Sunday, October 18, 2015

Gotham Recap: 3x04 Strike Force

Time for another Gotham recap! Before we delve in, I’d like to remind readers that Gotham contains adult content and viewer discretion is advised. Content/Trigger warning for language, violence, and physical abuse of a minor. Spoilers ahead!


Eddie’s darker self tells him that saving Kristen’s life entitles him to a date with her.

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He goes up to Kristen, gives her an address, and tells her to meet him there at eight o’ clock.

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The address turns out to be his apartment, where he has cooked a dinner for Kristen himself.

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As the two have a lovely date, Kristen apologizes for being mean to him at work. Eddie says she isn’t to blame, as his behavior toward her has been inappropriate. Embarrassed, Kristen says she can’t believe she suspected Eddie of forging Dougherty’s note or that she ever let Dougherty abuse her to begin with. Eddie says he’s glad Dougherty is dead, forgetting that Kristen still believes him to be alive.

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Disturbed, Kristen excuses herself for a moment. And when she returns, she catches Eddie in the middle of talking to his other self. Eddie is forced to explain that he has another voice in his head, but Kristen is unexpectedly understanding about it as she assumes that voice is something a bit less sinister.

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Eddie and Kristen share their first kiss.

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Cat tries to meet up with Bruce after school. When Alfred sees her, he punches her out of revenge for killing Reggie.

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He then tells her that Bruce is better off without Cat and that she should stay away from him. Upset, Cat leaves.

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Bruce has a time set to eat dinner with Theo Galavan. As part of his training, Alfred has Bruce run to the restaurant instead of driving him there.

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While eating, Bruce spots a beautiful girl playing in the fountain outside the window. Theo introduces the girl as his niece and ward, Silver St. Cloud, who will be going to the same school as Bruce.

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The new captain, Nathaniel Barnes, arrives at the GCPD and fires everyone he knows has been involved in corrupt dealings.

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An idealist, he says things at the station are going to work much differently now, and he makes Jim Gordon his second-in-command.

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Harvey, however, isn’t too happy about the new captain’s approach.

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Barnes asks Jim to meet him at the police academy. There they hire new graduates to form Unit Alpha of the GCPD Strike Force.

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Oswald is attempting to restore order among his people when Tabitha pays him a visit and says her brother would like to speak to him.

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Theo shows Oswald his plans for rebuilding the city, which include tearing down a residential area to clear the way for new skyscrapers. As for who’s going to tear down the residential area, he wants to make Oswald his destroyer. Oswald refuses and says he’s a builder. Plus, he doesn’t understand how Theo could ever become powerful enough to carry out this plan anyway. Galavan says he plans to become mayor, as everyone has been begging him to do so since he killed Jerome. To ensure his victory, he wants Oswald to kill all the other candidates running.

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When Oswald refuses, the Galavans reveal they have kidnapped his mother, and he must do what they say to keep her alive.

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To ensure no one suspects that Theo is behind the killings, Oswald stages a fake attempted shooting at the ceremony where Galavan is receiving a medal of valor.

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Galavan pretends to be outraged by this and announces to run for mayor to show criminals who’s boss.

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Oswald murders the first of Theo’s running mates.

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There are witnesses to the murder, and Butch finds their names and addresses so he can threaten them into staying quiet. The threats don’t work, however, and one of the witnesses gives a description of Oswald to the GCPD, which Jim recognizes immediately.

Butch is confused as to why Oswald is killing these people, and Oswald explains the situation about the Galavans and his mother.

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Oswald sends in Victor Zsasz to kill off the other candidate.

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This leads to a shootout in the street between Zsasz and the new Strike Force members. Both Zsasz and a Strike Force officer are shot but not fatally. Zsasz escapes.

Jim visits a very upset Oswald, telling him the GCPD knows he’s been killing political candidates and that they won’t make deals with him anymore. Upset about the circumstances concerning his mother, Oswald lashes out and reminds Jim there are things that can be used against him, such as the murder of Ogden Barker.

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Barnes brings the team together and announces Oswald is enemy number one, and it’s time to take him down.

