Fridge / Gotham Central

Fridge Brilliance

• In the Half a Life arc of Gotham Central, Detective Renee Montoya has been expertly framed for murder by Two-Face and is now being interrogated by officers of Internal Affairs. The various panels during the interrogation show her in various poses of exasperation (Head in her hands, scowling expression, etc.) except for one panel, where her hands drop from her face and her eyes widen in the obvious understanding of something, but the next panel it is gone and she never mentions what she realised or what set her off. However, when she later talks to Crispus Allen he asks her who is framing her and she knows it is Two-Face. The thing is, when speaking to Allen she does nothing to say how or why she knows it is Two-Face, and it seems like she just magically knows the answer. Only when re-reading that first scene can you possibly realize it, but there are actually legitimate clues put in the dialogue ( "Temporary insanity plea... double life... threat to someone you love...") that refer to both the villain directly, and also to the history he has with Renee. It is double brilliant, since when Renee takes these clues and puts them all together she has a moment of Fridge Brilliance in the comic, but the reader can only understand it when they have a Brilliance moment of their own. Brilliant.