Gotham - 'Into the Woods'

"I wish..."

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lay a crapsack city on the edge of the woods. And in that city lived a mostly honest cop, an orphaned Penguin, and a lonely boy and his friend the cat.*

Gordon begins the long and difficult road to proving his innocence and, as it happens, finishes it as well. His ace in the hole is that Harvey Dent once told him IA records all of their incoming calls. With Bullock's help he secures the recording of the tip that led to his arrest, and takes it to his old pal Eddie to clean up. Of course, he realises that Nygma is in fact the man who framed him after killing Miss Kringle, and only narrowly escapes being kiled because Nygma prefers an audience. He goes to Selina for help, and she and Bruce take him to Alfred to get patched up. Selina then takes a message to Barnes in order to bait a trap, letting Nygma hear her tell Barnes that Gordon is lookingfor Penguin who 'knows where the bodies are buried.' Gordon tails Nygma to Kringle's grave and lets the entire department listen in on his unforced confession.

Bruce is continuing to learn the streets from Selina, until Gordon stumbles into their lives. While visiting Wayne Manor, Bruce learns that the computer in the Wayne Cave is up and running again, but Alfred warns him to keep Selina at arm's length, lest she be hurt. Following this advice leads to a split in the teenagers' friendship.

He's back.

Following the death of his father, Oswald is threatened with eviction from the family home by his stepmother, but kept on as an abused and essentially free servant, forced to bear the cruelties and insults of his 'family'. Then he finds the decanter of poison and goes full-on Andronicus, cooking his step-siblings and serving them to their mother before stabbing her to death. Once more, pointless fuckwittage = death. You'd think fewer people would take the time and effort.

Oh, and Barbara is declared sane out on the streets again, because apparently being unconscious in Arkham Asylum for three months satisfies the statute of limitations for murder in Gotham State. She pays a call on Jim. Hurrah.

Like 'Prisoners' before it, 'Into the Woods' serves mostly to get us back to the status quo. Gordon is reinstated, but refuses to talk to Lee until he finds out who hired Malone to kill the Waynes because... I don't know. Maybe he really can't handle multitasking. It still feels like the writers are getting the players in place for something, which is odd since nine times out of ten, this involves undoing something that was done to them just a few episodes ago.

* The reference is de rigeur given the episode title.