Written by Danny Cannon
Directed by Louis Shaw Milito
Ivy: "What's the matter, Bruce? Don't know if you can trust me."
Bruce: "I don't."
Ivy: "Good. Then you're finally becoming a man."
If there's one thing Gotham can never have enough of, it's Poison Ivy. I know the continuous casting changes have been a bug bear for fans and rightly so but after the three episodes arc we had in the latter half of the fourth season where Peyton List really went to town as everyone's favourite plant lady, it would've been a crime not to have factored Ivy into the final season.
With No Man's Land, Ivy had a specific arc that involved her looking after children in Robinson's Park, while also being imprisoned by Clayface with the lack of sunlight and salt. At least some of this arc surfaced in this episode as Ivy was unsurprisingly revealed to be "the witch" and Bruce found that a group of frightened men were keeping Ivy captive with the intention of burning her later on. Though why they didn't do it to begin beggars belief if they felt she was such a danger to them.
Of course, Ivy was a danger to them as she had been growing out the park by feeding and killing men to it and when Bruce released her from her cell, Ivy's first response was to murder her captors and threaten Bruce's life while also expressing a lack of sympathy for Selina's current predicament. Of course, Bruce didn't take this lying down and eventually won Ivy around into helping her.
This is the one thing I've liked about Ivy's depiction on this show. While she's capable of committing bad acts and killing mostly men with little concern, she does have a pet cause with her plants and Bruce's comments about her "work in progress" certainly struck a chord with her. Despite her anger towards Selina, she still cares enough for her friend to try and help her with a magical plant covered in human blood while also warning Bruce that ingesting it will do more than heal Selina as well.
Needless to say, despite the one moment where it looked like Selina was going to die after ingesting the plant, it only went and cured her of her paralysis. Not only that but the last scene saw Selina's eyes going a little cat like and if the promotional material wasn't enough of an indicator, it seem that next week's episode will be pushing her into Catwoman territory as she goes after Jeremiah for revenge. I also liked the way Selina told Bruce and Alfred about her friendship with Ivy. With the latter confirmed for at least one more episode this season, I do hope we get to see at least one more interaction between Selina and Ivy before the show concludes for good.
As for the rest of the episode, it's not quite as good as the Bruce/Selina/Ivy scenes but there was enough to keep things ticking over. Gordon and Bullock and a begrudging Barbara worked to rescue children from an annoying gang of Soothsayers while another gang also tried (and failed) to collect on the bounty for Gordon. Plot wise, it's not very engaging but it does score some points for Barbara's inclusion and the introduction of the Haven area of Gotham, which I imagine won't be a safe place for much longer if we're being honest here.
Last but not least, there's also the Edward plot of the episode. This week he had a biker bound and gagged in his bathtub and they both discovered that the Penguin took out the biker's gang, so it looks like we've got something of an odd (and probably brief) friendship as Nygma continues to try and figure out what's been happening to him. Plot wise, I do hope they solve this one pretty sharpish and that Ed sorts out his hair too.
- Ivy's costume looked pretty comic book accurate to me and even Peyton List's hair looked a little redder than last time.
- We got some continuity on the Mother/Orphan plot from last season but seeing as they both got away, it looks like it's not done just yet.
- No Oswald or Leslie this week in terms of our regular cast. Then again, next week's episode is named after the former so he'll be back soon.
- Chronology: Not too long since the events of Year Zero.
Trespassers is elevated by the Bruce/Ivy/Selina scenes as the middle made a much welcomed return and the latter has finally stepped into her infamous persona but the Gordon and Nygma subplots, though not bad certainly felt like filler at times and with twelve episodes this season, we don't really have time for that. Other than that, still a pretty enjoyable episode.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment