Gotham comes to the middle point of its inaugural season on an uneven note. "Lovecraft" sort of follows the course of what the show was first intended to be and then somehow got adjusted during the run. The show was intended to be a look at James Gordon and the police department as they combat the threats that befall Gotham City. That would mean episodes would largely focus on a procedural format that has been done to death over the years. So the focus was then changed to play largely as a Batman prequel.



This episode features a large portion driven and carried by young Bruce Wayne along with new best friend Selina Kyle. It thankfully gets young Wayne out of his own house and away from his nascent detective work on the murder of his parents. The problem is that the show has so many things to give the running time to that the subplot with the kids becomes lost in the shuffle. There's nothing of impact that occurs to them. The same can be said for what happens to Detective Gordon as well.


The way the show gets Bruce and Selina out of Wayne Manor is quite clever. A contract hit is put out on Selina. The nameless assassin squad is brutal with their tactics and overall ruthless demeanor. They make for some of the most formidable opponents the show has created, and they engender these feelings because of their unpredictability. They aren't a well-known future member of the Batman rogues gallery so there aren't any expectations. This subplot also frees Alfred to show off more than his skills as a butler. Indeed his hand-to-hand fighting proficiency could indicate a past as an SAS operative or possibly an enforcer for the mob. Whatever the case may be, Alfred is easily the best part of the episode. His bond with young Master Wayne has already been established so his search for Bruce has urgency and tension.


He's smartly paired with Bullock and that pays off with a pair of golden interrogation scenes with Selina's friend (Bullock itching to beat the snot out of the guy while Alfred plays it cool plays like what the show has wanted to do with Gordon, but largely failed) and Fish Mooney. Sometimes, charm works better than force. The kids may form the backbone of the episode's main plot, but Alfred is the more watchable character. Bruce and Selina do have some natural chemistry together, but the young actors show how limited their skills are in too many of their scenes. It's difficult to see if what they learn from each other will stick in future episodes.




As for Detective Gordon, well, he doesn't have the best go of it. When he finds out about the assassins and how they're hunting Selina, he loses his cool. It's an understandable mindset, although stashing her in Wayne Manor, one of Gotham City's most well-known places, wasn't really the best of ideas. What also doesn't help is the shouting match that he gets into with Harvey Dent. Two episodes with Gotham's famous District Attorney and there's a lot of overacting going on. Like Fish Mooney or Oswald Cobblepot, Harvey Dent seems to operate only in one mode. There's no subtlety or nuance with anything that he says or does. Falcone would be a good example of a character that exudes menace without going over the top. He's not particularly smart in continuing to trust Fish, but there is the feeling that his brain is working over all the angles. Falcone will find the mole.


Dent isn't a character that is easy to read, though I can't tell if that's the fault of the writing or the acting. Both men determine that Dick Lovecraft, the primary suspect in the Wayne murders, ordered the hit on Selina to silence whatever eyewitness testimony she could provide. A convoluted set of circumstances leads to the assassins attacking and killing Lovecraft (yet another character who gets an episode named after them, yet barely appears in said episode) with Gordon completely overmatched in the process.




Lovecraft's death is pinned on Gordon by the Mayor in a nice little bit of corrupt plotting, with his punishment being banishment from the police department for a security job in Arkham Asylum. That moment, which ends the episode, should be something momentous, but it can't escape the feeling of being undercooked. We don't know what happens in the Asylum so it's hard to get to worrying about Gordon's well-being while in there. Plus, there are the separate questions of how the show is going to portray Gordon apart from the police and Bullock (What will he do without his partner? Maybe team up more with Alfred?) and how long he'll be in Arkham before the writers decide to return him to his detective job.

There's precedent for the latter question, as Barbara said previously that she would leave Gordon, only to return to him and leave him again within the span of five episodes. This show has such maddening inconsistency. It's probably not going to stop when the show comes out of the winter break.