Gotham Season 4 Episode 9: ‘Let Them Eat Pie’ Review

[Featured Image: Fox]

At the end last week’s episode we saw that Oswald was becoming suspicious of Sofia’s intentions and started to doubt her. This week Oswald and Martin are still teaming up and the former entrusts the latter to be his eyes and ears in order to find out what Sofia is really up. I think we can all agree that this is a team up we never really expected but Oswald and Martin make quite the pair.

Right before Professor Pyg makes himself known Oswald almost finds out the truth from Sofia herself. She admits to getting Jim Gordon promoted to Captain and Oswald tells her, “If you’re going to confess, confess. And face the consequences.” before they’re interrupted. For a fleeting moment, it really does look like she might crack and tell him. Now she probably won’t say anything but she’s going to have to be careful. She knows that Oswald is suspicious and at least knows about her involvement in Jim’s promotion, so things aren’t going to be as smooth sailing as they have been so far.

We, the audience, also know that Oswald has found out about Sofia and Jim’s relationship thanks to Martin who spies the pair kissing. Before this, perhaps Sofia and Oswald could have found some solid ground again but now it seems like any shot at a true alliance is going to be off the table, at least for now.

Professor Pyg, once again, makes a huge show of things. Gotham has never been short of dramatic villains (or just characters in general) but Pyg is something entirely different. I’m finding myself enjoying his scenes but I’m still at that point of thinking he might be best suited as a one season villain. I can’t really see him staying in the show much longer than that so I hope we get a lot of him while we do have him.

Taking over the meal that Sofia put together was shockingly enjoyable. From promo/preview clips and pictures we got beforehand, it looked set to be an interesting scene but it was much better than I could have anticipated.

Pyg really did demand all attention and we got to see all of his personality in this scene. I can safely say it was my favourite scenes of his so far. It was also a pleasure to watch Sofia and Oswald interact. Considering he suspects her and believes she has betrayed him, he still becomes protective of her. He gets angry when Pyg stabs Sofia in the hand, and there are a few moments where the two are sat close together and/or share looks. She even asks for Oswald’s help when she struggles to eat, he obliges, and he doesn’t look happy, not because he’s having to help her but because he doesn’t want her to have to eat it. This is confirmed when he threatens everyone to eat except for Sofia.

This gives me hope that they will eventually team up (as friends, professionally, or both) at some point in the future. It will be repetitive if he simply kills her or she just leaves without another mention. Also, the fact that he now has no reason to trust her has come early enough in the season that it could be turned around before the end of it.

It was also a good scene for Oswald and Martin. It confirmed that he does seem to genuinely care about Martin. The way he willingly eats the pie, the way he kills that man for dismissing Martin, and how he threatens everyone’s lives if they don’t eat. It really is such a refreshing pairing to have.

Jim, of course, comes to the rescue once again. The fight scene between him and Pyg was really satisfying to watch. The camera angles, the little bits of slow motion, and the fact that most of it took place on the table really brought it all together. It felt different to the fight scenes we normally see which was nice, and it was great to see Pyg’s fighting skills.

This fight could also change the relationship between Jim and Pyg. So far we’ve seen the latter give Jim a bit of break and hasn’t targeted him thus far, but after ruining his plans, Pyg’s feelings may change.

Elsewhere we see Bruce and Alfred. Their little camping trip was adorable and almost paralleled that scene in season 1 episode 15 when they end up camping out while they wait to see the sunrise.

It broke my heart to see Bruce be so dismissive of Alfred and treat him the way he did (e.g. taking off with the car, telling Alfred to just be his butler, etc) but for now it is understandable. I will say that although I really love seeing these two together, I think this episode would have been fine without their scenes.

Also, although I think Bruce’s behaviour is understandable, I don’t think these scenes really work. Bruce seemed to realise how important Alfred was in his life after killing him in season 3 and now he’s dismissing him. It does add to the idea that killing changes you and it’ll probably cement the “no killing” rule into his life, but I hope this distancing from Alfred doesn’t last too long.

Some other things: