Gotham - 'Worse than a Crime'

"I am vengeance. I am in my nightshirt. Hmm; needs work."

The schemes of the Order of St Dumas come to a head with the ritual sacrifice of Bruce Wayne, but the enemies of Theo Galavan are gathering against them.

Gordon wakes up to the sound of the Murder Bros duet, which must have made him wonder if he was actually in hell or something. Nygma then passes on a message to Lee, who tries to convince Jim to flee town with her as she is pregnant with their child. Alfred wakes up at the dump and flees from Tabitha's search squad, before later attempting to get back to the city and being tased in the face by an over-eager beat cop.

Galavan orders Silver to redeem her failure by re-seducing Bruce and then dancing a jig at his sacrifice, but he refuses to be fooled again, even when she fakes a break out attempt. When she admits that Galavan has directed her to do this and will likely kill her if she fails, however, Bruce puts on a show for Theo, proving he's a stand up guy. Then he gets taken away and tied to a stake, where he calls his executioner a deluded old man. I'll be honest, Bruce comes out of the last couple of episodes looking unexpectedly awesome.

Okay, I'll give you this one, Gotham; this is pretty badass.

Lucius Fox reports Bruce and Alfred missing, which leads to the discovery of Alfred in the cells (because 'acting a bit crazy' is a serious enough offence that they drop you unconscious in lock-up instead of stitching up the six inch gash in your side or the deep puncture wound in your back) and the realisation that Galavan has Bruce. Barnes is still unwilling to act without evidence, knowing that they have one chance to nail Galavan before no judge in the city will touch them, so Bullock and Alfred opt for plan B: A mad charge for death or glory. Nygma isn't able to hide his superior knowledge or resist giving a riddle which Fox solves, so they join the posse comitatus, which is completed when Cat drops in to say that she knows how to get into the building.

How turns out to be Cat sneaking in through an electrical tunnel and taking out the Order's guard (I remind you, 'warriors the like of which Gotham has never seen') so she can open the door. The group then charge hilariously up twenty flights of stairs. Silver punks out and calls for the abbot to wait, which buys just enough time for Gordon and Alfred to bust in and take out the Order like it was nothing. The abbot makes an attempt to salvage the dignity of the Order, but a winded Bullock arrives in time to take him out. Bruce thanks Alfred and Cat for coming for him, but assures them he had 'a perfectly feasible plan for escape.' Good to see the birth of the patented Bat-inability to say thank you.

Galavan tries to flee by parachute, but Tabitha finally tires of him treating her friends like tools, knocks him out and gives his chute to Silver. They drift off - hopefully never to be seen again - and Gordon arrests Galavan. Then Gordon muses on whether to shoot Galavan in the head, but Barnes arrives - summoned by Fox - then Penguin knocks out Barnes and Gordon stands between them, and then we cut to Gordon and Penguin taking Galavan down to the docks, where Penguin beats him with a bat and Gordon shoots him dead.

Much as I wanted to see Galavan taken out, I'm disappointed. After all, without his agonised righteousness, Gotham's Jim Gordon doesn't really have much of a personality.

And then this happens.

So, that was 'Rise of the Villains', in which a largely inconsequential and annoying villain and his useless band of penitent losers rose and then fell again. On that basis, I'm expecting the second half of the Season - 'Wrath of the Villains' - to involve some minor leaguers being basically calm about stuff. Okay, actually we've got Mr Freeze, and Hugo Strange conducting weird experiments at Indian Hill; or possibly Mr Freeze and Hugo Strange conducting weird experiments at Indian Hill.