5 Takeaways from Gotham Season 3 Episode 6: “Follow the White Rabbit”

These are the 5 things that kicked us in the gall bladder (and sometimes in a good way) as we watched Gotham Season 3 Episode 6: “Folllow the White Rabbits”
And, our observations are a little “spoilery,” so…if you’re catching this tonight, I would bookmark this article and join us tomorrow morning. Still with us? Good, we’re always glad to have ya’.

Blood and Guts

Jeebus, it’s been a week of violent TV, huh? Between Lucille’s victims over on The Walking Dead and this episode of Gotham, things have gotten gruesome up in TV land. But this week’s violence on Gotham comes with quite a disturbing and game-changing decision. You see, the Mad Hatter plays a game with Jim Gordon this week, a game where Gordon must choose who lives and who dies. First, Gordon must choose between two newlyweds and a kid, and then he must choose between a journalist and a surgeon. Each choice leads to a gruesome death (or two), but in the episode’s climax, the Mad Hatter forces Gordon to choose between Lee Thompkins and Valerie Vale.

Gordon chooses for Lee to die so Hatter gut-shots Vale. It is a moment where Gordon is torn down from his heroic pedestal and dooms his former fiancé to death – only to cause grave bodily harm to his current lover. It’s a moment where Gordon is left with nothing and in many ways it’s even more nihilistic than anything that happened with Negan over on that other show.

2. Don’t Hat the Player

And how badass is Mad Hatter? So far, Jervis Tetch has caused more mayhem than any other villain on Gotham. In the comics, Tetch has always been a C-lister at best, but he is making an impact on Gotham. This new status for the Hatter gives the viewer a sense that even the most overlooked Bat villains are still profoundly deadly in a world without the Dark Knight. Seriously, this version of the Mad Hatter might be so affecting that it may raise the character’s cache in the comics – and maybe even in film.

3. Romance Is in the Air

   

A gay Penguin, huh? In love with the Riddler? Hey, why not? It’s not like there are tons of stories detailing Oswald Cobblepot’s lady loves, so why not just do something daringly different? Heck, man, if you can deal with the lecherous Penguin from Batman Returns, why would you be offended by a queer Cobblepot? I think this is a bold move and is so different than anything done before that I really want to see where this all goes. Nygma clearly likes women (and he meets a potential romantic partner this week in a clone of the deceased Ms. Cringle), so this is not going to go in the direction the Penguin hopes it will.

4. Yeah, We Know Barnes Has Powers – Moving On

   

So a few weeks back, Nathaniel Barnes got some of Alice Tetch’s infected blood in her eyes and now is turning into a monster. You know how I know? Because Gotham reminds us every five minutes. Yeah, I know it’s going to be big and important as Barnes is probably going to become Solomon Grundy or something, but the little teases and hints are not mysterious, they’re monotonous. Poop or get off the pot with this story arc. Oh, he gets angry and bends steal — yeah I know, because he’s got powers. Get on with it!

5. Damsels in Distress

Lee Thompkins and Valerie Vale are very capable and multi-faceted characters. Do they have to be reduced to the role of girl hostages? As far as gender equality goes, Gotham took two steps back this week by reducing a pair of very strong characters into objects used to torture Gordon. While this led to an intensely powerful moment, it also objectified both women as tools that could be used against the dashing male hero.That’s really not a thing we do anymore, is it?