Written by Ken Woodruff
Directed by Danny Cannon
Ivy (to stranger): "Something happened. I changed. Grew. I'm different, inside and out."
Last week saw the somewhat 'death' of Ivy Pepper and departure of Clare Foley from the role and this week saw the origin of Poison Ivy and the debut of Maggie Geha in the role. However, despite this week's episode title being about another prominent female character and the focus being on that character, it was the newly changed Ivy that generated the most attention and interestingly so.
Emerging from the waters, a little scattered brained at first, Ivy went to a random stranger's house who made the mistake of trying to help by her. Said stranger asks her a few necessary questions, comments on her beauty (which surprises Ivy) but makes the cardinal error of throwing away a withering plant, which later becomes the very thing that Ivy killed said bloke with.
I know the changing of actresses and ageing the character has been something of a divisive thing but to be honest as much as I'll miss Foley in the role, I do think Maggie Geha is off to a promising start. If the show can show a little restraint and not go overkill on the temptress angle with Ivy, then there's some real potential here to do something really interesting with the character.
How Ivy will go on to interact with the rest of the characters now, I'm not sure. I know there's an upcoming plot with Bruce we could all do without but other than that, I do wonder will she cross paths with the likes of Oswald, Nygma, Barbara and Tabitha as well as Selina once again. Either way, I'm interested to see where the show will now go with the character.
As for the main plot itself, once again both Gordon and Valerie worked together in order to 'catch' Fish, only this time around, it was Valerie who kind of got the better with Jim. I did notice that like with Leslie back in the second half of the first season, the writers just threw Gordon and Valerie together. Speaking of Leslie, she popped up right at the end just at the very moment when Gordon decided to move as is often the case with television shows these days and romantic entanglements.
Getting back to Fish though, I guess it's a good thing the episode didn't kill her off. It would've been the easiest thing to do but ultimately would've made her return completely pointless to boot. That being said, Oswald did come close to taking her out before she managed to manipulate him (without using her powers). Fish also made off with Hugo Strange when she wasn't holding Bullock hostage, so there's another future plot brewing there.
I have to admit, it's a good thing this freak plot hasn't been overdrawn. The mini-arc mantra the show's been adopting since last season has worked in it's favour but with Fish out of the city, I guess it's time to move on a little. Except for the fact that Alfred and Bruce have just encountered the latter's clone and there's still the sort of threat of the Court of Owls (never officially confirmed onscreen) in the background too.
- A few absences with Selina, Nygma and Tabitha sitting in this episode out. Maggie Geha has also been promoted to regular status. Barbara also popped up briefly to wind up Gordon and Valerie.
- Given the way that Oswald has been managing to rile citizens these last two episodes, I know which plot they're going to do next with him.
- Owls lady has a name - it's Katherine. She also promised Bruce that he wouldn't see her again but somehow, I doubt that.
- Chronology, not long from where Better To Reign In Hell left off. Next week, Mad Hatter time.
A solid episode but nothing too extraordinary either. Burn The Witch might have focused on a literal witch hunt for Fish but it was really Ivy and the four minutes of screen time that I think most people will remember about this one, along with that last scene with Bruce and his double.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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