Tuesday, April 14, 2015

My Review of Gotham's 1x19: "Beasts Of Prey"


Written by Ken Woodruff
Directed by Eagle Egilsson

Jason (to Grace): "I really thought you were the one. Don't worry, sooner or later I'll find her."

After being over a month off the air (allowing both UK and Irish stations to nearly catch up, kind of), Gotham has returned for the first of it's final four episodes and we've got a new villain in the mix. Despite his obscenely good looks, Milo Ventimiglia is the Ogre or Jason Lennon - whatever you want to call him.

Let's get the obvious out of the way - serial killers like Jason aren't nothing new or revolutionary. For all crime dramas, they tend to be the default baddie - that misogynistic scumbag who targets women and subjects them to all kinds of physical and mental cruelties before eventually killing them in a fairly horrible manner.

One of Jason's victims in this episode was a woman named Grace Fairchild, whom he seduced, imprisoned and eventually killed in a room that seemed like a mixture of Dexter Morgan's kill rooms and Christian Grey's Red Room. Of course, this happened four months ago but it became a present day problem when Gordon was duped into investigating the case by a smarting Loeb (clearly that man holds a grudge well) and Bullock had to tell his partner the consequences of looking into Jason's killer activities.

Villain wise, I like that the show is aiming to add their own ones into the roster and while Jason's only USP for now is that he targets the loved ones of those who investigate into his antics, I do think that Ventimiglia was suitably chilling enough in his flashback scenes with the unfortunate Grace. However, given that Jim opened up a massive can of worms, things aren't going to go well for either Barbara or Leslie in the remaining episodes now that Jim is in his sights.

While I hated that Jim had been easily played by Moore appealing to his good side, I did enjoy seeing him threaten Loeb in the end. I don't doubt he'll catch the Ogre but at the same time, I also imagine that there will be consequences and that taking Loeb down won't be as easy as Gordon seems to think it will be either.

Moving away from the Ogre storyline though, at long last Fish managed to escape from that island and the Dulmacher. Granted, she still got shot and it was a bit touch and go but given that we already know that Jada Pinkett Smith won't be making it into the next season, it would've been something of a cop out if she had died at the Dollmaker's hands really. I also liked that she went back for Kelly as well after selling him out in the previous episode. I guess Fish really does have her principles.

As for Bruce and Selina - I really didn't see the latter causing Reggie's death coming. I mean, I know that Selina has killed from time to time in certain adaptations but that was a shocker though and something that did highlight the different moral codes both her and Bruce have. Overall, the fallout of Alfred's stabbing has been interestingly dealt with this week.

Also in "Beasts Of Prey"

Slightly unusual that Jason's scenes were dealt with in flashbacks but it really worked. The broken heart calling card is pretty clever too actually.

The Catcher: "You're outside."
Fish: "You're observant."

I kind of guessed that Fish was setting up half the prisoners to go for the boat while her real intention was to go for the chopper.

Leslie (to Gordon): "What can I say? You had me at homicide."

Bullock: "Ed question - would you rather work more or less?"
Nygma: "Is this a riddle?"

This week Oswald managed to get a woman named Lydia's granddaughter back to her by cutting off the finger of a guitarist. He also wants to kill Maroni in Lydia's place too. Good luck with that, Oswald.

Jason: "Maybe you're right. I've had plenty of relationships but in the end they never seem to work out."
Grace: "Why not?"
Jason: "I think what I'm looking for frightens people."

Selina: "Could've smashed your head in with a brick, y'know."
Bruce: "Why would you do that? Why would you say that?"

Are Selina and Ivy still living with Barbara at the moment? I guess we'll find out next week.

Oswald (to Gabe): "All kinds of things motivate people - lust, ambition, envy."

Reggie: "I'm going to tell on you."
Selina: "No, you're not."

Chronology: Not long from where "Everyone Has A Cobblepot" left off I imagine.

Not the best episode we've had but as a set up for an interesting finale arc with Gordon vs. the Ogre, I think "Beasts Of Prey" laid down the groundwork pretty well actually. Jason might not be the most original type of villain but he's certainly one of the more interesting new ones we've had in a while though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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