Gotham, Season 1, Episode 12: What the Little Bird Told Him
After a wobbly past few episodes, Gotham proves that when it comes to Big Events, it can pull it off pretty well. It's kind of like Agents of Shield in that aspect, actually. Anyway, the big thing this time is two-fold. Fish finally makes his move against Don Falcone, while the Electrocutioner takes the battle against Don Maroni. Meanwhile, Gordon is tasked to take down the Electrocutioner with his career at stake. Also, the Penguin.I'm going to talk about the Fish/Falcone bits first because those are more interesting to me. After being built up for half the season, Fish's BIG MOVE turns out to be pretty... pathetic, actually. After her rather smart manipulation of people during that armoury job, her masterstroke apparently involves her just forcibly kidnapping Lisa and forcing Falcone to step down. Really, Fish? I expected more from you. Though I did like the little speech that Fish gives about Falcone being weak and this way at least he can be happy... I kind of believe that, somewhat.
Lisa is... well, she obviously is starting to like Don Falcone's treatment of her, and how much of a gentleman Falcone is that she keeps asking Fish to not really hurt Falcone. And it's obvious that Falcone doesn't really have that much of a beef with Lisa personally.
But Falcone, despite actually looking like kind of a weak old has-been earlier who only has Zsasz and Penguin truly supporting him, ends up gaining a fire at the end of the episode. We get him wistfully remarking about how nice it would be to actually retire, about how Fish might have actually deserved her spot and whatnot... and then he fucking chokes Lisa to death, which was the most surprising scene period in Gotham. I did not expect that, and that was a brutal yet awesome twist. Falcone's turned pretty awesome by trusting Penguin's words enough to at least have his forces stationed as backup, while he confirms Lisa's betrayal himself by looking into her eyes or some shit like that. And, man, that choke-to-death? That was brutal. And freaking sad, somewhat.
To her credit, Fish tries to move in but she really can't do much.
So Fish and Butch are being kept alive because Falcone apparently has plans, but I don't see them surviving really long considering just how absolutely angry Falcone was for them desecrating the memory of his mother.
Victor Zsasz also makes a reappearance, being his usual creepy self, and that alone really makes him fun. He's hella loyal to Falcone, though, shutting up quickly after suggesting that he can take out Fish's entire crew by himself. And I absolutely believe him, that crazy psychopath.
The Penguin... he's been having a pathetic series of scenes lately, hasn't he? Last episode he was a massive butt monkey that's a stark contrast to his normal planning, and all he did in this episode to ensure Fish's downfall (which I had thought to be some elaborate, well-thought-out-plan) ends up being him just telling Falcone at the right time... which I guess was when Fish and Lisa make their move, I suppose? Granted it does make some sense with Falcone probably going to be obstinate and distrustful of Penguin if the kidnapping hadn't gone down, but when I watched the episode it was kind of confusing.
Penguin shows up first in this episode at a big lunch session with the Maronis, at which point Falcone orders him to come back. Going off with the excuse of his sick mother, he ends up getting zapped by the Electrocutioner, and apparently being shocked into unconsciousness by a gajillion volts of electricity causes him to randomly go into spasms and shout that he's working for Falcone right in front of Maroni. And then he gets lugged around like trash, gets confronted by Maroni, and then gets electrocuted again. He's all smug at the end of the episode but unlike his previous appearances there's nothing that he did that's particularly noteworthy in his normal massively planned-out playing-people-against-each-other schtick. It's a shame, really. I expected Penguin to do more than just rat Lisa to Falcone at the right time...
Though I guess all that's well ends well? For Penguin, at least. Fish, not so much. Lisa? Definitely not.
Maroni kind of looks like a moron. Not only is he just being subservient to Gordon telling him to go into custody, Maroni realises that Penguin is working for Falcone, but doesn't let him off with any more than a stern talking-to. Granted I'm going to assume Penguin made a deal with him, but really? Well, I guess we know why Maroni's name sounds a lot like 'moron'. He's being a big funny ham, though, and him just swaggering in the police station was fun.
We also meet Commissioner Loeb, who appears to be a corrupt stern bastard. He gets head-to-head with Gordon, but Gordon manages to push the right buttons to give him one last chance to get reinstated. Gordon was kind of awesome in how he just refuses to back down, but he's kind of outshone by Bullock, who is just so damned hilarious the entire episode. He's basically dragged into Loeb's deal without doing anything wrong, and Gordon doesn't even have a proper plan. He's hilarious, he's pissed off at Gordon yet kind of impressed by him at the same time. Bullock's just fun all around.
The Electrocutioner dresses up in kind of a nice little getup with some kind of crazy electrocution gauntlet and machinery strapped onto his person, and actually gets called the Electrocutioner several times on-screen. Also, he's apparently not Jack Gruber, but Jack Budchinsky, so he's definitely related to the comic Electrocutioner. And apparently he wants to get into Arkham Asylum to observe stuff or something? Eh, dude's kind of crazy. And I like him! Electrocutioner is just such a massive ham. He's basically out for blood for his four partners that screwed him over. He lobotomized one and forced him two write 'I shall not betray my friends' over and over like a vegetable, and is out for Maroni, which leads him into the path of our heroes.
We get some actually awesome scenes that would feel right at home in a more sci-fi heavy show like Agents of Shield or the Flash, with the Electrocutioner zapping up the entire building, launching weird Transformer electricty-bombs and even somehow using electrical whips to swipe off Gordon's gun. Somehow. And, naturally, since he's the Electrocutioner he gets taken out in the most anticlimactic way possible, by Gordon pouring a cup of water on his gizmo, at which point he just blinks and goes 'oh' with such a hilarious expression on his face.
That was freaking awesome and hilarious. And absolutely appropriate for the Electrocutioner. Apparently being taken out like a bitch in less than two seconds is something that runs in the family.
Amygdala is just a thug, and is apparently Aaron Denzig instead of Aaron Helzinger, but for all intents and purposes is basically the same dude, which is 'dumb muscle without a moral sense'. He gets taken out quite quickly, but I liked that someone remembers he exists.
There was also a lot more Riddler than normal, though it wasn't as grating as his previous large screentime. He gets to be useful and helpful for a good chunk of it, introducing the rubber boots, and the scene where he creeps on Kringle ran for a bit too long. We get people calling him a weirdo and a creep and he seems definitely bothered by it, so we may get to see the Riddler's descent into darkness sooner than later, I suppose? (The cupcake riddle made absolutely no sense, though)
At the end of the episode Gordon gets his job back, which is fun and good even if that kind of makes the mid-season cliffhanger of Gordon being deported into Arkham pointless since it's resolved in less than two episodes. Beyond putting Gordon into conflict with the higher-ups, at least.
And I guess there is Barbara's scene. She goes home to her parents, who I'm sure aren't pleasant people despite looking pleasant right now. Or they may be. Either way my sympathy for Barbara will still be non-existent and I still don't give two shits about her.
But I'm not going to go into a five-paragraph rant about that bitch, and leave this review on a happy note. It was a good one, if slightly uneven.
No comments:
Post a Comment