Gotham S1 E2: Selina Kyle

Here it is, another Monday and we taking a mean trip down to the dirty corrupt streets of Gotham City.      It has been a few weeks since the pilot episode and things might appear to be settled but they aren’t.  Bruce is trying to conquer his ‘fear’ by placing his head over an open flame and burning it, only stopping when Alfred comes in.  As of right now, I’m not a big fan of Alfred because he’s very rough around the edges and completely out of character for the Alfred that everyone knows from the various cartoons, comics and movies. He’s a mixture of anger and caring and probably has never taken care of a child on his own, which is evident when he first yells at Bruce for burning himself and then grabbing him and hugging him.

The girl that I am 99.99% sure is Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman, is in an alley with other homeless teens, playing with a necklace when a delivery truck comes up and a couple, Patty and Doug, come out that are rather odd, offering food to the teens as part of the Mayor’s Homeless Outreach Program.  As the teens rush forward, one of them turns to her and asks if she’s hungry, calling her Cat.  “Cat” shakes her head no all the while watching the kids eat, and the lady stabbing them with a needle of some kind in the neck. She freaks out and starts to hide in the shadows while one of the kids makes a break for it and Doug shoots the homeless guy trying to stop them.  Doug goes after the teen that made a break for but ends up throwing him through a window instead.  Have I mentioned that Patty and Doug are extremely creepy, probably something to do with how they are talking but still.

Next day Gordon is examining the body of the homeless guy while ‘Cat’ watches from a rooftop across the way.  The officer who is suppose to be first responder wasn’t at his post and when he gets back, Gordon off on him. The officer tells Gordon and Bullock that he had been called to a restaurant down the way where a kid had gone through a window.  Gordon and the officer get into it while Bullock tries to break it up.  Back at PD, Gordon and Bullock are talking to the teen.  Bullock is trying to intimidate the teen into confessing the murder of the homeless man but he keeps telling him that two people came and stabbed the other kids with a long needle before taking them away.   Bullock of course doesn’t believe him.  The kid, Macky, keeps telling them that Cat saw the whole thing but Bullock keeps telling him to tell him the truth or he is going to beat him.  Gordon pulls Bullock off to the side to have a conversation; telling Bullock he can’t beat him because he’s 16.  The two of them get into what is legal and what isn’t, and Bullock keeps egging him on about what he did and Gordon can’t say damn shit because he’s protecting himself and Barbara.

Oswald is walking down the highway, awkwardly due to his injuries when an SVU with 2 college guys pulls up.  They do a stop and start on him a few times before letting him in and Oswald is his normal polite self until one of them makes a crack about him walking like a penguin and he ends up using his beer bottle to kill him.  Every time I see Oswald, he looks more and more like his future villain self, The Penguin.

Back at the station, Bullock complains to the Captain about Gordon and his self righteousness.  It definitely sounds like the Captain is as dirty as Bullock, what with her comment about thinking Gordon was with the program as well.  She asks for an update and Gordon tells her that if the kid is telling the truth then they have a couple of kidnappers that lure the kids with a food truck from the mayor’s outreach program and then drug them and take them.  Bullock doesn’t know why anyone would want to take a bunch of homeless kids since there isn’t a market for them whereas he could believe it if they were taking cute girls.  Skulking around outside is Edward Ngyma with results from Macky’s blood test.  He has found high levels of ATP which is a high level knock out drug that was once used at Arkham Asylum.  The captain wants them to keep their mouths shut to the press since its department policy because it can cause panic (no shit?!) and Gordon is still surprised when shit like this happens. The captain tells them to work the Arkham angle and Bullock is surprised since its has been closed for over a decade.  He also wants to know if they should get in touch with Fish Mooney since it happened on her territory or if she’s still mad at them.

At Fish Mooney’s club, Don Falcone shows up and observes as a young bartender exchange a look with Fish while pouring them wine and leaves.  Falcone tells Mooney about talking to Cobblepot before he ‘died’ and how trouble times were coming to them in Gotham. Mooney scoffs at this but Falcone tells her that he’s right because the Waynes and the Falcones are pillars in the community and understood each other (is he trying to imply that the Waynes were dirty too?) and now with the Waynes died, everything is out of balance.  Falcone tells Fish how Cobblepot said she had implied that he was old and soft and ready to be taken out and she will be the one to do it.  Fish denies this completely and she pledges her loyalty to him.  He is glad to hear this and then asks about her lover, which she denies having except for having a boy that she keeps around for ‘exercise’.   He summons the bartender over and asks about his name and tells him not to break her heart because it will break his before he has his men beat the bartender up. After Falcone leaves, Mooney kicks everyone out.

