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!

 

Gotham – S1E3 – The Balloonman – Recap

Hi everyone! This week’s episode of Gotham was pretty boring! Let’s get to it!

We open on Penguin getting off a bus, wearing the clothes that belonged to one of the bros he killed in last week’s episode. Looking around, he sees the following: some kids taking a guy’s wallet, a cop taking a bribe, a guy stealing a lady’s purse, and another lady (?) propositioning a stranger in a car for sex. All on the same block. In daylight. Within like a one minute time span. I know that we’re being force fed the line that Gotham is a horrible place and needs a savior (a “knight,” if you will) to come clean it up, but geez Louise, why does anyone live here? Anyway, Penguin sees all of this, smirks, and says “home.” As he walks away, we see a newscast talking about a guy who stole people’s money via a pyramid scheme – we cut to the thief yelling at his lawyer, basically showing the audience that he’s a real bad guy. He walks out onto the street, where he’s confronted by a stranger in a pig mask (for a second I thought it was going to be Professor. Pyg from Grant Morrison’s Batman run) who attaches a large balloon to him, carrying him high above the city. Yeah. This is happening. Buckle up.

Gotham Pig Face

After the opening title, we see Gordon and Bullock at the crime scene, where Bullock tells Gordon that the thief deserved what he got, just in case viewers at home were not aware that everyone in Gotham City is awful. Back at the police station, we’re introduced to Lt. Cranston, whose sole purpose is to talk about beating up suspects to remind us that Gotham’s police force is awful. While Gordon and Bullock discuss the first episode of the Gotham for those at home that might have missed it, a representative from juvenile services comes in with Catgirl, and signs her over to Gordon’s custody.

They go to the alley where the Waynes were shot, and she tells him about what she saw, which is pretty much what Gordon already knew. She says she can prove what she saw, because of the wallet she stole and tossed down the sewer – because he’s a chump, Gordon agrees to climb into the sewer to see if he can find the wallet. While he’s down there, Catgirl runs off.

gotham catgirl and gordon

We cut over to Fish Mooney’s club, where detectives Montoya and Allen come in to check after Penguin’s disappearance. Mooney chews some scenery, and puts the blame on Gordon. Seriously, Jada Pinkett Smith is the only person having any kind of fun on this show. On a street somewhere, Penguin is recognized by a thug, so he kills him in broad daylight and waddles off.

At Wayne Manor, we find Alfred goading Bruce into having a sword fight (?) in an office (??) Alfred talks a lot, but honestly I’ve watched the scene like 3 times and don’t have any idea what he said. There was huffing and puffing. Alfred knocks over some files, and notices that Bruce has been looking at the crime scene photos from when his parents were killed. Bruce explains he’s looking for clues, and Alfred replies “what, so you’re a detective now?” This is foreshadowing. Because of Batman.

Back at the GCPD, Montoya and Allen come in and accuse Gordon of killing Penguin. Everyone glares, everyone grits their teeth, you don’t see anyone’s feet – it’s like a Rob Liefeld comic.

Nick with The Rob

Nick and The Rob at NYCC 2014

We jump to a random Italian restaurant, where we find Penguin applying for a job in the kitchen – except they’re all staffed up. The manager tells him he doesn’t even have the right shoes for the job, and stomps off. I wonder if this will become important later.

Back at the police station (again) Bullock comes up with some information on the balloonman (you guys, seriously. We are almost halfway through, and I’d completely forgotten about the main “villain” of the episode.) Gordon fills Bullock in on his meeting with Montoya and Allen. While they make their way to talk to a lead in the balloon case, Penguin creeps up on a guy who works at the restaurant who just so happens to wear the same shoe size as he does! What luck!

Remember earlier, when we were introduced to Lt. Cranston, who sort of came out of nowhere and only seemed to exist to fill the “bad cop” quota for the episode? Well, the Balloonman comes up to him in an alley (where Cranston was beating up a drug dealer for his money.) They tussle, and Cranston ends up floating up into the air.

So, now that a cop’s been killed, it’s a whole new ballgame. We cut to Gordon and Bullock in Essen’s office, going over the information they have on the suspect. Basically, Bullock is ready to send the guy away forever, regardless of whether or not he actually did it (Gotham City cops are bad, remember?) The weird thing is that based on all of the TV clips they show in the background, the citizens of Gotham seem to know that all the cops/public officials are bad news, and are totally on board with vigilante killings. It’s just hysterical that the public has zero faith in these guys, either. Then there’s a montage of Bullock being skeezy and violent while Gordon watches.

Back at the Italian restaurant, Penguin got a job!

gotham penguin restaurant

Gordon and Bullock end up at another random apartment building, bust in, and arrest everyone, thinking they’re responsible for the balloon murders.

After commercials, we open on Mooney and her crybaby beat-up boyfriend from last episode, and you can clearly tell she’s over him. She asks one of our thugs to kill him, in addition to Falcone’s new girlfriend.

Back at Gordon’s apartment, we find that Montoya has just straight up walked into the place (using her old key, because she used to totally make out with his girlfriend but he doesn’t know yet,) where she finds Barbara, wearing little clothes and smoking weed. Montoya (again) tells Barbara that Gordon is bad news, and then there’s some more chit chat about how she still loves her and blah blah blah. THEN THERE’S KISSING AND BARBARA GETS MAD!

gotham-barbara and montoya

There’s a brief interrogation scene, where we basically find out that the suspect didn’t actually commit the crimes. They find Cranston’s body, and he’s got the form that Gordon signed to take Catgirl out earlier, which means that Gordon now knows who Balloonman is! Which is good, because we’ve got like 10 minutes left and this episode is super boring.

Long story short, the killer ends up being someone at juvenile services, and he looks like he’s a pretty good guy, not at all like someone who’d be involved in public office in Gotham City. Bullock and Gordon go after him, and there’s a hilarious moment where Balloonman and Gordon end up floating into the air, until Bullock shoots the balloon, causing them to drop onto the top of a van. Just based on the way this was filmed, they look like they are waaaaaaaaaaay higher up than they were, based on how Gordon could still walk away (although Balloonman ends up strapped to a board with a neck brace) but since I’m sure we’re going to eventually end up with maniacal killer clown people, I can let it slide.

After a brief scene of Falcone and Mooney, filled with veiled threats and whatever, we end this episode at Barbara’s apartment, where an achy Gordon tells her that the city is corrupt and horrible and he doesn’t know what he can do. There’s a knock on the door, and OH MAN THERE’S THE PENGUIN ALL DRESSED FANCY AND LOOKING LIKE AN EXTRA FROM A MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE VIDEO AND WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT YOU GUYS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

This episode was kind of blargh, but based on the previews for next week, it looks like we might get the Gordon and Penguin super fun happy hour. So, moving up? Who knows?

Written by Nick Doyle. Follow Nick on Twitter: @nicholasdoyle.