[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”13388″ img_size=”640×360″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]When we last left Gotham, Gordon and crew had just recovered the supplies that Bruce had flown in on a helicopter. This came after a battle with Penguin and a confrontation where Barbara was shot and she lost her best friend Tabitha. Bruce decides to go in search of this “witch” who might help Salina and her paralysis and a young boy comes to Gordon telling about other children being held by the Soothsayers. This brings up to this week’s episode: Trespassers.
Jim Gordon, after talking to the boy, decides to take a few of his men to investigate his claims, but it would require more vehicles than they have and passing through Barbara’s Siren territory. Lucious Fox tells Jim that Barbara has been stockpiling vehicles at her place. Collecting them as payment to come to her establishment. He tells Fox to make preparations for the children when he returns with them. Bullock quickly responds “IF we get back.”
Meanwhile, Bruce goes to find the “witch” the nurse told him about. He entered a garden park conservatory only to find dead bodies being swallowed up by ivy. He then runs into a group of men who claim they have captured the “witch” and intend to burn her once their reserves arrrive. Bruce tells them a tale of a missing brother and asks for five minutes with the witch. After that they can do whatever they want. They grant his request and he goes in to see that the witch is in actuality “Poison Ivy” who claims that all the dead men he saw were not her work but the work of the plants. He tells her about “his friend” and she tells him there is a seed that might help and she will help him get it, if he agrees to protect her.
As we return to Gordon, he goes to Barbara’s club to ask her for transportation. She grants him his request with a retort as he leaves saying: “Here he comes Gotham, your judge, your jailer, your most hated son. Have at him. Rip him to shreds! No one deserves to die more than he.” And to think he was once was going to marry her.
As Gordon and his gang head into the “Dark Zone,” they are met with a heavily face painted gang who are shooting at them with bullets and arrows, much to Bullock’s chagrin. They enter the hideout of the Soothsayers who are indeed using children to work for them. This group wears masks that allow them to breathe in what they call “smoke” which apparently is some form of narcotic. Some of these masks bear a resemblance to the kind of mask Bane wears, perhaps foreshadowing his coming presence. A fight ensues and Gordon is able to gather most of the children and get them out in their borrowed transportation. That leaves Gordon, Bullock and three children behind to try to escape with the Soothsayers in pursuit.
Elsewhere in Riddler land, Riddler awakes to find himself strapped to a table. Apparently he did this to himself to try to avoid the sleepwalking he has been doing, finding himself in dumpsters and in slums (although these days everywhere in Gotham is a slum). He celebrated his success of not waking in some unknown place but soon found a very beat up biker in his bathtub. Not sure why this man was in his bathroom, he asked him who he was and why he was there. This confuses Tank as he is called, who is a member of the Street Demonz gang. He doesn’t understand why the Riddler doesn’t know who he is since he tortured him last night to find out some information. Since Riddler doesn’t remember any of it, he decides to repeat the process with Tank to once again obtain the information.
Back with Gordon, he leads his charges into a hotel in his efforts to avoid the Soothsayers. He tells the children to stay put while he and Bullock search the building for trouble. Jim goes up stairs to find a small boy dressed like a school boy. Bullock searches the basement and finds platters of watches, rings, teeth, and fingers along with a skeleton in the fireplace. He then encounters an old lady who tries to cut him with a razor as he tries to escape.
Let’s return to the Riddler who is introducing the biker to his “little friend” a large pipe wrench to his head. He agrees to tell the Riddler what he had told him last night: Where the Street Demonz base was and if their leader Emanuel Vasquez would be there. Upon hearing this, he untied Tank and told him to take him there…again.
Lest we forget, back with Bruce, he leads Ivy out of her imprisonment as the men who had captured her told him to put her back. Bruce tried to convince them he would be responsible for her when she immediately grabbed one of their blades and killed them all. The growing vegetation immediately started to overgrow their bodies. Bruce told her she didn’t need to kill them, but she said that she wanted to. He asked for her assistance and told her it was Salina who needed her help but she intitially refused still mad at Salina for destroying the last of the Lazarus Water. Ivy then threatened to kill Bruce and feed him to her plants. He tells her the men she killed were right, she WAS a witch. A cold, callous, murderous witch with no good left in her. If she had any good left, her park would be a place of beauty and color instead of smelling of death. She looked kind of sad and explained it was a work in progress. She’s then asked him if she helped him, would he leave her alone. He stared her down but didn’t answer. She turned and told him to follow her.
Returning to the Hotel, Jim asks the school boy who he is and where his parents are. He told him they were dead and that there was a ghost. She was nice to him at first but that had changed. Harvey bursts into the room telling Jim that a crazy woman was in the hotel and she was killing people. The boy exclaimed, “its the ghost and she makes him call her “mother!” He leads them into another room but stays behind and locks them in the room. Lights begin flashing and the boy tells them the lights will render them unconscious and for them not to fight it. Meanwhile, “Mother” is in the room, slashing at Jim and Bullock. During their struggle, Bullock breaks open a window, defusing the flashing lights and allowing Jim to subdue the old woman. She tells them that she saved the boy. He would have died without her help. She then kneed Gordon in the groin, slashing at him again as she escaped out a secret passage.
