Friday, February 15, 2019

My Review of Gotham's 5x06: "13 Stitches"


Written by Seth Boston
Directed by Benjamin McKenzie

Jeremiah (to Alfred): "Today's the big day."

Well, we're at the halfway point of this season and finally after weeks of voice cameos and whispers, Jaime Murray actually appeared on screen as Secretary Walker to try and put the rest of her plan into motion by collecting a fatally wounded Eduardo, who when we see him next will have something of an "upgrade" done to him, whether he likes it or not.

I'm still trying to wrack my brains as to whom Walker is actually an alias for. I've heard rumours that she might be Nyssa Al Ghul and given the Arrow universe's brilliant depiction of her, if that turns out to be true, then we're going to have a far more ruthless version of the character for Gordon and company to contend with for the remainder of the season.

With Eduardo being shipped off screen to become Bane, the other weapons in Walker's arsenal were of course her sleeper agents. We already saw Nygma this week trying to kill Gordon once again before the latter managed to get Lucius to remove his chip but everyone should've seen Leslie (who finally reappeared this week) as the second sleeper agent.

Because we've got so little episodes to go now, at least the show didn't waste time in having Leslie struggling to remember what happened to her after both her and Nygma stabbed each other before her own attempt to kill Gordon while under the influence failed. I'm going to assume that Lucius also removed Leslie's chip off screen as well.

Then there was the other bombshells of the episode - Barbara being pregnant, anyone? Yeah, I think everyone saw that coming but the way in which she dropped that little number was delightfully petty. I think Barbara was more stung by the potential of a Jim/Leslie reunion than Nygma, who seemed bitter but resigned to the idea. The scene was made all the better with Bullock's deadpan delivery of congratulations. I guess we'll be seeing future Batgirl in nine months time.

As for the last bit of the episode - Jeremiah really does have a habit of appearing when nobody wants him to. This week he popped up just to kidnap Alfred, bring him back to the Manor and complain about cleanliness before telling the tied up butler that a big day was coming. Going by the trailer for next week's episode, it's really hard not to be excited for the latest showdown with Bruce and Jeremiah.

Last but not least we got a nice team up with Selina and Oswald (both kept away from the main storylines this week) as the pair of them worked together to take out a feathery thief named Magpie. I'll admit the actress who played Magpie might have overplayed the quirkiness a bit too much but I did like the snarky banter with Selina and Oswald nonetheless.

- Third episode to be directed by Benjamin McKenzie in the series. He'll be writing another episode later in the season.
- I had to laugh at Nygma's attempts of distracting Angel while Bruce and company were trying to take back the GCPD and Bullock remembered some high school knowledge as well.
- This episode was the first live action depiction of Magpie, even if she didn't make it out of the episode alive.
- Chronology: Over three months since the events of No Man's Land of course.

13 Stitches marked a strong halfway point episode and with both Jeremiah and Bane's arcs coming to fruition along with Walker finally making her onscreen appearance, along with Leslie's return and that announcement from Barbara, the show is definitely not messing about for the next few episodes.

Rating: 8 out of 10

No comments:

Post a Comment