S03.E20: Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Gordon races against the clock to save the city from the Alice Tetch virus, when Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) intercepts with a plan of her own. Also, Alfred sees a big change in Bruce Wayne after his work with The Shaman (guest star Raymond J. Barry). Meanwhile, some of Gotham's most deranged villains band together.

 

[Spartan Girl]

Never thought I'd be happy to see Fish. Butch is right: she can make an entrance.

Lee, you suck. Please die.

[Chaos Theory]

I know I am going to be in the minority but I really loved Virus Lee and want to keep her.  I would love to keep her as a villain for awhile.  I thought burying Jim was a pretty good gag especially giving him an escape hatch of the virus.  I would have been disappointed if he didn't use it.  Now o want to see Virus Jim and Virus Lee go off and be villians together at least for a couple of episode.

Dont judge me.  That's my crack idea.

[Pyralis]

I kept getting distracted by the black eyeshadow of evil.  And it didn't make her anymore interesting.

[Lantern7]

Have I mentioned how glad I am that we're getting another season? This isn't the best DC show, but holy crap is it worth watching. Gotham City is now the worst city ever. Coming up in September from Arrow: "Star City: Hey, At Least We Haven't Been Infected By A Murder Virus!"

Remember what I said last week about how out-of-context clips from this show could be aired? We had at least two: Alfred holding Hugo Strange off a rooftop by his tie, and Jim Hulk-tossing a poor schlub cop ten feet. And there's a lot more, like Ivy not realizing she sold Oswald out and his reaction, the walkie-talkie losing power at just the right time, and Butch admiring Fish's entrance. If you rewind, you'll see Tabitha give him a "I'm right fucking here!!!" look.

Of course Jim will be cured. He's the protagonist, after all. I mean, even with the liberties taken with canon, you can't have a white-haired pipe-smoking Gordon reminiscing about the time he got bonked, buried and had to take Mirakuru the Tetch virus to get out at the cost of his sanity. I would have no real problem if the series ends with a flash-forward of Jim as Commissioner, without a wife and/or daughter. After this, he is probably never going to fall in love again. His last three relationships: batshit, batshit, shot by a madman and left for the cornfield (insert "Blink" pun here). Seriously, if Jamie Chung comes back for the express purpose of Valerie forming a League of Embittered Exes team with Barbara and Leslie, I would welcome that. Why wait until he's fucked up four more times?

And Bruce will be saved. I do blame Alfred for not as least shooting his boy in the foot to disable and potentially snap him out of that state. Of course Mr. Shaman cheats and detonates the bomb. At least Alfred wins Replacement Father Of The Year honors again.

[HoodlumSheep]

Decent episode

Pros:

• Hugo is always a delight
• Harvey loves his bff Jim so much :')
• everytime Alfred refers to Bruce as 'my boy'...just everytime ;_;
• Fish with the awesome entrance. You know, back in season 1 i didn't like her much, but now everytime she pops up on screen I can't help but fondly yell, "fish!". Same with Barnes and a few other of the less occuring characters nowadays.
• Evil Lee's make-up was on point
• Fish and Butch's friendship. They're fond of each other and I wish Butch would run off and rejoin her side.

Cons:

• Virus lee didn't do much for me. She was kind blah and in all honestly, not much different from how she was before the virus. Maybe less angry. She did look pretty though.
• I didn't expect the old guy to bite it so soon
• Jim saying he wouldn't take the virus but then he takes it two seconds later. And then he basically becomes a supercop.
• I'm tired of Tabs being shoved to the side by Babs and the like. She and Butch should go join Fish.
• Hate to say it: some of David M's acting this episode, mainly after the first mass owl court murder. A lot of the looks he was giving screamed more "totally playing the old man" rather than "not-quite-totally brainwashed/fighting the brainwashing" to me. Maybe it's just a nitpick but it kind of bugged me.

Edited May 30, 2017 by HoodlumSheep

[Danielg342]

 

If there was an episode that is so obviously filler...it was this one.

I fell asleep. Really, I did. The only cool parts were Alfred punching Strange, Fish's entrance and Harvey (more on that later).

This whole virus business is just ridiculous. I know, Gotham lives on "ridiculous", but I'm not talking about the good kind of ridiculousness. "The Virus" has become a lazy way for the writers to "turn people evil" instead of putting in the work to develop characters and really explore why they're evil. In principle, the Tetch virus wasn't a bad idea, but it should have been used as a reason to "enhance" the wackiness, not as a shortcut to it.

I mean, I'll give credit that Morena Baccarin seemed to enjoy playing a darker version of Lee, and, for all of five seconds, the idea of Dark!Lee and Dark!Jim is nice. Until I remember that the virus seems to be a lazy excuse to have Jim and Lee become "star-crossed lovers in darkness" for the show to spend absolutely no time bringing us there.

I just hope the finale will be great. Hopefully with some focus and some expected resolution it could be fun. Of course, I predict it will be predictable- the virus will take hold, the city again goes nuts with the heroes saving it before it caves in completely. Only to find another issue that will haunt them next season.

Let's see if I'm right.

The Bullock Meter

I think of this as more of a rating for Donal Logue than for Bullock himself. Bullock largely went through the motions, but Logue brought it to life. It is, though, in character for him to tell Jim "infect yourself just to keep yourself alive", because Bullock is a pragmatist like that.

I'm also beginning to think that after he's done with the Tetch virus, Bullock may start to think he needs to hire more cops. His force isn't nearly big enough to handle everything, it seems.

[HoodlumSheep]

Does anyone know the lady cop(detective?)'s name? Does her character even have a name? The one that's showed up in the past few episodes? 

I feel like she's taken Alvarez's place, even though I know he's still around. She keeps getting a line or two each episode.

Who are you, mysterious cop lady? Who are you??????

Edited May 30, 2017 by HoodlumSheep

[mjc570]

Harvey:  Come on, you never heard of ground penetrating radar?  Or even looking for heat sources, or disturbed ground?  Seriously, what a weak search.

Loved Alfred dangling Prof. Strange - speaking of whom, B. D. Wong is just wonderful.

Tired of the whole Barbara/Ed/Butch thing, although Penguin is such a great character - well-acted, well-written - that I do enjoy all his scenes.

Speaking of scenes - wonderful to see Fish come back.  Especially Butch's look of admiration, he can't help himself. 

Edited May 30, 2017 by mjc570
spelling counts

[thuganomics85]

Well, they went about getting Lee to take the Tetch virus the most ridiculous way possible, but now that it has happened, at least it's kind of made things fun, and Morena Baccarin seems to be having way more fun finally getting to be a ball of ham, instead of just complaining about how much Jim sucks.  This could be fun assuming she won't already be defeated by next week.  On the other hand, Jim still seems kind of dull even with the virus.  And since it's obvious that he ain't going to be infected for the rest of the series, that makes it obvious some kind of cure is going to happen.

So, the virus bomb actually does happen, even if it was Sensei Arlo that pushed the button instead of Bruce.  But it certainly looks like Bruce is still out of his mind and I'm not sure how Alfred will get through to him.  Oh, and the Council of Owls is also no more.  But since the GCPD was trying to evacuate the station, that means a whole bunch of them are infected now, right?  Man, Gotham is really going to suck for a while.

Hey, Fish is back!  I'm not sure if Oswald is going to be better off with her or if he would have rather taken his chances with Nygma.

For someone who is smart (in her own crazy way), Barbara constantly belittling Tabitha seems like a dumb idea and is probably going to backfire on her in the long run.

Hugo Strange slowly backing away from Virus Lee was hilarious.

[call me ishmael]

Hasn't the "let's release a virus into Gotham so they will tear each other apart" already been done in Batman Begins and by the same villain?

[paigow]

There are a bunch of Talons that are now Ronin...unless they work for Bruce now...If those cops take Bruce outside, they will be infected...Does the virus also give you Barry Allen speed? Gordon ran from the park to Union Station in 2 minutes?

[Dobian]

Oh no, the virus turned Jim into Uma Thurman!

[Kostgard]

Despite this being what felt like (yet another) place setting episode, I still found it pretty entertaining. Actually not a huge amount happened on plot, but it was good on some character stuff and some good moments. 

I guess Lee is a little more interesting on the virus, BUT IT IS STILL ALL ABOUT JIM. Good lord. Just go wreck up the city. But at this point, I'm hoping she and Jim can just go have crazy Tetch virus sex and get it out of their system. 

And why does the virus make people suddenly fond of black eye makeup? Though comparing Lee to Barnes, it looks like one of them Pinterest fail memes:

Inspiration

Nailed it.

This was a good Harvey episode and a very good Alfred episode. One of the few non-boring things about Jim is his BFF/bromance with Harvey. They've come such a long way since season one when Harvey was all crooked and just wanted to get rid of Jim. And poor Alfred losing Bruce to the brainwashing was just heartbreaking. You could tell it was just killing him. Though I did kinda laugh that the police hauled Bruce off, but Alfred? The guy who just shot and killed another guy? Meh, no biggie. Just leave him there with the body. GCPD really is the worst. Work on that, Harv.

I'm rooting for Tabs and Butch to break off on their own. When Babs and Ed are together, they're kind of turds. And I loved their shared reaction to Ed and Oswald, rolling their eyes all, "Good lord. These two and their drama."

And Ed? It's about time you admit that you don't actually want to kill Oswald. You have had a few opportunities now to just kill him and be done with it, and you always seem to find an excuse to delay it. You find yourself locked in a cage next to him? Make a deal to not kill each other for six hours. Find him after those six hours are up and Butch is all, "Cool. Let's shoot him, right?" and you're all, "Hang on a sec..." Then you get him AGAIN, when he has no defenses left, and again, instead of just shooting him, you're all, "Call me The Riddler before you die!" and when Oswald is all, "No! That name is stupid" your reaction is, "Fine! I guess I'll just have to really, really draw this out! Hours! Days! Weeks! MONTHS! YEARS!" You even lost Babs on that one. 

Moments I liked:

- Ivy's little squeal when Ed and Butch walk in and she hides behind Oswald.

- Oswald, not sure what to do next in his war with Ed, decides to just go to Ivy's greenhouse and get sloshed on what looks like tequila while he bitches about them.

- Zombie Jim running down to stop the bomb, encounters a fellow cop who is all, "Hey, Gordon. There you are!" and he just tosses him aside. I laughed. I was hoping he was going to encounter a string of cops then it would be like that scene in Airplane!

- Fish. I'm not really a fan of hers, but I enjoyed her scene. Oswald was right - in a lot of ways, this new crew is a bunch of amateurs compared to her. She comes in, commands the room, throws some light shade at Ed (he's been running around town all, "I'M THE RIDDLER" and Fish gives him the once-over and is all, "Whoever you are..." Awesome), and then takes Oswald away from his captors, and everyone just stands there and watches her do it. Credit where it is due. I'm still pretty sure she doesn't mean Oswald harm. We see her with Oswald's missing freak "army" in the preview for the finale, so they must have filled her in on what he was doing, and she's got a plan now that involves him. I saw in an interview with JPS where she coyly said that Fish "Figures some stuff out..." I'm not sure what it is that she's figured out, but it's pretty clear she's got a plan and she needs Oswald for it. I hope she recruits Butch and Tabs to her side.

Thing that made me skin crawl: That "bacon sizzling" sound we got every time Lee's eyes went red. It makes me think the virus is cooking her eyeballs.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Kostgard

[Traveller519]

Who is working the front door of Gotham Central PD? Can I suggest installing a turnstile? A security checkpoint? A metal detector? Or is it a booking agent? "Yes, the officer you'd like to see is present. Would you like me to ring ahead to him, or will you be making the grand entrance to the bullpen?"

[mertensia]

2 hours ago, Dobian said:

Oh no, the virus turned Jim into Uma Thurman!

