The Batman universe is chock-full of interesting characters on both sides of the spectrum, but their villains certainly stand out above all. Gotham has done a pretty good job of conveying the various villains, even if you feel that they bloated the villain name dropping at times. This week, we get our first introduction with the Mad Hatter.
My familiarity with the Mad Hatter is nearly non-existent, but the villain was a nice change of pace from their usual brooding baddies. Mad Hatter, whose actual name is Jarvis Tetch, is attempting to find his sister Alice. She was one of Strange’s lab experiments and has some weird affliction where her blood somehow infects people. Mad Hatter has that suave persona of a snake oil salesmen from years past. His slick nature fits perfectly into seedy Gotham, and he uses that to his advantage.
At one point, he convinces a man to kill his wife and then himself, just so he had a place to stay. In quite a hilarious scene, he hypnotizes Barbara and convinces her that she is madly in love with him. It all appears fine until he plays it off as he if doesn’t feel the same. Tabitha realizes this is going to go horribly wrong, and she sprints to the stage just after Barba breaks a bottle and is ready to stab Mad Hatter in the neck. As Tabitha points out, Barbara doesn’t do well with rejection.
Although it may seem random that Jaris is in Gotham, his only goal is to find his sister, Alice. Jim is fetched to find her, but when he does, things don’t go exactly as planned. Since Jim is still on his bounty hunter streak, he takes up the job. We get small hints of what Alice’s “power†is when Jim goes into an old bar and the guys explain that she accidentally cut her arm and then torched the entire place. Since this is indeed Gotham, that strangely doesn’t seem that weird. When Jim does eventually catch up to Alice, she freaks out about not wanting to see her brother and torches a guy that forced himself on her. It’s curious as to what Dr. Strange did to her because she is essentially a walking bomb.
As interesting as Jarvis’s introduction is, Lee and her fiance’s return to Gotham was even more so. Lee’s fiancé actually has some strong ties to Gotham, so strong that it could change the dynamic in the show going forward. Mario’s father is lead crime boss Carmine Falcone. We haven’t seen him since season one, so it’ll be interesting to see how he is weaved into the storyline going forward.
As for Cobblepot, he is still rallying the troops and taking another step to becoming a big figure in Gotham, Mayor to be exact. It hilarious that Gotham is in such dire straits that Cobblepot actually seems like a sane choice. At one point, he has a dinner with Mayor James, and the current Mayor attempts to strong arm him with a bunch of his henchmen. Cobblepot simply laughs and reveals that all the people in the restaurant have guns and are on his side.
The strangest line for this season is the Emo-Bruce doppelganger. We learn that he is impervious to pain, as was displayed by the couple of punches to the face he gave Alfred during a sparring session. Naturally, he doesn’t remember anything before being at Indian Hill. The storyline could be going somewhere, but it really needs to get there soon. At least we don’t have to see him don that wig any longer since Emo-Bruce cut his hair to look more like the real Bruce Wayne.
