Gotham focused last week heavily on the introduction of Benedict Samuel’s Mad Hatter along with his little sister who had sadly ended up as a victim of Hugo Strange’s last season. Gordon unfortunately fell under Jervis Tetch’s control which he had to struggle through a lot in this week’s episode of the new season. But as Gordon struggles with snapping out of the Mad Hatter’s control, he and Leslie also start to heal a little in their complicated relationship.
Penguin also continues his campaign to run for mayor for Gotham City, now that he has his good old buddy Edward Nygma back after getting him out of Arkham Asylum. But Butch, who is clearly not jealous (spoiler alert: he totally his) at the bromance between the two, has Nygma followed to make sure he doesn’t cause trouble.
Meanwhile, as the adults are occupied with their drama, Bizarro-Bruce tries to get closer with Selina as they look for Ivy (who Selina still doesn’t know has gotten a little bigger). However, it doesn’t take long until Selina starts to pick up on the strangeness that is Bruce’s clone, but more on that later. T
There was lot that went down in this week’s episode that we want to discuss. Let’s go through the top 5 highlights and important moments of the Gotham Season 3 episode, “New Day Rising”!
#5 – Leslie And Gordon’s Healing
Even though this aspect of the show, this season, isn’t what interests me the most, it was definitely neat that these two could actually have a little heart-to-heart with each other. Although, it probably would have been less awkward when Gordon wasn’t dealing with brain-washing, but this is Gotham City after all. I don’t know if I need to see these two necessarily get back together, but to see them at least get back to a point where they can be solid friends: that’s something I’m open to. Although I’m sure that once we get Mario more involved, things will go back to being awkward in more ways than one.
#4 – Mad Hatter Vs Gordon
Jervis’ creepiness went up a notch quite a lot in this week’s episode, but hey, that’s what you get when your name is the Mad Hatter, right? Something we don’t get a lot on this show are psychological villains so instead of the usual physical fights, we saw Gordon having to overcome his obstacle in a psychological way, mostly. What I didn’t expect though was that their encounter in the end would result with poor Alice’s tragic accidental death, which is surely going to get Jervis even crazier. Even though I haven’t grown attached to Alice, it felt really unnecessary to kill her off this early, which is where I feel the fast pacing this season needs to slow down a bit. This is a 22-episode per season show after all, there is no need to burn through story this fast, but what’s done is done.
#3 – Court Of Owls Snatches Bizarro-Bruce
First off, how much fun is this clone? Don’t get me wrong, he is creepy and mysterious 100%, but seeing him kicking some bad guys’ butt together with Selina, was so much fun. I wasn’t expecting for Selina to figure it out so fast that this wasn’t the real Bruce, but since pacing is what it is in this episode, she discovers his little secret. The confrontation between him and the real Bruce as well as Alfred wasn’t what I expected as he displays, yet again, that he is sort of super-strong. However, the Court of Owls gets a hold of him which felt inevitable, but what their plans are for him, is what I’m looking forward to in the next coming episodes.
#2- Penguin Wins The Election
I know I’m getting repetitive, but this is really a slight issue with the episode itself, as the pacing again, fast-tracks another storyline that could have taken its sweet time. When it comes to something like a mayoral race storyline, I expect to go on for at least a few episodes, especially if you are a show that has more than 13 episodes to tell stories in. The side-drama with Butch and Nygma was adorkable because while he had legit reasons to be suspicious of Nygma, this was Butch’s way of being jealous too. Despite Nygma’s questionable campaign moves, the Penguin actually wins and becomes the new mayor of Gotham City. I can only imagine how much fun this is going to be in the next few weeks, unless he loses his position as mayor in a flash.
#1- Twist Ending With Captain Barnes
While Barnes hasn’t really been on my radar since the season started, he had a really sweet moment with Gordon this week as they weren’t on each other’s throats for once (at least for a minute or two). However, as Barnes is investigating the crime scene where Alice died, a drop of her blood accidentally gets into his system and something wonky happens to our beloved captain. Are we going to see an even nastier side of Barnes? Only time will tell and it would probably not surprise me if Mad Hatter takes advantage of it in one way or another, later in the season.
Verdict: While it was a really solid episode, “New Day Rising” felt like it was trying to rush through several storylines that we could have spent a few more weeks on. Even if we know what the results will be on some of them, it’s just unnecessary to go this quick in progressing some of those arcs. Unless Season 3 has less episodes than usual, there is really no need to progress these story plots so quickly. Aside from that, “New Day Rising” was an enjoyable episode from start to finish.
Grade: B-
Gotham Season 3 airs on Monday nights at 8/7c on FOX.