Some of Gotham’s worst villains band together while the Riddler continues his conquest of the city; Gordon’s quest for answers leads him back to the Court of Owls; Alfred begins to notice a change in Bruce.

Gotham continues its streak of entertaining episodes with this one that builds upon the last with Riddler on a mission to find out who really runs Gotham and at the same time James has to decide how he’ll deal with the Court of Owls.

It’s a solid episode as it tamps down the silly instead delivering an episode that’s reminiscent of the Batman and Batman Returns. The camp is removed but at the same time there’s winks and nods from what’s come before.

Cory Michael Smith steals the show as the Riddler and his quest. There’s a little bit of Jim Carrey, but he makes the role his own by keeping it grounded and not campy. At the same time, there’s still a bit of fun with it all.

While Riddler is on his quest and James attempts to capture him Penguin continues to gather allies and evil-Bruce does something… well, I said the episode was like Batman Returns. The episode’s side stories are still solid again removing the camp and keeping things focused in tone and style.

Overall, a really great episode that has focus, a consistent tone, and a clear direction. The vision here feels completely different from what we’ve seen the rest of the season, other than last episode. That’s an improvement as lack of focus has plagued this season.

Overall, a solid episode that continues the series in the right direction overall.

Overall Rating: 7.95

The Court of Owls devises a new plan regarding the future of Gotham, as Gordon uncovers information about his father and uncle’s past, connecting him back to the organization. Meanwhile, Bruce wakes up in the temple and learns of the Shaman’s wish for him.

Gotham delivers what might be the strongest episode of the season as Ben McKenzie steps behind the camera to direct his first episode of Gotham. The episode is broken down into three parts, Penguin plotting his revenge with Ivy, Bruce being trapped, and Gordon dealing with his Uncle and the Court of Owls.

There’s some oddness to the episode, but that’s mostly due to the writing as the bad guy gives us the viewer an idea of their plan, which in the big picture of things is rather silly in how it’s played out. That’d be the Court of Owls announcing they’re going to purge Gotham. We get a sense of why and we’ve seen this before since it’s the plot of Batman Begins. That’s all just ok as Gordon’s uncle tries to help Gordon stop it all and we finally learn who really killed Gordon’s parents. It all plays out rather neatly, but in moving the plot along, it’s solid.

But, the concept of purging Gotham isn’t the only thing taken from Batman Begins. Bruce is captured and at some temple where he’s forced to deal with the Shaman. We’re not explained a hell of a lot here, but the whole setup is Batman Begins meets Doctor Strange complete with trippy scenes and imagery. The sequences are good, but it doesn’t make sense to send Bruce some place where he’ll be trained. Why not just kill him if you’re going to replace him? It is utterly idiotic and the biggest plot hole of the season. The scenes are decent and we get some movement in Bruce becoming Batman, which feels like it’s been accelerated as a plot point this season.

The highlight though is Penguin and Ivy. Penguin wants his revenge and Ivy is sort of helping him. While the aging and sexing up Ivy’s character has been beyond creepy, Maggie Geha steps up here and puts her spin on the character. She stands out from the crowd which is impressive considering Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin has been the most solid character the entire season. Her vamping it up and at the same time acting somewhat childish work perfectly for this version of the character and makes me wish we just got a Batman show and Geha had been a start from the beginning. She hasn’t gotten much screen time and this episode shows she’s been underused.

The episode is a solid one properly balancing all of the plot points and while things feel too convenient at times. The one think that needs to be fixed is McKenzie’s Gordon who growls through clenched teeth like he’s trying to be Bale’s Batman. He’s a bit too serious at times and this episode that doesn’t work well really hurting some scenes.

It’s take a long time, but it feels like this is the episode that might get the series on track this season. If nothing else it’s a highlight for what’s been a very bumpy ride.

Overall Rating: 7.95

Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) convinces himself that he doesn’t need Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) to succeed and begins to introduce himself to Gotham as “The Riddler.” Bullock (Donal Logue) and Lucius Fox (Chris Chalk) get caught up in Nygma’s mind games, while Gordon (Ben McKenzie) learns troubling news about his father’s death. Meanwhile, the Court of the Owls reveals its next move.

Gotham returns with an interesting episode that focuses almost completely on Nygma and it’s all presented in a series of mind games featuring Lucius Fox and Harvey Bullock. What’s interesting is the episode is mostly devoid of Gordon whose story is relegated to the secondary story. Instead, coheadlining the episode is more of a focus on Bruce and “evil Bruce.”

There’s some good and a lot of bad.

The good, actually close to great, is the story featuring Nygma, Fox, and Bullock. The story is entertaining, especially to see Fox and Nygma challenge each other’s brains. The focus on brain instead of brawn is a nice shift from the more physical aspects of previous episodes. But, the story really feels like we’re just getting to the point Nygma calls himself Riddler. Almost as the story is crafted around that concept. It’s not a bad aspect, but it feels a little forced. Still, Cory Michael Smith as Nygma has a solid spiral into his insanity.

Then there’s aspects involving Bruce and Gordon and while they move things along, there’s just not much excitement there. The series is clearly pushing Bruce to his eventual turn into Batman, which is strange since he’s barely a tween and we see some of those steps here. Then there’s this Gordon and the Court of Owls story, which also involves Bruce… that I’m holding out to see how it really plays out.

Overall, not a bad episode in its return but it still shows some issues with mixed acting and story plotting. The series isn’t consistent in its quality within its episode which makes for a choppy experience and entertainment.

Overall Rating: 6.45