Gotham: Episode 110 - "Lovecraft"

Warning: There's some spoilers for the episode in this review

It's the mid-season finale and a group of contract killers are after Selina at the Wayne estate. Selina and Bruce make their escape though. The two go on a tour of the underground world of Gotham. Bruce meets a young Poison Ivy who is incredibly creepy. Bruce and Selina find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place while a local fence holds the prisoner for the assassins.

Meanwhile, Gordon talks to Harvey Dent about who knows that Selina was staying at the Wayne manor and finds this whole event is a bit deeper than it seems. Alfred shows his love for Bruce by going head-first into battle to save him, and Gordon finds that the Mayor is a huge jerk.

Coming out of last week's lackluster episode, "Lovecraft" continues on building up and strengthening the relationship between Bruce and Selina and surprisingly, it actually works well on the small screen. They're kids and both a bit awkward, but Selina comes off as a mentor here as she shows Bruce what it is like to live on the streets and that in the end, you have no one to trust but yourself. The episode builds upon what will eventually become the incredibly unhealthy relationship between Batman and Catwoman and we see inklings of the future during the scenes with these characters.

We got to see a completely new side of Alfred in this episode. In past episodes, he's been a father figure to Bruce but never shown the side we got to see here: the bad ass side. During numerous moments of this episode, Alfred really opens up and beats down the bad guys in order to keep Bruce, and Selina, safe. Alfred really grows here more than any other time during this season, while, at the end of the episode, he rushes into battle. It's a great moment for this character, and it was a ton of fun to watch him win a few fights.

Award for most disturbing way to open up an episode goes to "Lovecraft." The main assassin, who is never named, chokes out a Wayne Manor gardener and then has another assassin cut the now dead man open so she can wipe blood across her forehead for a ruse. Well, that really set a bizarre tone for the episode but it was an attention-getting experience that hooks the viewer in.

The dialogue with Selina was mountains better than it was in previous episodes, but there were a few times where Bruce came off as robotic and fro another world. Understandably, Bruce is from the world of the rich and powerful and Selina is from the poverty-stricken streets, but early on, Bruce's lines just didn't fit and came off clunky. Whether that was the writing or just the way David Mazouz read it is unknown, but the early lines of dialogue in the episode were rough.

The main woman assassin is terrible in her fight scenes. She really only has one moment where she shows off her moves, when Gordon and she are fighting in Lovecraft's apartment, but in said scene, her moves are clunky and have no power to them. She's not believable when throwing a punch. So many scenes with her doing "cool" things seem to take place right before she does them, then the camera cuts away, or she jumps up to something, while a character watches her do it, then the camera cuts to her landing. Obviously, not all actors and actresses are limber fighters, but it became obvious that cuts were made because she couldn't handle the moves.

This episode really shined at the end as Gordon and the Mayor butt heads, with Dent in the room. That is a great scene and it shows that while Gordon can make a change on a smaller scale, he's still going to come up against adversity, seeing that the Mayor likes things the way they are and does something that's going to make for some interesting future episodes: he sends Gordon to work at Arkham Asylum. Who's pumped for Gotham to return from the break? Everyone should be. This is a great way to go out, if only the rest of the episode could have been this engaging.

"Lovecraft" is better than last week's episode, but it's just ok. Sure, the Selina and Bruce adventures were fun, but Gotham isn't really a fun show and devoting a whole episode to them running around while Alfred and Bullock try to find them felt contradictory in tone. It seemed like the show sacrificed expanding on a lot of other stories to tell this one, so that's really where a lot more disappointment comes from. However, the moments that shined were some of the most memorable of the season, like Alfred running into battle to save the kids, Gordon getting shipped off to Arkham, and Edward Nygma giving Gordon the most awkward hug while Gordon was packing up. The overall season has been a complete blast and the series is great, but this episode was down the middle of the road.

Yeah. Glad i dropped this show.

Yeahhh this episode was rough.

Tons of problems.

Really hope the second half of this season is better than the first because oh boy, does this show need some improvements.

ZZZzzzZzzzzzzZZZ...

Selina & Bruce as childhood friends...WTF?! I don't get why video-versions of comics can get away with such wild changes, when that would never stand with the movie-translations of traditional book series. (It'd be like, "We're going to have had Harry have grown up with the Weasleys but they just hid magic-stuff from him until he got the letter from Hogwarts!"...fans would lose it). Granted, there is just one version of each of these book series but there are different authors & different continuities for comics.....but we don't get many opportunities to see them translated to live-action, why not use the most common/accepted characterization/continuity?

Directors (when it comes to all of the movies) usually say something to the effect of "those stories were already done in the comics, if you want them - read the comics" ....yet you would never hear anything like that with Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games. They're bringing those printed story-lines to the big-screen. Hell, you don't even have to replicate the comic story-lines, just keep the same basic character-histories, characterizations, relationships, etc (ie: Batman could have a story with the Riddler that was never in the comics, but the characters have the same (real) names, backgrounds/origins, etc - so it's as if the same characters from the comics have jumped onto the screen, rather than pale imitations who just happen to share the same name).

This show need sto be put down like the rabid dog it is...

Well DC pride themselves in their Multiverse. Arrow and Flash have been pretty much confirmed to be in their own universe which is why things are different than the comics such as Oliver facing Batman villains. Gotham is pretty much the same way. In the Gotham universe Bruce and Selena are childhood friends.

Wow this show now starting to suck after the Penguin REVEAL episode which was awesome.

I loved Alfred in this episode such a bad-*ss

I don't understand how people can accept Batman as a Cowboy, Pirate or even Superman but they refuse to accept the possibility that a tv show about him may not be the same universe as the comics.

Only part of this episode I really liked was Alfred kicking ass and him and Bruce reuniting at the end.

This kissing s*** is forced as hell.

When is the second half going to start airing?

I feel like I'm the only one who like really really loves this show...

I liked the episode.

Alright, yeah, let me just get the positives out of the way first. There aren't many, but my favorite part of the show was watching Alfred just be a total badass, lady charming ass-kicking machine. I was hoping to see him show off some skill, and it's nice that he finally has. The cliffhanger at the end was also a nice touch. I didn't expect Gordon to end up in Arkham and I gotta say, it already sounds more interesting than the stuff we've been getting. Also, Gordon saying kiss my ass was awesome. And, that's it lol....no more positives....On to the negatives...

PLEASE GET RID OF ALL THE CHILD ACTORS!! They all range from eh (bruce) to bad (Selena) to godawful (the ginger who played Ivy). Damn, the three of them together in that scene was like the holy trinity of horse crap. But I have to hand it Bruce and Selena a little though. They evaded those professional killers with the utmost finesse. Seriously, professional my ass. Two 13 year olds outran them. They sucked....the chick was hot though...that's one more positive I guess. Oh, and how the hell did that creepy gate guy call them so fast? There was a serious problem with the editing because Selena and Bruce had only just arrived and the next scene shows the killers arriving to make a deal? And another thing with the editing, why didn't the man that Falcone shot have any blood on him? C'mon it's Tv-14......Everything else was just mediocre and not even worth mentioning. Damn, this episode was such a bore. 5/10.

@joshmightbe: Yeah it doesn't really make much sense to me either.

I addressed this (the bold part). (And no, I wouldn't want him as any of those in a live-action).

x2

Actually, my favorite moments in the show tonight were with Falcone. He came off as terrifying, and the dinner scene was awesome! "Lets eat!" Lmao!

I honestly enjoy how bad this show is......... They really try to ground this show, but it still comes off so silly......

This episode was so bad I was shocked when I later found out it was actually the mid-season finale. Utterly flabbergasted that they would end on this note. Utterly flabbergasted that a mid-season final lacked so much suspense, and tension. everyone in the world knew bruce and "Cat" were gonna be freaking fine.

It makes it utterly worthless to put them in any type of danger situation. And this whole episode was devoted to just that. Bad call AND execution. Alfred and Penguin were the only thing keeping me from turning this garbage off mid-view.

And come someone tell me what was the whole point of the Ivy conversation? Like what did that accomplish????

Did anyone else know the female assassin was Copperhead.

"How do I look? Do I look ok?" *crazy eyes*

Damnit man you made me choke on my noodles.

Best part of this episode was the dinner with Falcone. Nice to see Fish sweating a little after all of the trash talk she's been making about Falcone being weak. Juxtapositions between 'civilised' and 'sinister' always work so well.

Also enjoyed Alfred kicking butt. He did better than Gordon did in this one.

Unlike some I don't have a problem with the actors who portray Bruce and Selina but their story was just 'okay' and lacked any kind of real tension or danger (obviously). The episode as a whole seemed to have a pretty sedate pace and was a bit of a head-scratcher for a mid-season finale. You'd think they'd go out on a high but the best episode so far was about 3 episode ago.

Overall, despite some good bits I would also probably give this episode a 3-star rating. I'm enjoying the series but I'm not a 'I hate this' or 'I love this' kind of guy. I take episodes on their own as well as part of a whole and the series as a whole is maybe a 4-star but this episode was not.

Court of owls???? Anyone caught the owl symbol in the end?

I loved seeing Alfred get a chance to shine. He rarely does in any of the other representations of the character. Nice seeing him do more than just be a butler. That being said, it seems like this show is getting away from what made it cool. Seeing what Bruce is up to is ok and all, but Seeing Gothams underworld is the reason I like the show. I hope the second half brings those characters back to the forefront. Even if it means leaving Bruce off of a few episodes.

