Only downside of Thanksgiving week: so many shows did not broadcast this week. Oh well. I’ll just have to be consoled by all the wonderful time with my loved ones and how obscenely I filled my belly with delicious food! 🙂

Gotham

Whew!

One of the previews for this week’s episode, the Fall Finale (seriously? We need to have mini-finales now?) had one of the show’s makers saying, in effect, “We’ve worked to make this look like the canonical Gotham city, but it might not be. The deaths of iconic Batman characters is not off the table.”

This had me just a bit worried. I mean, they may have failed to make this version of Batman’s city ring true to what I’ve envisioned, at least at first, but if they start going Game of Thrones on this show, it’ll be pure chaos. And this statement intimated that an “iconic” figure was going to die. Would it be Penguin? Dent? Gordon? Alfred? Bruce? Cat? Essen? Bullock? Falcone? Who?

My worrying was for naught. Everyone major survives. The minor character who could have unraveled the entire plot around the Wayne murders if he’d had two more seconds before an assassin burst in, now, he did not survive. I imagine running into the bathroom did not improve his chances, but apparently he had no nerve, no steady calm, in the face of mortal fear.

I’m torn as to whether I like or dislike the female assassin. We meet her as she murders a groundskeeper at Wayne manor, yet then she goes out of her way to not kill anyone else not specified in the contract. She takes down Gordon, but carefully does not kill him, with a “That was fun, let’s do it again,” line. While it adds to her sexy/insane factor, it also smells of a more old-school stereotype for female villains: that they got aroused from all the violence and killing. It kind of leaves a bad taste in my brain now.

And bravo Alfred! The only one we see fight the lady assassin and hold his own! Then he kills one of her henchmen, joins the search for Bruce and Cat (who have fled into the city) alongside Bullock, pays a street urchin two hundred for information, threatens and beats Butch until Fish shows up, flatters Fish into helping them (Alfred be smooth!), and finally charges through gangster gunfire to rescue Bruce! Score for the butler! (not a valet!)

Unfortunately, Cat takes her leave of Wayne manner, Dent proves he does not have Gordon’s back (at least in the immediate circumstance, I am hopeful for something like redemption in later episodes), and Gordon takes the fall for an assassinated man’s “suicide,” as the mayor assigns him to be an Arkham security guard.

The fiasco brushes alongside the rising turmoil in Falcone’s criminal organization, as he executes a man who was supposed to guard his money, and then has dinner with the body on his left. Oh, and he increased his cut of everyone’s cash until his burnt reserve is rebuilt. Fish is softly manipulating, reaching out to those who feel slighted and/or afraid. And Penguin is biding his time, waiting for the right moment to use the secrets he has discovered, to take Fish down. As he’s biding his time at risk of his life, he has even more nerve than one might expect.

Ivy, descending the road to insanity, makes a quick appearance, and Cat – Cat! – is clearly afraid of her.

Castle

On their first official case together as a married couple, Castle and Beckett end up taking a back seat for most of it, allowing Esposito to take the spotlight this week. Granted, that spotlight comes with a suspect wearing an explosive vest, so there is something to be said for not being in the spotlight. Fortunately, Esposito was already introspecting, thinking about if he wants more out of life, seeing Castle and Beckett married, seeing his best friend as a happy father. This whole ordeal seems to be pushing him forward now, towards Laney.

Laney, it would seem, is similarly affected by this ordeal. She nearly loses Esposito twice in one day, and she clearly has feelings for him. Here’s hoping they finally get together and stay together.

And yes, Castle, your train puns at the end of the episode are too soon. Unless, of course, you want your best friends and new bride to have an overwhelming desire to whack you upside the head. Heh!

The Flash

So! Much! Goodness!

First, the one thing I did not like: you do not grab an officer’s gun, and shoot two officers, in a police station, and get away with it. Every cop in the building would be riddling you with bullets. They are trained and capable, not to mention numerous and angry, so it irritates me how they had the Clock King getting away with it for as long as he did.

That said, this was still so awesome! They had an Arrow villain on The Flash! They had multiple villains in an interweaving plot! The cunning of the Clock King, the machinations of Wells. he steel-skinned bully, who gave Barry so much trouble last episode, was taken down! By a vengeance-seeking man who throws lightning bolts!

At least Tony went down on a high note, with one moment of selflessness and self-awareness.