First thing I thought of when he was in the coffin was Nick Stokes. Then Dean Winchester.

[Rascotes]

Fish Mooney?  Boo!  Hiss!  Boo!

[Danielg342]

9 hours ago, HoodlumSheep said:

Does anyone know the lady cop(detective?)'s name? Does her character even have a name? The one that's showed up in the past few episodes? 

I feel like she's taken Alvarez's place, even though I know he's still around. She keeps getting a line or two each episode.

Who are you, mysterious cop lady? Who are you??????

The captions call her "Campos". Don't know if she's been referenced on-air, though.

[Dame sans merci]

6 hours ago, Kostgard said:

I'm rooting for Tabs and Butch to break off on their own. When Babs and Ed are together, they're kind of turds. And I loved their shared reaction to Ed and Oswald, rolling their eyes all, "Good lord. These two and their drama."

And Ed? It's about time you admit that you don't actually want to kill Oswald. You have had a few opportunities now to just kill him and be done with it, and you always seem to find an excuse to delay it. You find yourself locked in a cage next to him? Make a deal to not kill each other for six hours. Find him after those six hours are up and Butch is all, "Cool. Let's shoot him, right?" and you're all, "Hang on a sec..." Then you get him AGAIN, when he has no defenses left, and again, instead of just shooting him, you're all, "Call me The Riddler before you die!" and when Oswald is all, "No! That name is stupid" your reaction is, "Fine! I guess I'll just have to really, really draw this out! Hours! Days! Weeks! MONTHS! YEARS!" You even lost Babs on that one. 

That really made me cackle. Ed is there all 'you will call me daddy The Riddler', whilst everyone else stands around looking vaguely uncomfortable. Ed, you're such a creep. 

This episode also reminded that one of my initial concerns about this Ed v Os arc is that both of them are protected by a significant amount of plot armour and aren't going to die. The whole thing is ultimately futile, as we saw with Ed's stalling here.

I found myself strangely emotional at Ivy saying she couldn't leave Oswald. I will choose to believe that Ivy is the hero of the 'heroes rise' subtitle and nobody can convince me otherwise. Ivy is the hero we need and deserve.

Harvey and Alfred continue to be spectacular (although, did he REALLY call Strange a slag?), and I found myself enjoying evil Lee. As much as the weird decisions taken to get her to the point really irritated me, you get good, fun material in Gotham as a villain and Morena Baccarin was obviously having a ball. 

[Danielg342]

24 minutes ago, Blackcanary said:

This episode also reminded that one of my initial concerns about this Ed v Os arc is that both of them are protected by a significant amount of plot armour and aren't going to die. The whole thing is ultimately futile, as we saw with Ed's stalling here.

Makes me wonder if Ed and Ozzie should have stayed pals- maybe even lovers- and then, just before Batman truly arises, they "break up". Cory Michael Smith and Robin Lord Taylor have such electric chemistry that it's such a waste that the show decided to simply make them enemies. There's so much potential being wasted.

I also wonder if the Tetch virus should have been a S2 storyline. It would have made much more sense for the virus to be unleashed following Falcone's retirement than it is now. If the show tells us that the city went bonkers following Falcone, then the virus would have been a good way to explain it.

[Chaos Theory]

I don't particularly care about storyline when it comes to this show.  The show is at its best when it just goes balls out crazy anyway.  This episode did manage two have my both Dark Lee and Barbara Keen in it so it is already going to be one of my favorite episodes this season.  Hey I am a simple girl.

I also really liked the scenes with Nygma and Penguin.  And the Alfred stuff was good too.

Plus Ivy and Selena.  Tabitha and even Fish See show all you have to do to make me happy is give the ladies something to do. 

And maybe bury Jim Gordon.  That was fun.

[darkestboy]

Mostly a finale set up but it certainly had it's moments.

I love how Fish just swooped in, took Oswald and managed to undermine Nygma, Barbara, Tabitha and Butch without even trying that hard to be honest. Actually glad she's back for the remaining episodes too.

