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Gotham – S1E7 – Penguin’s Umbrella – Recap

Ok, ok, where the crap have I been? I apologize that I’ve fallen behind on these recaps – I was out of town for work, then the holidays happened, then I decided I wanted to watch some better shows in my free time (have you guys seen The Flash? Holy cow you guys, it’s great! You should definitely watch that instead!) but all good things must come to and end: I promise that before next week’s episode airs we will be all caught up; we’re in this together, and I’m never letting you down again.

When we last left Detectives Gordon and Bullock, the Penguin had shown up in the precinct, alive, just as Bullock and Gordon were about to become best friends forever!

The episode starts with Penguin waddling down the street, smirking while his goons prevent regular people from getting in his way. We jump cut to Fish Mooney’s bar, where she is flipping out over the fact that Gordon did not in fact kill Penguin the way everyone had thought. She orders that he be brought to her alive.

Penguin

We find Gordon in the locker room at the precinct, leaving a voice mail for Barbara ordering her to run. As he shuts the door, Bullock straight-up pops him in the jaw and pulls a gun on him! Gordon pleads with him to let him live and to help him do…something. At the perfect moment, two Gotham City cops wander into the room, and Bullock tells them to “walk away,” which they do, because all of the cops here are horrible (except for one, maybe two, duh!) but Gordon takes that opportunity to grab Bullock’s gun and knock him to the ground. Gordon asks for his help again, and Bullock tells him “you better hope you never see me again.”

Cut to Barbara’s apartment, where she’s staring at her (vibrating) phone, with a look of terror on her face – it’s because she’s surrounded by Fish Mooney’s guys! She asks the toughs what they want, and they are kind enough to recap the series (so far) for us! Now, whenever a TV show/movie/comic/book/life/etc. wants to show that a guy is “super bad,” the easiest (and laziest!) way is with an implied rape threat, so of course we get that here, but luckily Gordon comes stomping into his house with his gun drawn and puts a stop to it – shooting one of the toughs and pistol whipping the other! Whew! Gordon takes Barbara to a bus station, makes her leave, and tells her that if he does not come to join her that she should never return to Gotham. I bet she’ll be back in no time!

We cut over to Falcone doing something with a chicken while Mooney tells him that he has to have Gordon/Penguin/everyone killed. He tells her that Penguin is a “nobody” which, in case you didn’t catch it, is definitely some kind of foreshadowing, and tells Fish he will send one of his guys (“Victor”) to the police station to get Gordon.

At the station, we find Gordon telling Captain Essen that he’s going to arrest the mayor, Falcone, and a whole heap of other people in connection with the Penguin’s (non)murder, which prompts her to call him crazy – and rightfully so! Doesn’t he know that one man can’t make a difference in a city as corrupt as Gotham?! To prove this point, she tells him that no one will help her (including her!) and that he needs to leave town – he, of course, refuses. At that moment, Falcone’s guy Victor shows up with two gothy-spiky girls and starts to cause a ruckus in the station. He steps up on a desk and announces himself – his name is “Victor Zsasz” (because of course it is; why not throw him on the show, too?) and orders Gordon to come with him. In a hilarious scene, Gordon tells Mr. Zsasz to try to take him in when the room is filled with cops – Zsasz tells everyone to leave and totally do! It’s ridiculous! Gordon and Zsasz and the two ladies have a shoot-out – Gordon’s hit and runs down the stairs to the garage, bleeding. He’s hiding between cars, and is about to be caught, except a random uniform cop walks up – the girls shoot her, which gives Gordon a chance to run, except Zsasz sees him and shoots Gordon. He makes his way towards Gordon but at that exact moment Detectives Allen and Montoya pull up and rescue him. They leave the other cop, though, and Zsasz shoots her and carves a mark into his skin (it’s what he does!)

Zsasz

 

After some commercials, Gordon wakes up in some sort of medical place surrounded by rats in cages. A doctor tells him that he’s in a dissection lab, and he leaves, even though he shouldn’t because he was just shot a bunch of times. But he’s tough.

