S05.E02: Trespassers

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎1‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 6:30 PM, jhlipton said:

Bruce really is super naive, isn't he?  "I'm totes positive Ivy will help and not kill these men, because it's not like she's never done that before!"  Dummy!

He doesn't have to believe her but he also doesn't want to see her burn. 

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 12:38 AM, jhlipton said:

Bruce just traded the lives of three innocent people for the possibility of Selina walking again (if Ivy wasn't lying).  But it's wrong from him to kill.   Riiiiiight....

He didn't know she'd kill them, he was just trying to get her out of there.

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎1‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 10:32 PM, Dobian said:

This season is a lot less like Batman than a weird amalgamation of The Warriors and Escape from New York.

Don't forget Mad Max? But no bad thing. 

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 5:08 AM, Camera One said:

Speaking of which, do we get to see Renee Montoya again?  

I thought this episode was slightly better than the premiere.  It felt like it had a more coherent story.  Still, a lot of it felt like running away from various threats like street gang leaders we've never seen before or that random Mother and Child duo.  Forget Batman, clearly James Gordon is the most amazing mortal fighter ever.   I did enjoy Harvey, though.

I'm a little disappointed that there is so much filler action.  I don't feel like there are enough character moments, and some (eg. Alfred) have nothing to do.  The ones that are used are not even entertaining to watch as they usually are (eg. Ed).  A lot of it was pretty predictable (eg. the men in the greenhouse all become cannon fodder but Ivy doesn't kill Bruce - why, because he said the plants around them looked like death?).

Or because he was there to help Selina and she still cares?

[Joe Hellandback]

1, How exactly did the English peasant mob capture Ivy in the first place? I knew the Witch had to be her or Lee (or Sophia?), I was just hoping it wasn't Fish.

2. Does it never occur to the GCPD to take weapons and ammo off the bad guys they kill? They stick up the Soothsayers but don't take their weapons or cuff them?

3. LOVE Mad Max Barbara in her GI Joe minigun-jeep, when she first turned up I thought it was Zsaz or even Headhunter. It makes sense for the GCPD to partner up with her and maybe the beginning of reconciliation between Jim and Barbara?  

4. Who's Gabriel? Something tells me he has a greater role to play? Why does he remark on Jim's bloody hand?

5. Love the luminous paint covered gang, nice reference to Batman Forever.

6. Ivy is finally living up to her potential, now she is more like the character from the comics.

7.  The whole mystery of 'Mother' seems solved very easily although it is gruesome as hell, the pulled teeth etc remind you off the Holocaust. If you can defeat the disorientation lights by just smashing the window why didn't everyone do that? Or shoot out the lights or the kid through the door?

8. Not much Alfred this ep, like to see more of him plus a few other characters we haven't even seen referenced for a while, Dent, Montoya, Silver etc

9. So in Wild West Gotham Jim manages to find a car to hotwire that still had petrol?

10. The Green Zone is a nice ref to the Iraq war although it was also a phrase used about Beirut during the Lebanese civil war, Beirut divided into warring fiefdom's just like Gotham.  

11. Does it not occur to Jim that all these refugees he's sheltering are a potential army of his own to take on Penguin? Also, I get that the GCPD has electricity from Jerimiah's generator but where do they get gas from?

12. So, supernatural Selina, a pretty radical departure, just like Batman she was always just a human if a very skilled one?

 7/10

[John Potts]

Of course, in Gotham if you're a gang leader trying to establish yourself, your first concern isn't deciding what activity to muscle in on, recruiting members or even carving out a territory... it's deciding on a theme for your gang. I guess a city under siege will prioritise make up and fabulous outfits ahead of such mundane stuff as food or medicine. And the whole showdown where Jim is standing between two gangs who both want to claim the bounty on his head reminded me of those cartoons where everyone gangs up on one character (usually Bugs Bunny) and they disappear into a cloud of dust, only for Bugs to emerge unscathed while the others remain fighting each other. Penguin doesn't need him alive, just shoot Jim and fight over his corpse. They don't know he has contractual immortality!

I didn't see a lack of consent with Bruce giving Selina the herb. He told her it was from Ivy and that he wasn't sure it'd work and she went "F it! I think Ivy's fundamentally good" (or a suitably network friendly version of that), which sounds like consent to me. It's not as if Bruce left off what the side effects were, he just didn't know.

I do love the idea that Ed is kidnapping (and, OK, torturing, not so good) thugs in his sleep. I guess that barely qualifies as odd behaviour in Gotham.

Are now going with Barbara is to Jim what Catwoman is to Bats (untrustworthy allies and sometime lovers)?

On ‎1‎/‎18‎/‎2019 at 5:59 PM, ursula said:

Didn't he have a cameo in season 1, then disappear?

He showed up a couple of times, IIRC, always carefully lit from only one side so his face was half in shadow.

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 11:48 PM, SimoneS said:

aging Ivy was the perverted brainstorm of some 40 year or older white male who wanted another woman to brutalize and dress in sexy half naked clothes and drool over.

Hey, speaking as a 40-something white male, I find that comment... OK, completely accurate. But hey, she wears more than she does in most of the comics where she's naked except for a few strategically placed leaves!

[Joe Hellandback]

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 4:43 PM, John Potts said:

Of course, in Gotham if you're a gang leader trying to establish yourself, your first concern isn't deciding what activity to muscle in on, recruiting members or even carving out a territory... it's deciding on a theme for your gang. I guess a city under siege will prioritise make up and fabulous outfits ahead of such mundane stuff as food or medicine. And the whole showdown where Jim is standing between two gangs who both want to claim the bounty on his head reminded me of those cartoons where everyone gangs up on one character (usually Bugs Bunny) and they disappear into a cloud of dust, only for Bugs to emerge unscathed while the others remain fighting each other. Penguin doesn't need him alive, just shoot Jim and fight over his corpse. They don't know he has contractual immortality!

I didn't see a lack of consent with Bruce giving Selina the herb. He told her it was from Ivy and that he wasn't sure it'd work and she went "F it! I think Ivy's fundamentally good" (or a suitably network friendly version of that), which sounds like consent to me. It's not as if Bruce left off what the side effects were, he just didn't know.

I do love the idea that Ed is kidnapping (and, OK, torturing, not so good) thugs in his sleep. I guess that barely qualifies as odd behaviour in Gotham.

Are now going with Barbara is to Jim what Catwoman is to Bats (untrustworthy allies and sometime lovers)?

He showed up a couple of times, IIRC, always carefully lit from only one side so his face was half in shadow.

Hey, speaking as a 40-something white male, I find that comment... OK, completely accurate. But hey, she wears more than she does in most of the comics where she's naked except for a few strategically placed leaves!

You have a point with the outfits but TIG, villains believe in the spectacle (as do the heroes).