The infighting with Babs/Tabs/Butch/Nygma is going to be their own undoing. At least Selina and Ivy actually have each other's backs.

Leslie burying Gordon, I thought was an interesting move. Of course we'll have a cure now that he's infected along with most of the city now.

Good stuff with Bruce and Alfred, but mostly just preparing us for Ras next week though, 7/10

[Dobian]

I liked in the previews how we get a glimpse of Oswald looking like Penguin for the first time with rhe top hat.

[Artsda]

Loved this episode, it was great to set up the finale. 

Enjoyed the Bruce becoming Batman set up.

Lee is a lot more interesting bad, I enjoy her more like this.  Even if she's cured, she still chose to take the virus. She needs help.

[Kostgard]

4 hours ago, Blackcanary said:

That really made me cackle. Ed is there all 'you will call me daddy The Riddler', whilst everyone else stands around looking vaguely uncomfortable. Ed, you're such a creep. 

This episode also reminded that one of my initial concerns about this Ed v Os arc is that both of them are protected by a significant amount of plot armour and aren't going to die. The whole thing is ultimately futile, as we saw with Ed's stalling here.

 

I have that same concern. I'm sure the writers are all, "Okay, these two are mad at each other now, but we can't not have them sharing screen time because they are too good together, so...they keep catching up with each other but due to some deus ex machina they don't kill each other and can meet again! Lather, rinse, repeat!" Which...not great, guys. These two are still fun together, but it's only been two episodes since they reunited and we've already had multiple scenes where it's all, "I'm totally going to kill you! Any minute now! Oh, look - a squirrel!" Don't leave two of your best characters with the richest relationship on this show in a situation where their wheels are spinning. We know the show is not going to kill either of them off, so this is getting real pointless, real quick. Whatever the next phase of their relationship is, they need to go ahead and move them there.

I'm trying to see where we can at least get some character growth out of this, but...not much is happening on that front, either. They haven't budged at all in how they see each other, nor how they are interacting with their respective teams. I was hoping that Oswald would have learned a lesson or two about loyalty from the Gabe incident. Gabe may be a moron, but he called Oswald on his crap when he was going on about how respect and loyalty are earned, and Gabe was all, "Yeah. Exactly." Like, take a look in the mirror and see how loyal you've been and maybe see how that hasn't exactly encouraged others to be loyal to you. But while I found his drunken bitch sesh about how lame this current crop of enemies are compared to the old school ones entertaining, he went on about how that group understood what loyalty meant...and they were all people that Oswald had, at one point or another, betrayed. What he did to Ed was a major betrayal. If he wants to build up an army that will actually be loyal to him, he needs to figure out how to adjust his own behavior to encourage that loyalty (Oswald - here's a hint: It's a two-way street).

9 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

Who is working the front door of Gotham Central PD? Can I suggest installing a turnstile? A security checkpoint? A metal detector? Or is it a booking agent? "Yes, the officer you'd like to see is present. Would you like me to ring ahead to him, or will you be making the grand entrance to the bullpen?"

At this point I think they should just blow a giant hole in one of the walls and just let whatever riffraff who wants to blow in off the street come on in whenever they want. That seems to be what happens all the time, anyway. 

Edited May 30, 2017 by Kostgard

[Traveller519]

1 hour ago, Dobian said:

I liked in the previews how we get a glimpse of Oswald looking like Penguin for the first time with rhe top hat.

Spoiler

They also had Selina in a more-traditional Catwoman costume. Leather, full of cat-cleavage. Almost as if the producers were counting down to her turning 18 this month

[Danielg342]

3 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I don't particularly care about storyline when it comes to this show.  The show is at its best when it just goes balls out crazy anyway.  This episode did manage two have my both Dark Lee and Barbara Keen in it so it is already going to be one of my favorite episodes this season.  Hey I am a simple girl.

Crazy for the sake of crazy just isn't interesting to me. If I just wanted random crazy moments, I'd just go on YouTube and watch random videos there, and the show could have easily done the same.

Or, the show could have remained a police procedural and sent Harvey and Jim on weekly escapades of weird cases and not have to worry too much about being a serial.