Renee and her partner are interviewing Oswald’s mother about whether or not something could have happened to him.  She of course says he will be back because all of his clothes are there and he would never leave all of his clothes.  Montoya’s partner figures the cops must have killed him because he was a snitch and Montoya.  Montoya asks his mom if someone could have hurt him and his mother says some painted slut has him in her clutches…if she only knew.  Speaking of Cobblepot, he has stolen the clothes of one of boys as well as the SUV and is renting the trailer on some guys property.

Harvey and Gordon go to see Fish Mooney and Bullock asks if she’s still mad at them and she tells them of course not. Gordon asks if she knows anything about missing kids and it really seems like Fish is either trying to get under his skin or is hitting on him because she doesn’t answer him right away.  He gives her the profile of it being a couple, middle aged, targeting kids under 16 and Bullock chimes in to tell her that they are using a giant pin.  Fish tells him that once the market was for young girls but now there is a new buyer overseas that is willing to take anyone young and healthy.  Gordon wants information and Mooney tells him nobody knows and nobody cares to know.

That night Gordon is telling Barbara what has been happening on the case and how they can’t tell the press because of bad PR.  Barbara wants him to call in an anonymous tip and he won’t, so she does it herself and he gets, not mad at her but frustrated because he’s concerned for her and her safety but he can’t tell her what’s really going on.

Next day at work, Captain Essen throws down the paper that has the story of the missing children and wants to know the papers got the story.  Both Bullock and Gordon deny leaking it. Gordon tells the captain about how they have a thin lead, where only 3 companies still sell the drug and she authorizes them to get warrants to search all three. Bullock thinks Gordon was the one to spill and he denies it.

Meanwhile at one of the three drug companies, a man is talking to the two creepy kidnappers about wanting more money because of the trouble he could get from the cops in regards to the missing kids. He wants more money for the drugs and kids or he’s going to kill them. The creepy woman mentions how someone called the Dollmaker needs those kids…which begs the question of who the Dollmaker is.  The creepy woman stabs the dealer’s hired muscle with a pin but before she can do anything to the dealer, Gordon and Bullock have arrived to question him.  Bullock asks Gordon if it was his girl, and Gordon admits that it was.

The creepy lady is in front of the store acting as if she is there and Bullock starts questioning the owner, Mr. Quillian, about his stock.  He makes a reference to the Wayne Foundation thinking of reopening Arkham Asylum which makes me wonder if this is in reference to something that will happen later this season.

After a shootout that has the creepy couple escaping, a brief conversation with Mr. Quillian, Gordon finds his cleaning guy about to shoot the kids in the basement and shoots him first. The mayor calls a press conference congratulating Bullock and Gordon for finding the missing kids but that the perpetrators were still out there.  He plans to have all the home kids either put into foster homes or juvenile detention centers.   Let’s hear it for crooked government officials!

After leaving the captain’s office, where Gordon basically accused the mayor of putting children into prison without a trial, Gordon is told that a man is waiting for him upstairs and it’s Alfred.  Alfred wants to know if Gordon can come visit them at the house tomorrow because he needs help with Bruce and Bruce respects Alfred.

The children are being loaded on to buses and Selina is trying to tell the lady that there’s been a mistake because she’s meant to talk to James Gordon, a cop.  This might be the most I have heard her speak in 2 episodes. The lady refuses to help and Selina storms on to the bus and takes a seat next to a crying little boy.  She tries to help him by telling him not to make friends with anyone too friendly and to go for their eyes.  The door to the bus is closed and it’s the creepy child-napping couple. Selina tries to escape but the creepy lady pulls out a gun and tells her to sit down and the next person to stand up gets shot in the head.  Of course none of the cops notice anything going on and off the bus goes.

