3.6 Follow The White Rabbit But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Gotham needs to stay consistent much longer than a few episodes if it’s going to claim that title. While we wait to see if that’s going to happen, let’s break down all of the great things about this week’s episode: Follow The White Rabbit. A villain making a hero choose between two people he loves is nothing new. It’s the extreme of a love triangle dynamic, one with the ultimate stakes. We see it in The Dark Knight. We see it in Arrow season two. It happens all of the time in comic books and movies and TV shows and, though you know you’re being a little bit manipulated, you mostly don’t care because it’s such a dramatically rich situation. It puts our hero in a no-win situation and (if the story doesn’t chicken out) makes him or her choose a way to lose. Gotham made Jim choose, which was refreshing on a show that has had trouble exploring consequence with any weight. What made Gotham‘s sadistic choice moment so great was that it didn’t back down (for a second, I thought it would with Lee’s fiance saving the day) and, though we knew there were a limited number of ways this situation could play out, it still managed to surprise at least this viewer. Jim chose Valerie over Lee. Tetch shot Valerie to cause Jim pain. Like Arrow, Gotham also has done a pretty good job making us like all three characters involved — you know, as much as anyone can like Jim Gordon. (Liking Gotham‘s Jim Gordon as a character is a complicated mix of O.C. nostalgia, Ben McKenzie’s impressive ability to deliver a sardonic line, and pity. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s become much, much easier in season three.) Praise the television gods! Gotham seems to be doubling down on the best, most engaging romance it’s ever had: the connection between Oswald and Ed. Last week, there was some serious sexual tension between these two, but it was unclear if Gotham was going to play it all subtextual because of the LGBTQ (or some other) factor. Thankfully, for everyone involved, this does not seem to be the show’s plan. Instead, we have officially launched on a will-they-or-won’t-they romantic storyline involving Penguin and Riddler. What a time to be alive. Though we get some sweet Ed/Oswald moments in Follow The White Rabbit, the evolution of their relationship to a potentially romantic one is seen through Ed’s own realization that he is, in fact — wait for it — in love with Ed. He tries to tell his chief of staff on several occasions, but chickens out, instead inviting Ed over to a romantic dinner at the mansion to be brave in private. Unfortunately, we never get the confession scene and get to see how Ed might react to it. (The feelings definitely seem requited, but we’ll have to wait and see.) Instead, Ed is distracted while selecting wine for the dinner by a pretty blonde who is a dead ringer for the lady love he murdered, Ms Kringle. That’s right — Ed is getting Vertigo-ed. Seriously, though, this all felt like a set-up, perhaps arranged by Butch, who is in hiding and nursing his wounds. Either way, the interaction prevents Oswald from getting a chance to confess his undying love for Ed. It’s downright tragic, to be honest. Somehow, in Gotham‘s off-kilter world, killers Ed and Oswald became the two characters who seem to deserve love the most. That probably says as much about this world as it does about Penguin and Riddler. If Barnes weren’t surrounded by the worst detectives in the long, rich history of idiot TV detectives, perhaps someone would have noticed that he has been infected with Alice Tetch’s blood by now. Bullock does comment on his lack of cane, but, for the most part, his unravelling has gone unnoticed. Apparently, the warped metal of the interrogation room chair was too subtle a clue for the GCPD’s finest. Read Kayti’s review of the previous episode, Anything For You, here.
