After the rise of the Riddler in last episode, “These Delicate and Dark Obsessions” dealt more with the Court of Owls and the players surrounding them, and it led to some pretty interesting payoffs. First off, we got a lot of confirmation about how and why Jim’s father died, and it turned out that good ole Uncle Frank was behind it. Not. Cool. I liked how it tied into Carmine Falcone and his loyalty to the court, those are the little things that really make stories shine.
And though I question how forthcoming Gordon was with information in his chat with Falcone (especially since he called the court literally right after) I do like how it led to Franks death and Gordon’s induction into the Court of Owls.
Oh, and they apparently have a weapon already in Gotham, and it’s from Indian Hill! Ah…possibilities.
Which of course leads us to the fun pairing of Ivy and Penguin. I was very surprised by how fun this storyline was. From Ivy trying to be Penguin’s friend, and him rebuffing her at every turn in light of more “loyal” henchman, only to be betrayed by them, and learn a very sad truth of how loyal his men truly were. It was a very personal story, and one that had some very deep moments. My personal favorite being the “words always hurt me more than sticks or stones” line from Ivy, to which Penguin lamented, “Me too.” But now, they’re going to be friends, and get an army of freaks together! Yay!
But who’s to stop these freaks? How about Batman? Oh…he’s not around yet, well, Bruce will do. His meeting of the Shaman introduced a very magical/mystical aspects to the show, as we got to see the arts used to bring Bruce fully into his psyche and witness the moment he’s “stuck” in. And how he must move past it in order to be the “protector” Gotham needs. The motives of the Shaman are in question though, because he works with the court, but to what end is left to be seen.
In the end, “These Delicate and Dark Obsessions” really pushed the main story forward, and now there’s a lot of fun plates in the air in regards to what may happen next. There’s a war coming to Gotham, what heroes will rise to stop it?
4 out of 5 nerds
Todd Black
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!
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