Gotham Knights Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Scene of the Crime

Gotham Knights Season 1 Episode 2, “Scene of the Crime,” struggles to pick up the show’s pace but does show sparks of potential with its examination of blossoming friendships and the dark side of Gotham.

While the episode develops its characters more, it fails to develop the plot significantly.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it widens the overarching mystery of who killed Batman, but it does mean its 41-minute runtime feels overly long for the meager plot points tackled.

However, Turner Hayes (Oscar Morgan) and the rest of the gang putting on their detective caps to track Batman’s journals in Wanye Tower is a nice nod to the detective premise that underlies many Batman stories.

Another excellent nod to Gotham Knights‘ source material is the episode’s acknowledgment of how crime is rising in Gotham city.

Gotham has always been characterized as a very dark city, rife with unhinged criminals and brutal crimes, and things are expected to get much worse in Batman’s absence.

“Scene of the Crime” shows just how formidable the villains lurking in Gotham’s shadows are when the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) is sent the decapitated heads of the six GCPD officers probing Batman’s homicide case.

It’s a gruesome and chilling scene that reminds Batman fans of the more disturbed villains like The Joker and Riddler.

Unfortunately, after its exciting intro of the GCPD murders and the fugitives raiding a department store for supplies, the episode slows down considerably.

It follows the gang breaking into Wayne Tower and the GCPD investigating Stephanie Brown’s (Anna Lore) connections to Turner, interspersed with periods of bickering between the Gotham fugitives.

The scenes of bickering and bonding between the show’s young cast are a mixture of sweet and cheesy.

Duela (Olivia Rose Keegan) offers the most nuanced performance as she displays some self-centered and impulsive behaviors but manages to form an unlikely connection with Turner. Aside from Duela, though, most characters remain relatively flat and greatly lack personality.

Additionally, the crew’s run-in with a Talon from the Court of Owls is underwhelming and unrealistic.

Talons are highly trained assassins, so fearsome that even Duela suggested they should’ve remained in custody rather than facing certain death at a Talon’s hands.

Hence, it seems a little unlikely that a locked car or a door being held shut by two teenagers would be so effective at stopping the Talon in its tracks. Of course, the crew’s getaway was predictable from the beginning, but it was still far too unconvincing.

While the run-in with the Talon isn’t as exciting as it could have been, the deepening of the mystery of the Court of Owls is intriguing.

The organization hasn’t appeared extensively in DC adaptations, so the introduction to the Court’s brutality and the widening of its influence holds potential for future episodes.

Even if the underlying mystery is still intriguing, unraveling it too slowly could result in viewers losing interest in the show’s main appeal.

Ultimately, “Scene of the Crime” is a step down from the show’s first episode.

The pilot had an element of excitement in introducing a colorful cast of characters and a lesser-known criminal organization to viewers.

However, this episode struggles to do anything meaningful with them. It even seems at risk of devolving into some teenage drama that won’t mix well with the dark tone necessary for a story set after Batman’s death.

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Gotham Knights airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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