The future can apparently be changed, as evidenced by Wells’ records of the future changing. One begins to suspect that he intends to make the Flash more powerful by the time some catastrophe strikes, and to serve that end, he will be absolutely cold-blooded. Not a good thing when he realizes Barry’s power is tied to his feelings for those around him. Bodes not-good things for Cisco, Cait, Joe, Eddie, and Iris.

Barry, who has become reliant on powers he still does not believe he deserves, must learn a few things. He relies too much on his powers. He needs to think about more than himself. He’s been a cocky showoff. And he needs to accept his powers willingly, even at risk to his life.

And Iris, Eddie, and Joe have to not rely too much on the Flash’s assistance. You can’t just wait to be saved, you have to work to save yourself. As Iris puts it, “A girl’s gotta be her own hero every now and again.”

Grimm

Nick the Grimm is back! Woohoo!

Six episodes, which is just over one-quarter of a season, and our favorite Grimm gets his powers back, at last! They handled his return so well! It wasn’t instantaneous, but gradual. Reminded me of these lights you can turn off and things instantly go dark, but turning them back on after awhile, they need a few minutes to warm up and be as bright as they were. And Nick’s Grimm-ness took a number of strange turns, so we got to revisit when he first started seeing the wesen, when his sense of hearing grew sharper, when he “died” and came back stronger than ever. A quick walk down memory lane! 🙂

And they had the perfect case this week! It was one of Nick’s first cases as a detective, an unsolved case rearing its ugly head, and perhaps it would have turned out differently if he’d been a Grimm back then. These three reptiles have been murdering young couples for a very long time, and the instant it seems like they’ve won, Nick’s powers fully return, and he simply says, “You’re done.” And beats them hard into the ground. Perfect! That’s what Nick says to all the wrongdoers in the world: You’re done. Followed by a beat down. 😀

You gotta love how they handled the whole ritual involved in returning Nick’s powers. Everyone was like, “this is super awkward,” and needing strong drinks, and Nick was a bit hesitant at first, but Juliette took control and pushed things forward! Whoo! I love her line about Nick seeing Adalind, but knowing it was Juliette, and Juliette seeing only Nick, “so I’m gonna have at it!” And Nick says, “Well, when you put it that way.” Oh, I love those two!

Also a very good moment, when Nick’s powers haven’t fully returned, they ask Munroe for help. But Munroe can’t leave Rosalee all alone. But, ah! They thought of that! So Juliette comes by with her gone and plenty of ammo, followed a moment later by Trubel! Yeah, the women can take care of themselves, Munroe, now go save lives. I know I’m saying this sort of thing a lot today, but I love the Grimm women!

Speaking of the women, with Elizabeth about to go in search of Kelly Burkhardt, and Adalind now in cahoots with Viktor and sharing information, thus deducing that Kelly is the one who has Diana, not the Resistance, it seems some interesting meetings are on the horizon. Elizabeth and Kelly will likely have a most interesting first meeting (as will Elizabeth and Adalind), but to protect Diana, I can’t think of a better pair of women. Or, really, a better pair of people.

Josh makes his return to Portland (amusingly, just as Trubel is trying to ditch Chavez’s surveillance), and seeks refuge with Nick. I wonder what their plans for Josh are, and if he’ll be of any use without any Grimm powers or physical prowess (we know he can’t use a machete). The lady sheriff in this episode might have been a good match for Hank, an idea they just barely played with as they developed a little rapport. And what were those abdominal pains Juliette felt as she changed back from being Adalind? As they teased at the end of the episode, could she really be pregnant?

I’ve saved for last, the introduction of what can be called the wesen version of the Ku Klux Klan. Haven’t met them yet, but we’ve seen their handiwork twice now, with that brick through the window at the spice shop and now the burning symbol planted in Munroe and Rosalee’s front lawn. The Secudum Naturae Ordinem (forgive me if I spelled that wrong) are a group of wesen opposed to anything they deem unnatural, such as inter-wesen marriages, much as the KKK would oppose interracial or homosexual relationships, or anything else their twisted creed prohibits. And by “oppose,” I mean harass, threaten, harm, even kill innocent people who have done them no harm. Of course, as Munroe observes, they do it from the shadows, not head-on in a fair fight, which makes them cowards.

Despicable cowards.

I’m actually hoping they get bold enough that Nick, Trubel, and Munroe can grab them by the throat! That should be great!