The mayor comes storming in to the captain’s office about the missing bus full of children and needs to know that the people who took it wasn’t the snatchers. The captain tells him it is very probable that it was.  Meanwhile Bullock is beating the shit out of Mr. Quillian and tells him that usually Gordon doesn’t like him beating people up but for him he isn’t stopping him because the lives of 30 children are worth more than him.  Mr. Qullian gives them information on the truck and Gordon realizes that it’s a transportation company.

At a factory the creepy couple are unloading the bus when they realize that they only have 29 children instead of 30.  She goes to look on the bus and Selina is able to successfully hide from her and get off the bus. As they shut the shipping container full of children up, one of the guys comes screaming in about his eyes.  Selina has gouged his eyes out and has caused the rest of the people to go searching for her.  She when it looks like she is going to get caught (her necklace has fallen, alerting creepy lady of where she is) Gordon is able to knock her out while Bullock has gotten her partner.

At Wayne Manor Alfred is telling Gordon what has been going on with Bruce; he isn’t sleeping, he’s burning himself, he’s cutting, having terrible nightmares. Gordon asks if he’s getting help from a psychiatrist and Alfred says no because that’s a rule.  This confuses Gordon because now Alfred is the guardian, he makes the rules. Alfred tells Gordon that Bruce’s father left very strict instructions on how Bruce was to be raised if his parents died and that is how Alfred is going to raise him, which is basically to trust him to choose his own course (which in all honesty sounds like a complete disaster). Gordon wants to know why Alfred needs his help when Bruce pipes up that it’s because Alfred wants Gordon to talk some sense into Bruce.    Gordon asks Bruce what’s wrong and he should talk to someone about what he went through.  Bruce asks if talking helped Gordon with the terrible things he saw and when Gordon says yes, Bruce calls him on his lie.  Bruce wants to help the children and after talking to Gordon about how money won’t help them and they need someone to care for them, Bruce decides he will help but getting the children new clothes.

At the police station, Selina is upset that she is still being sent upstate.  Her social worker tells her that even if she didn’t have outstanding warrants, she is only 13 and they can’t have her on the street.  She demands to speak to Gordon or she is going to scream that the social worker has touched her inappropriately.   He gets Gordon who asks Selina who she is.  Selina tells him that she goes by Cat and she can help him because she knows that Mario Pepper didn’t kill the Waynes and she knows who did because she was there.

The episode ends with Oswald making a ransom call to one college boy still left alive but his parents don’t believe Oswald and think it’s all a prank. As the episode ends, I’m pretty confident in saying something bad is going to happen to that kid.

I have to say that I definitely liked this episode more than the first.  It had a much more slower pace and wasn’t inundated with new characters.  We continue to get more background on other characters and the realization that Gotham is a very dirty and corrupt town.  I loved learning more about Selina aka Cat and I can’t wait to see how it continues to unfold.

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Gotham S1 E1: Pilot

I have to say that I’ve got mixed feelings when it comes to FOX’s new show Gotham.  One reason is because I’m more curious about other DC superheroes over Batman, but also because I’m tired of so much Batman and Superman stuff.  Though I do have to admit I’m curious as to how they are going to play out an origin story of Jim Gordon.

The show begins with a young girl running along the rooftops, who drops down, steals a container of milk and pickpockets a wallet off of a guy before hiding in an alleyway, feeding some of the milk to a cat.  I’m almost positive that this young girl is supposed to be a young Selina Kyle (Carmen Bicondova).  When she hears a noise, she quickly scales a fire escape as a couple and a young boy enter the alley way.  A guy comes up to them, demanding the guy’s wallet and the woman’s pearl necklace before he shoots both of them.  He turns his gun on the boy but just stares at him for a moment before he runs out of the alleyway. The boy looks at the bodies of his parents before he screams out his loss and pain (which was completely over the top and just a shade ridiculous), and all the while Selina watches on in shock.

