I’ve been a defender of Gotham and all its quirkiness when you compare it to the other DC related shows that are on the air. I have to say that the Monday’s season two finale, ”Transference” was okay at best. Warning, spoilers ahead…
The previous episode introduced Clayface as he took on the face of Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie). It would have been nice if they introduced him much sooner in the season to fully utilize his talents. Instead, we got silly and often at times a painful impersonation of a better villain than was portrayed here. His integration into the GCPD and his interaction with Bullock (Donal Logue) was such a fail that it furthers the ongoing joke that the GCPD is the worst police department portrayed on television. So clueless that it’s not even intentionally funny. It took Barbara (Erin Richards) of all people to see right through Clayface’s failed attempt at impersonating Gordon.
Then there’s the Court of Owls. I like the idea and they will clearly have a huge role next season for sure now that Bruce (David Mazouz) knows of their existence. Bruce told Alfred (Sean Pertwee) towards the closing moments of the finale his intentions of going after the Court. Bruce finding out about this secret society ruling Gotham was due to miscalculation by Hugo Strange who let out more information about the society than he should.
For the majority of the finale, we followed Hugo Strange’s (B.D. Wong) attempt to evacuate via a bus with his “monstrous” creations to unleash on Gotham. He even went so far as to have a bomb set to go off. The problem is it takes forever and a day for the bomb to come into play and when it does; it’s the real Jim Gordon to the rescue with Lucius Fox (Chris Chalk). There was no sense of urgency whatsoever. Hugo went from this sinister mastermind with a hand in the murder of the Wayne’s to a bumbling and inept bad guy. Not well done at all.
Finally, it was Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) who breaks the monsters out only to be stopped by Penguin’s (Robin Taylor Lord) crew. Penguin had no idea about Fish and only targeted to the bus thinking it was Strange behind the wheel. Fish uses her new “persuasive” powers to neuter Penguin and seemingly take back control of her gang. We’ll see where this goes for season three.
And speaking of season three, the last shot of season two was a long-haired doppelganger of Bruce Wayne. Yeah, I’ll reserve judgment till the new season returns this fall.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