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Galavan tells Barbara and Tabitha that while the GCPD is preoccupied with taking down Oswald, he’ll become mayor and rise as the most powerful figure in Gotham.

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Butch looks for Oswald’s mother but is unable to find her.

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Final Thoughts: 

Overall, this wasn’t a bad episode per se, but it definitely had a number of problems. The first of which is Theo Galavan. It’s clear the showrunners want Galavan to appear clever, menacing, and unstoppable, but they are going about this in all the wrong ways. Instead of having the character naturally earn this reputation, they seem to be dumbing down the other characters to make him appear clever in comparison. Why would Oswald leave his mother unprotected, so she could be used against him like that? Why would he murder someone in front of witnesses, assuming Butch’s threats would be enough to keep them quiet? Oswald, having risen above not one but three powerful underworld figures last season, is experienced in the game. He knows what he can use against people and what can be used against him. He is also notorious for planning things out to the tiniest detail. There’s no way he would leave so many bases uncovered. Having a stranger, Theo Galavan, come to Gotham and easily defeat all the people we came to know and love last season – by having those people act out-of-character, no less – is not any way to establish a new villain. It only makes us hate him, and not in the way the showrunners want us to hate him. Instead of being impressive or frightening, he simply seems like a cardboard cutout of a villain who wins automatically simply because the writers want him to.

And speaking of people acting out-of-character, did Alfred really just punch a little girl in the face? He did? Well then.

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Seriously, what was going on with that? Besides the fact he did it out of revenge for killing Reggie – a man who tried to kill Alfred, and would have gotten both Bruce and Cat killed as well, had he lived long enough to do it – what kind of man just straight up punches a young girl in the face? Not the kind of man Alfred is supposed to be. Seriously, it seems like every episode the writers stick in something absolutely absurd. In the first episode, we had a man named Zaardon breathing out blue smoke that could knock a whole room of people unconscious. In the second episode, a twelve year old boy fired his own legal guardian. In the third episode, they killed their version of the Joker, only to reveal that the Joker is not a person but rather an ideology that is spread when people randomly start laughing and committing crimes after seeing Jerome on TV. And now, in the fourth episode, Alfred Pennyworth is punching children. Why are you doing this, Gotham writers? Why?

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Nathaniel Barnes is quite a powerful figure. And while his intentions for the city are good, I don’t think he understands Gotham well enough to really accomplish what he’s setting out to do. In fact, it really makes me wonder how Barnes has stayed so naïve and ideologically pure for so long. He seems to be older than Jim and yet knows less about Gotham than he does. Has Barnes been to Gotham before? Doesn’t he have experience with the kind of crime and corruption that plagues the city? Where has he been all his life? He seems to have just popped out of nowhere with tons of drive and little wisdom.

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I absolutely loved Kristen in this episode. I have mixed feelings about her scenes with Eddie because, on one hand, they are adorable together and it’s nice seeing them get along so well. But on the other hand, Eddie is dangerous. And the fact that his other self is pushing him toward entitlement spells bad news for Kristen’s safety.


What’s To Come: 

It looks like the fans’ protests have worked! While the showrunners have insinuated in past interviews that episode three of this season would be Cameron Monaghan’s last, and that Jerome’s story would be completely wrapped up by then, they now seem to be saying something different. At this year’s NYCC, executive producer John Stephens said, “we probably have not seen the last of that fellow” when asked about Jerome.

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We got a few more interesting pieces of news from NYCC as well, such as the fact that Oswald may soon team up with Barbara and a hint that Tabitha Galavan may not be all the way on her brother's side after all. And most excitingly, Oswald’s father will be coming to the show very soon, played by Paul Reubens.



The synopsis for episode seven, entitled “Mommy’s Little Monster”, has been released and reads as follows:

"Butch leads Penguin and his men to the warehouse where Gertrude is being held, as Penguin plots his revenge on Galavan for kidnapping his mother. Meanwhile, Nygma deals with the aftermath of a deadly accident."

Deadly accident? Hmm. I hope nothing tragic happens to Kristen Kringle.

And, as always, here are all the links to promos and sneak peeks of tomorrow’s episode:




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