Oswald's head by disguising himself as Elijah was a delightfully twisted plot, especially as Oswald unraveled big time during an interview with a sceptical reporters on television too.

Nygma's plans for Oswald are delightfully twisted and it's interesting to see that he isn't being idle either. As for Barbara and Tabitha, it didn't seem like they were doing too much themselves other than sitting back and enjoying Oswald publicly unfolding.

Meanwhile Selina and her mother were having difficulties reconnecting with each other. This plot took up a little less screen time compared to the first two but it was nice nonetheless. Selina's mistrust for Maria had merit to it but Bruce was able to get the two of them to reconnect a little here while Maria's past also came into play. I do get the feeling though that Selina may get burnt by this plot within the next two episodes.

As for the advertised aspect of the episode - it seems that there's a cult out there being led by former Indian Hill work, Dwight Pollard. Dwight seems to have a thing for resurrections and given that Gordon and Bullock stumbled into a Jerome worshipping cult, well you could see the last scene of this one coming a mile off. Welcome back, Jerome.

- Alfred seemed to be a lot smitten with Maria during this episode as well. Selina is also 16 years old. Maria left her when she was five.
- Butch, Ivy and Hatter sat this episode out. I really hope the second half of this season has a better idea of how to utilise Ivy to be honest.
- David Dastmalchian who played Dwight in this episode was a previous Joker acolyte in The Dark Knight.
- Chronology: Not long from where Beware The Green Eyed Monster left off.

A strong returning episode. Ghosts picked up on the plot strands from the mid-season finale and pushed them a little further with interesting results. The start of the Jerome mini-arc as well was handled pretty well in this one.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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