Greetings Gothamites! Welcome to this week’s Gotham Recap. Once again real life has made me quite tardy but here we are. This week’s episode was great and heavily featured Robin Lord Taylor, who plays Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin. So without even more delay, let’s get started. Oh and yes there are spoilers!
The Episode
This week’s episode opens with Oswald strolling down the streets of Gotham. He is happy to finally be able to walk the streets of his beloved Gotham. However, across town, one of Falcone’s men breaks into Gordon and Barbara’s apartment. They harass Barbara while waiting for Jim to come home. He arrives, gun drawn, and refuses to go to Falcone. He knocks Falcone’s goons out, and both escape. Gordon puts Barbara on a bus out of Gotham promising he will join her soon. Gordon’s first move is to return to the Gotham Police precinct, where he takes a blank warrant and starts drafting it out for Falcone.
Elsewhere, Fish begs Falcone to kill Gordon, Bullock, and Penguin. Falcone says maybe, if Maroni is willing, they can get Oswald quietly. For the messier job of getting Gordon, however, Falcone says he’ll put “Victor” on the job. As Fish walks away with Niko, they further plot the Falcone’s downfall.
As Gordon fills out the paperwork while being questioned by the police chief, Victor Zsasz, enters the precinct with two goons to take Gordon to Falcone. Zsasz orders Gordon to come with him to see Falcone but Gordon refuses. Zsasz orders everyone to clear the precinct and a shootout ensues. Gordon gets hit in the stomach and flees to the precinct’s parking lot. Zsasz and his henchwomen follow, shooting a fellow GCPD officer who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Before Zsasz can grab Gordon, Montoya and Allen arrive to save the day. Gordon jumps in their car and makes his getaway. Unfortunately, the injured police officer is left behind and with no one there to help her, she is killed by Zsasz.
Passing out from blood loss, Gordon wakes up in one of Gotham University’s dissection labs. He has been treated there as it is not safe at the local hospital. Gordon suggests that Allen, Montoya, and he go to Wayne Manor. He believes that it’s the only safe place in Gotham. Once at Wayne Manor, Gordon tells Bruce that he may not be able to locate his parents’ killers. He offers the concession that if he dies in his mission, Montoya and Allen will continue the case for him
Across town, Fish asks Maroni to hand Oswald over, out of respect. Maroni summons Oswald and asks him to apologize to Fish, and nothing more. This angers Fish and before she leaves, Fish promises Oswald a fate worse than torture.
The war has begun. Falcone strikes first by stopping a shipment of guns that Maroni was importing. Falcone declares that until Maroni sends him Oswald, Maroni can no longer ship guns into Gotham. Maroni responds by saying that he’ll push back harder. Oswald helps by offering key information, which he gained from Fish, to hurt Falcone. He knows of a secret hideout containing drugs and money. Maroni invades the hideaway, murdering all of Falcone’s and stealing all of the money. Maroni’s main thug, Carbone, doesn’t like Oswald and threatens to kill him for being a snitch. Oswald turns the tables on Carbone and pays off the lower henchmen to betray their friend; Oswald then stabs Carbone in the gut. As he kills Carbone, Oswald claims that all of Gotham’s underlings only care about money, making them easy to manipulate and control.
After all of the bloodshed, Maroni and Falcone meet face-to-face. Falcone offers that a truce between the two, and even offers to leave Oswald alive. In exchange for the Oswald’s life, Maroni give Falcone a piece of the Arkham property, Indian Hill.
Gordon returns home and prepares his plans. Bullock barges in drunk, and though he still considers Gordon a traitor, he says that Gordon has enough moral high ground to keep Bullock’s partnership. Bullock figures he’s a dead man anyway, being in Falcone’s crosshairs, and offers to help Jim arrest him the next day. Their first move is arresting the mayor of Gotham for his role in the conspiracy. Taking the mayor captive, Bullock and Gordon storm Falcone’s mansion and place him under arrest.
Falcone says that Zsasz has Barbara, who returned to Gotham to save Gordon. If Gordon does anything, Falcone will order Zsasz to kill her. Gordon, unable to tell if Falcone is bluffing or not, doesn’t arrest the crime lord. Falcone isn’t lying, Zsasz really did have Barbara. Since Gordon trusted his word, Falcone says that there is still hope for Gordon.
Satisfied, Falcone munches on a muffin prepared by Fish’s embedded actress, Liza. Falcone goes outside to feed his chickens, where Oswald arrives to meet him. As the two embrace, it is revealed that Oswald is actually double-crossing Maroni AND Fish. In a flashback, it is seen that in exchange for his life, Oswald will tell Falcone everything he knows. His first piece of information is that Fish and Niko are conspiring to kill Falcone. They agree that they must let Gordon live for now, knowing that his value as Gotham’s only honest man is too valuable to pass.
Analysis:
This week’s episode was fairly straight forward but here are a few questions I have:
- Does Falcone know who Liza is and who she works for?
- Will Oswald outsmart Fish?
- Is Bullock really on Gordon’s side this time?
- What role will Allen and Montoya play if they are no longer hunting Gordon?
The mafia based episodes are back! While last week’s episode was a nice change of pace, the story of this week’s was so good! Oswald’s rise to power is not only engaging but entertaining. It will be interesting to see how far he will climb in this time period and whether or not he will be able to outsmart not only Fish Mooney but Maroni as well. It will also be fun to see if each season of Gotham will be a different villain’s “origin” story.
The Verdict:
Every week I say how much I like this show and every week it gets better. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, yet it doesn’t. Never in the world of Batman has the Penguin ever been so interesting and intriguing. I look forward to the continuation of this season.
Until Next Time, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel!
DC
