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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Gotham Season 01 Episode 19: Beasts Of Prey

April 14th, 2015 by Todd Black Comments

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And so begins the week of returns for the superhero series. First up is Gotham, which returned after about a months break. It was good to catch up, but also to see that things are fixing to be big in the last few episodes.

There were four main storylines, which I find was compelling in their own ways. And in each case, they fed to a showdown that we’ll hopefully get by the end of the season.

Let’s start at the bottom with Penguin, who at first seemed to just be trying to build his own criminal empire. It was a standard move by Penguin’s standards, and as well played you didn’t know exactly his endgame…until you saw the end shot of all the Maroni pictures, and Penguin declaring him a deadman. That will be a fun confrontation.

Next up is Fish, who had some surprising haste added to her story this go round. After stalling and building power for some time, I was actually rather shocked at the haste she made to try and get out. Yet in typical Fish style, she was forced to rely on not just her foresight, but her silver tongue to get out of numerous hang-ups. Seeing Dulmacher almost kill her was very entertaining, as he threatened to make her a “doll” of his. Honestly? I’m really glad we didn’t see that. Her escape was brilliant, and multi-layered, just like Fish. Funnily enough, she did hold to her word that some made it out alive, just not the ones who thought they were getting out.

Bruce and Selina got to have some fun this episode, as they tracked down Reggie to find out why he did what he did. Though it may have been forced at first, the relationship between Bruce and Selina is now very fun to watch. The rich boy and the street girl angle is very compelling, as is how we’re seeing their lines in the sand begin to form. Bruce wanting to kill Reggie but not able to was good, as was Selina finishing the deed for him. That’s actually part of the reason they have an on again/off again relationship. She’s willing to go the distance, whereas he has rules. It’ll be fun to see if that wall begins to get built because of this.

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Finally, Jim and Bullock investigated a murder that turned out to be something much more. We’ve been guaranteed that The Ogre is basically the endgame bad guy for season 1, with plenty of twists and turns to be had up until the end. Our first twist was that we met the Ogre via flashbacks, incredibly creepy ones I might add. This was a true change for the series, and yet it worked perfectly to set up the context, especially when we got twist No.2. Not only was the Ogre a serial killer, Jim taking the case was a setup by Leob to get Jim either discredited, killed, or both. I loved how Jim confronted him at the end, proving he’s willing to get rid of Leob if it means cleaning up the GCPD.

There were some cheesy moments here, and some scenes didn’t play as well as others. But for a setup to the end run? “Beasts of Prey” Was actually pretty good.

3.5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!