With only three more episodes of Gotham remaining, things are heating up quick!! This week we got to focus more of Theo Galavan 2.0 as he is continuing his reign of terror as Azrael. Not only does his mission of killing Gordon remain, but as he remembers that he actually is Theo Galavan, he remembers his original assignment: Bruce Wayne.
The Gotham police department is actually shell-shocked. Not only did a masked assassin come into their police station and kill a bunch of officers, but Azrael was able to deal a strong blow to their captain, who until that moment served as the uncompromising strong guy in the entire department. Now Captain Barnes is on a respirator and possibly will not survive the season (leading to Gordon’s eventual ascension to leadership). Not only do they have a crazy boogeyman to deal with, but he’s also none other than Theo Galavan, who until his departure was a major thorn in their side. How are they going to be able to overcome this? Cue in Harvey Bullock and his surprisingly motivational speech to the troops. Bullock even admits afterward that he’s not one for speeches, so it was rather surprising that he was the one who was able to rally the troops.
Speaking of the troops, Gordon needs to either get his badge back or fade away. The entire episode he’s still been acting John Q. Public, but acting like he’s still a member of the force. One could almost forget that he’s not a cop until later in the episode when he tries to commandeer a police car and the officer says “but you’re not even a cop.” Every week, we keep saying he needs to get re-hired, but every week he sticks to his promise to work solely on the Wayne murder before he can rejoin the force.
Gordon and Bullock track down Tabitha Galavan, who’s been shacking up with Butch. Since Tabitha and Theo did not part of the best of terms, she thinks he’s going to come and kill her. Gordon and Bullock catch up with them as Tabitha is trying to leave, and convince her to help them track down her brother. She explains a little bit of the mystery/history of The Order of St. Dumas and if they want to find him, they have to go to her relative’s grave where the real sword of Azrael is.
Before they can get the sword, Azrael is there. After a brief fight, Tabitha confronts Azrael and tells him that he really is Theo Galavan. As he begins to understand and somewhat accept his identity, he realizes that his original mission was to kill none other than Bruce Wayne. He then proceeds to stab her since she was a “traitor” for not killing Wayne.
Tabitha is now stuck in the hospital with a sappy Butch by her bedside. In comes our favorite villain: Oswald Cobblepot, and he hasn’t forgotten that Tabitha and Theo Galavan are responsible for his mother’s death. Butch, being in love, sides with Tabitha and will keep trying to protect her. Oswald then states that his main beef is with Theo, but he needs Butch’s help.
Alfred received notice from Gordon that Galavan is now searching for Bruce to complete his original mission. At first, Alfred has no idea where Bruce is and is actually worried, but after Bruce shows up at the mansion, they go into full lockdown mode to prevent Galavan from getting in. Well, the best-laid plans…. Galavan soon shows up with the intention of easily dispatching Alfred and Bruce. Little does he know that Alfred is a badass fighter himself. The two engage in messy-but well-choreographed fight throughout the living room in Wayne Manor. Once again, that seems to be the only room they use on Gotham.
However, we get a new location on the show as Bruce makes his way to the parking garage where he gets behind the wheel and proceeds to mow down Galavan. Galavan, ever the Jason Voorhees, simply gets back up and continues stalking his victim. When all looks down, Gordon shows up and shoots Galavan until he empties the clip. Now, what can they do? Enter Oswald, Butch, and a rocket launcher…. “You’re Welcome!”
Meanwhile, Bruce warns Selina that Pinewood is conducting experimentation on people either recently dead, or within Arkham Asylum. At first, she’s not too happy to see him since recently their relationship has been rocky. Selina then agrees with Bruce and she wants to “break into Arkham to further investigate. Selina also wants to see if her friend Bridget has been a part of these experiments, so they’re going to have to break in.
Selina ends up going by herself and does some quite badass Catwoman stuff as she attempts to enter Arkham. As she is sneaking through the air ducts Aliens-style she runs into Edward Nygma for a rather comical interlude. As she finds Hugo Strange’s secret elevator, she does run into her friend Bridget. Unfortunately, Bridged has also fallen victim to Strange’s brainwashing and now goes by the name Firefly and is poised to attack Selina.
This was a pretty good episode. Surprisingly, we are done with the Theo Galavan resurrection storyline. That could have lasted throughout the rest of the season, but instead ended on tonight’s episode. This reminds us that the true villain of the “Wrath of the Villains” is, in fact, Hugo Strange. Within the next few episodes, we’ll see if he gets his comeuppance.
Next week looks like we will be seeing Fish Mooney coming back. She was a rather divisive character, so hopefully her comeback will be good. We’ll find out soon enough.
