Gotham S05E04 Review: Kangaroo Trial

Gotham, Season 5, Episode 4: Ruin

This episode of Gotham is... it's a pretty fun one. Following up on the surprise cliffhanger from the previous episode what Haven got blown up straight to hell, we start the episode off with a pretty well-shot scene of Gordon wandering through the burning ashes and just yelling at everyone, telling everyone to get their shit together and save as many people as he can. And when we cut to one of those scenes of Gordon talking to the faceless people from the United States Government who can only offer hollow condolences, we really feel the simultaneous defeat and rage in Gordon's voice. In a somewhat unusual detail, Gordon notes that the death toll is more than 300, which... holy shit, that really puts into perspective just how huge the blow was from last episode, huh? Hell, we even get the surprisingly subdued scene as one of the random GCPD officers hand Gordon his badge... which we knew was one that he gave to that kid in the previous episode. That's another gut-punch for Gordon.


Hell, I even love the reactions of the other characters involved here. Penguin is utterly shocked and horrified, and is caught up in all the chaos in the first five minutes. Sure, he gets to be his usual campy, hammy self later on, but during the actual chaos of Haven exploding, Penguin was utterly stumped, and honestly, even his motivations throughout this episode is partially inspired in finding justice/vengeance for Haven's fall. Barbara backing off and returning to her base instead of putting a bullet through Penguin's head might be plot contrivance, but I do like that Barbara apparently has enough heart to not fuck up Haven even more by killing one of its influential leaders or whatever, which I guess is what Penguin is? Part of his motivation in this episode does seem to make himself look like the saviour for the people of Haven. So.

Gotham, again, splits this episode into three main storylines, with the main one still dealing with the aftermath of Penguin and Gordon trying to hunt down the mystery man who blew up all of Haven. Penguin walks up to the GCPD building with an army of goons and guns, very much willing to lend his help pro bono to get whoever is behind all of this. And while I do question just where Penguin got all those dudes (I guess they're just the Street Demons?), it does make for a pretty cool 'let's roll out' scene as the cops and gangsters go off on a tip to hunt down the suspicious, shady person who was seen leaving Haven during all of the chaos of Penguin and the Street Demons' takeover of Haven. And after Penguin and his dumbass megaphone ruins any chance of them catching the suspect by surprise, we get the revelation that it's Mr. Zsasz!

I really, really loved Zsasz's subdued, dry performance, and it's back in full force. "Is this about Sofia Falcone? Because you really need to move past that. It's not healthy." I completely forgot about this little connection between Zsasz and Penguin, but if making himself the hero in front of all the people of Haven isn't enough motivation for Penguin, this just drives him onto overdrive. There is admittedly a particularly silly bit where apparently they just unload every single bullet they have on Zsasz's apartment sniper's perch so Gordon can run and tackle Zsasz. It's badass, for sure, but after the first three episodes make it such a huge point that bullets are hard to come by, it's a bit odd that this was the strategy they used.

They capture Zsasz, who claims to be innocent. Zsasz's (dry) defense is actually pretty solid -- he's someone who carves a tattoo onto his flesh every time he kills, so if he actually blew up Haven, he would want everyone to know. Gordon wants actual evidence before actually condemning Zsasz, but Penguin wants to give the people of Haven their pound of flesh and basically rallies the people in the only way Penguin knows how -- the hammy court scene. Somewhat Dark Knight Rises-esque in its setup, Penguin ends up using this as an opportunity not just to give closure to the citizens out for blood, but also to basically make himself look good and Gordon look bad.

Of course, the B-plot (which we'll talk about later) ends up with the revelation that it couldn't have been Zsasz who caused the explosion. And as Lucius Fox tells this to Gordon, we get a brief bit of Gordon wondering if he should just let the people have their justice before realizing that, shit, he's a hero, god damn it. I do like that brief bit of doubt, though -- as much as he self-styles himself as the pure white beacon of justice, Gotham's Jim Gordon has fallen into some questionably amoral things in the past. And as Zsasz gets shoved into a fucking guillotine (and I get the hilarious mental image of Penguin pulling the guillotine out of his closet or something) Gordon ends up rescuing Zsasz, escaping with him while Penguin screams at the people how Gordon cares more about a murderer than their welfare.

