Gotham Review: How the Riddler Got His Name (Season 3 Episode 15)
Let’s sing a hallelujah chorus, because the very thing that I have been complaining about for most of this season of Gotham has finally been rectified.
Gotham Season 3 Episode 15, “How the Riddler Got His Name,” finally brings us back to the characters we have been watching for the three seasons.
This episode focuses primarily on the evolution of Nygma and how he’s coping with the death of Penguin. Nygma is determined to make a name for himself in Gotham, and with the help of an imaginary Penguin, he’s able to finally create his own identity, while also looking for a worthy adversary.
While his quest to find someone who can accurately answer his riddles is compelling, this isn’t exactly a new and improved Nygma. He really started coming into his own with the death of Isabella, and in seeking retribution he finds his own way to be a villain with a myopic view of his riddles and their answers.
It’s great to see Nygma come into his own,but it also feels like a goodbye to Penguin. Of course, if this season has established anything, it’s that villains don’t really die in Gotham since chances are more than likely that they’ll be resurrected.
So, it’s no surprise to me that after Nygma says goodbye to Penguin on the pier, we cut to him waking up in an unknown location with a redhead, our very own Ivy Pepper.
When I reviewed Gotham Season 3 Episode 14, “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies,” I didn’t address the death of Oswald Cobblepot because I had the feeling that we would end up here, with Penguin alive and hiding out somewhere, living to foil Nygma another day.
Am I slightly disappointed that Gotham has become this predictable? Yea, a little.
It seems like to survive in Gotham you need to be a villain, or Bruce Wayne, and in a city full of villains, death doesn’t seem to work unless you’re a redshirt cop.
When death doesn’t work in these types of scenarios it takes away the tension. It doesn’t give us a chance to mourn the loss of a character because we figure that they’ll be back, and they’ll be back sooner rather than later.
But let’s leave the subject of death in Gotham aside, and get back to The Court of Owls.
This was a background plot for most of Season 3, and now it’s being brought to the foreground, starting with doppel-Bruce taking the place of the real Bruce Wayne. We even got a few answers as to who the Court of Owls are, and that Jim Gordon’s uncle and father were members. Not much, but it’s enough to satiate my appetite and keep me watching.
It’s setting up for some great intrigue and I am really excited to see where this goes. In fact, I am excited for this plot more than anything, particularly as we come to find out more about the Wayne and Gordon families and their involvement in this secret organization.
Don’t screw this up, Gotham!
Stray Thoughts:
- You know, I would have thought that by episode 15, Ivy Pepper would finally have finished explaining her growth spurt. This is really feeling like an old plot point.
- Harvey needs to find a new Captain immediately. Didn’t I say that the Captain’s office was cursed and he was going to find himself in trouble?
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Gotham airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.