Wednesday, June 07, 2017

My Review of Gotham's 3x21: "Destiny Calling"


Written by Danny Cannon
Directed by Nathan Hope

Barbara (to Nygma): "Let's make Gotham beg."

Finally, it's time for the finale, at least a fortnight or so after nearly every other network show has aired theirs and for good fun, it's a double. However, I'm watching both episodes separately and therefore doing separate reviews, so let's get on with the first part, shall we?

Gotham has fallen under the Tetch virus thanks to the now diminished Court of Owls and Gordon is doing his level best not to succumb to his darker impulses while under the influence of said virus. For the most, he was kind of succeeding, then half way through, things went a little to pot and Fish ended up being dead during a crucial moment where the antidote for the Tetch virus then got destroyed.

Once again, Gordon really does blunder a situation but in terms of deaths, what an anticlimatic way of actually writing Fish out though. I did like that Oswald mourned for her and she told him to take over the city but ultimately, what was the actual point of Fish being brought back in the first place? Maybe she should've stayed dead after all.

As for Strange, I have to admit to taking some pleasure in seeing him being repeatedly bested throughout this episode and I was more than happy with Oswald, Freeze and Firefly all banding together to torture the crap out of him as well. However, he's needed for making more of the antidote as is Tetch himself but there was a bit of a snag there.

Because Barbara and Nygma needed some kind of victory in this one, they managed to intercept Tetch's police truck and kidnap him along with Butch and Tabitha (still scheming but not really doing anything of note). Despite finding Tetch rather annoying, there was something highly amusing in his mistaken belief that Babs and Eddie were his saviours though.

As for the rest of the episode, Bruce was still heavily under the Sensei's influence and despite a bloody good try from Alfred, there was no getting through to him. The most important bit though was the swift introduction to Ras Al Ghul and no disrespect to Matt Nable's version in the Arrow universe, but a few minutes alone and Alexander Siddig already captured the role far better. The last scene however, I really didn't see coming in the slightest. Definitely a yell at the screen sort of moment though.

- Leslie might be mildly insane while currently on this Tetch virus but her assessments of both Butch and Tabitha's roles are still rather spot on and they clearly know it to an extent.
- We saw the Lazarus Pit in this episode and despite Ras's talks of not having an heir, I'm betting we'll see a version of Talia next season on the show.
- Absent from the episode were Selina, Ivy and Barnes.
- Chronology: More or less from where Pretty Hate Machine left off.

Destiny Calling was a great start to the finale. While Fish's death was crappily handled, the rest of the episode certainly upped the ante, ended on one hell of a cliffhanger and seeing the various factions fighting out amidst the chaos of an airborne virus - only on this show. Can't wait for the second part.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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