Gotham, “Mad Grey Dawn”, Review!
By Lil’ Yoda,
Previously on Gotham, the Penguin is declared as sane by Hugo Strange after some very intense therapy, causing him to become docile and lack aggression. Bruce attempted to find and kill the man who murdered his parents. After failing he decides to live on the streets with Selena in order to understand the people he is trying to protect better, as well as the criminal element. We start this episode with Nigma at the Gotham Art Museum, pretending to set off a bomb in order to distract the patrons and commit his first crime with his signature question mark. Barnes assigns Gordon and Harvey to the case. Before letting Gordon go, Barnes tells him that the Galavan case has been re-opened, due to a witness claiming to have seen Gordon killing Galavan instead of Penguin. Gordon asks for help from Harvey to figure out what is going on over at Internal Affiars. Gordon and Harvey do a good job of unraveling the clues left by Nigma, and the painting that Nigma steals, that points them in the right direction is what gives the episode it’s title ‘Mad Grey Dawn’. It is quite exciting to see Riddler’s origins on Gotham. We’ve been working towards it since season one, and now we get to see how Nigma’s need to outsmart everyone and be recognized will ultimately get him caught. The question being, how long will it take?
Meanwhile with the Penguin, after being released he decides to visit a few of what he can friends. First he decides to visit Butch and Tabitha. It’s clear his interactions with two have been warped in his mind, still considering them friends after cutting of Butch’s hand and killing Tabitha’s brother. After seeing how warped Penguin’s mind is Butch let him go, but Tabitha decided to tar and feather him first. From there Penguin goes to Nigma and speaks to him. Nigma also quickly realizes that Penguin is not quite himself and refuses to divulge any of his plan to him. Back with Gordon and Harvey they figure out Nigma’s next move at the train station and Gordon disable’s the bomb Nigma planted just in time. As Gordon attempts to figure out who the bomber is, he places Nigma in charge of forensics for the crime scene. This is a horrible mistake as we find out later in this episode. One of Nigma’s biggest advantages is that no one perceives him as threat. No we’ll see if he continues to hold onto that advantage or if his need to be recognized will override that logic. Bruce and Selena are up to no good with Ivy (Clare Foley), as they plan to rob the gang that Ivy works for. Ivy helps drug that gang but Selena and Bruce are caught before they can get away. I’m excited to see what moral lines Bruce might be forced to confront while with Selena, and if Selena will push him towards them or not.
Penguin decides to visit his mother’s grave and ends up running into man who turns out to be this father. Though the meeting seems to be coincidental, I highly doubt that, but we’ll find out in future episodes. His father, Elijah Van Dahl (Paul Reubens), takes him to his house and explains how his parents kept him from Penguin’s mother. Penguin later meets the rest of the family, but it seems that there is some tension among them about Penguin. We’ll see how that pans out in future episodes. As for Nigma, he goes to an officers apartment and ends up bludgeoning him to death with a crowbar. Gordon finds him while following up on a lead for the bombing case, and is found standing over the body by Barnes, and is arrested. It turns out Nigma had set up everything perfectly to implicate Gordon. Using the crowbar from the bombing scene with Gordon’s prints on it to kill the GCPD officer, switching out reports for the officer saying that he was the eyewitness to Galavan’s murder, and even changing Harvey’s paper that showed Gordon was going there to follow up on the bombing. Over with Bruce and Selena, they only manage to get away from the gang by the skin of their teeth, and only after Bruce is severely beaten. Bruce later comments about the beating say that, “I knew I would be okay…No matter what he did he couldn’t break me. No one can.” Clearly showing more of Bruce’s slow turn into the infamous Batman. If anything, Batman can take beating, harsh ones, and still always get back up. We find out that Gordon is convicted of murder, and is sentenced to forty years in prison. As a result of this he tells Lesley to move on for her and the baby’s sake. Bruce is surprised when he hears the news, saying that something is off. That’s not the biggest reaction to the news though, as Barbara Kean (Erin Richards), wakes from a coma in Arkham Asylum after hearing it on the radio.
Overall, a very strong episode of Gotham. The acting in this episode was absolutely amazing in this episode for all parties, but Robin Lord Taylor in particular did and excellent job of pulling a one eighty on his character convincingly. As usual for season two of Gotham it leaves us wanting for more and wondering how our heroes are going to pull themselves out of this mess. This only thing I could think of that was a bit off was Barnes not noticing that something was bit off about the coincidences that set up Gordon. He should know that Gordon would not be easily caught and that things should not have been so easy. Other then that, I loved it and give it four out of five batarangs.