Meanwhile at the Gotham city police station, we get our first introduction to Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie).  He is able to talk a guy down that was holding a police woman hostage while all the other cops had their guns out willing to open fire.  After his partner, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue), is not happy with him, telling him that they had the guy and next time a guy has a cop’s gun they should shoot the guy.  The two of them are called out to a double shooting in the alleyway and it is the crime scene of the two parents and the only witness, the young boy.  Bullock is able to identify the couple as Thomas and Martha Wayne which makes the young boy Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz). Bullock wants to hand the case off but he can’t because Gordon has gotten the only witness, Bruce, to talk.  Bruce tells Gordon that the man who shot his parents was wearing a mask, gloves and had shiny shoes.  Gordon promises that they are going to find out who did this and before they can say anything else to each other pulls up and a man comes out, and Bruce goes running to him calling him Alfred (Sean Pertwee).

At a diner Bullock and Gordon are talking about the case when two other cops come up to them, including one Renne Montoya (Victoria Cartagena), talking to both Gordon and Bullock about the Wayne case.  Back at PD, a Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) working for crime scene talks to Bullock and Gordon about what was found.  Bullock says its time for them to go talk to Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith), who has her hand in a lot of what is going on and might be able to give them idea.  At Fish Mooney’s place, we get our first look at Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), who everyone can’t help but call the penguin. Mooney tells Bullock about a Mario Pepper and that is the direction that he and Gordon go to.

At Mario Pepper’s place, we see a little girl who is introduced as Ivy Pepper.  As soon as they mention they are cops, Mario takes off running and Gordon goes in pursuit of him.  When it looks like he is about to be killed by Mario, Bullock comes out of nowhere and shoots him.  When they go through the Pepper apartment, they find Martha Wayne’s pearl necklace.   Everyone is happy that have closed the case on the Wayne murders.  The Wayne’s are finally buried and Gordon goes to tell Bruce he had kept his promise and he was sorry that he wasn’t able to bring the guy in so that he could go to trial.  Watching over the funeral and everyone leaving, is Selina Kyle.

Except that not all is what it seems.  A few days later Renee Montoya goes up to Barbara Kean (Erin Richards), Gordon’s fiancée, and tells her that Gotham PD framed Mario Pepper and Gordon was going to be going to be arrested for it and the only reason she is telling her is because of their past history. Barbara goes to Gordon and tells him what Montoya had told her about it being a set up to get a killer for the Wayne murders. It turns out that Oswald is playing a snitch to Montoya and her partner by saying that Fish Mooney had the necklace that was found at Pepper’s place. That Fish Mooney and the Gotham police were working together to frame Mario Pepper.  Gordon goes to talk to Montoya, who tells him that his time as a dirty cop is over and he and his partner are going to prison.

Gordon does some digging and finds out that it looks like Montoya is right.  When Gordon goes to talk to Fish Mooney, he is ended up knocked out by some of her men. When he doesn’t return home, Barbara calls Bullock who tells her that he was out on a stakeout.  Bullock goes looking for Gordon and finds him in a meat factory about to be wacked.  He calls up Fish Mooney to try and get Gordon off but instead ends up right next to him hanging upside down.  Before either man is killed, a group of ‘mobsters’ come and shoot the guys.  It is Carmine Falcone and his men putting a stop to the hit on Bullock and Gordon.  Because he stopped the hit, he wants to make sure he can ‘trust’ Gordon and wants Gordon to kill Oswald.  Bullock tells him that he has to kill Oswald or Bullock is going to kill them both and probably his fiancée too. Gordon walks Oswald to the end of the pier and tells him to never come back to Gotham and makes it look like he killed Oswald and his body fell into the river.

Gordon goes to Wayne Manor and tells Bruce and Alfred that Mario Pepper was framed for the murder of his parents and that the real killer is still out there.  Gordon tells Bruce that he promises to find the man who killed his parents but to do that he needs Bruce to keep quiet about the fact that Mario Pepper wasn’t the real killer.  That Gordon is going to do everything in his power to clean up the Gotham PD as well.  Alfred doesn’t have much confidence in Gordon but Bruce does and agrees to go along with Gordon’s plan.  The episode ends with Oswald coming out of the river, freezing, killing a man that happened to be fishing there and stealing is food.

It wasn’t a great episode, in fact it was kinda over the top too much.  It definitely had the feel of a show trying to put too much information in a 45 minute window as possible and thus giving the viewers overload. I do like Ben McKenzie as Jim Gordon but I’m not sure about the rest yet.  This is definitely a show that probably could have been so much more if it was on a cable channel.  But its only the first episode so I will hold off on my negative comments for now and wait and see what happens next.

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