We cut to Fish telling Maroni that he has to give up Penguin, and rather than doing that, he has Penguin come out and apologize to her – which she disregards. Out on the sidewalk, we see Fish’s guy (I need to learn his name, but it’s the same guy that Gordon beat up earlier) pull up next to a group of nuns. He handcuffs them together, puts them in the middle of the street, and uses this as a distraction to stop one of Maroni’s moving trucks (I guess that’s something he does? Owns a moving company?) to give Maroni the message that he needs to hand over Penguin.

After some more commercials, we join Gordon and Montoya in a forest, where whe tells Gordon that she probably didn’t believe that he was telling the truth before because she used to make out with his girlfriend, which makes sense, y’know? Out of nowhere, Alfred jumps out, holding Allen and I swear that I had completely fogotten that this was a Batman show for a second. But of course the random forest they’re hiding in is near Wayne Manor. Alfred does a great Christian Bale Batman voice, by the way. Inside the mansion, Gordon introduces Allen and Montoya to Bruce, because, sure, why not, and tells him that he may not be able to find who killed the Waynes. Bruce tells him to stop treating him “like a child” except for he’s totally a little kid and hasn’t hit puberty yet so whatever. Gordon tells Bruce that if something happens to him, Montoya and Allen will take over the case. So now we’ve got all sorts of people hanging out with this little kid. Bruce hugs Gordon, which is…y’know, what? No. No. No. Next scene.

hug

Next up, there’s some more gang shenaigans, this time from Maroni/Penguin’s side, except we find that Penguin is now taking some of Maroni’s guys under his wing (sorry/not sorry) for when he inevitably makes his move for his territory.

We cut to Maroni and Falcone (and Fish and Penguin and other people) meeting to call a cease fire, Falcone agrees to let Maroni keep Penguin, and Maroni gives Falcone a piece of land in Arkham, which doesn’t sit well with Mooney.

Back in Gordon’s apartment, he’s getting some guns together, like you do, when Bullock drops by, with a “lady of the night.” Bullock tells Gordon that he’s a “douchebag” but that he has “the moral high ground” and he’s decided that he’s going to “be on his team” (you guys you guys Bullock has a heart of gold you guys.) Gordon tells him of his plan to arrest the mayor and Falcone. Bullock then goes to “take care of something” which means that he’s going to pay a lady to have sex with him.

The next morning, Gordon busts up into the mayor’s limo and arrests him. Just like that! They go (in the mayor’s car because why not) to Falcone’s house, and arrest him, too! Seriously, that’s what happens: Bullock and Gordon go into a house full of armed thugs with no trouble! Falcone has the upper hand, though: he tells Gordon that Zsasz has Barbara (dun dun dun) because she came back to town. Gordon caves and Zsasz brings Barbara to them, and lets them go, with no one actually getting arrested or killed, because this is only the 7th episode.

After they leave, Falcone goes out to check on his chickens, and the Penguin walks up, prompting Falcone to reminisce on their first meeting, where it turns out that Penguin told Falcone he would just pretend to be on Maroni’s side! And that Fish and the Russian guy are doing it!  A double cross!

Penguin

Ok, we’re back into it. See you in a couple of days!

 

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Gotham – S1E6 – Spirit of the Goat – Recap

Welcome back, Gotham-aholics! Wait, that doesn’t sound good. Gothamites? What’s the name of our fandom? Psyche, trick question! I don’t think anyone actually likes this show!

This week’s episode opens up on a flashback, set 10 years in the past. A man walks up to a mirror, puts on a mask and gloves, and then, in his best Christian Bale voice, says “I am the spirit of the goat” and breaks a mirror. We then cut to an apartment, where a strategically placed TV newscast says that the city was still under siege from the killer known as “The Spirit of the Goat” (This show really does love the TV-News-As-Info-dump trick.) There’s a girl on the balcony, and she’s about to peek inside the apartment when the Spirit comes up behind her and grabs her. We cut to what looks to be an abandoned building, and we see a car driven by a slightly-younger Harvey Bullock and his grumpy partner – you guys, I think we’re about to get the “this is how Bullock lost faith in Gotham City” episode! Bullock is gung-ho about going into the building, but his partner, Dix, is less so, and says they have to wait for back-up. He tells Bullock that gotham’s golden rule is “no heroes.” GET IT BECAUSE ONE DAY THEY WILL HAVE A HERO NAMED BATMAN. NUDGE. Bullock runs in anyway, and they find the girl trussed up as some kind of sacrifice, dead. The Goat pulls Dix through the floor, tells Bullock that he will “always come back” – which is weird, because Bullock hasn’t actually done anything yet but get knocked down on the ground. It does give Bullock the opening to say “come back from this!” when he shoots him dead!

