What’s up, everybody? So, Monday was Leap Day, and we also got another special treat on that day, the return of Gotham!!. This go around, Gotham has a new name. For the beginning of it’s second season it was called “Rise of The Villains”, now this season is called “Wrath Of the Villains.” Now if you read my other Gotham post, you know how the story goes, but I think this go around I am going to do things a little different for you guys. I’ve been waiting for the return of this show since the first half was amazing. The writers truly did a great job with creating some great scenes and dialogue. Hearing the show would be coming back February 29th, I was so amped waiting and waiting, and anticipated so much. The season premiere did not let me down one bit.
Now I told you guys I would do something a little different this go around, since this was only the first episode of the second half of the season. I would like to give some predictions of what might happen, or what I think will go down this season.
1. Will Jim Gordon come clean about what he did to Galavan?
Now, in the beginning of this episode we see Gordon at a trial hearing regarding allegations of him and Penguin collaborating together to kill Galavan. All while this is happening, Jim is having flashbacks of the midseason finale with Penguin beating Galavan to death and Gordon giving the final blow with a fatal gunshot. Jim’s boss Captain Nathaniel Barnes is very suspicious of the whole thing, and doesn’t trust Jim as much anymore. I think in this second half of the season, someone will force Jim to confess that he killed Galavan, but only on highly distressed circumstances. His face will give it away that he knows something more. Either someone will make Jim tell him, or there will be a witness who Jim and Penguin did not see that night.
2) Who is Victor Fries?
Now if you know Batman from the comics, movies, or the animated series, you already know about Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze. Now Victor is a cryogenic engineer trying to find a way to freeze his wife Nora Fries, who is dying from Huntington’s Chorea. Nora understands completely the task at hand and wishes Victor would just let her die, but he is determined to find a way to deep freeze her and bring her back to life. Now, watching this episode, I like the path that they took with making him not a psycho killer, but a very determined man to get his wife help anyway he can. Even if that means using a certain formula to freeze people and see how long it takes for them to defrost without casualties. Victor was already on test subject number 12 which means a lot of failures in the process, and a lot of abductions in Gotham. After seeing Victor’s wife take the fall for him, I think we will see a much more cynical Victor trying to free his wife from jail, but also knowing he doesn’t have to worry about her at home anymore. Which he coincidentally stumbles upon the right formula when going to turn himself in, when one of his test subjects comes back alive.
3) Will Penguin escape from Arkham Asylum?
Penguin was caught by Captain Barnes and Penguin gave an amazing monologue on why he killed Galavan, and why he deserves to be in Arkham. Saying he isn’t a criminal, he’s just insane. Penguin also protects Gordon, which you have to respect that they have each other’s backs knowing what it would mean if they got caught. So as Penguin enters Arkham he slowly learns that he’s really not insane by the amount of people laughing at him, jumping on the table and saying “I AM THE KING OF GOTHAM” but only to be mocked by the rest of the inmates. While Penguin is sitting in Arkham; Butch on the other hand (no pun intended) is sulking in his new found kingdom realizing being the new boss of Gotham comes with a lot of responsibilities. Tabatha comes along wanting to be partners, but I believe that Butch is going to assemble a team together to try and get Penguin out. I think this is a possibility because Butch is more so muscle than a boss he likes being able punch and do whatever he can to enforce his power, while Penguin was more tactical. So hopefully, we will see a Butch and Penguin Reunion. I also believe that Penguin will see what Strange is supposedly doing wrong and will call Jim Gordon or Nygma to plan his own escape.
4) Dr. Hugo Strange…. The Last name Strange just sounds Sketchy
Now the newly acquired Dr. Strange is the new head director in Arkham Asylum played by B.D Wong, who I think is a perfect fit for this position. We get our first glimpse at Hugo when he tells Nigel, one of Arkham’s inmates “See No Evil, Do no evil” before meeting with Penguin. He seemed like an ordinary doctor at first but there was still something very unsettling about him. I have not fully gotten in to Dr. Strange’s background, (shame on me for being a batman fan) but everytime I see Hugo Strange he is always up to something diabolical and trying to reek havoc on the city of Gotham. All the while creating crazy experiments. At the end of this episode we see Strange is very intrigued with Mr. Freeze and his cryogenic formula. I’m predicting we will see Strange sending some goons to steal the formula from Victor, but only for them to fail. If the goons fail, I predict Hugo will start doing experiments on the inmates to be able to withstand Victor’s Ice gun. But one thing that caught my attention…why has Strange been trying to perfect a cryogenic formula himself? And who is he trying to save, or bring back alive?
Overall, I thought this midseason premiere was amazing, and was done perfectly. Someone did bring it to my attention that it feels like they are bringing in a lot of villains very early, but I said that if you really think about it, Bruce Wayne is about 13 and becomes Batman in his 20’s. All of the villains he faces really are old men. You never really pay attention to it growing up because you’re thinking all the villains just look crazy, but if you really look at Penguin, and Two Face, and all these people they’ve been through a lot while living in Gotham. So hopefully this storyline builds up more on the title of “Wrath of the Villains.” But one thing I didn’t mention, it was great to see Penguin and Nygma talking, and how much Ed still cares for Penguin as a friend. The conversation between them was priceless in the sense that you could tell the friendship is mutual now than before when it was one sided. I also believe that we will see Captain Barnes become a little more ruthless this second half of the season.
“Wrath of the Villains”, what does that mean? Maybe we will see a lot of people who were done wrongly in the first season that we did not get a chance to hear from. That would be an interesting twist to the show. Also maybe we will see Bruce get a little darker this second half. Even though Gotham is already a very dark city and dark show, I believe there’s more to come to show why people don’t like going to visit Gotham.. See you next Monday for the second episode.
RiceBall 