The fatal error was the show deciding they wanted to focus on long arcs instead of cases of the week. It wasn't a bad idea in principle but, for that to work you need to be good with your stories and continuity and, in practice, the show has shown it's just not that good at doing anything except "being crazy".

[paigow]

Can we start calling Jim & Lee, Gomez & Morticia now???? So the virus will turn other people into vintage TV characters??? Some of the cops in Union Station will become Andy Taylor & Barney Fife???

How did Fish find Oswald? If he is so easy to track, why not pick him up after the initial birdcage breakout? If Fish needs him so badly for a nefarious plan, why leave him exposed to Nygma for so long??

[cali1981]

I really enjoyed last night's show.  The only thing I can say is that Morena Baccarin can come to my house, dressed and made up in that dark Goth motif and inject me with whatever she damn well pleases.  She was even more of knockout in her mini-Elvira mode.

Edited May 30, 2017 by cali1981

[Biggie B]

Quote

Harvey:  Come on, you never heard of ground penetrating radar?  Or even looking for heat sources, or disturbed ground?  Seriously, what a weak search.

Well, even though most of the characters use cell phones (albeit mostly flip phones), the cars, TVs, rudimentary computers, and even some of the clothing all look pretty vintage. I know this is a live-action cartoon/comic, and there's no definitive year, but it certainly doesn't have much of a 21st century vibe. Using radar would've seemed too...sophisticated for the rag-tag GCPD.

I'm so done with Lee. I truly hope she's either killed in the finale, or at the very, very least, cured of the virus and taken away for good (but not to Arkham, because that place is no more secure than CTU on '24'). I'm also completely bored with Barbara and Tabitha; both characters can leave the show, I'd never really notice their absence since they don't do much but squabble with each other (yawn). I'm growing weary of evil female characters, they've become a dime a dozen. I know this show centers on two male characters - Bruce and Jim, with Alfred and Harvey as their sidekicks - but it would be nice to have at least one strong, intelligent, and "good" female character. I haven't forgotten about Selena - I really do like her character very much - but she's quite a pill much of the time. She deserved getting yelled at by Alfred last week. OTOH, I admire her loyalty to Bridget and Ivy, and I can appreciate how crushed she was by her mother's actions. But still - she's basically a child. So she doesn't quite fit the bill for me, for what I'm looking for in a female character, even if that character was secondary.

I wasn't a big Fish fan initially but ever since her various deaths, she has grown on me, and last night's entrance was great! A little Fish goes a long way.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Biggie B

[Dobian]

2 hours ago, paigow said:

Can we start calling Jim & Lee, Gomez & Morticia now???? So the virus will turn other people into vintage TV characters??? Some of the cops in Union Station will become Andy Taylor & Barney Fife???

Let me guess...Barnes would put a light bulb in his mouth and be Uncle Fester?

Quote

Crazy for the sake of crazy just isn't interesting to me. If I just wanted random crazy moments, I'd just go on YouTube and watch random videos there, and the show could have easily done the same.

I don't think it's all crazy for crazy's sake, there are definite plots and motivations.  But this show does seem to take its queue more from the old Adam West Batman show than it does the latter day Batman/Dark Knight offerings.  I keep waiting for them to start filming scenes in those crazy fun house angles.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Dobian

[NorthstarATL]

19 hours ago, HoodlumSheep said:

Does anyone know the lady cop(detective?)'s name? Does her character even have a name? The one that's showed up in the past few episodes? 

I feel like she's taken Alvarez's place, even though I know he's still around. She keeps getting a line or two each episode.

Who are you, mysterious cop lady? Who are you??????

I think she's there to maybe add a slight balance since all of one gender is on the dark side on this show, even if Selina straddled the line now and then. I was hoping Lee/Leslie would maybe get to enjoy the same status as her character in the books on the show, but that ship has sailed. Taking her down the same road a Barbara Keane, who made it her own, has not been a wise move either.

