Season finale time
Sep. 6th, 2018 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessGotham 4.22 No Man’s Land review
I'll start with a frivolous, but excellent aspect of this episode: COATS! Ra’s al Ghul got the snazziest number, I think, with gold threads, but Lee’s blue coat was also cool. The henchman Bruce was fighting had a good one, with chunky, well-defined buttons, and Bruce acquired a black coat to foreshadow his cape by the end. This was a good episode for coats.
Pacing-wise, it built up and up and then plateaued until Penguin got stuff to do, and then they teased the fifth season/new world order, with nearly all the villains, including creepy new(?) ones (but not Poison Ivy, leading me to fear they couldn’t get the actress, and we’ll have another recast. They also resisted showing Sofia waking up). Jim and Bruce exchanged uplifting speeches. Jim is going to look even more stupid when Bruce becomes Batman and he doesn’t know who he is. As for the episode, TDKR was borrowed from (or technically wasn’t the comic that inspired it called ‘No Man’s Land’?), some things worked better than others – like some bits made me punch the air in happiness, and some bits underwhelmed me, because of the pacing and familiarity.
SELINA IS NOT DEAD. YAY! Good to have the confirmation, although a. she may not walk, which will mean angst for someone so agile and possibly a miracle cure and b. Bruce promised to stay and didn’t. First it was because soldiers forced him to leave, which is fair enough, but there was a period when Selina was in surgery and nobody was there waiting (Tabitha was busy taking a really long time to cross the city to find Jeremiah). Secondly, it was a conscious choice to pick Gotham over her. Which, okay, fine, always going to be a thing Bruce does (and I’m probably going to do a rewatch of a lot of Batman movies, and will end with TDKR where Bruce chooses life with Selina over death in Gotham, which will soothe me). But he promised, and for all his angst, he ordered Alfred to stay with her for her safety, not because she was going to wake up to be told she’d be paralysed. And he had to order Alfred to do this, because he wanted to be at Bruce’s side for a fight.
I actually sincerely hope Selina gets to stroke cats next season.
Jeremiah made demands to see Bruce, Jim and Harvey wisely said ‘no’, but a soldier came in to impose martial law and basically made Jim look smart and capable of dealing with the craziness of Gotham. Seriously, dude, trying to arrest Jim the second time? Give it up. Bigger problems.
Jeremiah was made even more creepy because of what they’d done to his eye – deliberately because he was talking about visions, I presume. They lampshaded the Joker and Ra’s coming from different genres, united by their obsession with Bruce and moulding him into the Dark Knight.
As Strange turned up to treat Butch, Babs, Tabitha, Alfred and Penguin untied (a bit soon after last week’s alliance) because Gotham was under threat. Again. I was very snarky about Babs’s plan, but she has learned something (and Ra’s basically trying to go ‘Psych’ over the portrait deserved the treatment it got). The knife that was broken was reforged, and she and Bruce destroyed Ra’s together. I still think it was mainly Bruce, but I’ll give her that.
Meanwhile, the Eddler saved/abducted Jim for his own purposes. A rather baroque form of torture – the Riddler as Bond villain, how very 1960s TV show – and Lee rightly called him out. Well, she called both men out and said she was going to choose her own path in life thank you very much (YAY! Own it, Lee. It’s not the best path morally, but it’s fun).
I rolled my eyes at her claim she was leaving Gotham, because even though she managed it once, it wasn’t for long, and when the bridges blew up, obviously not. This led to the final encounter with Eddler, where she stated that she knew he would murder her, because that’s what he did (and he would, because she wasn’t the women he conceived of her being), so she stabbed and disarmed him first, but he had another knife, and that felt like the perfect play out of this season’s crazysauce Lee/Ed.
I didn’t think they’d remain dead either, because hello, he’s the Riddler and they put Lee/Jim back on the table, although I prefer Queen of the Narrows!Lee to Jim’s girlfriend!Lee. (Sidenote: about half the Lee/Ed fanfiction seems to be written by Ed/Oswald slashers who are trying to rewrite it. I merely make the observation, because I’ve been there with other ships, even if I approach Lee/Ed from another angle.) And lo and behold, Hugo Stange will do…something to bring them back.
He did, after all, restore Butch. Tabitha was delighted. I didn’t care. In fact, I’d been thinking more about how Penguin hadn’t much to do. The others had beef with Ra’s and Jeremiah, and he’s only had bits and pieces for the end of this season. So, the utterly vindictive killing of Butch and payback for killing his mother, hearkening way, way back was rather brilliant. He totally deserved his attempted comeback (although it was amid characters who’d been his henchpeople staking out their territory).
Babs and Tabitha putting all this down to men was not the most compelling argument. I don’t think hardcore misandry is the answer to the show’s dodgy gender balance. By the way, where was Harper in the lining up of the few dozen cops and Bruce to fight for the city? What was the point of her being around for so much of this season (more so than Mr Freeze and Firefly) if she didn’t get a moment along Harvey and Lucius?
I guess my response is mixed. I’m miffed on Selina’s behalf. Bruce has still got another season before becoming Barman, presumably. I could have done with more of Lee equating Jim to Ed than hero Jim (e.g. rescuing that kid was a bit much). But most of the villains scrabbling for turf, versus a small number scrabbling for order/on the other side, whatever happens next for Lee and Ed - that promises to be tasty next season. May they keep whoever did the clothes as well.
