Gotham: Captain Barnes Goes Full Executioner

No, Gotham, turning Ivy (Maggie Geha) into an inept teenage sexpot doesn't make the evolution any less creepy. Now she's just irritating and my sexy feelings are confused and frustrated. Also, WTF was the poor girl wearing? Was that some kind of double-breasted power suit mini skirt mash-up? Yes it was. It's been a hard week. Let me be petty.

Gotham introduces Poison Ivy...again

"Mad City: The Executioner" felt like the sort of episode a series like Gotham in the place where it is right now, needs in order to reroute and regroup. Jervis Tetch (Benedict Samuel) is off the board (for now) and with the exception of murdering his bestie/crush's ladyfriend, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) has been a good boy. This lull in the usual apocalyptic mayhem of a Monday in Gotham is the sort of shift in focus that enables Gotham to take a breather, a step back, and dedicate some quality screen time to the more character-driven aspects of the series. How is Ivy handling being a socially inept, brainy hottie-- other than reveling in how much of a master criminal she is not? Now that he's back on the force, attempting to play nice with Lee (Morena Baccarin) and just sent his boss (Michael Chiklis) to Arkham, is there anything else Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) learned about adulting during his Mad Hatter tea party?

Gotham: Analyze THIS, Jim Gordon

While watching Captain Barnes go postal on every repeat offender in the city limits was already growing tedious and watching Jim and the GCPD gang scratch their heads and avoid the obvious was only going to exacerbate that, shuffling the man who would "write himself a ticket for jay-walking" into the dark recesses of Arkham Asylum felt like a let down in the sense that Barnes deserved so much better. Arguably, the most morally uncompromised character on the force up until recently, his experience with Alice Tetch's crazy-makin' blood should have felt like a much weightier narrative. We saw him struggle, briefly, and then he caved and it was game over. Meanwhile, Jim Gordon has caved to various sins over the years with minimal lasting effect. Even Batshit Barbara Keane (Erin Richards) got to slaughter her parents and then get promoted to swanky underworld club owner. The freaking Penguin is the freaking mayor of freaking Gotham.

Then again, they've all done their respective time in the big cuckoo house. Great things come to those who get committed to a terrifying hospital for the criminally insane! That gives me high hopes for Barnes, and hey, at least they didn't kill him (yet)

Gotham airs on Fox on Mondays at 8/7c.