When Jim Gordon makes contact with a substance in the hand of Mad Hatter, he's led on a psychedelic trip in which he must face his past, present and future; Penguin has a difficult time with Nygma's new relationship.Well, the new episode of Gotham is just around the corner and I'm still not over the emotional roller coaster of the last one. Oswald admitted his feelings for Edward but couldn't tell him, Edward met a Clone-Kristen and seems very smitten, Jim is still under the watchful eye of the Mad Hatter and the GCPD, Barnes' anger issues are coming through and we haven't seen Bruce in a while; basically everything is going down the rabbit-hole, as they say. The trailer for the seventh episode of this season certainly looks like it's going to get even crazier than we thought.
The Mad Hatter can't seem to let go of our dear Jim Gordon and this time it gets even more psychological and delusional as before. Obviously the Mad Hatter poisons Jim somehow and there we have that classic Mad Hatter mo: Jim goes down the rabbit hole and sees and hears things he can't explain. Barbara is there and she seems to be like his "guide" in this strange fantasy world and takes him to all the weird places. In the featurette of the upcoming episode it's explained that Jim will be taken to all the moments and places of his recent life about which he somehow feels bad, guilty or emotional. We can see Lee in there in some old school outfit and there might also be the child she lost. There's also Jim in an alleyway with a fancy car in the background which could be the alleyway where Bruce's parents died, implying that he still feels guilty that he couldn't fulfil his promise to Bruce. There might also be some very angry but also emotional moments between him and Barbara, after all they have quite some history together. It'll be interesting to see what Jim will actually see, I just get the feeling that whatever is going to happen to him: it will change him in some way or another, maybe driving him even more insane.
But this time the Mad Hatter doesn't seem to only focus on Jim. We see a shocked Oswald Cobblepot hold at gunpoint by the Mad Hatter telling him to die. This actually brings me directly to this time's predictions and thoughts about our dear Oswald x Edward relationship. You might wonder how those go together, well look at the name of the episode: "Red Queen". The literature geeks know very well that the Red Queen is a character from Lewis Carol's "Through the Looking-Glas", so another figure of "Alice in Wonderland" and we all know how big the Mad Hatter is about that kind of stuff. He even says "Red Queen" in the trailer and guess when he says it: exactly when we see Edward kiss Clone-Kristen! Remember my last blog entry here, where I said that maybe Clone-Kristen was send by someone to cause problems? What if the Mad Hatter was that person? The Red Queen isn't the nicest of persons in "Through the Looking-Class" and is mostly seen as some form of antagonist for Alice. While she does have her nice moments in the story and does give advice from time to time, she can also be characterised as
...overbearing, meticulously obsessive about manners, and civil in a self-righteous and supercilious way. [...] Her assertions are often arbitrary recitations of strict behavioral advice [...] She fits into the framework of Alice’s dream as representative arbitrary authority, serving as a caricature of an overbearing governess figure at odds with her young charges.
(Source: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/through-the-looking-glass/canalysis.html)I'm still sticking to the theory that Clone-Kristen is a very fishy figure. She's just too perfect of a character (looking like Ed's late girlfriend, she likes riddles) and she comes in exactly at a time when everything seems to go perfectly for Oswald and Edward. And it would also tie in with that scene we saw of Oswald and the Mad Hatter. The only question would be: why is the Mad Hatter suddenly going for Oswald? Up to this point it has all been about Jim Gordon and no one else. Perhaps the Mad Hatter is playing an even bigger game than we expected or somehow Oswald (and Edward) crossed his path/plan without realising it. It'll be fascinating to see as to how all these characters now come together.
Apropos Oswald and Edward: back to our favourite TV couple! There have been kind of good news for all us shippers in the form of a new Gotham featurette video titled "Robin Lord Taylor & Cory Michael Smith Ship Oswald & Nygma". Yes, yes that actually happened! And you can really tell that those two actors love their characters and playing with what they're given and it's just wonderful to see that even the actors are sort of on our side.
After watching this video I also had to admit that I stand corrected about the whole "Oswald sends Clone-Kristen as a 'present'" thing because just look at our dear little Oswald. He acts so jealous when he hears about that new woman and I don't know if I find this cute or sad. Probably both. I mean just look at him asking about Edward's date:
So for now the whole Edward x Clone-Kristen seems to be a thing whether we like it or not. (Does anyone like this?!) We still can't be sure if Edward seems to be truly in love with this woman but for now it looks like it and just as Oswald we sit there with seething jealous rage while we just want to kill that woman and make Edward ours. (This writing takes a strange turn, I know) It is still very hard to say what will happen and if they might give us the relationship we so desperately have been teased with for more than one season. I have the fear that Edward might not reply Oswald's feelings because he simply doesn't feel that way, but I also have that strange hope that the two will be together for some time or at least kiss or something. However, in one point I seem to be on the right track: Oswald will do something to Clone-Kristen in order to win Edward. We see him talking to Clone-Kristen so she will lose interest in Edward. I'm pretty sure something as easy as this won't work just like that, so maybe Oswald will decide to go even further.
Over the past week there have been even more discussions about Oswald's and Edward's relationship and the Penguin's sexuality. Many people are happy but just as many are upset and angry. And some of them are just homophobe arseholes but that's not the side we have to look at. I've read a lot of comments and such over the past days addressing this topic and I was happy and angry within seconds. There are a lot of thoughts on my mind about all the uproar comments and discussions and in the next days I will write another entry talking about those.
But for now let us address the other story line that is often a bit pushed in the back, but we shouldn't forget about good old Barnes who still has to fight with his anger issues:
So the question is: what the hell is happening to Barnes? It has already been a while since he has been infected by Alice's blood and in the last episode we already got so see some of the effects when he got so angry he damaged a metal chair. It is still unclear who or what Barnes is going to become, there have been quite a few theories. Some people believe that he's going to become Bane because of the name similarity and the anger power he got. But I honestly don't think he's going to become Bane because of multiple reasons: Barnes is a little too old to become a future Batman enemy; he's not Mexican and they already introduced the actual poison that gives original Bane his powers, so why would they come up with a different story now? Some people also think that he's going to be Solomon Grundy but I doubt that as well, since the makers of Gotham already said that Solomon Grundy is going to be a character we haven't seen yet. Maybe Barnes is going to be a completely new character purely created for this show, or this is going to be a very old school, more unknown Batman villain. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
As a more happier last note: Bruce is back! And Selina as well! So after their confusing, emotional kiss encounter the last time, we'll see how their relationship is going to develop from now on. I hope that we get to see more of future-playboy Bruce and also more of his detective side. I loved that moment two episodes ago when he deduced that Jim was seeing Valery Vale because he saw the lipstick on Jim's mug. Damn that was badass! So I hope we get to see more of that Batman development while observing Bruce's and Selina's relationship. Maybe we will also see both of them in Jim's hallucinations so we'll see how those two play into that story line.
Gotham's Season 3 Episode 7 is on its way and I'm honestly unsure as to what to expect. Sure, I'm making predictions and I have hopes and fears but Gotham is such a clever and sneaky show, you'll never know what they will do and that still angers and excites me every week.
