Friday, April 20, 2018

My Review of Gotham's 4x19: "To Our Deaths And Beyond"


Written by Peter Blake & Iturri Sosa
Directed by Scott White

Ra's (to Bruce): "Today is not the day I die."

To be fair, having Bruce be the one to kill you in the first place always seemed like a flawed idea, Ra's. What I will somewhat commend the show was the restraint they took in resurrecting him, even if the character has popped up in flashbacks and dream sequences and we've had the likes of Sofia, Jerome/Jeremiah and Poison Ivy to keep us entertained over the last few months.

Having Bruce's blood be the thing to bring Ra's back did make some sense but it also felt a rather quick way to have him re-enter the fray and give us a doom laden portent of future events as well. So we know in the next month that a fire is going to cleanse/destroy the city and Bruce will emerge a Dark Knight, which has been the subtitle for this entire season. We still however don't know if these remaining three episodes will be our last for this show or if there's more to come.

What we do know is that Ra's seems to like Bruce enough to want him to remain alive and throughout this episode he also rigorously tested Barbara's resolve, forcing the latter to step out (temporarily) from her narcissism and prove herself worthy enough not to killed. Barbara might have lost the Demon's Head but she certainly reaffirmed her relationship with Tabitha and managed to retain her loyal Sisters of the League, which was an achievement in itself.

The focus on Barbara and Bruce this week meant also testing Selina's own loyalty issues. Here she showed that she was more focused on the bigger picture and actually was more sensible than both Bruce and Barbara at times. I like that Selina was the voice of reason here while the team up between Alfred and Tabitha while acquiring Ra's's knife was one of the funniest moments from the episode. I can't be the only one hoping those two work together again, right?

As for the rest of the episode, nice little subplot with Ed and Leslie this week. I like that Ed has realised that Leslie is using him but at the same time made her aware that something else has awoken in her, given her recent shooting of Sofia Falcone. While I don't ship the pairing, I don't hate it either and I do like that Ed initially looked like he was about to betray Leslie before turning the tables on both Oswald and Grundy.

For Nygmobblepot fans, I imagine this episode might have stung a little but in terms of betrayals, even Oswald should be able to get over this one, considering his own plans to betray Nygma beforehand. Even Ed himself told Oswald he held no grudge with him at all, so maybe next season they'll work together on something without a betrayal in the mix.

- Speaking of Sofia, is she going to play any kind of role in the next three episodes or do they plan to wake up her next season, assuming we get one?
- Leslie might want to come up with better solutions because some of the people in the Narrows clearly need to do something more productive than betting on cockroach eating contents.
- Do we know if Gordon and company have made any effort to try and apprehend the likes of Scarecrow, Tetch and Firefly?
- Chronology: Not long from where That's Entertainment left off.

To Our Deaths And Beyond certainly felt a bit of a filler episode compared to the previous batch of episodes we've had in the second half of this season. Still though the main plots were entertaining enough and the finale seems to be set up rather nicely as well, even if we have a two week break before the ball starts rolling there.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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