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Instead of a commercial after the opening title, we jump right to the present day, with Bullock at a crime scene where the victim is dressed up and hanging just like the one from before. He looks terrified. Nygma walks up, and asks Bullock if he’d “figured out his riddle” which is really awkward, because, well, dead body, and Bullock rightfully so tells him to shut it and give him the time of death. In case you didn’t know, Edward Nygma is going to one day become the Riddler – i’m betting in part because everyone’s always mean to him. Because he’s a creep. Based on the background of the victim, Bullock is sure that they’re dealing with a copygoat. He tries to call Gordon, but he’s not answering his cell because he’s in an argument with his girlfriend Barbara – she’s trying to get him to open up to her – I thought they had broken up two episodes ago but I guess not.

We cut to Detectives Allen and Montoya (he calls her “Monty” which, uh, sure, whatever) as they pull up to the docks, where they are apparently interrogating strangers about Gordon’s shooting of the Penguin. The first guy they come up to says he saw the shooting and confirms (based on the picture they have of him) that Gordon did it. Just like that!

After the commercial, Gordon finally shows up at the crime scene, and they interview the victim’s parents about the murder. They meet the family therapist, and there’s some grumble grumble from Bullock about therapy. At the police station, Nygma goes into the file room, where he creeps on a girl, sniffing her as she walks past him, obviously freaked out (seriously this guy is at his job.) Her name is “Kristen Kringle” and he goes on and on about her name. Man, he’s a weirdo.

A short while later, Penguin shows up at his mom’s house, so he can tell her he’s not dead. She accuses him of being “tangled in some hussy’s demon purse” (what?) and he explains that no, he was just thrown into a river and had to kill some bros and get a food/bev job and etc, so forth. He tells her he’s going to “be somebody.” At the police station, Bullock and Gordon are sitting in on the autopsy, and the body matches those from the Goat’s crimes from 10 years earlier – Bullock realizes that this is not someone copying the crimes, but the same killer. (dun dun dun!)

At stately Wayne Manor, Bruce is listening to another info dump newscast, explaining that the Goat is targeting the first born children of the city’s rich and powerful – because he’s a big scaredy cat, Alfred suggest leaving, but Bruce is all “no way, I’ve got to keep pinning evidence to my evidence wall.” Then he asks why Alfred thinks anyone would take him, because “there’s no one to take him from.” Alfred’s head turns into a sad-face emoticon.

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Back at the station, Kringle walks in on Nygma reorganizing the file room, which she had explicitly told him not to do – they’re going to fall in love, aren’t they? She tells him that he’s a weirdo, and he realizes he should go – yet leaves her to clean up his mess, like a big jerk. Gordon and Bullock go to question Dix, who is in a wheelchair, about the case. After a little back-and-forth, Bullock walks off in a huff, and Dix tells Gordon that Bullock is like a “white knight jumping into the breach” which leads to some ha-ha you don’t know him at all banter from Gordon. BUT we come to find out that Bullock has been paying for Dix’s stay in the home, because he’s actually got a heart of gold. I KNEW IT!

We cut to a blonde girl in a huge house, who’s kidnapped by the Goat!

After the break, Barbara catches up with Montoya, and Montoya tells her that they’re issuing a warrant for Gordon’s arrest that night, and that she needs to get as far away from him as possible.

After reviewing the employee records for the people that had access to both of the victim’s houses, the detectives are led right back to the crime scene from 10 years ago. They go in without backup, and we see the Goat in the process of sacrificing the blonde girl. They sneak in, but he’s able to hid in almost an exact repeat of what happened before. Gordon gets the girl down, while Bullock searches for the Goat – they get into a fight, and he tells Bullock (again) that he will always come back. Just before he’s about to kill Bullock, Gordon jumps down and beats the crap out of the Goat, making that he’s the only good guy that ever gets to punch things on this show. Case closed!

