Tuesday, April 12, 2016

My Review of Gotham's 2x17: "Into The Woods"


Written by Rebecca Perry Cutter
Directed by Oz Scott

Nygma (to Gordon): "Guess what? I knew that you knew that I knew."

Oh boy, I did not expect to see this one happening. I mean, yeah, I expected that Gordon would somehow clear his name but I didn't actually think in one fell swoop that virtually all of Nygma's crimes would come back to haunt him all at once too. Then he tried and failed to kill Gordon, fell for an obvious trap and ended up in Arkham. This was definitely not Ed's week, was it?

On the plus side, Cory Michael Smith gave one hell of a performance as Nygma's mask well and truly slipped and he definitely felt like an actual danger when he knocked out Gordon and later confronted him in the woods. Sending him to Arkham now means that Hugo has another project to play around with, given his previous works on Galavan, Oswald, Fries and Barbara but more on two of them in a bit.

While I've hated the serial killer aspect the show has gone with for Nygma's characterisation, I do think he's felt a bit more like the Riddler in the last few episodes and his spell in Arkham should be a lot of fun to watch as well.

Speaking of the asylum, this week we saw Hugo (in spite of Peabody's open scepticism) release Barbara back into the general population after she gave a stirring therapy speech about being reformed. It's hard to tell whether Babs is actually sincere or just playing along but Hugo is delighting in finding out for sure and her return will give Gordon something else to do other than obsess about fulfilling his promise to Bruce about finding who hired the man to kill the Waynes.

Talking of Bruce, this was a good episode for him and Selina. Both were having the time of their lives outsmarting a robber and helping Gordon take down Nygma and then they were forced to go their seperate ways after we learned that Lucius finally fixed the computer. It's nice to see that plot being advanced but I was enjoying the Bruce/Selina scenes and it's a pity they've come to something of an end for the time being.

As for the rest of the episode, I knew Oswald was going to snap at the hands of being mistreated by Grace, Sasha and Charles but even I wasn't expecting him to go off the deep end so spectacularly though. I have to admit, I felt bad for the poor dog and horrified to what Oswald did to his nasty extended family but on the other hand, it's kind of nice to have the old Oswald back as well, even if the return was pretty gruesome.

Also in "Into The Woods"

The trailer for next week's episode showed that both Victor Fries and Theo Galavan are back.

Bruce (to Selina): "I saved enough for burgers."

Bullock getting friendly with that woman so Gordon could get the tape, well I didn't expect that this week. I also liked seeing Barnes helping Gordon contact Leslie this week.

Oswald: "Where I should go?"
Charles: "Anywhere but there."

Barbara: "I don't feel insane now. I just feel sad."

Killing a dog and cannibalism. I kind of felt the show really pushed the ick factor in a big way this week.

Nygma: "Psychopath seems like such a strong word."
Gordon: "He bludgeoned a man to death with a crowbar in cold blood. He's sick."

Selina (to Bruce, re Gordon): "Great, a dead cop in my crib."

Will this season actually solve the mystery of who hired Matches to kill the Waynes though?

Alfred (to Bruce, re Selina): "It's either the work or her. You can't have both, do you understand?"

Chronology: Not long from where Prisoners left off.

A very strong and impressive episode. Into The Woods certainly brought some satisfying conclusions to particular arcs while nicely developing and setting up some more. Nygma's storyline in particular has gotten more interesting now that he's been exposed by everyone.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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