Gotham: Season 1 Episode 5 "Viper" (REVIEW)
written by Omar Castillon (@omar_castillon)
Conspiracy, drugs and betrayal took over this week’s Gotham. The best part about this is that Wayne Enterprises had a legitimate connection with the continuing storyline involving Arkham Asylum and the obvious corruption involved in the company. It all starts with a mysterious man handing out a vile full of a vaporized drug played by Daniel London. Not just any drug, but a super strength enhancer that causes the user to crave gallons upon gallons of milk. Sounds cool and expensive in theory but the end result isn’t as appealing since it involves disturbing deaths.
Viper or as the world of Gotham puts it, the one before Venom was finalized, runs rampant among the homeless and youthful. So much so that there is a great scene in the middle of the episode where a bunch of Viper users practically destroy Gordon’s precinct. The disturbing part about Viper on the other hand is the effects after the super strength fades away and the calcium intake that is depleted with the use of the drug causes its victims to crumble to the floor dead. The best part about the introduction of Viper is the implied hint to the superior drug Venom into the Gotham universe. I know there is word of mouth around the internet about Bane being introduced and being part of Gotham. Well, I doubt this will happen since the origins of Bane have him in a prison off of a secluded island where his mother was once a member of the prison until she died. Bane then had to fight tooth and nail to survive in the prison on his own and self teaching himself tons of skills that will eventually be used to fight Batman. So don’t get your hopes up on a Bane cameo anytime soon.
Moving on to the other highlight of the episode, Cobblepot gets his feet wet with Maroni in that he confesses to Maroni about his association with Falcone and Fish Mooney. This leads to a tense trifecta between Gordon, Maroni and Cobblepot. The mafia movie feel continues in this scenario and in a later scene involving Maroni and Cobblepot discovering Falcone’s weaknesses.
Speaking of weaknesses, Fish Mooney and her new secret weapon Liza, played by Makenzie Leigh, have been getting pretty close. The only difference is that Mooney is using Liza for a ploy against her boss Falcone. Once you see their interaction, it will all make sense afterwards at the end of the episode. Plus there is some random Russian mobster that works with Falcone and there’s some sort of sexual tension between Mooney and the Russian mobster that it’s just sort of there in this episode.
Bruce Wayne and Alfred play detective once again trying to figure out what the whole mess with the Viper situation is all about with Wayne Enterprises. During the many scenes of Bruce playing detective, there is a slight hint of his favorite hero on TV which caught my attention and that was seeing Zorro in black and white before the breaking news segment about Viper catches Bruce’s attention. Just a little tidbit but moving on; in any case Bruce and Alfred go to a Wayne Enterprises meet up with Bruce insisting he meet with the big wigs in charge of Wayne Enterprises. The reason why is because Bruce sees something iffy with how Wayne Enterprises handled the Arkham distribution among the crime families and the Viper connection with WellZyn which is a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises.
With all that being said, Gotham was still pretty good this week. This was a far cry from the lackluster episode that was “The Balloonman.” The less I talk about that episode, the better. In any case, I say check out this week’s episode as soon as possible. The twists and turns throughout the storyline will keep you hooked and wanting more next week.
