As the virus begins to spread in Gotham, the laboratory that is developing a cure is compromised. Mario and Gordon face off before the wedding, Selina meets an unexpected face and Barbara comes to Nygma with information about Isabella,

Gotham continues its ups and downs this year with yet another uneven episode that features a lot of good and a lot of bad.

The bad is Gordon’s pursuit of Mario who he’s convinced is infected and will do harm to Leslie and wants to stop the wedding. It’s a bit all over the place with a set-up that’s revealed and so complicated it’s eye rolling. To say more would be to spoil things, and I do my best to avoid that. Lets just say as you go down the rabbit hole things get more and more detached. Keeping it simple would have done this plotline a lot of good.

The other issue is that key scenes shows the acting hole actor Ben McKenzie has dug himself. Unfortunately, he does angry, and that’s about it as he channels Christian Bale’s Batman with growling and teeth clenched. There’s some scenes that’d be fantastic with a different style, but the opportunity to show some dramatic flair and let McKenzie act isn’t taken. How it all ends leads up to a direction that feels predictable and a bit to soap opera.

Then there’s Bruce’s mission to figure out what the key is for and his assault against the Court of Owls. Where to begin with this one other than it feels completely insane and reiterates the character should have been sent off to boarding school a long time ago. A Mission Impossible type undertaking is thrown in there complete with over the top tightrope action. The mysterious person who I think is supposed to be one of the Court of Owls’ assassins but looks like Kato also shows up to make things more complicated. Overall, it’s a stinker of a plot.

Then there’s the sort of good part of the episode which focuses on Edward Nygma and the death of Isabella. Barbara of course has to stir things up so she tells Edward what she’s figured out (seriously, she got it before the guy who’s supposed to be good at this stuff?) and that leads Edward into crazy territory again. How it all plays out is really good and hopefully sets the series back up to where it’s strongest when it focuses on the mob flavored stories.

The episode is the usual mix. There’s some good. There’s lots of bad. And the series as a whole feels like it still doesn’t know what it wants to be. As the season goes on it feels more like the campy nature of Schumacher is winning out though it’s diving more into the visuals and color palette of Burton. Maybe at some point we’ll get the Batman we deserve, but it more feels like someone is looking down and whispering “no” right now.

Overall Rating: 6.70