After an absolutely fantastic season leading up until this point, we’ve finally reached the finale of season two of Gotham. Season two was night and day from its rocky beginnings in season one and certainly set up the series for a solid season three. But, did the finale “Transference†match up to the lofty expectations that preceded it? For the most part, yes.
“Transference†picked up where the previous episode left off. A faux Jim Gordon has been created, Strange is attempting to save his precious experiments as well as navigate the secret council of Gotham, and most of the characters are trapped in Indian Hill. If that weren’t enough, the secret council directs Strange to arm the bomb which will blow up everything within a quarter mile of Indian HIll. Adding to the fact that there is radioactive material within Indian is a recipe for nuclear fallout.
Our fake Jim Gordon was quite hilarious in this episode. He had the voice close to being Jim-like, but when he didn’t, it was all over the place. Besides his mannerisms being shaky at best, having no knowledge about Jim prior to this point led to some awkwardly funny interactions. Bullock instantly begins to poke and prod at the flimsy story fake Jim gives off about having the flu. Alfred is also going crazy because he knows Jim would never be this lackluster about saying Strange is completely innocent. But, it isn’t until the lovely Barbara Keane makes her appearance that the fake Jim Gordon plan goes completely sideways.
Jim has always had a weird relationship with Barbara, but fake Jim can’t see past her looks. He hits on her and demeans Lee when Barbara asks about her. This makes it quite apparent that this isn’t the real Jim and when Barbara punches him, his face slides a couple inches to the right. The scene is hilarious, and it further shows the working relationship she has with Penguin and Butch.
On the inside of Arkham, this episode provides gloomy situations with some uplifting story points. Lucius Fox and Bruce have to navigate Nygma’s “trivia show†or they die. These scenes show off just how smart Bruce is, and surprisingly, how “green†Lucius is in this Gotham universe. One of the questions that gets answered is who actually runs Indian Hill. Bruce correctly guesses that it is indeed Wayne Enterprises, but the second question is fishing more than actually getting an answer. Bruce and Lucius guess that it’s the board that makes the decisions for Indian Hill, but Nygma himself doesn’t even know. It’s quite funny that Nygma thinks Strange will allow him to come on board, when in reality he was just using Nygma, and they tossed him back in his cell.
The episode also does a great job in showing how Strange really has less power than it appears on the surface. He is a puppet to the secret council and has to do absolutely everything they say. There’s a point where he orders Fries to kill Selina, but Firefly comes to her aid. There’s a spectacular scene with the two dueling and Strange attempts to make his escape before the bomb explodes. He gets right in between the two and gets frozen/burned and is passed out until Jim slaps him awake. The bomb disposal is also a nice scene where Peabody says water when they ask how to defuse it and they splash water on the bomb with seconds to spare. The only problem is that Peabody was asking for water herself, not for the bomb. This was another nice show of comedic timing with Gotham.
One of the biggest takeaways from the episode, though, was when Jim was given “Honesty Serum.†Strange twists him into realizing that everything he has been doing has been a huge detriment to his relationship with Lee. Although, Strange’s main goal was to make sure that Jim didn’t know who actually runs Indian Hill. Jim takes the knowledge of chasing after love to heart, and runs off with Bullock’s car as the scene ends. It’ll be interesting to see how the show opens next season with Jim chasing after Lee.
Penguin was in the episode for a scene or two, but he really didn’t have much of an impact. Penguin, Butch and a handful of their henchmen do shoot up the bus that Fish escaped on, but she simply touches Penguin and he faints. Butch was so terrified that he just walked away. It certainly alludes to the fact that Butch still has some affinity with Fish considering he did work for her at one point.
