Culture of Pop

Gotham Season 5 Review: 5.6: 13 Stitches

This week’s episode of Gotham season 3 was the strongest of the season so far. Jim Gordon and Ed Nygma had to team up to take on Eduardo Dorrance.

In a great scene, Lucius Fox removed Ed’s chip while he was still conscious. The casual way they all went about this struck a great tone. Gotham is great at scenes like this, where the tone is a break from melodrama and reminds the audience that the characters are all used to the insanity.

Once he was chip-free, Ed got a chance to put his showmanship to good use. He distracted the GCPD with a fake bomb threat accompanied by a riddle. His plan went awry when Harvey Bullock actually solved the riddle. This sequence made for a great setpiece.

When Eduardo and his boss Theresa Walker found out that Ed’s chip had been removed, they activated another sleeper agent: Lee Thompkins. This reveal happened just as Lee was tending to Jim’s wounds. It was a great moment. Eduardo’s visual transformation into Bane was also very satisfying to watch.

Meanwhile, a Jeremiah Valeska acolyte named Magpie trapped Oswald Cobblepot and Selina Kyle in a room together. Magpie was a bombmaker who was a lot of fun to watch on screen. She had the lighthearted entertaining quality that I’ve been missing from both Jeremiah and Ecco. I loved watching Oswald and Selina come together to form an alliance. Every combination of characters on this show is just incredible. I love that they’re continuing to play with different team ups so much in the final season.

In this episode, Barbara Kean told Jim she’s pregnant. This is the one storyline this season that has felt pretty obligatory and hollow. It was inevitable that Barbra would have Jim’s child, but I wish it had more of a fresh spin on it.

Selina was convinced she killed Jeremiah and his followers seemed to believe it too. But, at the end of the episode, Jeremiah abducted Alfred Pennyworth. Jeremiah has been pretty lackluster so far but this is a good tangible threat to Bruce Wayne.

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