Well, it’s been more than a minute since our last episode of Gotham, so let’s talk really quick about “Into the Woods”.
No, not that. Stop
that.
Yes, “Into the Woods”.
So we kick off with Bruce and Kat running away from a thief they stole
from, resulting in both teenagers leaping to the next roof top, and Bruce
openly mocking the full adult criminal who’s probably about to have a coronary from
the whole event. This is punctuated by
Bruce tossing some of the ill-gotten cash off the roof top. Why did he do that, I have no idea. Maybe he was just caught up in the moment;
maybe he likes it when Selena beats him for throwing away the money they could
have died trying to get. I don’t know.
But that’s not why you’re here. You’re here because of Jim Gordon, on the run
from the law and trying to clear his name.
Through Bullock’s, ahem, contact inside internal affairs (imagine the
Harvey Bullock from the animated series “distracting” someone like that!)
Gordon obtains a tape recording of the anonymous tip placed to IA about his
involvement in the Galavan murder.
Gordon, after running afoul of the law yet again, because “lay low”
means make a spectacle of yourself in Jimbo’s mind, he takes it to Ed Nygma to
see if he can clean it up and they can identify the man who framed him.
Oh good old Ed cleans it up, and during their conversation leading
to the fateful playback, Gordon figures out that Ed was the one who set him
up. Ed gets the upper hand by shocking
Gordon and prepares to deal with him by driving him out to the woods and
burying him. Gordon wakes up and takes
off, but not before getting shot in the leg.
After a brief chase, Ed loses Gordon, but not before spelling out the
entire situation to him; that he’s trying to dodge the rap for killing Kristen
Kringle.
Gordon finds his way back to Selena, which is weird because
as far as I knew this was a new place for her to stay at so how would he know
where to find her? I suppose he could
have asked around, because as man bleeding from an open wound on his leg asking
about a teenage girl doesn’t draw any suspicion.
Well, then again, this IS Gotham.
So he passes out on the couch and Bruce calls in Alfred for
an assist. While back at stately Wayne
Manor, Alfred does a fair amount of berating both Bruce and Gordon for their
questionable judgement calls as of late, but ultimately is willing to help both
out.
They convince Selena to tip off the police about Gordon’s
activities, making sure Nygma overhears.
Gordon has gone to track down the Penguin to find out where Kristen
Kringle is buried.
Let’s talk about Penguin for just a bit. Grieved over the loss of his father, which is
understandable considering until about two episodes ago he didn’t know the man
existed and he showed honest to goodness love towards the often abused
Oswald. About to be kicked out, he
strikes a deal with his stepmother; he will stay on as the family’s servant and
they don’t throw him out into the cold.
They abuse the crap out of him and plot to fake his suicide, but they
will let him stay for a little while if only to save cash on actual
servants. While performing his duties in
the kitchen he discovers the decanter of liquor that had been tainted (at the
cost of one of the household dogs) and plots his revenge. It’s a very “Cinderella” story; if Cinderella
murdered, mutilated, cooked and fed her step siblings to her evil step mother,
only to brutally stab her to death after the big reveal.
Like Disney by way of Stephen King!
Nygma treks out into the woods (TITLE!) and starts digging
up Kristen to move her body when he’s confronted by Gordon. Holding the disposed detective at gun point,
he gives a full confession only to be swarmed by police, led by Barnes, and is
taken into custody, clearing Gordon’s name in one fell swoop.
Gordon is offered his job back, and will return to work
after tracking down more information on the Wayne’s murder. Barnes agrees, but only if he promises to
call Leslie Tompkins. Later Gordon tries
to call, but can’t bring himself to talk to her. His brooding is interrupted by Barbra Keane,
who’s fresh out of Arkham.
Meanwhile back at the manor, Alfred tells Bruce that the
mysterious computer is fixed, but if he’s going to pursue the secrets of his
father, he’s going to have to leave Selena and his life on the streets behind. Granted it was more akin to an elaborate
sleep over, but still the decision is hard but he tells an angry Selena that his
place is in the Manor.
There were a lot of strong points to this episode and
everyone brought their A-game. I didn’t
necessarily appreciate seeing how Bullock stays off of IA’s radar, but I guess
it makes sense. This is clearly not a
show for kids. It was great to see the
Penguin unleashed again, and you can tell this re-born bird of crime is going
places.
But what about Gordon?
So not too long ago, last week I believe, I proclaimed that
Gordon was bad at his job and this week kinda sorta didn’t convince me
otherwise. He’s a decent detective, but
ultimately it came down to him being in the right place in the right time and
having an opponent who gave all but a power point presentation for his evil
plan.
I’m glad we got a reasonable conclusion to the storyline, at
least as reasonable as you can get with Gotham, and it’s important for viewers
like myself to not judge it by either the rules of real life police work or by
the standards of criminal procedural shows.
It’s not fair to the show at large because it’s so very different, so
very grounded as being a comic book that you can’t measure it by the same
lengths.
So did we get redemption for some off kilter story
telling? Yes and no; Gordon’s return
from the gutter was expected, but putting a character that’s eventually going
to be Police Commissioner through that kind of thing really questions his
qualifications for that job. Nygma being
locked away in Arkham was nice, Penguin returning from his sniveling form was
satisfying because you really hated those three, and I’m interested to see
where they go with the “healed” Barbra.
The Bruce, Selena, Alfred dynamic was a little more subtle this time
around but Alfred was making a good point, that Bruce needed to focus on one
thing or another, but he can’t have both right now.
So while I don’t think Gordon is any better at his job than
he was last episode, I think the show redeemed some of itself for me to keep me
interested in where this is all going.
Til next time.
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