   I AM loving the villains on this show though. I find myself browsing the web whenever BabyBat or the cops are on. Not interesting.

[Snookums]

Quote

I guess Lee is a little more interesting on the virus, BUT IT IS STILL ALL ABOUT JIM.

Can I get a hallelujah!

Oh, brother. Look, Lee-vil, that eye makeup is on point, the thigh length coat and pants are fab, and you've finally quit with that Real Mob Housewives of Gotham poof in your hair, thank God, but this whole obsession thing isn't any less boring with you trying out a new color ink in your italics pen, okay? This is the same exact dialogue Lee's had for weeks on end, and adding on ripoffs from Kill Bill isn't making it more interesting. 

More Of The Same is just never as much fun the second time around. When Babs went off the deep end she was just as obsessed with Jimbo, but she made her crazy something more, and it's been a helluva lot more entertaining to watch. Morena's certainly as good an actress but she's not being allowed to play with her insanity-version character: she's got no grand plan or tasty plots. It's simply more and more and more of her demanding that dipshit Jim Gordon do--what, at this point? Apologize for the ten thousandth time? Kill himself? Resurrect Mario as a zombie? Marry Lee in some dark virus ceremony? The writers don't know, they've just painted themselves into a corner, again, and have whipped out the trusty "make them go crazy" trapdoor to get them out of it. 

 

Quote

I'm sure the writers are all, "Okay, these two are mad at each other now, but we can't not have them sharing screen time because they are too good together, so...they keep catching up with each other but due to some deus ex machina they don't kill each other and can meet again! Lather, rinse, repeat!" Which...not great, guys. 

About Oswald and Ed, but again, proving that familiarity breeds contempt! Even among the other characters: when Ed was doing the "call me Riddler Daddy" routine everybody around them was all WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR SEX GAMES and Barbara, of all people, was the one to step in and say I didn't sign on to be some kind of torture assistant for your weirdo delaying tactics. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Fish hadn't stopped in to break things up. Love Butch reminding the audience that Fish was an old flame with only five words; that's how you do things, writers.

Wonder if she's going to scoop up Gotham's greatest pragmatist, Hugo Strange? I love how he's all "okay, so you're the one holding me hostage now? Fine, whatever, I obviously surrender." He's got no investment beyond living out the day and it's a breath of fresh air, like when Lee-vil's chucked into the holding cell next to his and he examines her with interest while stepping prudently out of grabbing range. Nice.

Not out of Alfred's range, though, and it was honestly refreshing to hear Harvey tell him to take Strange off somewhere and beat information out of him--why even try to keep up pretenses at this point? And Alfred unleashing his inner yabbo was terrific. *SLAM* "skag." Between that and having his nice tie all stretched out Strange is probably quite put out.

Annnnd Jim Gordon. He dummied up right out of the gate telling the uniforms to take off while he entered Lee's house ALONE, knowing she's got the virus! Even for Gordon that's something special. He totally deserves to get buried alive. I was only disappointed that during the long shots near the grave, you didn't see him Hulk-bounding across Gotham towards Union Station in the background.

[Biggie B]

Quote

 

Harvey to Jim: “we figured there was only one place she could take you: Jackson Park.”

Why Jackson Park?

 

Jim was using a short-wave radio or walkie-talkie, which had a very limited range of a mile. So they figured out that, within a mile's radius, the Park was a likely spot to bury someone/something.

[Philbert]

22 hours ago, call me ishmael said:

Hasn't the "let's release a virus into Gotham so they will tear each other apart" already been done in Batman Begins and by the same villain?

More or less but in the film, it was Scarecrow, aided by Falcone (who was unaware of what Scarecrow was doing) who did the actual releasing-at the behest of Ra's-Al-Ghul.

[Spartan Girl]

Honestly, the only thing that would make Virus Jim entertaining is him finally growing the balls to call out Lee/Leevil on all her crap and telling her to fuck off once and for all.

I had similar hopes for Spider-Man 3.  But Venom Peter Parker failed abysmally in that task, so why would Gotham be any different?

