Like its fellow 3 elements, fire has often captured our imagination over its duality. It’s a source of heat and life. At the same time, it’s a destructible force is capable of laying waste to anyone or thing its path. Yet unlike the others, fire is the element Humans have adapted to wield for both good uses and bad. To hold the fire in your hand is to have the power and like any power, a choice of how you’ll use it. Last week, young Bridget wielded much more fire than she would have liked, and in this episode, Gotham explores which choice she now faces: to extinguish it or to let it burn.
By Fire – With the police hunting Bridget, Selina helps her get the money to escape, but she soon shows no signs of leaving or surrendering the freedom of herFirefly persona. Butch goes to work for Theo, undercover while reporting to Penguin. Theo Galavan gets closer to Bruce Wayne while Edward Nigma and Miss Kringle experience some unexpected firsts in their relationship.
Just as fire can spread out of control, this episode sees Selina getting more than she bargained for by encouraging Bridget to be free. Yet Firefly is portrayed nicely as a sympathetic villain. While we see her enjoy the thrills and excitement of suiting up, it’s only through the intervention and hostility of her brothers that her appetite for destruction really ignites. Even then, she’s still heading in more of an anti-hero direction as she vows to stand against the “pervs and bullies”. This sees her returning to the trafficking location to free the lady slaves, all be it with more collateral damage this time. This also gives us another look at a really great location. It feels perfectly in keeping with Gotham that such an illicit and sick business should go down with such theatricality, “Ladies and gentleman or should I say pimps, hoes and thieves!”. It’s like some twisted BDSM fashion show and provides some great dark humour. Bridget’s whole story echoes the larger theme of Gotham’s grey areas. She still has righteous intentions, it’s just the openness to murder that becomes the problem. It’s the same area navigated by Selina as a criminal with loyalties and a code, and of course by the likes of Jim and Harvey, occasionally bending the rules or criminally sympathising for the greater good. It’s a stance that Captain Barnes is firmly against as he’s shown to reprimand Jim for excessive force. It works so well from story perspective because in their own way, both sides are right. While Jim may be correct about the approach, Gotham needs are such attitudes self-sustaining the problems? Similarly, Barnes' approach may be what should be done for Gotham but that doesn’t mean it will actually get the job done.
Fresh off last episodes shocking final minutes, we see Butch immediately following up Penguin’s orders to mole himself within Theo’s workings and find Mamma Cobblepot (you have to hand it to him for such loyalty). Their opening scene is a lot of fun as Barbra and Tigress joke about giving his stump weapon attachments. Barbra correctly guesses that an Ash Williams special, chainsaw attachment would be the winner. His ultimate mallet appendage feels like a lame duck by comparison, but maybe once he’s hammered this one out, we’ll see an upgrade. This most interesting part comes from Butch revealing his programming to Theo (after he unsurprisingly rumbles the charade), and leaves us with speculations over whether or not Tigress managed to (whip) crack it once and for all. This is an incredible story setup as suddenly we’re in a slow burning equivalent of last season’s finale, with Butch’s gun jumping between Fish Mooney and Penguin. We’re left uncertain of just which side Butch is on. The later events certainly lay the grounds to betray Penguin but in true Gotham “Anything can happen” style, that could just as easily be a double bluff against Theo. The only real gripe with this storyline is what we don’t see. After being prominent and wonderful on screen for the first few episodes, Barbara now feels like she’s fading into the background too much. We want more of bonkers Babs in action...and quickly please.
Elsewhere, there are some good developments in Theo’s plans for Bruce Wayne. After last week’s conclusion, we know that will have a fatal ending but not after many prior chapters have been completed. Here, his objective becomes increasing influence as he looks to take Bunderslaw’s place on the Wayne Enterprises Board. It’s still unclear why but a certain location glimpsed at the climax could have something to do with it. We also see that the things between Bruce and Silver St. Cloud are progressing as dinner will lead to future play dates. Her position in the story is one of the most interesting as there are still zero indications whether or not she’s actively part of Theo’s plans or just an innocent girl making a friend. The Nigma/Kringle storyline takes a bold new direction as her desire to see his wilder side comes with immediate regrets and pushes Ed one step closer to that green attire.
By Fire feels a more enjoyable effort than last week’s episode. As the cast expands, the show is struggling to juggle everyone effectively. As well as Barbara, Lee also gets reduced to barely cameo status, which is a shame considering how a great a character she can be, and despite getting a great BBQ gag in, Bullock doesn’t feel like Jim’s partner this week for being too absent. Yet these are niggles than problems as this 6th episode sees Gitahm re-finding the form of the season's spectacular opening trilogy. There is a hell of a lot to enjoy here, including some great character work and a very tantalising ending that looks like the beginning of a Hugo Strange arc (and Ivy Pepper even sprouted up again to say hello). All the flamethrower action looks gorgeous against the dark Gotham streets, and like the rest of the episode, really brings the heat when required.