It is, of course, pretty questionable what Gordon does next, as both Bullock and Penguin call him out on. Yes, having him killed in a sham trial isn't right, but at the same time, releasing him into the wild? Bullock notes that Zsasz is a psychopath that cuts his flesh whenever he kills, and while he is entertaining as all hell, Zsasz has a pretty high bodycount in this show. But I guess it wouldn't be a Batman show without the hero refusing to kill, so. I do love the little bit at the end where Zsasz kind of taunts Gordon about how the city will always belong to the scum like him, and Gordon very nearly demands that Zsasz just cowboy-duels him right then and there. It's something that Bullock later tells Gordon is a stupid thing to do, which... I kinda liked. Whatever the case, though, it ends up with the Penguin/Gordon alliance basically ending after half an episode, which is par the course for Gotham.

Interestingly, the episode ends Gordon's story with him talking with Barbara, the two of them bonding over hunting down who blew up Haven... and then they have some really aggressive kissing. The two of them probably had the most epic of hate-fucks afterwards.

The B-Plot, which takes place concurrent with the first one, continues with the Riddler storyline. Or is it Edward that's the main personality? I honestly forgot and may or may not be mistaken in my review of the first three episodes, because this episode makes it look like it's Edward that's confused and trying to retrace the steps of his alter-ego, while it's the Riddler that's doing villainous things and leaving riddles for Edward. That's what I'm assuming until proven otherwise. Whatever the case, though, the episode ends up with Nygma being left a riddle by his later-ego, and he goes off to hunt a Blackgate Prison inmate.

While trying to steal records, he's stopped by Lucius Fox, who's been honestly under-utilized and part of the scenery since around halfway through season four. Making a deal for Nygma to help out with figuring out how Haven blew up in exchange for the records, it's a fun scene as Nygma and Lucius basically go through a buddy cop routine to figure out how Haven blew up. It's not particularly long, but the two play off each other very well. Whatever the case, though, they realize that whoever blew up Haven stood on a rooftop and launched an RPG onto the fuel tanks, and it's certainly not Zsasz, who was on the ground the whole time.

However, and in perhaps the biggest plot twist in this episode, Nygma fins out that the riddle doesn't actually refer to a Blackgate inmate, but to an old lady in a nearby apartment building who saw the rocket being launched at Haven. Nygma talks to the old lady... and ends up realizing through a strangely-edited flashback (it has weird digital distortion effects?) that it's his alter-ego that fired the bazooka that blew up Haven. Whether Riddler did it just to murder people for shits and giggles, or if this is part of a bigger plan where he perhaps is working with some of the other players in No Man's Land (or maybe part of a big riddle, I dunno) it's a pretty surprising and well-done payoff for the Riddler B-plot storyline we've been having over the past four episodes. Good stuff!

The other B-plot is, of course, Bruce, Alfred and Selina. We get a brief scene of Alfred freeing Bruce, and like a good butler, basically tells Bruce that you can't save someone from herself... but they can very well keep Selina alive until she realizes what's going on. We get some scenes of Jeremiah and Ecco hamming things up, as you do... and apparently Jeremiah is behind this bizarre plan of digging under the river? I dunno, it still seems dumb. I really enjoy the interactions between Jeremiah and Ecco, which is just crazy and very much reminiscent of B:TAS Joker and Harley Quinn.

Of course, in another surprising twist, Selina walks up to Jeremiah in the middle of "dig deep within yourself!" and just stabs Jeremiah repeatedly in the god damn gut. For all the drama on whether to kill Zsasz in the other side of the city, this is just an abrupt stab. No drama with Bruce and Selina angsting over whether to do it, no prolonged final battle, no nothing. I don't doubt that Jeremiah will still survive in some way because he's kind of the Joker (and if this is just the end for Jeremiah, it's bad writing), but god damn, that's surprising. Bruce and Alfred barge in with a smoke bomb and grab Selina and escape, but that leaves Jeremiah presumably dead, and sets up a lot of fun potential for drama between Bruce and Selina, as well as Ecco hunting them down.

Overall, a pretty spectacular episode of Gotham. I don't think I have much complaints. It's over-acted and hammy as usual, but honestly, that's part of Gotham's charm as much as anything else.