Edited May 31, 2017 by Spartan Girl

[Noneofyourbusiness]

So, Jim, you think it's a good idea to send away any kind of backup while you single-handedly enter the home of someone whom you suspect of having taken a virus that gives people super-strength? Is this stupidity or overconfidence?

[Snookums]

Do you really have to ask, Noneofyourbusiness? :)

Edited May 31, 2017 by Snookums

[Noneofyourbusiness]

35 minutes ago, Snookums said:

Do you really have to ask, Noneofyourbusiness? :)

Honestly, it could be either. Of course thinking that he can handle a virus-infected person all by himself is a kind of stupidity in itself, but a different one from sheer plot-induced incompetence.

[Dame sans merci]

7 hours ago, iheartET said:

5) What is going on with the Riddler‘s eyebrows?!! They look raised up, odd and out of place.

They're quite extraordinary, aren't they? They didn't seem to be doing it in episode 19, so I wonder if his hat is too tight and it's giving him a bit of a Croydon facelift.

[Kathemy]

In some bizarre and illogical fashion the show managed to fix the entire trainwreck of Jim and Lee in one scene.

I'm pretty stunned. More later.

[Dame sans merci]

13 hours ago, Snookums said:

About Oswald and Ed, but again, proving that familiarity breeds contempt! Even among the other characters: when Ed was doing the "call me Riddler Daddy" routine everybody around them was all WE ARE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR SEX GAMES and Barbara, of all people, was the one to step in and say I didn't sign on to be some kind of torture assistant for your weirdo delaying tactics. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Fish hadn't stopped in to break things up. Love Butch reminding the audience that Fish was an old flame with only five words; that's how you do things, writers.

If Barbara has a shred of intelligence, that should be her cue to kick Ed to the kerb. An ally with a fixation to the detriment of her continued power isn't an ally at all.

Unluckily for her, I suspect she'll realise this too late, and at a time when she's already pushed Tabs and Butch away. Given how unpleasant they've made her in this past arc, there's likely some bad karma heading her way in the finale.

[Kathemy]

I've begun to think that Tabitha will die in the finale.

I can't remember where but I think I read somewhere that a character would bite the dust. Then we have several more hints.

Butch has Fish back in his vicinity, temporary or not. Barbara and Tabitha are on the outs. Tabitha taunted Ozzie about not doing anything about her murdering his mother. There will be a fight between Team Gangsters and Team Monsters. 

Out of all the characters on the show, her life seems most at risk.

Oops wrong forum. Can't move, can't delete, screw it.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Kathemy
Dumb Kathemy. Dumb, dumb Kathemy.

[darkestboy]

I'm fine with Tabitha dying.

I think we could do with some deaths in the last two episodes.

[jhlipton]

On 5/29/2017 at 9:06 PM, Chaos Theory said:

I know I am going to be in the minority but I really loved Virus Lee and want to keep her.  I would love to keep her as a villain for awhile. 

Seems like the only way these writers can make women interesting is to make them villains.  Yay?

[Kathemy]

1 hour ago, jhlipton said:

Seems like the only way these writers can make women interesting is to make them villains.  Yay?

Selina's not a villain. The more of a villain she becomes the less interesting she gets.

[Kostgard]

59 minutes ago, Kathemy said:

Selina's not a villain. The more of a villain she becomes the less interesting she gets.

I agree - her "extreme selfishness" kick she's been on has made her both boring and irritating. I hope she snaps out of it soon.

And the sad thing is Lee WAS interesting. I really liked her back in season two. Then they just turned her into a bitter little pill who does nothing but bitch about Jim. 

[Danielg342]

22 hours ago, darkestboy said:

I'm fine with Tabitha dying.

I think we could do with some deaths in the last two episodes.

Provided it ain't Bullock, I could go along with that.

[paigow]

The preview looks like Harvey is getting a beatdown....maybe Bullock gets "killed" and is "replaced" by Captain O'Hara ....a physical twin of Bullock with a Lucky Charms voice... 

[Kathemy]

Doux Reviews: Pretty Hate Machine