Gotham "The Strike Force" (REVIEW)
written by Omar Castillon (omar_castillon)
Penguin still has a lot to learn in terms of being the boss of the underworld in Gotham. It is established that Falcone is in hiding but Galavan has bigger plans for Penguin and Gotham overall. The two antagonists finally meet face to face as Penguin wonders who the real culprit behind the Maniax and the Arkham escapes. Galavan essentially details his plans about becoming mayor of Gotham as he has the actual mayor in his hands and the deputy mayor was killed in the previous episode (along with a short lived fan favorite). Penguin listens but refuses his offer and is then threatened by Galavan and his sister with live video of his mother in captivity. Penguin gives the most, “you bastard!” look towards Galavan and accepts his offer to take out the other mayoral candidates. This includes Galavan but Penguin is supposed to miss in order for it to not seem too suspicious for the other candidates and the authorities. Penguin commences his mission to take down the candidates by his own hand and in the last candidate send out his trusty hitman Zsasz. This scenario bleeds into the storyline involving Gordon this week as well.
a new dawn, a new day
Gordon and company end up gaining a new captain to the precinct in the form of Nathaniel Barnes. He is a gung-ho, no nonsense, obey me or I fire you type of captain. He shares similar views to Gordon in that they want to clean up the precinct and Gotham City as a whole. Together they become professional allies and form a strike force for special assignments to combat the crime in Gotham. Sounds good and all but the fact that it is made up of rookies that are at the top of their class is a little too…hit and miss. Sure it’s good to see police officers having a common goal of cleaning up Gotham but shouldn’t that be the goal for all of the officers once they get out of the academy?
Anyways, it was nice to get a little more back story to Gordon’s upbringing in the academy and how he was difficult to work with and no meant yes kind of attitude. This also mentions Gordon’s time in the military which was a nice touch between him and Barnes both being former military. The strike force does get utilized in the episode close to the end in a gunfight with Zsasz as they protect the other mayor candidate that Penguin didn’t murder. They are a new team so they aren’t as coordinated yet but I can see a bright future with them fighting off whatever Galavan has in store for Gotham.
Silver St. Cloud makes her Gotham debut
Two side notes to consider this week is the small but effective Bruce storyline where he goes to lunch to thank Galavan for saving his life. He is also introduced to someone who might be a person of interest in the future named Silver St. Cloud. She is part of the comic lore so just keep an eye out for her and whatever else Galavan has up his sleeve (*cough* Court of Owls). Nygma also had a good week in that he finally hooked up with Kringle. Now they can both be weird outcasts together!
Demons courting demons
Overall good episode this week with some big picture stuff and some well paced action. I know Paul Reubens set to star as Penguin’s father sometime in the future but we shall wait and see what comes up. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season despite Jerome being dead and essentially the Joker persona as a virus on the minds of people in Gotham being the explanation to the Joker’s origins.