Gone but not forgotten, Riddler goes to the Street Demonz lair to find bodies laying about which apparently was his/Ed’s doing the night before. Tank asked Riddler if he was responsible but he answered he really didn’t remember. On the wall was painted the words “Penguin was here.” Seeing this, Tank assumed the Penguin did this and Riddle responded, “I think not.” To which the Tank said, “ whoever did this started one hell of a war” which may have been Ed/Riddler’s plan all along.
The episode returns to Bruce as Ivy takes him to a spot where she digs up the seed she had told him about, giving it to him. She tells him if Salina ingests it, it would find its way to her wound, wrapping around her spine and fusing her nerves and cartilages together. When asked if it would cure her, she replied, “maybe. If she is strong enough. One thing was for certain, “the seed would alter her forever.” She followed up with, “Would She(Salina) be okay with that? Would he??” Regardless, if he was going to give it to her, he needed to hurry. When he hesitated, she asked him, “Don’t you trust me?” to which he answered’ No, I do not.” “Good, you’re finally becoming a man.”
As we return to the Hotel, Jim and Bullock come down the stairs and tell the children to hurry up so they can leave, with Harvey reminding Jim that not everyone wants his help. As they go outside, Jim hotwires a car but before they can drive off the Soothsayers returned asking for the return of their workers. If Jim complied, he would let them leave. He then said, he lied…he wanted to kill them all. At that time, the painted up gang also made their appearance saying that the bounty on Jim Gordon was theirs.
Working back to Bruce, he returns to Salina with the seed that Ivy had given him. She overheard what Bruce and Alfred discussed about the seed and told him to give it to her. She swallowed the seed and they waited for something to happen. After a bit she writhed in pain and her body temperature spiked. Bruce felt that perhaps he had made a mistake by giving it to her.
But Jim’s situation has not been resolved. Surrounded by two groups, both wanting his head, and the money Penguin had promised, a firefight followed. Just when it looked like Jim and Harvey were outgunned and outmatched, here came Barbara in a weaponed up tank and took the whole gang out. After the smoke cleared, she got out and told Gordon she reconsidered their last conversation and for her assistance, she wanted him to help her to kill Penguin for what he did to Tabitha. He asked that they table that conversation until they got the kids to safety. Once they got back to the Green Zone, they found that Lucious had found a place to house the children and that they can expect for more people to follow, probably filling to capacity before the day is over. Barbara took her leave telling Bruce they had unfinished business.
Alfred and Bruce were waiting for some good news. The doctor returned to them telling them that Salina’s temperature had went down but she was in pain, so they gave her a sedative. With nothing to do but wait, Alfred suggested that Bruce and him should get some sleep. Bruce took one more look into Salina’s room and she was not in her bed. He ran into the room to find her standing. He asked her if she felt any pain and she said she did not. He embraced her and her pupils slow phased into that resembling a cat as the episode ended.
Thoughts:
Although not as intense as the premier episode, this one was not bad. As one might expect, it posed as many questions as it answered. Jim learned once again that he cannot save everyone as he was unable to save “Mother’s” boy although he was able to rescue the children from the Soothsayers. With the bounty the Penguin has placed on his head, the amount of people who want him dead have increased exponentially. Such is the life of Jim Gordon in Gotham.
The Riddler/Edward situation is just as weird this episode as it was last week. Apparently strapping himself down didn’t deter Edward from making mischief…if you call killing a bunch of bikers and their leader and trying to pen it on Penguin as “Mischief.” I do give Cory Michael Smith the performer of the week for his turn as the Riddler/Edward persona. I especially liked him asking the biker how he behaved: “Was I confident? Flamboyant? Charisma for days?? Or was I a little more conservative…repressed, kind of nerdy?
Poison Ivy is in her third incarnation, with Peyton List following Maggie Geha who followed Clare Foley. List did a good job in this episode capturing the sympathetic character at first and immediately turning on a dime into the cold hearted killer she had became. It was another lesson for Bruce about who you can trust. Very few people.
The choice they made for Salina, making her take on Cat-like characteristics is a step outside the canon but it is the kind of choices that Gotham has made in the past, especially when you are in your final season. We’ll see how it flies with the hardcore Batman fan base.
Overall:
I’d give this a B+. It wasn’t must see TV but it was another good piece to the final season puzzle. Two down, ten to go. How did you like Trespassers? Did it answer anything for you or did it leave you wanting more? Share your thoughts with us at GVNation.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
Senior Writer at GeekVibesNation – I am a 50 something child of the 70’s who admits to being a Star Trek/Star Wars/Comic Book junkie who once dove head first over a cliff (Ok, it was a small hill) to try to rescue his Fantastic Four comic from a watery grave. I am married to a lovely woman who is as crazy as I am and the proud parent of a 18 year old boy with autism. My wife and son are my real heroes.
