- Directed by Curt Geda
- Written by Michael Stern
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BEWARE THE BATMAN SPOILERS!
This week the story of ‘Control’ continues to push the ongoing story arc based around the League of Assassins and also Jason Burr/the Ion Cortex even further whilst focussing on a more emotional side of Tatsu/Katana.
NB: Alfred is MIA in this episode.
The League of Assassins are very much off screen in this episode but they continue to loom over the story as they have done in the past. There’s not a huge amount of exploration in to the origins of the villain – Cipher – but the story is packed enough that there isn’t really any space for it and the episode is not any worse off for it not being there.
A fair chunk of the episode is dedicated to the continuing training sessions between Bruce and Tatsu as they work on their partnership. This series has become great at relating some of the family issues between the core cast to the story as a whole here we’re delving deeper into Tatsu’s emotional control.
Bruce feels that Tatsu has a lack of control and puts it down to her lack of emotional control but of course at a crucial moment later in the story it is following her heart and not her head the saves the day.
What ‘Control’ does do is open up the landscape of Gotham to show more of the architectural design of the series. Much of the story, for example, takes place at Wayne Enterprises which is a massive space. There’s some swooping shots of the large atrium which is sparsely decorated and very cold to the eye but looks beautiful on screen. We’ve not had a chance to explore many of these spaces in this city as yet and I hope in future episodes we get to dive further in to the designs.
This episode has an emotional maturity that is reminiscent of an adult drama over a children’s cartoon. It feels like this series has hit its stride really early on where other shows spend their first seasons struggling to find what works within their format. Hopefully this means the creative team can focus on developing the story much further through the remaining episodes.
Pieces of the mainstream Batman universe are creeping in this show in quite a subtle manner which has been interesting to see. The bat signal is now making a regular appearance – notice the sound the bat computer plays when the signal shines in the sky – and the relationship between Batman and Gordon continues to grown. As this show advertised itself as different to the norm it’s interesting to see the writers mix-up this Batman elements with the lesser known villains.
There’s a cliffhanger ending which will hopefully take us through in to the next episode which looks like it will bring some pain to Tatsu and her new found relationship with Jason Burr.
7/10
