GOTHAM Season 4 Episode 14 Review: Reunion


Finally, after some bad hallucinations, Bruce is ready to change. At the very least, we know that Bruce probably didn’t take any hard drugs during his time partying because he probably would have experienced these hallucinations far earlier. However, when he asks Alfred for help, he says no. While it seemed harsh, I always trusted that Alfred knew the best way to handle this. 

Bruce didn’t understand this, so he went to Selina for help next. It’s an interesting choice because I thought he might go to Gordon next, and perhaps he should have, because Selina doesn’t have time for it. She has bigger things to worry about, like Ivy killing everyone in sight. Until Bruce is back in action, I’d be happy to see Selina continue to fight bad guys. 

He doesn’t ask anybody for help after that, but it seems like he didn’t need to either. Alfred shows up to Bruce’s fundraiser while he is giving a speech, and Bruce finds the opportunity to make his entire speech about Alfred. It’s a hard thing to say no to. Alfred wants him to accept who he really is, and deal with his pain. Bruce is done with this. I don’t blame him either. Everyone has been telling him the same thing for ages now; I would be frustrated too. 

Unfortunately, Ivy takes the microphone after he leaves. Fortunately, as competent as I have ever seen the GCPD, they interrupt. Ivy quickly goes from turning people into plants to mindlessly shooting everyone so that she can get out of there. That’s a waste of compost. Bruce sees this an opportunity to really show that he has changed, and dresses up in his hooded disguise again to save Alfred and everyone else. 

My favorite part of this episode comes from the fact that Gordon accidentally shoots Bruce. A kid in a hoodie? Got to shoot him, apparently. He runs away before Gordon knows that it was him. Alfred helps to treat his wound, and Bruce says he is ready to help people. Alfred is happy to hear it (aren’t we all?) and is here to stay. Finally, the transformation into Batman will truly start! 

While I enjoyed many parts of this episode, Ivy’s character still bores me. It seems they just brought up her father’s death as an excuse for something for her to do. Ivy kills everyone in the bar to send a message to Harvey, since he killed her father. Then, she sends out a propaganda video about plants and betrayal. Your classic after-school special. She says she is going to kill everyone and give them back to the plants, starting with Harvey. 

Then, Harvey is incredibly frustrating about the whole thing. He doesn’t want Gordon’s help, and he is going to handle this alone. Unsurprisingly, he finds her and is immediately put under her spell. He drags Gordon into the whole mess because Ivy hasn’t forgotten that Gordon was also there when her father died, and because no villain can go without a vendetta against Jim Gordon. She has also mastered the villain thing of walking away before anyone is killed. She has fundraisers to crash. Subsequently, Harvey doesn’t end up killing Gordon for her, but instead yells at him for taking his job and Gordon calls him a coward. I didn’t realize Ivy’s spell also made you a jerk to the people you care for. 

However, the best part of her character is her relationship with Selina. Selina is going to stop Ivy from making more killer plants, not by talking but by fighting her. She’s not the hero we wanted, but the hero we deserved. Ivy is saying everyone is guilty; I think of something she would get along great with. Selina takes the Lazarus water from her and breaks it. Ivy is pissed, but she will let Selina live. Ivy just wants her to leave her alone now. 

Meanwhile, in the Narrows, Sophia wants to impose a tax on Lee’s people. It’s an impossible task since everyone is broke down there. Lee doesn’t understand why she is doing this, so Nygma enlists some Narrows kids to figure it out for her. In this process, she finds out that Gordon and Sophia were sleeping together, so she figures that instead of tax money, Lee will give Sophia power over Gordon. 

Lee badly misread the situation. Sophia doesn’t want her help, but just wants to use her instead. Sophia is changing leadership of the Narrows, and she bashes Lee’s hand in to send a message to Gordon. Overall, the lesson to be learned here is to never sleep with your sibling’s ex. 

Gordon visits Lee in the hospital, and he’s ready to take Sophia down for it. Gordon tells Harvey everything, and with the boys back together they may be able to do some damage to Sophia. 

Since Lee is already so hurt, Nygma doesn’t want to do any more damage her as his alter ego, the Riddler. He is taking all the pills in attempt to drown him out. It’s not working, as the Riddler goes on about Penguin’s letter to Nygma, apologizing and wanting to be friends again. The Riddler is ecstatic about it, but Ed just wants him to shut up. The only way to do that? To kill himself. 

The Riddler tries to get Nygma to stop him from killing himself. After all, there’s another way to save Lee from himself. He needs to put himself away, and sign up for Arkham. What Nygma didn’t realize is that it was all part of the Riddler’s plan. Penguin is delighted to see the Riddler, and talks through Nygma to get to him, before finally releasing the Riddler from him. Now, the Riddler, Penguin, and perhaps even Jerome may all be together to plan something great and terrible. I can’t wait until next episode to see how Jerome gets involved into this situation.

Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer


Related Posts:
GOTHAM Season 4 Episode 13 Review: A Beautiful Darkness

GOTHAM Season 4 Episode 12 Review: Pieces of a Broken Mirror

Comments