Welcome to another Gotham recap! Gotham also known as the show where we fight crime by committing crimes and the moral code went down the pan in the pilot.
This week on the show, the helpless woman trope is played up to the max and the plot twist of all plot twists (read: a dramatic Gotham moment that would be tedious by any other show’s standards) occurs.
As always, our recaps are split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly. Read on to find out what went down this week.
The Plot
Still all riled up from last week, Jim Gordon is shooting for the stars. And by the stars I mean he’s attempting to become the universe’s most hopeful but utterly useless police detective.
Understanding that there’s a massive corruption plot going on in the city, Jim attempts to take everybody down. The Mayor, police officers and two mob bosses. He wants them all to pay for their heinous crimes! Realising that it’s dangerous, he sends his girlfriend Barbara out of town in an attempt to keep her safe as he dismantles decades worth of criminal activity.
If that sounds impossible in text then I assure you on screen it was even more laughable, which is exactly why Police Chief Essen (metaphorically) shoots him down, explaining that no one is willing to help.
Mob boss Falcone meanwhile wants Gordon to shut the hell up, sending a hitman after him to chase him out of town/outright kill him. He nearly does too, escaping with just a scratch. Haha, just kidding. He gets shot like three times.
He’d have been shot hundreds more had the hitman got his way but after some expert scrambling from Jim along with Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya (Renee being the ex of Jim’s girlfriend) showing up with a getaway car they’re able to take him to a veterinarian hospital so he can get patched up.
Determined to finish the job, Jim puts a plan in motion. Well, first he gets off the table and bails on bedrest the doctor’s best wishes but for some reason the show doesn’t tell Ben McKenzie (who plays Jim) to limp, so that’s neither here nor there. Next up, he takes a trip to Bruce “Batman” Wayne’s house and assures him that everything is on track and now Allen and Montoya know everything and can help out too! They’ll probably need to be on the case because after Jim’s next step he barely makes it out alive…
Squadding up with his partner, Detective Harvey Bullock, the two do what any fool with weapons training would do – sneak into Falcone’s mob den (using the Mayor and his town car as their guise), armed with just a couple of guns. Brilliant.
As you probably guess about a millisecond ago, their plan doesn’t go particularly well. Sure, they manage to hold a couple of guards at gunpoint and throw threats of jail time around but Falcone soon counters telling Gordon that Barbara never left town and that she’s securely in his clutches, y’know, ready to be killed up at the pull of a trigger.
Is he bluffing? Is he telling the truth? That question is soon answered for you when Barbara is herded into the room rightfully looking like she’s about to crap herself. It’s ok, I would be too. Thankfully for Barbara (to save her from any public embarrassment) Falcone soon chooses to let all three – Jim, Barbara and Harvey – go, the catch being “some day soon you’ll see I’m right”. Ooh, ominous.
We soon figure out just how deep Falcone’s mystique goes when Penguin shows up to provide him with information! Yes, that was the big plot twist I mentioned. Hardly gasp worthy but I couldn’t have you skipping right over to ‘The Gay’ now could I? Alas, it seems that the two have been working together for some time and Penguin has been filling him in on information about Maroni (rival mob boss and Penguin’s other boss) for a while.
More interesting than the twist itself is how it’ll play out, so hopefully we’ll see that soon.
The Gay
Like the morals of almost everyone previously mentioned (save for Montoya, Allen and Barbara), the gay rating of this week’s Gotham is also in the toilet. There’s no f/f kissing, trope-y, ratings or otherwise but what we do get is Montoya telling Jim that her “personal feelings” for Barbara got in the way of her believing his story.
Everything we’ve seen up to this point has suggested that those ‘feelings’ are currently held rather than a thing of the past. I still can’t tell if the show’s going to make a big deal of it soon but here’s to hoping.
The Ugly
This week’s episode of Gotham was marginally better than last week’s because it didn’t *completely* put me to sleep. Hardly high praise, I know.
Being rather boring is starting to become the show’s calling card at this point, but I guess it gets kudos for consistency? I’ll be back with another recap next week.
