Gotham - 'Red Hood'

"We want people to know we're serious, right?"

A grandstanding bank robber and a desperate escape gambit transform a simple red hood into a powerful icon. Wayne Manor plays host to an old army buddy of Alfred's. Meanwhile, Fish and Penguin struggle to master their new environments.

The story of the week is an origin for the Red Hood, a supervillain alias used by many different people through the years (including the Joker, who appears to have an embarrassment of origins in Gotham.) Aptly enough then, the episode is not the story of the man beneath the hood, but of the hood itself, a gimmick created by one member of an ordinary gang which rapidly becomes a cursed talisman, bringing success and death in equal measure. It seems odd that a mere scrap of cloth has power like unto the Ring of the Nibelungs without more backstory - was it cut from a piece of Superman's cape or something? - and the single-episode resolution kind of detracts from any build-up of a more interesting psychological explanation.

I think I'm basically just watching this show while I wait for
the Pennyworth PI spinoff.

When his army pal Reggie Payne shows up at Wayne Manor to visit Alfred, Bruce insists that he stay a while. Alas, old war stories and tense lessons in dirty fighting son give way to attempted robbery, culminating in Reggie sticking Alfred with a knife and leaving him hospitalised. This strand brought some of the episode's highlights. Reggie's impromptu fighting lesson brought out a lot of Bruce's rage, but more importantly his potential influence showcased both Alfred's protective streak and the good influence that Bruce and his parents had on Alfred, apparently tempering a man who was much more like Reggie. Reggie's betrayal and glimpse of conscience also moved the Wayne Enterprises' story arc forward.

"The Doctor is not here at present. He specifically asked me
to be creepy at you."

Fish Mooney, alas, is kind of back to square one, confronting the manager of the organ bank as if she had the whip hand when she has nothing, ultimately responding to a threat to carve out her eyes by taking one  out herself with a spoon. It's a powerful gesture, but doesn't take away from the fact that by letting herself be taken out of the basement and letting the manager - the wonderfully creepy Jeffrey Combs, getting to namedrop the Dollmaker, or rather 'Dr Dulmacher', for the first time since 'Selina Kyle' - dictate any of the terms of the confrontation - beginning with not being the actual owner - she surrendered her power and any impetus the character had gained. Any advance she made was through the incompetence of her enemies, not her ability, and that's not interesting.

Penguin is also running on fumes. The Machiavellian mastermind who sliced his way through the mob on guile and moxie is now the impresario of a failing club (a guest comedian bombs, because we haven't had enough Joker teases yet, apparently,) and being held to ransom by Maroni's booze monopoly. He plans a dumb as hell heist, but fortunately Butch may have been tortured to the point of total brainwashing, but that hasn't stopped him being a smoother operator than Cobblepot can apparently dream of being.

It's a sobering fact that one of the least bad interpretations of
this whole bit is that the writers have just plain forgotten that
their version of Barbara is bi.

I would say that Barbara is looking played out, but she never really had a hand. Still inexplicably hanging with Ivy and Selina, she tries to give them a makeover, presumably as a last-ditch alternative to buying a quart of rotgut and a dozen cats and just going with it. Ivy is well into this - Ivy basically just rolls with shit as it comes, and I really respect that - but Selina is dubious, throwing Barbara's 'sex is a weapon' speech back in her face and - I really hope - leaving forever, because what could be a weird sort of sisterhood thing is potentially creepy as hell when one of the show's two lesbian characters is drunkenly telling a thirteen year old girl how beautiful she is and trying to dress her in slinky outfits.

Please come back, Renee! Represent!