Upstanding mayor stuff.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow…
Sure, I’m still mourning the loss of Jerome and the crazed energy Cameron Monaghan brought to that role (and to the first few episodes of this season), but things are still clicking a lot better on Gotham this year than last. In the very least, we still have Robin Lord Taylor’s Penguin to behold – another character who’s being used very well this season compared to (some of) this show’s freshman run.
Penguin’s at his best when he’s an integral part of the story and not just needlessly thrown in for color. I lauded the show a few weeks back for actually leaving him off an episode. Despite his charisma, Penguin feels wasted when given only a cursory amount of screen time. And the show feels desperate when it includes him for no reason.
We want to hear it.
Fortunately, this week had Penguin in between a rock and a hard place after Theo not only revealed his full intentions to destroy Gotham by becoming mayor, but also that Penguin now had to do his bidding because he held his dear mother hostage in an undisclosed location. A predicament that seemed to throw Oswald (who now prefers “Penguin”) over the edge.
Theo himself, despite his giant maniacal plans for the city, hasn’t really popped yet. Sounding like a more bloodthirsty version of Morris the Cat, Theo has been the least impressive of this season’s villains. I guess it’s easy to get overshadowed by all the lunacy this show pumps out on a regular basis, but still – I’m waiting for more from him. Now he’s not only set his sights on Penguin, but Bruce Wayne too. Perhaps even using his own beautiful “ward,” Silver St. Cloud, to help lure Bruce into the fold. She even goes to Bruce’s school, now that Bruce actually goes to school.
We want to hear it.
Oh, and that was quite a moment there when Alfred full-on slapped Selina across the face. For killing Reggie. I guess if you’re going to do grown up things like gouge people eyes out and throw men out of windows, you’ll have to expect a crack in the mouth every once in a while. But yeah, that was rather stern. And indicative of just how protective Alfred is of Bruce these days because it sure made Selina clear out. Of course, we should keep in mind that Alfred doesn’t currently see the more immediate danger of Theo and, perhaps, Silver.
So, anyhow, Penguin was tasked with killing off the other mayoral hopefuls. One got away, but one he wound up stabbing one himself. Begging the question: Why would he get his hands dirty here? He sent Zsasz to kill that one guy, but murdered the woman on his own. Sure, Butch threatened all the witnesses, but it took – like – nothing to get one of them to immediately come forward and say it was a weird little dude with a limp. Just seemed like sloppiness on the show’s part. I get that Jim needs to be caught in the middle here, given what Penguin holds over him, but it still seemed like a hiccup.
And is it me, or is Butch rather loopy this season? He hasn’t done much yet, but the times when he has spoken, he’s been a touch off-balance. Is he working through some Fish Mooney stuff? Or whatever it is that he went through in last season’s finale? He’s loyal, I suppose, but he just doesn’t seem all that competent now.
The other big part of this episode was the introduction of Michael Chiklis as Captain Nathaniel Barns. The precinct’s new no-nonsense captain who runs a tight ship with no tolerance for in-house corruption whatsoever. My question is: Where has this guy been? And I guess my larger question is: How does the GCPD work? Aren’t there multiple precincts throughout the city? Or is there just this one?
We want to hear it.
My issue here is that if someone like Barnes was an active member of the Gotham police department, why hasn’t he made waves before? Why didn’t he seek out Gordon last year when Gordon was actively known as a guy battling corruption at great expense to his own career? Barns just kind of appeared out of nowhere. Which make me wonder if it’s just story goof or if he’s ultimately not to be trusted. Because Barns came in and instantly fired a bunch of cops. Even arrested one. Stuff Gordon wanted to do back in Season 1. So how did he never find out that there was, essentially, another Jim Gordon out there? One who actually had power to do the right thing?
Finally, I’ll end with Nygma here. Who, unlike the rest of the stories going on in Season 2, remains quite separate from the pack. In fact, his arc right now reminds me of how fragmented the show felt last year. I guess I still don’t know what to make of Ed’s split “Tyler Durden” style personality drama. I suppose his stuff feels the most goofily extraneous out of everything right now considering how cohesive this season’s been so far.
We want to hear it.
And while I’m not precious when it comes to the liberties this show takes with canon (in fact, I encourage most of the deviations), I’m not too into the “two Eds” thing. On the upside I suppose it landed him a date with Kringle (because of course it did given her attraction to alpha a-holes) but I don’t know where this leaves “Riddler” when the day comes from Ed to make that big jump. Will it be the dick side of his persona that becomes a master criminal?
I have nothing against Michael Chiklis’ performance here, or his character’s hard-line stance on corruption (or his idea to give Gordon a squad of rookies to command). If anyone can bark loudly and back it up, it’s Chiklis. But how has Barns existed within the ranks of the GCPD the way that it is? The way that it was established to be back in Season 1 when Gordon was notable as being the only honest detective on the beat?
Meanwhile, Penguin had some good moments to play here. He went from being on top of the world to having that world totally ransacked. Sure, his moments with his mother stand as some of Season 1’s silliest, most wasteful scenes, but the loss of her worked really well here. As did his screams right at the end.
