After what was an uneven freshman season, Gotham returns with a clear theme for its second season with “Rise of the Villains” (as the commercials have been touting for a month or more). “Rise of the Villains” aims to give this season an umbrella, which will help the cohesion of the world in which Gotham is trying to build. However the need to point out such an obvious theme typifies the lack of nuance the show has overall, while also begging the question isn’t the point of Gotham to show the origins of every villain anyway? Season one certainly showed the rise of Penguin, the breaking of Edward Nygma and Barabara Kean, and opening chapters for a whole slew of other characters. Couple that with the fact that Bruce is at least four years away from even being capable of donning the cape and cowl. Regardless “Damned If You Do…” sets the table for what will become the “Rise of the Villains.”
“Damned If You Do…” is your typical first episode of a new season. After last year’s finale, which saw Falcone’s death, Gordon trying to take down Commissioner Logue, Nygma’s first kill, Bruce finding the proto-Batcave, and The Ogre cajoling Barbara into insanity, “Damned If You Do…” had to not only check in with all of these characters but also reset the table for season 2. And while the episode accomplished both of those main tasks, some of the paths the writers have decided to take these characters down seem a tad dubious.
The most dramatic shift comes in Barbara’s character. Instead of trying to deal with what happened with her and The Ogre, and at least trying some sort of rehabilitation, it seems she has completely cracked. Residing in Arkham alongside some of last year’s villains -- Richard Sionis and Jerome (aka pre-Joker) -- she is now a “bad girl” who uses her sexuality to insure her protection within the asylum. Unfortunately she’s trying too hard to be bad, which makes her seem harmless. Whether this is intentional to show that she doesn’t really belong amongst the worst of the worst, or is a shortcoming with the acting/writing is yet to be seen. Regardless it is somewhat disappointing that Barbara’s fall into insanity wasn’t at least an early focus of this year’s season. I know much of her story last year was her downward spiral, but she was still on the right side of a “normal” human being for much of last season. Watching her struggle with what she did last year while trying to rehabilitate would have given Season 2 a nice psychological plotline and a character to fight for something personal instead of your typical good vs. evil fight.
The main villainous rise, at least for one episode, actually came from Gordon. After quickly being fired by Logue and taking some advice from Bruce he decides to ask Penguin to help him get his job back. But a favor requires a favor in payment, which forces Gordon to shake down a club owner who refuses to pay Penguin. This ends up with Gordon beating up the club owner’s henchmen, stealing the money, and killing the club owner in self-defense. Gordon’s resolve to be put back on the force to do some good is true to the character, but his decision to do Penguin’s favor comes a little too quickly with much of his internal dilemma unexplored. Sure, doing something bad in order to do many good things later seems like a plausible excuse, but that doesn’t mean it should have been so easy for Gordon. Likewise it will be interesting to see how Gordon’s crime will affect him this season -- aside from making him drink a little more often and hide things from Leslie for a few minutes. Penguin repays Gordon by forcing Logue to resign, which then gives Essen a promotion to Commissioner and ends in Gordon’s rehiring.
Finally “Damned If You Do…” introduced a new main villain in Theo Galavan (played by James Frain, most recently seen in True Detective Season 2). Galavan is a billionaire scientist and current head of Gotham’s Chamber of Commerce. Accompanied by his sister Tabitha (or Tigress), Galavan busts Barbara, Jerome, and Richard Sionis (who wants to leave and Theo asks Tabitha to quickly kill) from Arkham Asylum in hopes of creating a team of criminals. Their main purpose, besides to cause more havoc in Gotham, is yet unknown but it seems clear Gotham is trying to capitalize on the upcoming movie release for Suicide Squad.
Galavan’s method for breaking the inmates out comes with an air of mysticism as he gets a henchman to drink a blue potion that much later is emitted from his innards as some sort of blue knockout gas. Whether Galavan is or will become a more well known Batman villain (early speculation has him as Ra’s Al Ghul) has yet to be even hinted. Galavan’s billionaire status, as well as his killing of Richard Sionis, means he may have more than a few adversaries to deal with as Richard Sionis is surely related (most assumed Richard was Roman’s father) to famed Batman villain and billionaire Roman Sionis/Black Mask (last year’s episode “The Mask” showed Richard and his mask, a proto-Black Mask apparently). Galavan also reopens the door for the Venom serum, the development of fear toxin that Dr. Crane used on his son Jonathan, as well as other science-gone-awry aspects of the Batman universe including Victor Fries, Kirk Langstrom, Joker’s and/or Harvey Dent’s troubles with acid, and Roland Daggett who (according to Batman: The Animated Series) created an anti-aging cream that created Clayface.
Towards the end of Season 1 Gotham seemed to settle into a more style and action over substance formula, which “Damned If You Do…” only perpetuated. Gotham still hasn’t given us much reason to care for its characters outside of the fact that they are not yet who we know they will become. The plot seems more like checking off boxes in a checklist than having any real meaning to the characters and how it really affects them. Sure, they react to what is going on around them but there seems to be little growth within the characters. “Damned If You Do…” did a solid job setting up what’s to come in the first part of Season 2 but without delving deeper into these characters it doesn’t feel like a necessary watch every week.
Other Bat Droppings
* Nygma continues to be the only person who seems to be struggling with who he is becoming, and while him “talking to his crazy self in the mirror” routine is a tad hackneyed at least it shows he has not totally become The Riddler. It also gives Nygma something else to do besides being trampled on every episode.
* The discovery and opening of Thomas Wayne’s secret office (the proto-Batcave) never was really that exciting. However Alfred and Bruce’s relationship continues to be a bright spot. Alfred being excited by the explosion the bomb he helped Bruce make was a nice touch, plus showed they are both capable of creating gadgets that could be useful for Batman later on. Bruce will continue his investigation into his father and Wayne Enterprises, hopefully there will be some more interesting findings this season -- they’re off to a bad start with Thomas basically telling Bruce to pursue his “calling.”
* The Penguin-Catwoman alliance could have interesting results. Catwoman may end up realizing the “real” world of crime is a tad too much for her.
* At this point if Jerome does not become the Joker it will be more annoying than an exciting twist. You can’t have one pale, red-headed guy maniacally laugh that much only for him to not become who everyone thinks he’ll become.
* It's a shame Harvey Bullock won't stay a sober bartender for much longer, it really suits him.
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