Holy Alfred! Gotham’s last episode before its fall break, “Lovecraft,†was a bit uneven throughout, but Alfred finally had an outstanding showing. In previous episodes, Alfred did seem to start to come into his own, but for some reason, they balked at that notion for another character. Not in this episode!
It’s safe to say that the Alfred most of us remember is from the Nolan trilogy, the older, more wisdom-giving, less hands-on father figure of Bruce Wayne. But, it’s clear that Alfred was quite intense in his younger years. This episode started off quickly with a woman, Lesley-Ann Brandt as Copperhead, killing a random guy and someone off-screen telling her to open him up. You know, typical Gotham stuff. She is later seen at Wayne Manor’s front door, complaining that she’s been in an accident. But, after she sees Selina Kyle, her eyes turn to rage, and Alfred tells them to run. While Selina and Bruce are running, Alfred? Not so much.
Alfred starts to seriously beat down the villains taking a couple strong punches and kicks himself, he fights them off. As he is chasing them down, he gets shot and continues to pursue the perps. It was incredibly nice to see Alfred more impactful in this episode. The scene showed how important Bruce is to Alfred and that absolutely nothing will stop him from protecting Master Bruce. Alfred doesn’t stop there, and becomes Bullock’s right-hand man for the show, which is quite the duo to say the least.
Of course, since this is Gotham after all, Gordon has gotten himself into quite the predicament. With some poorly leaked information by Harvey Dent, whose had two very poor showings thus far mind you, Gordon goes on the hunt to question Lovecraft about the Wayne murders. While there, he tried to stop the hit on Lovecraft, and fails quite miserably. Worst of all, Lovecraft was murdered with Gordon’s gun, thus leaving his time on the force in question. We later find out that Gordon is punished due to his inability to stop the hit, relieved of his duty, and forced to be a security guard at Arkham Asylum.
Things don’t quite add up here, although it does make sense in the long run. A cop who goes above and beyond in the most corrupt city ever is relieved of his duties and sent to play “mall cop,†at Arkham Asylum. I know Gotham PD is just as corrupt as the city but really? I used to say I can’t believe actions like this, but we’ve come to know that in Gotham, anything is possible.
While everything involving Gordon was pretty weird and sort of missed the mark, the scenes between Selina and Bruce were excellent. In their mad dash out of the Wayne Manor, Selina takes Bruce to her roaming grounds, but midway she tries to lose Bruce by jumping a gap between buildings. At first, Bruce hesitates, but seconds later he walks back to get some running room and jumps. He barely makes it, with help from Selina, of course. She then agrees to take Bruce down to the Gotham she knows.
These scenes are great because it starts to show Bruce what Gotham is really like, not the Gotham he knows from Wayne Manor. By seeing their plight and the “real†Gotham, it really crafts his psyche and cements his moral ground in his trek to becoming the protector of Gotham. Along the way, we get a random scene with Ivy, which was surprisingly well done. The scene shows Selina pulling Bruce away because she says Ivy is crazy. Hopefully, next season we get to delve into her a bit more. Bruce’s and Selina’s scenes end with a steamy kiss that really catapults their interactions throughout the episode which were far and away the best scenes.
