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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Gotham Season 04 Episode 12

March 2nd, 2018 by Todd Black Comments

Gotham is back! And for the most part, I’m grateful. I hated having to wait so long for its return, and it’ll be good to see what happens the back half of this season, especially since there’s been some big teases. However, “Pieces Of A Broken Mirror” wasn’t the best way to start it out.

Now, it might be that they knew about the large break and planned this episode as a “recap/what’s next” storyline, cause that’s really what it felt like. It wasn’t all bad, but it wasn’t all good either.

First up, Ivy is back, and she’s now in her third “form”, and this one really feels like her comic book counterpart. She talks to the plants, her touch is deadly, and men are attracted to her instinctively. She’s also very cruel, and not afraid to hurt others when it dictates. Seeing her almost kill Selina, then save her, then partner up with her was a nice little circle of events. Hopefully one that’ll true lead her somewhere.

Meanwhile, Alfred found himself in dire straights of sorts. He was trying to live his life in the Narrows (now that he doesn’t live in Wayne Manor anymore), and he got praise for saving some lives after a bomb went off (more on that later), and he met a nice lady who made him smile…only to find out she had an abusive boyfriend, and when he couldn’t scare the punk off, the boyfriend killed her and framed Alfred for the murder. Yeah, he got out of it, but you can understand that he’s been feeling very helpless recently, and this won’t help that condition.

Then, there’s Gordon, who tried to keep everything moving despite now being under Sofia’s thumb (he’s ignoring her calls, that won’t last). Which led to a bombing in the Narrows that almost killed Leslie. The “reunion” they had was honestly really well done, and it touched upon what needed to, all the while adding comedy to the mix in a nice way.

The twist that Riddler (not Nygma) hired the assassin to kill Leslie was a nice twist, and one that will surely come to light eventually, but when?

Oh, and the return of Harvey Bullock was very well handled. Especially that ending monologue about how Gordon think about Bullock. Real gutpunch there.

Sadly, other aspects of the plot weren’t so compelling. Butch really does remember who he was, and yet, when he confronted Tabby, who was the one who helped get him there, and admitted he still loved her..she froze. Why? She kissed him before leaving him in the midseason finale, why not do so again?

Finally, it was a bit odd to not see Jerome or Penguin. Sure, they’re saving them for next episode, but after the big cliffhanger, it was really felt out of place.

“Pieces of A Broken Mirror” was a decent recap of what happened in the midseason finale, and it did push some things forward, but I’m hoping for more of a push in the next episode.

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!