Duela and Turner end up in over their heads when they go to meet someone from Duela’s past. Stephanie faces a hard choice. Cullen struggles to keep t he gang together at a time when it seems in danger of fracturing apart.

Daddy Issues indeed, as another episode of Gotham Knights heads to us from the ‘On the Nose’ writing factory. But whose Daddy could we mean? Well, damn near everybody’s…

Having hopped on the good foot to do the bad thing at the end of last week’s episode, Turner and Duela decide – against the better judgement of Harper and Cullen – to keep the party going. Slipping out while everyone else is otherwise engaged, they meet up with a contact of Duela’s who might be able to help them with answers as to the Dark Knight’s culpability or otherwise for the deaths of Turner’s parents.

This gives the episode an opportunity to reveal a little more about Duela’s background – her childhood in Arkham, her anger towards her father – all setting up for a ‘twist’ that anyone who knows even the tiniest amount of Bat-Lore will already be painfully aware of and anyone who isn’t can see coming a good quarter of an hour before the episode finally delivers it.

What’s tragic is that this is the least compelling of the plots in the episode, but it gets the most screentime. Elsewhere, things get juicy. Stephanie, via Harvey, approaches the GCPD with an offer to give testimony that Lincoln is the head of the Court of Owls. One problem, the GCPD is corrupt to the core and in the pockets of the Court. Well, two problems, Stephanie’s father hasn’t been very discreet with how he’s been grabbing pain meds for his junkie wife, leading to a terrible dilemma for poor Steph as she’s offered the choice of saving her friends or her mother.

And that leads to the hookup we’ve known has been coming, and which starts with the most powerful scene of the episode. Stephanie, harassed by her mother who is lashing out as any person in her situation would, is stopped by Harper, who recognises too much of what she’s seeing play out before her, and who can’t stand by and watch the woman she’s so obviously crushing on go through the same thing. For once, the writers allow the scene to breathe, show don’t tell, and Fallon Smythe delivers a great performance that pulls you into the whole thing. Shame it doesn’t get more time, it deserved it.

Meanwhile, Cullen is trying to save Turner whether he wants to be saved or not, and there’s more than a hint there that he’s not entirely unselfishly interested in Turner’s romantic decisions. This sort of comes out of nowhere, and it’s difficulty to really know how to respond to it as a result. Moreover, it necessarily takes a back seat to another round of ‘Cullen pretends to be a cop with ludicrous ease’ which, I’ll be honest, is wearing real thin.

But as tacky as it remains in many ways, it’s lovely to see so much representation in so many ways on the screen, the actors really do commit to what they’re given and in spite of everything so far, I’m starting to feel genuinely compelled by the show’s vision of Gotham as a city corrupt to its core, run by a shadowy cabal. You can almost forget the silly stuff like magic rocks which make people live forever.

Verdict: Dammit, somebody tell these actors that they’re not supposed to be this good with material that’s this generally weak!  7/10

Greg D. Smith