After the break, we find Selina straight up walking through an open window right into Bruce’s office, where he’s asleep (because sure when there’s a guy going around kidnapping rich kids, you’d definitely be lax on the security.) She sees his evidence wall, and then, because she’s going to one day be Catwoman, hops up on a chair and crouches. Like you do. Then she leaves.

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Then we see Penguin in a bathtub. And his mom brings him his suit. And bathes him. This is gross. Bullock and Gordon go over the history of the Goat with Essen, but Bullock is not happy – he doesn’t understand how two people that never knew each other could end up committing the same crimes in the same way, even though they worked for the same company 10 years apart. He waves Gordon off, and witnesses the suspect in the interrogation room freaking out – he says “holy ghost on a bicycle” and runs out. That’s going to be my new catchphrase, FYI.

Gordon gets home to find Barbara, who tells him about the warrant, and tries to get him to run away with her. He’s a good guy, though, and willingly opens the door to be arrested by Allen and Montoya.

Bullock goes back to the first victim’s house, where he finds the therapist – he makes the always classy “therapist/the rapist” joke, because he’s pretty endearing. He mentions that he’s found that she’s a hypnotherapist, and had treated Earl, the suspect, in the past. It turns out that she had also treated the killer from 10 years ago, and he accuses her of hypnotizing both of them to become the Goat. She comes clean immediately, explaining that this is her way of cleaning up the city (what?) Since she’s a girl, there can’t be a punch-em-up, but she gives the first victim’s father, Mr. Hastings, the cue to go all growly and attack Bullock. He’s pretty old, though, so Bullock knocks him down pretty easy and shoots her in the leg. Case actually closed! While Bullock is briefing Essen, Gordon is dragged through the police station by Allen and Montoya, who start to arrest Bullock, too – but then Penguin strolls into the room, all wet and giggly. The episode ends with Bullock jumping into Gordon’s face, because he now knows that Gordon didn’t actually kill Penguin – JUST WHEN THEY WERE MAYBE GOING TO POSSIBLY START TO SORT OF MAYBE BE FRIENDS!

What’s going to happen next week! Something, I’ll bet! See you then!

 

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Gotham – S1E5 – Viper – Recap

Sorry for the lateness of this Recap; I was out of town due to my day job and could not watch the episode until today. But enough about why I stink – let’s jump right into this week’s – er, last week’s – episode of Gotham!

The episode opens on Bruce Wayne in his (?) study, hanging up various pages from the files on his parent’s murder (there are tons of boxes on the floor, which leads me to believe that this investigation is waaaay more complicated than we’ve been shown; it also shows that maybe someone’s pet police detective is giving out case information. But I digress. Already.) Alfred walks in, and shows how good of a father figure he is by asking Bruce what would happen if his obsession just turned out to be a waste of time. He asks what Bruce would do if he never found out who killed his parents and had his revenge. Bruce replies that he doesn’t want revenge; he just wants to know “how Gotham works.” He wants to know why the Wayne Foundation never did anything to fight the corruption.  That’s a pretty good question.

We cut to a street musician with a hilarious sign that says “Why Lie I Need Money for Drugs” – since it’s Gotham City, he’s already got what looks to be a decent amount of money in his guitar case. A spooky guy walks by and leaves a vial of green liquid (with “Breathe Me” printed on it) in the case. Since this guy was not joking and actually does want drugs, the musician opens the vial and breathes in the vapor that seeps out. He gets super high (you can tell because the camera shifts to his point of view and everything’s glowy and blurry and shot with a fish eye lens,) goes into a convenience store, and starts drinking straight from a jug of milk. The proprietor tries to stop him, and the musician says “do not vex me, mortal” (?) and his skin goes all splotchy.

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We jump to Bullock and Gordon ordering street cart cheeseburgers. While they’re talking, Selina Kyle lands on a parked car, and slides down the hood to the pavement, so she can land in this super cool completely realistic looking crouch pose. Again, all of this is done in daylight where there are tons of people (a guy even walks past the car, completely oblivious.) Gordon does finally see her when she tries to steal a guy’s wallet, but a perfectly timed cab prevents him from crossing the street and chasing her. It’s probably for the best, though, because all of a sudden they hear an alarm and Gordon runs towards it. It turns out to be coming from the convenience store, but when they get there they find the attendant stuffed in the wall. It turns out that the musician stole the store’s ATM machine. There’s some chit chat about how he could have done this but that’s not really important because we cut to the guy RUNNING DOWN THE STREET LIKE A MANIAC WITH THE ATM MACHINE ON HIS BACK LIKE A MANIAC!

After the commercial break, we open on Fish Mooney’s club, where she is sort of hippie dancing her arms around while the girl who won the girl fight in the last episode is singing along (badly) to opera. There’s some sassy back and forth but it comes down to how she has to sing in order to do…something. Oh, I don’t know. She’s Mooney’s weapon, or something. Commence slow hippie arm dancing, change scene. At the police station, Bullock and Gordon and Essen are looking at footage of the crazy ATM guy, even though (as Bullock was right to point out earlier) they are homicide detectives, and no one has died.

After a brief scene featuring Falcone assuring all of his people that the Arkham deal was a good one, we go back to Gordon and Bullock walking the streets, asking after the crazy ATM guy. A nice hooker-type lady tells them where he can be found, and it’s under an overpass – when they get there, there are tons of empty milk jugs strewn about – I know we’re blaming this on the drug, but what if his strength’s just due to all of the delicious calcium the guy’s been ingesting?  Oh wait, they find the guy and as he’s about to toss the ATM machine at them, all of his bones break and he’s crushed by the ATM machine. My bad. Gordon says “God help us if that drug gets out” just as we cut to a scene of the creepy guy handing out vials on the street, to everyone! No!

At stately Wayne Manor, we find young master Bruce asleep among paperwork, only to have Alfred stomp in, opening blinds and telling a 10 year old that he has to go to a Wayne Foundation gala. During this scene, Alfred mentions (twice) hoe he wants to throw all of the files into a fire, but Bruce orders him not to. I wonder if this will come up later. Bruce notices a news report on “Viper,” which is the name they’ve given the new drug, and we cut to the police station, where cops are trying to throw super strong criminals into the cell that’s in the middle of the room – it kind of reminds me of when we try to put out cats in their carriers, so they can go to the vet. Ed Nygma skulks around, looking creepy. He explains that the drug burns excess calcium (I WAS RIGHT!)

At Maroni’s restaurant, we find him ordering one of his goons to hit one of Falcone’s casinos, and the goon is telling him how difficult the job would be. The Penguin overhears, and runs up to tell them how he could get them in super easy. He then proceeds to tell Maroni his life story of crime; how he worked for Mooney, etc. When he’s done, though, Maroni slams his head on the table, so I guess things didn’t work out the way he’d planned.

At the station, a group of lawyers for one of the companies that could have the ability to manufacture viper shows up, and tells Gordon and Bullock that they would prosecute anyone who might think to accuse them of doing so. A minute later, though, the lawyer tells them that the creepy guy passing out vials of the drug totally used to work for them, and was sort of crazy! Before Gordon can leave to find the guy, however, he’s stopped by Maroni’s goon – it looks like Penguin gave him up and he’s got to pay a visit to Maroni. With a bag on his head.

After the commercial, the bag’s taken off of Gordon’s head and he’s sitting at a table in front of Sal Maroni and wait wait wait wait. The guy owns a restaurant. In public. Where people eat. Why are they treating this like is a secret location? Anyway, Maroni has Gordon recount Penguin’s story, to see if he was telling the truth – if Gordon’s story differs, they both die. It doesn’t, though, and Maroni lets Gordon leave, with the promise that he will call him if he needs him.

Working off the records the lawyers provided them, Gordon and Bullock track the creepy guy to his old philosophy professor. He informs them that creepy guy’s job was actually to create chemical weapons for the army, and that viper was the first batch of the drug. The second batch, called “venom” (uh-oh) worked out all the side effects (uh-oh) and that creepy guy actually tried to get the company to shut down the project, and, when they refused, he went directly to the Waynes. As he’s telling this story, the professor hobbles over to a table, snorts from a vial of the drug, and throws Bullock through the door! Oh man, I bet that’s going to be the “bane” of his “existence.”

