Gotham Review: Light the Wick (Season 3 Episode 18)

This season, Gotham has frustrated me with its dedication to villains that they ultimately abandon after a few episodes.

So I am very happy that  Gotham Season 3 Episode 18 “Light the Wick” is one of the only episodes this seasons where I don’t find myself shaking my head at a showboating villain, but instead find a bit of contentment with characters I am already invested in.

“Light the Wick” has several plot threads, but they all involve characters we’ve seen before. While the episode does feel a little cluttered and underserves many of the main cast, it feels like Gotham has gotten back to its core, and I am really hoping it stays that way.

One of the many things that’s been frustrated me is the way they’ve written Maggie Geha’s Ivy. Ivy’s growth spurt seems to be a source of comic relief in her previous appearances.

Maggie Geha’s Ivy has always stood in contrast to Clare Foley’s Ivy in my mind. While her initial appearance was very intimidating, it quickly devolves into silliness as Ivy continues to explain to everyone she meets that “yes, she really is Ivy Pepper!”

I find this very disappointing as we near the end of the season, because I remember reading a TV Line interview with Geha where she says: “[Ivy] definitely has a new confidence to her. The transformation brings out a bit of her manipulative side — and some evil.”

Since then, I’ve really wanted to see more of Ivy’s manipulative side. We’ve seen her make suggestions, get ignored, and then use her pheromone perfume to get stuff done, but we haven’t seen her be evil and she hasn’t really been around enough to justify her growth spurt. She’s still in a sidekick role, and I was hoping that would change.

Still, while we haven’t seen Ivy hatch an evil plot all her own, I am very happy to see her and Selina reunite after her coma, and I really hope their friendship continues through the remainder of the season.

I’m also glad to see Alice Tetch’s virus come back into play. The Mad Hatter arc isn’t my favorite of this season. I found Jervis Tetch to be a bit of a showboat, and not a very worthy adversary, but now that we know his sister’s virus ties into The Court of Owls’ plan to bring down Gotham, I am intrigued.

Don’t get me wrong, under no circumstances do I want to see Jervis Tetch brought back to the foreground, but I do appreciate the mythology of the virus, and the excuse to bring Captain Barnes out of his holding cell, and put Hugo Strange, back in the lab.

Strange is another character I didn’t expect to see anytime soon, but I am glad he comes back, and it feels natural to bring him in for this because I don’t think any other character would be able pull off the task of weaponizing the Alice Tetch virus off.

Last, but not least, I am especially happy that we are going to get to see Captain Barnes as The Executioner. Of course, I did shake my head when Catherine ordered Barnes to kill Jim Gordon.

Let’s be clear, threatening to kill the main character of a show never ends well, especially since if they stay true to the Batman canon, Jim Gordon has to be alive when Bruce ultimately becomes Batman. Knowing that, do we really think The Executioner is going to succeed in this task?

While I am excited to see The Executioner explored in more detail, if we spend more than one episode on the “Jim Gordon must die” train, the Court of Owls really needs to rethink its strategy.

Stray Thoughts

• Is anyone else ridiculously suspicious of The Shaman? I am a little worried that if I put too much trust in him, he’s going to open his mouth and say that Bruce is actually in a cryostasis chamber or something and has to do something unbelievable like fight his way out.
• I love when Selina wakes up in the hospital and her first words are asking “Why does my room smell like a bowl of potpourri?”
• Has anyone else had enough of Lee’s whining this season? I love Morena Baccarin, but Lee used to be a very useful character, and lately she’s just throwing shade at Jim. Can we actually work to make her useful again? It’s not just Lee either, this season has really lacked main plots with its female characters. What happened to that setup with Barbara wanting to take control of Gotham’s underworld?
• I am really glad they didn’t draw out the arc with Oswald searching for Nygma. Of course,  now I wonder exactly how Oswald is going to build his “army of freaks” if they’re both locked up.

What did you think of this episode of Gotham? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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Gotham airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox.

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