The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

Gotham "S1E18 Pinewood" - Review: Revalations aplenty in an excellent episode


Gotham "S1E18 Pinewood" - Review: Revalations aplenty in an excellent episode
9 out of 10

Sometimes at this point, in a season when the episode numbers start counting down, a show panics over having too much ground left to cover and delivers a rushed exposition-heavy episode. Gotham’s team may have had a similar time crisis revelation when approaching this episode, but what they have delivered is neither rushed nor panicked and in fact, has a very well-paced narrative that covers significant and rewarding ground in several key story areas, including successfully merging some together. This week, Gotham panics.... while keeping its cool which yields a great episode.

Pinewood – As Jim chases leads on the Wayne murder, Barbara claims she’s reformed and wants to help, but can he really trust her after the whole “trying to murder him” thing? Bruce and Alfred investigate a clue that leads them to Karen Jennings, a former test subject of a facility known as Pinewood.

First things first, welcome back Erin Richards aka Barbara Keane. My God, your delightfully crazy self has been missed, and this episode is a great reminder of why. Even with her marvellous theatricality and wedding dress antics earlier this season, in this episode, her character has never been more interesting as Robert Hull & Megan Mostyn-Brown’s script places viewers firmly within Jim’s mindset of questioning her motives and trustworthiness. Just as we can believe that she faked her way out of Arkham as a cured woman (certainly the impression last week), her motives for helping Jim are crucially equally believable. She wants to help him solve the Wayne murder in the hope that it will let him put the past behind him, including everything she did. The pair immediately have sizzling chemistry together again, and their scenes at The Artemis club are magnificent, helped further by Barbara’s stunning getup and the welcome reappearance of Michelle “Missy/The Master” Gomez’s former assassins den leader known as The Lady. While the episode leaves Jim and Barbara’s future in a state of uncertainty, you have to love irony when comparing events to this time last year. At this point last season, Barbara was the show’s worst character and Morena Baccarin’s Lee Thompkins was a much preferred recipient of Jim’s affections. Now Lee has become increasing dull as the 2016 episodes progress and Barbara has never been more appealing…. Only in Gotham.

While his father’s computer hasn’t quite spill the beans yet, the yielded calendar clue does lead to an excellent story for Bruce and Alfred to persue (and we actually see Chris Chalk’s Lucius Fox for a change). It all leads to finally connecting the dots between Hugo Strange, Indian Hill and Wayne Enterprises as the titular Pinewood is revealed as a precursor experimental facility. Telling it via Karen as a test subject survivor is a nice touch. Firstly, her lizard-like hand is a fun piece of Killer Croc foreshadowing; especially as Karen is repeatedly referred to as their first success and there were plenty of other subjects, so we could well have a post-experiment Waylon Jones living somewhere in Gotham’s sewers. Then, there is the bridge Karen forms between past and present having known Thomas Wayne and experienced his kindness first hand/claw. It creates some very touching moments as Karen acknowledges the resemblances between father and son in Bruce’s actions and conviction. It’s all well and good to see him talking about following in his father’s footsteps but moments like these of acknowledging it are far more effective. The guest starring Julia Taylor Ross (Saving Hope) as Karen also does an impressive job of presenting innocence as a victim of such experimentation in contrast to the more monster creation scenes shown of Strange’s present day experimentations in Arkham.

This is an episode packed full of little gems, from Jim’s Sin City-esque Hitman interrogation montage and Harvey’s Barbara glimpsing double take while still covering a lot of ground and getting many characters back into the bigger picture again. The Wayne murder feels like it’s progressing towards a satisfying season finale conclusion as the core characters unite behind it. The episode ending feels a little questionable as a certain expected name is dropped in a less convincing fashion than many would like but could still be recovered fine next week. A few characters still need to be brought back into play as soon as possible with only 4 episodes remaining such as Penguin, Selina and really the entire gang/mob war side of Gotham which has slowly fizzled out across the season. Then again by contrast, maybe keeping some faces on the bench to avoid overcrowding is the right way to go. For now though, Gotham should hold its head high for delivering a story-cramming episode that doesn’t in any way feel crammed.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Anime and Reviews page.