Sorry.

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Before he can kill Bullock, Gordon shoots him and he dies, but not before giving away that the final step it creepy guy’s master plan involves the Wayne Foundation’s charity gala mentioned earlier. Which is where we find Bruce and Alfred and creepy guy, who’s planning to dump a large barrel of the drug into the air ducts. Bruce fulfills his creepy kid quota for the episode, by talking about how he wants to meet with the board to discuss the “irregularities” he’s found with the Arkham project. Before he can really get much further, though, creepy guy pops onto the TV screen, telling everyone how he made the drug for a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises, and how everybody is going to die. Except not, because Gordon gets to the roof in time and shoots the barrel, which covers creepy guy and gives him super strength (smooth, Gordon, real smooth.) Before anything can happen, though, he tells them to look in “warehouse thirty nine” and jumps off of the building! Just like that!

Gordon goes to the warehouse, and it’s empty. At Wayne Manor, Bruce is back to reviewing the files, only this time, Alfred his helping him, which makes his little day. The episode ends (well, there’s a weird Fish Mooney sex scene, but I’m ignoring it) with the Fish’s girl successfully picking up Falcone in a park, while he was feeding pigeons. All of a sudden, he’s a doddering old man? I have no idea.

And that’s that! I’ll see you back here tomorrow for this week’s recap!

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Gotham – S1E4 – Arkham – Recap

Hi! So, Fox just upped Gotham to a full season! I don’t know about you, but I’m “celebrating” by getting blind drunk!

This week’s episode picks up right where last week’s ended, with Penguin showing up at Gordon’s apartment, being a total creep. They go down to the street, and Penguin tells him that he may just be “the last good man in Gotham” while Gordon does a pretty decent Christian Bale Batman voice. I like how Gordon is viewed (by almost everyone!) as being a really amazing guy, even though he’s an awful detective and hasn’t really accomplished anything. I guess everyone in town got a copy of Year One when the GCPD hired him.

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We cut to a parking deck, where a city councilman is approached by a stranger, who, after some idle chit chat, pulls out a sonic screwdriver and kills both the councilman and his aide by stabbing them both in the eye! Gross! After the opening title, Captain Essen brings the case to Gordon and Bullock, telling them that the “smart money” says the killing was just “wrong place wrong time” – seriously? They were stabbed in the eyeballs! That’s really weird and not at all how people are normally killed (as far as I know!)

Gordon finds that a box of evidence has been left on his desk, which includes a map of the “Arkham district,” just as the mayor is holding a press conference talking about the area, talking about how it’s the last undeveloped district in the whole city (although I feel like they should have spent a little more time developing the rest of the city, it’s kind of gross.) The mayor explains that he’s going to implement the plan that the Waynes had for developing the area into low-income housing for the city’s less fortunate – which, considering that this is the same guy who two weeks ago tried to ship all of the city’s hobo kids out of town, is probably not the truth.

Jim drops by Wayne Manor to ask Alfred about the Wayne’s plan, and deduces that Boss Maroni is using Arkham to undermine Falcone – he comes to this conclusion just as Bruce walks in, which is lucky, because now it’ll be pretty easy for Bruce to tell Gordon what he should do. Like all 10 year old crime victim/police detective interactions in the real world.

Gordon gets a call from Bullock telling him that another councilman has been abducted, as we see the guy with the sonic screwdriver pull into the gates of Arkham Asylum, and roll a large fuel can full of the councilman out of a truck. He pours gasoline on the councilman and sets him on fire! This guy is nuts! The next day, we meet up with Gordon, Bullock, and Essen at the crime scene, where Gordon tells them that these murders are a precursor to a gang war between Falcone and Maroni, with Arkham as the main point of contention. Both of these people have lived in Gotham longer than Gordon, yet the idea of these two rival crime bosses fighting one another has never occurred to them, apparently. Bullock asks Gordon how he knows all of this stuff, but before Gordon can tell him “why, I’ve been spending my days with a young boy detective” they’re interrupted by creepy Ed Nygma, who will someday become the Riddler! Nygma tells them that both councilmen were stabbed with a “metal spike” which points to them being killed by the same man.

