Okay, so I missed 'Welcome Back, Jim Gordon', featuring the rise and fall of Flass (who if I'm following correctly was the one who 'rescued' Kristin Kringle from Nygma,) Selina's confession to Bruce that she didn't see the killer's face, and the escape from the surprisingly inept revenge of Don Falcone of Fish Mooney. So it goes.
I pick up, therefore, with 'The Fearsome Dr. Crane', in which a sinister fellow (played by veteran ham Julian Sands, who also appeared in Person of Interest as the British Reese) is stalking phobic and subjecting them to terrifying demises. Bullock becomes uncharacteristically enthused by this case when the first victim's sponsor in a phobia support group turns out to be an attractive redhead named Scottie Mullen, while Gordon's romantic life comes to the fore again when he approaches Leslie Thompkins to help on a case.
This one is mostly set-up for the next episode in terms of A, B and C plots. Crane is prevented from murdering Mullen, but escapes capture. After their somewhat hasty kiss, Thompkins and Gordon begin to negotiate an actual relationship. And Fish Mooney takes a boat out of Gotham that is attacked by pirates. Nygma is suspended for pissing off the ME one too many times, and so frames his foe by hiding body parts in his locker. Astonishingly, Kringle not only seems sad to see Nygma go, she gives a genuine smile at his return. Aww. This leads Gordon to suggest that Thompkins apply for the now vacant ME's position.
The big push of this episode then is Fish's attempted revenge on Penguin, literally dropping a dime on him with Maroni, leading to an impromptu trip to the woods to 'see a guy about a thing'. Maroni basically owns Penguin, luring him into confessing from the presumed security of a position of power which the Don then ruthlessly strips away. Penguin escapes Maroni's overly-convoluted revenge through quick thinking and audacity, but is still left fleeing headlong.
In 'Scarecrow', Dr Crane's backstory emerges, along with his belief that all human evil is caused by fear. He is intent on curing himself and his son, Jonathan, of all fear, but winds up so unafraid he basically walks into Gordon and Bullock's bullets, while his attempt to accelerate the fear inoculation protocol leaves his son in a perpetual state of near-catatonic terror, haunted by the image of a scarecrow.
Meanwhile, the Gordkins romance stutters because Gordon is too stiff to kiss at work now that Thompkins is the GCPD medical examiner. Scottie Mullen has vanished so that Bullock can just wax cynical about office romance. No Kringle this week, but Nygma does have a creepy awkward off with Penguin when Cobblepot tries to deliver an invitation to his opening night to Gordon (who is trying to avoid him like a shaming one-night stand after seeking his help with the Flass case made him feel like the kind of dirty cop he was gunning for.) Said opening night (at Mooney's old club, now 'Oswald's' is somewhat dampened when Maroni shows up to tell him that Falcone has made a deal for his life, but that the second Falcone shuffles off, Penguin will follow.)
We closed out 'The Fearsome Dr. Crane' with Fish and a pirate charging at each other with such ferocity that we expected either a battle royale of epic proportions or a cold open on the aftermath of a scene of destructive passion. Instead she wakes in a subterranean prison looking none the worse for wear, where she quickly takes charge from a man too stupid to keep the dangerously confident woman at arm's length. Not sure what's happening there, but it's all a bit League of Shadowsy.
There is a certain amount of repetition to Gotham these days, with the Penguin rising and falling like a succession of empires, and Gordon failing to be much but stiff. The bits with Bruce - he releases Gordon from his promise, vowing to find his parents' killer himself, and then goes hiking into the woods to exorcise some filial rage - are mostly good for Alfred, and I kind of just want him to form a PI agency with Bullock. I'm also stunned that Gordon can be so clueless as to think that his respect in the GCPD will be harmed by being seen to kiss the smoking hot ME. I guess the Cobblepot thing is weighing on him, but there is a middle ground between corrupt and the alienating hardass image he maintains which actually distances him from potential allies.
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| Fearsome. |
This one is mostly set-up for the next episode in terms of A, B and C plots. Crane is prevented from murdering Mullen, but escapes capture. After their somewhat hasty kiss, Thompkins and Gordon begin to negotiate an actual relationship. And Fish Mooney takes a boat out of Gotham that is attacked by pirates. Nygma is suspended for pissing off the ME one too many times, and so frames his foe by hiding body parts in his locker. Astonishingly, Kringle not only seems sad to see Nygma go, she gives a genuine smile at his return. Aww. This leads Gordon to suggest that Thompkins apply for the now vacant ME's position.
The big push of this episode then is Fish's attempted revenge on Penguin, literally dropping a dime on him with Maroni, leading to an impromptu trip to the woods to 'see a guy about a thing'. Maroni basically owns Penguin, luring him into confessing from the presumed security of a position of power which the Don then ruthlessly strips away. Penguin escapes Maroni's overly-convoluted revenge through quick thinking and audacity, but is still left fleeing headlong.
 |
| "This better not awaken anything in me." |
In 'Scarecrow', Dr Crane's backstory emerges, along with his belief that all human evil is caused by fear. He is intent on curing himself and his son, Jonathan, of all fear, but winds up so unafraid he basically walks into Gordon and Bullock's bullets, while his attempt to accelerate the fear inoculation protocol leaves his son in a perpetual state of near-catatonic terror, haunted by the image of a scarecrow.
Meanwhile, the Gordkins romance stutters because Gordon is too stiff to kiss at work now that Thompkins is the GCPD medical examiner. Scottie Mullen has vanished so that Bullock can just wax cynical about office romance. No Kringle this week, but Nygma does have a creepy awkward off with Penguin when Cobblepot tries to deliver an invitation to his opening night to Gordon (who is trying to avoid him like a shaming one-night stand after seeking his help with the Flass case made him feel like the kind of dirty cop he was gunning for.) Said opening night (at Mooney's old club, now 'Oswald's' is somewhat dampened when Maroni shows up to tell him that Falcone has made a deal for his life, but that the second Falcone shuffles off, Penguin will follow.)
We closed out 'The Fearsome Dr. Crane' with Fish and a pirate charging at each other with such ferocity that we expected either a battle royale of epic proportions or a cold open on the aftermath of a scene of destructive passion. Instead she wakes in a subterranean prison looking none the worse for wear, where she quickly takes charge from a man too stupid to keep the dangerously confident woman at arm's length. Not sure what's happening there, but it's all a bit League of Shadowsy.
There is a certain amount of repetition to Gotham these days, with the Penguin rising and falling like a succession of empires, and Gordon failing to be much but stiff. The bits with Bruce - he releases Gordon from his promise, vowing to find his parents' killer himself, and then goes hiking into the woods to exorcise some filial rage - are mostly good for Alfred, and I kind of just want him to form a PI agency with Bullock. I'm also stunned that Gordon can be so clueless as to think that his respect in the GCPD will be harmed by being seen to kiss the smoking hot ME. I guess the Cobblepot thing is weighing on him, but there is a middle ground between corrupt and the alienating hardass image he maintains which actually distances him from potential allies.
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