Gotham "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon" (REVIEW)

written by Omar Castillon (@omar_castillon)

Ah Fish Mooney, you done goofed this time and now you are paying the price this week. It’s implied that a bloody shootout happened before the credits rolled from the previous episode. Since it is network television, it’s not the same effect as opposed to actually showing the massacre. That being said, this is one of the storylines to look forward to in the latest edition of Gotham. The other storyline involves Serpico levels of police corruption and investigation with the vice unit at GCPD. 

Officially back on the Force, Jim Gordon's homecoming comes with drugs and homicide

Lets start with the continuation of the Fish Mooney insanity. As she is kidnapped and separated from her bodyguard Butch, Fish doesn’t seem to be in the best of hands. “Bob” is the torturer’s name (which is played by the same guy who plays the dollmaker in Arrow, but that’s a different world I haven’t been in) and he has some nasty ways of making Fish’s remaining life a living hell. By some miracle though, Fish’s bodyguard Butch frees himself from the other kidnappers (by the way, these are Falcone’s men in case you were wondering) and saves Fish before her kneecaps were turned to mush. Fish and Butch then go after Cobblepot as he marvels in his new club which was owned by Fish. Cobblepot does have a strange sequence of scenes involving his mother and some slow dancing. It’s a bit unsettling but entertaining nonetheless. Once Cobblepot is alone with his thoughts after making a deal with Gordon (we will get to that in a sec) Fish and Butch metaphorically catch Cobblepot with his pants down and a crazy barrage of events occur involving Fish, Butch, Cobblepot and Zsasz. The results from that confrontation are a bloody mess to say the least.

Bruce is back

As for Gordon’s case of the week, he has to deal with drugs and the wrongful death of a witness that was at the crime scene. Detective Arnold Flass is the main suspect, but Gordon has to collect enough evidence to pin the murder with the perpetrator. We get to see Gordon finally come out of his comfort zone and get his hands dirty as he has to come to the reality that a lot of the officers, especially vice, have deep connections with high ranking people in the city of Gotham. Captain Essen and Bullock do try to convince Gordon that it is an almost impossible feat to take one Flass who is blatantly dirty. Gordon and Bullock even investigate a location that is being used as a drug trading ground. Derek Delaware is one of the primary leads in Gordon’s investigation and they do have a somewhat heated confrontation that pits Gordon against his peers. In a desperate move, Gordon has to rely on Cobblepot for answers to find out who all is connected to Flass in the drug trade. To keep this as spoiler free as possible, I will just say that Gordon becomes a different man after all that happens in this episode.

Dash Miwok plays Arnold Flass... Fans of Batman: Year One will remember the name...

The little tidbits and cameos were pretty quick. We finally get to see Bruce and Alfred again. Apparently Bruce was out of the country hence the lack of screen time in the last two episodes. It’s still the same love struck kid trying to keep Selina in his world. Frustratingly, Selina finally fesses up to Bruce and says that she never saw who the real killer of his parents was. It’s fine to have this sort of scene later on in the season, but this should have been addressed the moment Selina was living at Wayne Manor. The scene is a bit shoehorned in but what’s done is done I suppose. Ivy also makes an appearance with the funniest interaction involving Alfred. At one point Alfred thought she had “the mange.” Edward Nigma is also becoming a bit more sinister since he gets made fun of by none other than Flass to which he sort of has this devious plan brewing in his brain by the way he looks at him. Defeated yes, but something might happen to Nigma and it won’t be pretty for anyone. I say keep an eye on this guy… Also one bit of strange trivia, the car that Derek Delaware attempts to escape in during the middle of Gordon’s investigation has the state inspection or registration of ’89. The theory could be that this whole storyline is taking place in 1989, but that is completely demolished since everyone has flip phones and other modern technological gadgets. 

Edward Nygma prominently appears this episode

Watch this week with an open mind. Sure the Fish Mooney stuff is getting a bit too out of hand and tedious but it’s not enough to really stop watching. In fact, this could mean that Fish is in her last moments in the series…maybe…