I'll start with a frivolous, but excellent aspect of this episode: COATS! Ra’s al Ghul got the snazziest number, I think, with gold threads, but Lee’s blue coat was also cool. The henchman Bruce was fighting had a good one, with chunky, well-defined buttons, and Bruce acquired a black coat to foreshadow his cape by the end. This was a good episode for coats.
Pacing-wise, it built up and up and then plateaued until Penguin got stuff to do, and then they teased the fifth season/new world order, with nearly all the villains, including creepy new(?) ones (but not Poison Ivy, leading me to fear they couldn’t get the actress, and we’ll have another recast. They also resisted showing Sofia waking up). Jim and Bruce exchanged uplifting speeches. Jim is going to look even more stupid when Bruce becomes Batman and he doesn’t know who he is. As for the episode, TDKR was borrowed from (or technically wasn’t the comic that inspired it called ‘No Man’s Land’?), some things worked better than others – like some bits made me punch the air in happiness, and some bits underwhelmed me, because of the pacing and familiarity.
SELINA IS NOT DEAD. YAY! Good to have the confirmation, although a. she may not walk, which will mean angst for someone so agile and possibly a miracle cure and b. Bruce promised to stay and didn’t. First it was because soldiers forced him to leave, which is fair enough, but there was a period when Selina was in surgery and nobody was there waiting (Tabitha was busy taking a really long time to cross the city to find Jeremiah). Secondly, it was a conscious choice to pick Gotham over her. Which, okay, fine, always going to be a thing Bruce does (and I’m probably going to do a rewatch of a lot of Batman movies, and will end with TDKR where Bruce chooses life with Selina over death in Gotham, which will soothe me). But he promised, and for all his angst, he ordered Alfred to stay with her for her safety, not because she was going to wake up to be told she’d be paralysed. And he had to order Alfred to do this, because he wanted to be at Bruce’s side for a fight.
I actually sincerely hope Selina gets to stroke cats next season.
Jeremiah made demands to see Bruce, Jim and Harvey wisely said ‘no’, but a soldier came in to impose martial law and basically made Jim look smart and capable of dealing with the craziness of Gotham. Seriously, dude, trying to arrest Jim the second time? Give it up. Bigger problems.
Jeremiah was made even more creepy because of what they’d done to his eye – deliberately because he was talking about visions, I presume. They lampshaded the Joker and Ra’s coming from different genres, united by their obsession with Bruce and moulding him into the Dark Knight.
As Strange turned up to treat Butch, Babs, Tabitha, Alfred and Penguin untied (a bit soon after last week’s alliance) because Gotham was under threat. Again. I was very snarky about Babs’s plan, but she has learned something (and Ra’s basically trying to go ‘Psych’ over the portrait deserved the treatment it got). The knife that was broken was reforged, and she and Bruce destroyed Ra’s together. I still think it was mainly Bruce, but I’ll give her that.
Meanwhile, the Eddler saved/abducted Jim for his own purposes. A rather baroque form of torture – the Riddler as Bond villain, how very 1960s TV show – and Lee rightly called him out. Well, she called both men out and said she was going to choose her own path in life thank you very much (YAY! Own it, Lee. It’s not the best path morally, but it’s fun).
I rolled my eyes at her claim she was leaving Gotham, because even though she managed it once, it wasn’t for long, and when the bridges blew up, obviously not. This led to the final encounter with Eddler, where she stated that she knew he would murder her, because that’s what he did (and he would, because she wasn’t the women he conceived of her being), so she stabbed and disarmed him first, but he had another knife, and that felt like the perfect play out of this season’s crazysauce Lee/Ed.
I didn’t think they’d remain dead either, because hello, he’s the Riddler and they put Lee/Jim back on the table, although I prefer Queen of the Narrows!Lee to Jim’s girlfriend!Lee. (Sidenote: about half the Lee/Ed fanfiction seems to be written by Ed/Oswald slashers who are trying to rewrite it. I merely make the observation, because I’ve been there with other ships, even if I approach Lee/Ed from another angle.) And lo and behold, Hugo Stange will do…something to bring them back.
He did, after all, restore Butch. Tabitha was delighted. I didn’t care. In fact, I’d been thinking more about how Penguin hadn’t much to do. The others had beef with Ra’s and Jeremiah, and he’s only had bits and pieces for the end of this season. So, the utterly vindictive killing of Butch and payback for killing his mother, hearkening way, way back was rather brilliant. He totally deserved his attempted comeback (although it was amid characters who’d been his henchpeople staking out their territory).
Babs and Tabitha putting all this down to men was not the most compelling argument. I don’t think hardcore misandry is the answer to the show’s dodgy gender balance. By the way, where was Harper in the lining up of the few dozen cops and Bruce to fight for the city? What was the point of her being around for so much of this season (more so than Mr Freeze and Firefly) if she didn’t get a moment along Harvey and Lucius?
I guess my response is mixed. I’m miffed on Selina’s behalf. Bruce has still got another season before becoming Barman, presumably. I could have done with more of Lee equating Jim to Ed than hero Jim (e.g. rescuing that kid was a bit much). But most of the villains scrabbling for turf, versus a small number scrabbling for order/on the other side, whatever happens next for Lee and Ed - that promises to be tasty next season. May they keep whoever did the clothes as well.
