Fast-forward six months: there’s a pharmacist with a gun, a man with spikes on his back, and Gordon dressed in leather. This is the GOTHAM TV show we know. Despite looking intimidating as hell, Gordon doesn’t really seem to be doing great at the fight before the monster gets hit by a car. Turns out the new outfit is for his new gig as a bounty hunter, which he claims to enjoy more than being a cop (evidently drinking whenever you want is a huge perk). Harvey calls bullshit (aren’t we all?), but Gordon refuses to admit to it. He says “saving Gotham isn’t my job anymore,” and I’ve never actually rolled my eyes harder. Harvey begging him won’t get him to come back, actual monsters roaming the streets won’t get him to come back, maybe deathly ill Captain Barnes can?
Evidently Gordon is doing a great job because the reporters are all calling out the GCPD on how all the Indian Hill escapees are being taken in by bounty hunters. Especially one reporter, Valerie Vale, who is not letting Barnes or the mayor (that old corrupt mayor who I always forget the name for is back) get away with their lack of police action. Essentially, she is Gordon circa Season 1 Episode 1, and probably will end up as his love interest for the season if he ever moves on from Lee and booze.
Valerie Vale is not the only one fed up with the GCPD; Penguin bursts into the room with his usual dramatic flair, calling for Fish Mooney’s head. Honestly, it’s just great to see that Fish hasn’t gone and killed him yet. However, it’s also disconcerting. Clearly, Penguin shares this opinion, since he goes to visit Nygma in Arkham. Not only just visit him, but bring him gifts and continue the conversation they have apparently been having for months (I’m just happy my two favorite criminals are still talking to one another). Nygma is still as cryptic as ever with his riddles, but gives some inspirational advice... “penguins eat fish.”
Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t call him Penguin anymore, and refer to him as “Ossie” like Barbara Keaton does. She has a very Harley Quinn-esque laugh (foreshadowing) as Tabitha slits throats and wrecks shop, and truly she seems like the happiest character on this show anymore. She and Tabitha are still a power couple, and I’m totally here for it. Penguin wants Tabitha dead (she killed his mother, he beat her brother, they should just move on), but he’s not going to do anything to upset Butch (he’s such a sweet psychopathic murderer). Butch is crushing real hard on Tabitha, and without a gun in his hand I find it difficult to take him seriously as a villain anymore. Even a child, Selena, is comforting this wall of a man. Well, comforting is a strong word, she’s actually just stealing his wallet. She doesn’t actually need the money though, she’s got BIG plans apparently. She’s just being a good criminal and giving out that money to the poor on the street – or, as it turns out, the Bruce look-a-likes on the street.
Actual Bruce is back from his vacation (which always seem to be their story when there’s a time lapse), but now he is ready to actually do something about the unfortunate “morally corrupt” problem with his company. He confronts the Board of Directors, and essentially tells the hidden secret councils members to hit him up or he will go to the press before he gets out of there – soon enough he’ll be stealing all the dramatic exits from Penguin. The secret council realizes they have to do something about this situation, and, as all situations are resolved in GOTHAM, someone is sent out to kill Bruce Wayne.
Yet, everyone else in town is trying to kill Fish Mooney now. Turns out a million dollar reward was exactly what Penguin needed to provide to motivate Jim Gordon. What took the GCPD 6 months took Jim Gordon 6 minutes, and he rolls up in front of Fish with a gun and handcuffs. She is clearly taking to this whole “leader of the monsters” thing; she’s got monsters behind her, Selena as her right hand woman, and she is wearing a damn cape. Granted, all the monsters she has are incredibly weak, which is why they are all hitting up pharmacies, but it is still an intimidating sight. She doesn’t even need to use her powers to escape from Gordon (she never needed to have powers to escape from him in the past either, so really this doesn’t come as any surprise), but now the GCPD is actually willing to do something in order to find her.
No one is going to the police though. Instead, Selena is seeking out Valerie Vale to spread the information of Fish’s plans. Why is she selling out Fish? Probably part of her BIG plans from before (Ivy is suspicious of her, I’m suspicious of her, everyone is probably suspicious of her BIG plans). Bruce doesn’t have any idea what’s going on with her either, but he feels bad for leaving her for so long. Maybe if he was around she wouldn’t have gotten involved in all this (or maybe she still would have, she can really be unpredictable sometimes). Overall, Bruce is acting like Butch, apologizing for being gone so long and saying that it’s nice to see her. All the boys on this show are pining after someone it seems like, and I’m just happy to see that my girls aren’t going to let themselves be dependent on any of these boys. Selena leaves him without a kind word, but Bruce is okay with that, and fake Bruce watching from the shadows is more confused as ever about who he is supposed to be (does he even have any powers? I’m very curious to see).
Using their powers are killing them, and the drugs aren’t abundant enough. Who to go to? Peabody. Again Gordon figures this out before anyone on the police force can. I don’t know how they hope to get anything done without him at this rate. Using the information Selena gave Valerie, Valerie convinces Gordon to go after Fish. Well, not really convince. She just said, “don’t tell me you have a conscience,” and Gordon has to stick with his new tough guy attitude and agree with that statement. Though, he really needs to work on his fighting skills in order to make his new tough guy persona work because Peabody gets kidnapped and he gets beaten by a few monsters. The only thing he is capable of doing is throwing one out of a window, which really just exposes the bat wings to anyone watching (and of course, Valerie is there to get the story).
Peabody is pretty useless though, and she can’t fix the monsters. Only Professor Strange can help them (and who knows where he is). A monster with the ability to age people indefinitely has the honor of killing her, and here we see what the excuse for older Ivy is going to be (having monsters must be real useful for these types of problems). She is caught “spying” on Fish, when really she is just spying on Selena, and she has got to go. Conveniently, she falls into a river before the monster can finish aging her completely, and we don’t see her body. Selena assumes she is dead, but honestly with how many resurrections have been happening lately, I don’t understand how she believes that anyone can remain dead in this town. Overall, Ivy must be important for the season with all the screen time she just got (she will probably end up trying to kill Bruce or Gordon or both because that’s what everyone is always trying to do on this show really).
Speaking of which, someone is still trying to kill Bruce currently. The secret council’s assassin is ready to rumble, and apparently Alfred is just as shit as Gordon when it comes to fighting now because he gets knocked the hell out. Bruce, the sentimental idiot, tries waking him up instead of running or calling for help, and gets kidnapped. This boy can’t stay at home longer than a minute, I swear. Shouldn’t Wayne Manor have actually security at this point?
Truly, the episode was just a lot of set-up, but that’s the norm for the first episode of the season. It’s heavy on the introduction of the new villains, but hey at least we got Valerie Vale as one new good guy. With all the monsters on Fish’s crew, I’m sure there will be even more character introductions in the future too. Now the questions remain with pondering the plans of fake Bruce, Selena, and the Court of Owls.
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer -- Click to read Nicole's posts
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