Gotham’s latest episode, “Mommy’s Little Monster,†provides the aftermath of two of Gotham’s most popular villains, and Galavan gets far ahead, while also earning a target on his back. Up to this point, Nygma has been kind of a meh character. However, in this episode, he begins his drastic transformation into The Riddler.
After waking up, he asks where his alter ego took Kristen Kringle’s body, and the response was, of course, that you have to follow the clues. Hilariously, the first riddle led him to a vending machine and after buying various items from the “KK†row, he sees Miss Kringle’s hand getting stuck against the glass. After some nudging, her hand falls through, and he’s onto his next clue. The next clue, embedded in her severed hand, led him to the ME’s lab. He finally finds Kringle in a drawer, but Thompkins nearly spoils everything.
Leslie instantly notices that something is off with Nygma and asks if he needs any help with the “cold case†he said he was working on. Thompkins falls for it when he says that he needed some support after he and Kringle had a fight. Shortly thereafter, he returns and excitedly begins chopping up Kringle with a saw. Wow. Edward Nygma has finally begun the full transformation into his alter ego. The effects were insanely good in this section, and I’m going to love to see how he functions in public when he’s more, “Evil, crazy, murderer Nygma,†and no longer has any sense of self-control.
The big Arc that weaves its way throughout the episode is that of Theo Galavan’s eventual rise to becoming Mayor and Cobblepot trying to stop him at all cost. Even though it’s quite obvious that Galavan is shady, the folks of Gotham are glossed over by his “charm†and theatrics.
Early in the episode, Penguin is set to get his mom out of her cell, but it’s never that easy. Quite obviously, Butch led Penguin right into a trap. Not only did Butch shoot and kill Penguin’s henchmen, Tabitha stabbed his mother right in the back as they were hugging. Galavan commands Tabitha to kill Penguin as well. Penguin smartly buys some time and taunts Galavan by saying that he doesn’t have the stomach to kill Penguin himself and that his family is from a line of cowards. Theo relents and goes to kill Penguin, but Penguin slashes at him with a knife and cuts his throat. The cut isn’t anywhere near fatal, but it is enough for him to get away.
After the altercation, Penguin’s crew says that it’s too risky for Penguin to kill Galavan, but Penguin persists and says it’s and only he that will kill Galavan. Of course, this is exactly what Galavan hopes, and he has a couple aces up his sleeve. The scenes just before the huge brawl show Gaalvan convincing almost everyone in the GCPD that Penguin attempted to kill him because he wouldn’t become Penguin’s ally. This convinces the GCPD Captain, and the cops essentially declare martial law. Bye bye Gotham freedom.
Bullock and Gordon are staking out one of Butch’s known hideouts to get information on Penguin when Bullock mentions getting a cat. This snaps Jim out of his trance, and Jim explains that he thinks absolutely everything that Galavan has been doing has been orchestrated. It’s definitely about time someone realizes this. Penguin’s henchmen (including Zsasz) show up and demand that anyone who leaves within 60 seconds lives.
Gordon and Bullock begin questioning Butch, and Jim tells him that if he doesn’t fess up, they will leave him with Zsasz. Butch admits that Galavan has orchestrated everything. He also says that he didn’t believe Galavan would actually go through with it but doesn’t elaborate. Zsasz and his crew start firing into the pub and, while out manned, the duo definitely isn’t outgunned. Butch has some heavy machine guns, and Gordon and Bullock fire hundreds of rounds back at Zsasz and company. Zsasz responds with, “I’ll take that as a no.†It was such a great scene; any scene with Zsasz is definitely a good one.
The party was quite bombastic, and Penguin was smart enough to make all of his henchmen look exactly like him, all the way down to the limp. Tabitha takes out a few with her sniper rifle, but a handful crash through the windows to start hunting down Galavan. At one point, a member of the task force gets the jump on Tabitha, but she quickly throws him down and stomps on his throat with her stiletto. The scene ends with a showdown; Gordon escorts Galavan to safety but runs right into the real Penguin. Penguin pleads to Jim that Galavan killed his mother, and Gordon simply says, “I know.†The standoff is interrupted because Tabitha shot Penguin in the shoulder, and he speeds off. To end out the scene, Galavan is using the crazy attempt and turning it into him being the victim at his press conference.
There are a handful of scenes with Silver St. Cloud essentially making Selina jealous. Selina calls her out, but it makes her sound catty (sorry, couldn’t resist). Their final scene shows the first kiss between Silver St. Cloud and Bruce with Selina just watching in the distance. These scenes felt a bit weird, and I can’t fathom Bruce not having a slight clue that Silver St. Cloud is using him.Â