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Bullock and Gordon interrogate an inmate with a spooky beard, who gives them the exact name of the killer (“Gladwell”) along with where he works! That’s easy! They go there, and after after a few tense moments when you think Gordon is going to get stabbed, they just find a clue (a piece of paper with “CLM” on it) and walk away. Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce wakes up from a daytime nightmare of his parents getting murdered, then asks Alfred for all of the Arkham-related files in the house, explaining that he’s looking for a connection between the deaths of the councilmen and Arkham – seriously? We’re just going to straight up have this kid performing unsolicited detective work? I can’t wait until Gordon brings him to the Captain, as a “special helper.”

There’s a fake robbery at Penguin’s food and bev job, which is really just an opportunity for them to kill Penguin’s boss (along with some other guys) as a “message” to Maroni. Maroni’s guys arrive to find Penguin huddled in the freezer. When Maroni shows up to the restaurant, he tells Penguin he did a great job and promotes him to manager of the whole place! Although this will make it hard for Penguin to pretend he’s dead.

Back at Gordon’s apartment, Barbara accuses him of having secrets, and asks him about Penguin, which leads Gordon to realize that Barbara had been talking to Montoya and asks how they know each other, and Barbara tells him that they totally used to make out. I guess it was in college.

Back at the station, Bullock walks in with a bombshell: the real Gladwell had been dead, in his apartment, for like five years! Gordon and Bullock banter back and forth a little, before Bullock takes off for this weeks obligatory visit to Fish Mooney. At Mooney’s club, she’s auditioning a signer, but it’s really that she’s looking for a “weapon” to use against Falcone. Fish asks her to seduce her (as a test I guess?) but she just kisses Fish, downs her drink, and walks off (this is a callback to an earlier scene that I skipped, where she was auditioning another girl.) Bullock walks in and gives Fish all the information, asking her to find the killer.

Penguin calls Gordon, telling him that the next murder will occur that night, but doesn’t give him any more information, which is really not that helpful. EXCEPT it prompts Gordon to get the list of officers watching the mayor, and their initials are C, L, and M! Gordon heads to the Mayor’s house, only to find that the police officers assigned to him are gone – he enters the house just as the killer is heading towards the building. He pulls out the sonic screwdriver, and forces his way in, grabbing Gordon’s gun as he does so. There’s a brief tussle where Gordon almost gets stabbed, but luckily Bullock shows up and saves him. There’s a really weird moment where the killer makes a little “I’m still awesome you guys” speech and jumps at the Mayor, but Bullock and Gordon just shoot the crap out of him. I mean, I understand the guy thinking he was all bad ass because he had a fancy knife, but seriously, he had two guys point guns at him (during the fight Gordon got his back, I guess.)

Back at the station, Barbara apologizes for not telling Jim about her and Montoya, she tries to get the truth about Penguin out of him – he refuses to tell her, and she (I think) dumps him. We cut to Mooney in an alley, where she makes the two girls from before fight over who gets the job of…well, I really don’t know what the job is. After a brief stereotypical “girl fight” (smacks, hair pulling) the “sexier” of the two just beats the crap out of the other, slamming her head onto the pavement.

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Penguin shows up at an apartment where three goons are counting piles of money. We find that the robbery from earlier was not setup by Falcone; it was all the Penguin’s doing! He gives the goons cannoli, which is pretty nice of him. Cannoli is delicious. At the station, Gordon and Bullock watch the Mayor give a press conference, explaining that the Arkham district will be used for both low-income housing and waste disposal, so…wait, what? Also, the asylum is going to be reopened. Ok, sure. I’d live there. Sounds perfectly safe. Apparently the press conference is super long, because it gave Gordon enough time to make it all the way to Wayne Manor, where him and Bruce talk about the Mayor and how everything sucks and Gotham is in trouble etc., so forth. But the episode closes on Penguin walking out of that apartment and oh no it looks like the cannoli he gave those guys was poisoned!

And that’s that! Based on the previews for next week, there’s going to be a lot of punching and gritted teeth – do your best to avoid poisoned snacks and meet me back here next week, same Goth-time, same Goth-channel!