Welcome to another Gotham recap! Gotham also known as the show where moral codes, ethics and good policing come to die.
This week on the show, last week’s electro-bad guy makes a return, Barbara shows up for no reason and everyone is terrible at their job!
As always, the recap is split into The Plot, The Gay and The Ugly so read on to find out what went down in this episode of Gotham.
The Plot
Last week, Jim showed up at Arkham Asylum ready for guard duty, miserable about his demotion but determined to keep the patients safe. He did a remarkably bad job as not only half a dozen people get murdered or have their brains electro-shocked into bewilderment, the perpetrators also got away, fleeing under the cover of darkness. Well it seems as though the escape was engineered so that Dr. Gruber (the electro-shocking mad man) could clear up some unfinished business from a job gone wrong back in the day.
First on his to do list? Pick up a multi-ton generator from a hardware store. The double crossing fool in charge of the place has been keeping it safe for Gruber for years but he doesn’t get much thanks as the doctor soon fries his marbles and leaves the man felt tip penning gibberish on the walls. Apparently the massive power hub is light enough to me driven around in a van because that’s exactly how they transport it out of there and up the road to mob boss Maroni’s place.
Jim, who made a deal with the Police Commissioner to find Gruber in a day or risk being stuck on guard duty forever, is already wise to it. Having just received a visit from Dr. Leslie Thompkins (who also featured in last week’s episode) Jim finds out that some voodoo priestess at the prison made a doll of Maroni for Gruber prior to his escape. Not that this knowledge encourages Jim to I don’t know, ring Maroni and warn him of the dangers? By the time Jim shows up in his rubber galoshes (that he’s donned specially for the electro-villain occasion) an electric grenade has already gone off and zapped Maroni and co.’s noggins.
After they’ve been patched up, Jim strikes up a conversation with Maroni (and Penguin who sits up from his stretcher to dither on about a meeting with other mob boss Falcone) about Gruber, confirming the two’s dodgy dealings. Taking them down to the station for police protection is the best plan of action says Jim, they’ll be like bait! Taking all of the effort out of policing, everyone will hang around like sitting ducks, waiting for Gruber and his henchmen to make an assault on the building.
Well, who should show up not long after? It’s Gruber! Having attached some leads from his portable generator to the metal of the precinct, the deranged doctor has managed to zap everything and everyone within the Gotham PD building. Except for The People’s Hero™, Jim Gordon, who was immune thanks to those rubber galoshes (that no one else though to wear despite the fact that they were literally waiting for an electro-shocking mad man to attack them). He has a fight with Gruber’s henchman, eventually knocking him out cold, before Gruber starts charging up his suit to electrocute Gordon too.
Jim uses a cup of water to short circuit Gruber’s suit and voila, Gotham’s most useless detective actually saves the day, winning his job back in the process.
About that spot of bother that Falcone needed help with – Mooney has ‘kidnapped’ Falcone’s girlfriend Liza and is threatening to beat her up unless Falcone leaves Gotham with Liza and hands over all of his power to Mooney instead. Could it really be that easy? Could Mooney really get all of the power she wanted, just like that? Of course not; we’re still a dozen episodes away from the season finale.
Falcone is one step ahead of Mooney. He shows up to the meeting place after a conversation with Penguin, Penguin having revealed that Mooney planted Liza months ago! So Falcone asks all of the right questions in an effort to find out if Liza really was in cahoots with Mooney all this time. Liza’s lies are about as obvious as an elephant hiding in a bathtub and Falcone strangles the life out of her with his own bare hands. Grim.
Victor Zsasz was on protection duty for Falcone too so every single one of Mooney’s guards is dead (bar right hand man, Butch) and she’s helpless. Consider Mooney’s days numbered (or, we’ll see how she tries to wriggles herself out of this one in next week’s episode).
The Gay
No gay this week as our resident lesbian badass Detective Renee Montoya was nowhere to be seen. Apparently she only gets wheeled out when Gotham’s producers need to kill some time!
The Ugly
Speaking of killing time, Renee’s love interest and Jim Gordon’s ex, Barbara, got just one scene this week. She showed up at her parents and asked to stay with them for a few days. She also drank some tea. Sound pointless? It was. This week’s episode was 44 minutes long meaning that it wouldn’t have hurt them to cut this scene and yet she was featured for no reason whatsoever.
It’s ok to have pointless characters but don’t make their dead weight-edness so blatant next time, Gotham producers.
And, also in the dead weight category was an unnecessary romance scene between Jim and Doctor Thompkins. The two had ‘chemistry’ (and I use that word in the lightest of terms) last week and so with her having helped with solve the crime (and I use that phrase lightly too) those feelings bubbled up and the two started kissing.
Why did Jim have to get a new love interest mere episodes after having fallen out with Barbara? Why couldn’t Doctor Thompkins just be a super smart aid to the Gotham officer without none of this heterosexual rubbish? Both are good questions that I sadly don’t have the answers to.
Oh and speaking of awful, heterosexual plotlines, Edward, the police force’s resident boffin, decided to put a live bullet in a cupcake to win a coworker’s affections. It was weird, creepy and as it’s not the first peculiar antic he’s pulled, it’s bordering on harassment. There’s a chance that the show might address his Definitely Not Cool behaviour in a future episode but as this is Gotham, I have my doubts.
We’ll have another Gotham recap for you next week.