On that thing Selena stole? Not sure that was an owl.

@jonny_anonymous: Lil Pam was hilarious. She kinda looks like the red headed lesbian from Orange is the New Black.

So the creepy red head in the picture is supposed to be Poison Ivy, correct?

@goonage: yes

I actually really like this series, a couple things are a little different, but I got used to it.

Selina Kyle is the most annoying person on the show next to Barbra.

I hate to say it but this is the second episode in a row that would get a 2 star rating for me. The last two have really brought me down on this show. Ivy and Selena are annoying and Selena's fence was chewing scenery like he wished he was Jack Nicholson. Also, I still don't like the actor for Harvey Dent and I found his character just buckling under the Mayor like that to be a bit lame after billing him as one of the good guys. Alfred is awesome in this show and every scene with him was great but it wasn't enough to pull this episode above "bad" in my opinion.

You're not. I do. Well, Love might be a tad strong, but it's a good show. I wouldn't take CV reviews (or comments) too seriously. The General Audience (which is who this show was made for, not comic-collectors) also likes the show more than your average CVer. Is it perfect? Of course not, and each episode has some flaws.(this one included.) I tell folks to look at this series as an "Elseworlds" story, because that's what it is. Following the comic, even for personality traits of the characters, is the easy, lazy way to go. That's why it doesn't bother me that Nygma doesn't seem anything like his comic-counter-part, they decided to do their own thing with him instead of simply copying Snyder or some other Bat-writer. Thats why most reviews for this show I see outside of CV are much kinder to it. (BTW, talked to Mike W. Barr at the Akron Comic Con, and he quite enjoys it, and he knows more about Batman than all of CV combined.) Don't get me wrong, the folks on here are entitled to their opinions and it's all good and well but it's not indicative of how most folks view any of these comic-related shows. For example Here's a different type of review. Or They gave it a B+. Or Here's a score of 8/10. To be fair, these reviews are no more valid than the one's here, and this episode certainly had negative reviews as well. Like this one. And This one.

@manwhohaseverything: Your assessment of this show being for general audiences is correct but I'd like to point out that there are plenty of people on here who realize that this is an interpretation and is allowed to differ from the source material. That bit doesn't bother me at all. I just think that the show does a lot of things wrong and overall the writing isn't very good. I'm still going to watch every episode of this show because I was actually enjoying it (until the last two episodes that I thought were really bad) but criticism of the show shouldn't be reduced to just people who can't let go of their version of the characters. I know you realize that but I have seen a lot of unintelligent whining about minor details from people who don't watch the show but I've also seen a lot of fair criticisms of the show. I expected better because I really liked the pilot and I've enjoyed most of the episodes but I need to start seeing improvement from Gotham because it's been quite the roller coaster of quality. I'd say that this is the worst episode of the season and it was the mid-season finale, which is supposed to get people excited for it to return. It did the opposite for me. Sorry for the rant. lol

I get where you're coming from and I don't want to sound like someone who thinks there are no valid criticisms of the show. I have a few criticisms myself, but I think a lot of it are simply different opinions of what they are trying to accomplish. For example: I don't think they've set up Dent as a "good-guy" I think they know (and we all know) what he becomes one day and their intent with him is to foreshadow that instead of having him be the "Upright Citizen" he was in TDK before one incident set him off. Hence, events like buckling under to the Mayor. To show us that at his heart, he really isn't a good guy. Your take on Ivy and Selena.... You find them annoying (may I ask why?) and so do many others. Again, I think it's more foreshadowing. Nothing about who those two will be one day suggest they should be normal,or even likable as children. As this show is basically a set-up for what everyone knows Gotham will be like someday, the whole show is based on foreshadowing certain characters, especially Bruce. My main criticism of the show is that the foreshadowing gets quite heavy-handed at times. To the point of predicability. FWIW, your rant was fine :) For me, If I like how a show starts out, I tend to stick with it. If I don't..I don't. Kind of how I read books..if you don't have me by page 30, you don't have me at all. It's why I stopped watching AOS after 2 or 3 episodes..Lordy that show was awful x10. Might be my loss, I understand it's gotten better.

I feel the same way. I know it has it's problems but still......

