Title: Gotham: “Time Bomb”
Network: FOX
Air Date: November 21, 2016
Genre: Crime, Drama, Action
So after a streak of episodes ranging from Great to Perfect, we now arrive at Time Bomb. This episode saw Gordon (Ben Mackenzie) and Bullock (Donal Logue) dealing with the absence of Captain Barnes (Michael Chiklis). Bullock agreed to take the place of acting captain in the meantime. However, they had bigger things to deal with as Mario was hunted by hitmen for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Bruce, Selina and Ivy uncovered the truth about the key. Best of all, they finally called the secret society by their actual name. Thank you! For the love of god, thank you! The Court Of Owls; was it really that hard to say?
Now, before I go any further, I need to address a character I failed to really talk about in my reviews for past episodes. That character is, of course, Mario Falcone. He is the son of Carmine Falcone and a respected doctor at Gotham General Hospital. He is also the fiancé of Lee Tompkins (Morena Baccarin), which has caused some drama here and there between him and James Gordon. You may be wondering, why did I fail to bring up this character? Well, the honest answer is that never seemed that important. Granted, he’s marrying Gordon’s old love interest and he’s the son of a notorious Gotham crime boss. That being said, the episodes never really revolved around him.
For the most part, Mario Falcone wasn’t so much a character as much as he was just a guy who was there. He seemed more like a plot device to bring Falcone back into the game and to cause more jibber jabber between Gordon and Lee. Yeah, he saved Gordon’s life once and they’ve had several talks and even physical altercations. However, my point still stands. The past episodes really failed to do much of anything with him so I didn’t waste my time or yours talking about him. All in all though, Mario Falcone has been shown as an upstanding nice guy whose nothing like his father and would do anything for Lee. If saving the only man who could potentially steal her from him in Red Queen wasn’t an indication of that, I don’t know what is.
So, I have to ask, what was with the ending of this episode? No, really, what is going on? Gotham has done nothing but portray Mario as a great guy throughout this season. Gordon was always wary of Mario being with Lee but can you blame him? He’s obviously just being protective of Lee. She’s the love of his life, whose about to marry the son of a former crime boss. It makes sense for Gordon to be a bit skeptical of the guy. But now, Gotham truly jumped the shark at the end of Time Bomb by revealing that this whole time, Mario had The Alice Tetch Virus as well. Why? What’s the purpose? What good can come of this? He just sees Lee saying her goodbyes to Gordon and then just randomly chokes some guy to death on the street? Huh?
Let me ask you this; how was it that the entire storyline of Captain Barnes having the virus worked? The obvious answer is because they built it up. They didn’t wait until The Executioner or even Blood Rush to reveal that he had the virus. We saw that character fight the virus tooth and nail so when he finally went off the rails, it actually meant something, not just to the audience but to the story and the character as well. With Mario, Gotham has only shown him in a positive light (outside of James Gordon’s eyes, of course). He was shown as a smart, wonderful man who only gets aggressive when he’s defending the woman he loves.
So for the whole episode, we sat there wondering why someone would want to kill him. In the end it was just because he had the virus apparently. The same virus that made people go nuts? The same one that Barnes was fighting through half the season? Yet, we’re only seeing this now? I’m sorry, I’m just not buying this. It was so ridiculous and contrived, I don’t even have words for it. Now, I can’t put all of Time Bomb down for this as this isn’t revealed until the very end. It in no way takes away from the story of Time Bomb, which was otherwise pretty good up until that final reveal. I’m sorry though, it’s just something that aggravated the hell out of me when I saw it. I simply had to vent my frustration with this and I’m sure I’ll have more to say next time.
While Gordon is protecting Mario from gangsters throughout Time Bomb, Edward has Tabitha and Butch in his clutches. Why? Well, if you recall last week’s episode where Edward made the incredibly dumb assumption that Butch killed Isabella, you’ll have your answer. That being said, I got over this rather quickly. Any episode that shows Edward Nygma acting like The Riddler we all know and love has certainly earned my forgiveness. I really don’t care why he’s doing it because it’s so much fun to watch Cory Michael Smith go nuts with this character. Remember the old line that “love makes people do crazy things”. Well, let’s just say, Nygma passed crazy in season one and now he’s just on vacation.
That all said, these moments are pretty impressive. The drama between Butch and Tabitha, where we finally see how much these two actually mean to each other is beautiful and, in many respects heartbreaking. Tabitha loves Butch too much to go along with Edward’s plan but she refuses knowing full well she’ll lose her hand. Long story short, Tabitha had her hand cut off in the episode and in a moment of panic, Edward realizes he was wrong and that Butch was innocent. I still don’t know how this riddle expert couldn’t see that in the first place but whatever.
Obviously, Barbara Kean is looking for Tabitha and Butch, leading to some of her best scenes of the season. I mean, they got nothing on her scenes in Red Queen, but they’re still pretty awesome. I respect anyone that can walk into a mobster meeting with a smile, while pulling a gun on The Penguin. Now, that’s a woman. In her search, Barbara discovered The Penguin’s little secret and knows that Oswald killed Isabella out of jealousy. Now, I can only assume that Edward is going to team up with Butch, Barbara and Tabitha in a later episode. However, given Tabitha’s recent loss of limb, I don’t see her being too okay with this.However, they weren’t the only ones with problems in Time Bomb.
Ivy found herself captured after escaping Wayne Manor. She did this by seducing Alfred. Yeah, I’m not sure whether to declare this funny or call the cops. I mean, Alfred, I know she looks over eighteen but you might want to check an ID next time. Upon meeting the kidnappers, Bruce, Selina and Alfred discover that this organization doesn’t work with The Court Of Owls, but is instead out to destroy them. The key they found could potentially bring them down and yes, they actually do declare them as The Court Of Owls. Took you long enough, Gotham. However, things won’t be so easy for Bruce, as one of the Court’s assassins’ takes out this group of enemies at the end. I’m disappointed, as I would of liked more of these guys, but we’ll see where it goes.
Overall, Time Bomb is a fine episode with one really inconvenient twist in its final moments. The characters it chooses to revolve around all get a chance to shine, especially Edward Nygma. The storyline with Jim Gordon and Mario Falcone was a decent one that seemed to be leading in a nice direction. Little did I know about Time Bomb‘s stupid ending scene which pretty much ruined that. But, you can’t win them all, I guess. Time Bomb isn’t great, but it definitely contains enough good within its runtime to keep it afloat.
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