Directed by Louis Shaw Milito
Flamingo (to Gordon): "Oh baby, you disappoint me."
This episode though, didn't strictly wow me but compared to some other ones, didn't totally disappoint me either. After all, it gave me Missy from Doctor Who and Ritchie from Looking and most importantly, it also gave audiences the start of a beautiful and deadly friendship between Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot.
Undoubtedly the scenes between Nygma and Oswald were without a doubt the best thing about this whole episode as the former helped to nurse the latter back to health in a way that was slightly milder than Annie Wilkes but still worthy of raising eyebrows. More importantly, Nygma actually helped to get Oswald out of his funk, even if it took a while for that to happen.
I did think for a tiny moment when Nygma used Gertrud's death as a means of snapping Oswald out of his depression that he was going to get cut by his newfound buddy but that didn't happen and instead one of Galavan's unfortunate lackeys ended up getting a presumably brutal off screen murder but this is Gotham and there were plenty of onscreen murders to be had as well.
Murders that were started by a lovestruck and vengeful Tabitha nonetheless. Apparently Barbara is so brilliant that Tabitha decided to get Missy or as she was known in this episode, the Lady to hire a bunch of assassins to take out Gordon and when the majority of them were swiftly taken out (though one of them did injure Barnes), she decided to send in the rather cannibalistic Eduardo Flamingo to finish the job.
Flamingo is another one of the lower rung of Batman villains we've had and while a few episodes ago, the show was able to do something truly innovative with Firefly, Flamingo despite some campy-ish humour and that gruesome moment where he killed the last of the Strike Force team members just didn't have enough screen time to really leave an impression though.
Most of this episode when it wasn't getting Nygma and Oswald on their dark paths was about Gordon confronting his own dark side through his interactions with both Barnes and Leslie this week. Some of the scene played out well enough but I have a feeling that Gordon is going to slip a little further though as we go on with this season.
Also in "A Bitter Pill To Swallow"
Both Alfred and Selina tried to get Bruce to stay away from Silver this week. I got the impression Bruce is actually aware that Silver's playing him.
The Lady: "Why come to us?"
Tabitha: "Had an accident, my aim was off."
I think if Tabitha really wanted Gordon done, she would've done it herself instead of hiring other people. Plus side though - Michelle Gomez.
Silver: "I don't want to cause trouble."
Alfred: "Smart girl, off you pop."
Barnes (re assassin): "Who's that?"
Gordon: "No idea but he just tried to kill me."
Theo is currently residing in Blackgate but Father Creel and his creepy brotherhood showed up at the end, so Bruce is in danger then.
Nygma: "What kind of change you ask?"
Oswald: "I didn't."
Nygma: "I started murdering people."
The Lady: "Are you on a job?"
Flamingo: "It's not a job if you like what you do."
Bullock was missing for this episode. He's really been underused this season, hasn't he? While Barnes isn't a favourite of mine, I do think this one did a better job of making him slightly interesting.
Gordon: "Is that name supposed to mean something to me?"
Flamingo: "Not yet but it will. I'll be upstairs in a few minutes. I want to feast on your friends first. I'll save you for dessert."
Chronology: Not long from where Tonight's The Night left off.
Let's focus on the positives - the Lady, Flamingo (underused as he was) and everything concerning both Nygma and Oswald. Aside from that, A Bitter Pill To Swallow was a fine but not a spectacular episode to watch.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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