@manwhohaseverything: I find Selena and Ivy annoying because the kid actresses that play them are really bad. Also, Selena must have a portal gun because she always pops up at the exact right moment. Too many coincidences in such a short run of episodes makes it hard for me to suspend disbelief. You are right about the foreshadowing but I guess that is another problem I have with the show. They want to have their cake and eat it too to use a cliche. On the one hand, they are primarily targeting a general audience who may not even know who some characters are but at the same time they keep winking at comics readers at every moment they can. I want Gotham to just be a good story. I don't need them to constantly throw references/nods/etc. at me. Another issue I have with it is the amount of villains they are dumping into the first season. I want them to spread things out a bit more and get away from the "villain of the week" formula more often. I understand that they are kind of pushing out a lot of these characters because as a show runner, they can't know if the show will have a long run and might not get the chance to use a character they want to, but I think it really drags the show down to little more than a cameo party at times.

Penguins Umbrella was amazing and then two sucky episodes come right after...

What is up with Gotham, I thought shows were supposed to get better in the second half of the series....

Totally agree with the bolded part. I think it'd be better if they focused on a few villains with only a few winks to the comic-fans (who they realize are part of the audience, even if they are not the majority.) I'd be okay if they simply did Penguin, Riddler and a few C-listers. Now..what follows is just my opinion:

The kid actors for Selena and Ivy are not terrible. I'm not ready to nominate them for Emmy's, but they aren't terrible. I do think Selena's voice is a tad high pitched for what I would've cast as young Catwoman, but that's a comic-fan talking. As for Selena popping up..I'm okay with that. She was there at the Wayne's murder, and I THINK they are showing, that like a cat, she has good/lucky instincts. As she's also a street-wanderer and doesn't seem to like to sit still, she's gonna be at/witness a lot of things in a city as hectic as Gotham.Now, if it turns out they are doing it simply as a way to get her into scenes, that's pretty lame, but not uncommon for T.V and movies in general. I mean Resse from Person of Interest shows up and shots the bad guy two seconds before someone gets iced almost every week and I never hear anyone complain about that. It's kind of odd, one of the criticism the show and early on was Selena wasn't around enough, and her scenes were meaningless. (Both of which I think were invalid criticisms.)

For this episode, I can't figure why folks say it didn't seem like a mid-season finale. By now, either the show has hooked you, or it hasn't. No need to go out the way to be overly dramatic mid-season.

Enjoying the banter, but must go do some work. :( Thanks for the civil discussion.

@zathango: Not the only one, I'm right with you man. As someone who genuinely loves all things Batman, this show is hitting the exact spot I need week in, week out.

This episode gets 5 stars purely for Gangsta Alfred. And I'm perfectly fine with Bruce and Selina. Gordon and Fish are the ones that I think come off as terrible.

@manwhohaseverything: Great to have the chat sir. I'm certainly not jumping off the Gotham train just yet. Hopefully the show will come back from break stronger than ever.

@willza92 Yeah. I actually love Mondays now because of this show!

Man, every time I go to post my thoughts I end up finding posts I want to argue with first. Maybe I'll just say that I liked this episode and point out that the kids actors aren't actually doing a bad job. Their as natural as most preteen kid actors and Bruce especially is supposed to be a bit strange and awkward. The kissing stuff is not off base for how kids this age act. In the same way that if you hate the idea of a communist Superman you'll dislike reading Superman: Red Sun, if you hate the idea that Bruce and Selina are kids who've met you'll hate watching Gotham. The show's as much about Bruce as it is Gordon, get used to it.

I also liked (as Mat discussed) the impact of the Mayer and his interaction his Gordon and Harvey Dent. I like the change for Gordon and I'm wondering if Bullock will have his own story line separate to Gordon for a while.

My favorite part though was Alfred. Mr. Pennyworth shined in this episode as an Ass-Kicker who can also make you dinner. He beats up assassins, handles a gun with ease and can even sweet talk an evil gangster woman. He's a real Renaissance man, though I hope they don't over expose him in future episodes.

As always, I liked Penguin, Falcone and all the Mafia stuff. It's a funny corner that Penguin finds himself in because he could tell Falcone that Lydia (I think that's her name) is the mole but he wants to use her for his own purposes so he has to find someone else to pin it on, while deflecting the blame from Maroni. I also liked that they showed (well didn't show but I think that part of the scene was cut out) Falcone acting a lot scarier than we've seen before. He's pulling a De Niro from Untouchables here. And I totally agree again with Mat that the action scenes with the assassins where very poorly edited. Not sure if the choreography was bad or just the way it was put on screen but it reminded me of low rate action movies for kids where they show someone winding up for a punch then cut to the person after they've been hit by the punch. Hopefully we don't see more of that.

Lastly I'll say that after last weeks Agents of Shield I thought the Gardner Cutting scene at the beginning would be much more graphic. Here's my question though, why did she have to cut him open like an autopsy if she just needed a little blood for her forehead. She could have just pricked his finger for crying out loud!

Alfred was every different kind of badass!

Also, 'bout damn time Ivy showed up again.

Thinking about paying more attention to Constantine.