Warning: Spoilers for the whole episode in the opening section
After a quick recap of the previous episodes, this week opens up on Bruce Wayne's wall of crime he's creating, connecting criminals, so he can solve his parent's murder. He wants to understand how Gotham works, crime syndicate wise and how it connects to the rest of the city.
Maroni wants to rob Falcone's casino. It seems it's going to be problematic.
A man on the street plays guitar for change. Another man sees him and approaches him. He drops the Viper serum in his guitar case. The guitarist studies it, breaks it open and inhales the drug. He stands up and convulses. He walks into a corner store and grabs some milk. He drinks from the carton. The man behind the counter says he has to pay and swings at him with a bat. The guitarist grabs the bat and breaks it in half.
Gordon and Bullock grab a bite to eat. Selina keeps an eye on them. Gordon spots her stealing a man's wallet and chases after her. She gets away quick. Gordon hears an alarm from the corner store. It's trashed. They find the clerk and he explains what happened, including stealing the ATM, by himself, without a car.
Fish Mooney talks to her new singer. She asks why she is there. The singer says she's Fish's secret weapon. Fish plays a song on a jukebox and the singer sings along.
Back at the station, the Captain can't figure out how the man running away with an ATM is impossible. They find the empty vile which contained the drug.
Falcone meets with Fish and some others at an abandoned warehouse. Nikolai goes toe to toe with Fish. Falcone breaks it up and says they're family.
Gordon and Bullock question people on the street to find the ATM thief. They find him and milk cartons. He's hurting and needs more of the serum. He describes the man that gave him the serum. The cops try to arrest them but he tosses them away. He picks up and ATM and is about to throw it at him, but the weight crushes him.
The serum man is on the street handing it out to everyone.
Alfred tells Bruce that he has to attend a luncheon with board members. Bruce has questions for them. Bruce has questions about how his parents handled business and in what manner. Alfred looks at everything and tells him he did some fantastic detective work. Bruce sees a news story about the drug, Viper.
Back at the station, people coming down from the drug are being arrested and going crazy. Nygma watches over it. He then explains it to Gordon, Bullock, and the Captain. Bullock says it should run its course and all the scumbags will die. A woman who was brought in dies right in front of them.
Maroni continues talking to a man about taking the casino. Oswald walks up and says he knows a janitor who runs the boiler room that could get them in. Maroni says the name Penguin is good for him. Penguin tells Maroni his real name he used to work for Fish Mooney. Maroni slams his head on the table.
A woman from Wellzyne, which creates chemicals, visits Gordon and Bullock. Gordon says they're looking for an employee with a messed up ear and she knows who he is: Stan Patalski. She says he became disgruntled and he tried to cut off his ear in a disagreement. He was fired. He disappeared afterwards.
Maroni's buddy visits Gordon and says he has to come with him because he has Oswald. Gordon agrees. He gets into a car and a bag is put over his head. Gordon is unmasked with Maroni sitting in front of him, eating. Oswald is beaten. Maroni offers him a drink. Gordon asks for water. Maroni demands Gordon tells him Oswald's story, and if he doesn't, they will both die. Gordon tells his story to Maroni. Maroni is pleased and Penguin is released.
Fish continues to train her new secret weapon.
Gordon gets back to the station and there's a ton of stuff from Wellzyne. Gordon discovers a picture of Stan with what looks like a professor. They head to the university. The professor tells the officers that Stan developed pharmaceutical weapons for the military, Viper. The second batch, which the side effects were fixed, was called Venom. The professor helped Stan plan all of this. The professor takes Viper and beats on Bullock. Gordon shoots him twice. Stan still has plans and Gordon figures out they're going to the charity event.
Alfred and Bruce get to the charity event. Stan is there and has a keg of viper.
Bruce talks to someone at the event and he wonders were the board members are. He tells a woman there are irregularities that need to be discussed. He wants to speak with the board. Outside, Stan is preparing to pump Viper into the room. Stan declares on a tv that he developed the drug for Wayne Enterprises. The Viper drug gets pumped into the room.
Gordon finds Stan outside and tells him to turn it off or he'll shoot. Stan won't do it. Gordon shoots the canister and it explodes in Stan's face. Stan says he's leaving and tells them to look in warehouse 39. He then jumps off of the roof.
Gordon and Bullock get to the warehouse. At one point, there was a lab there. However, there's nothing in there that points to anything. The woman Bruce was talking to at the party at is talking on the phone to someone outside the warehouse. She knows something.
Bruce is working on all his crime stuff and Alfred sits down to help.
Penguin sits in a car with Maroni and a couple friends. Penguin is worried. Maroni tells him if his boys don't make it, neither does he. The casino heist went off without a hitch.
Fish and Nikolai are getting busy. She tells him that if Falcone knew they were working together, they'd be cooked.
Falcone is feeding the pigeons and sees Fish's secret weapon walking around and humming. Cue the meet-cute. Falcone is flustered by her. They sit down together and listen to some music.
Mild spoiler-free review zone.
As much as I despise the series focusing so much on Bruce Wayne, seeing him start to become the detective he'll eventually become is pretty cool. He's a character who is forced to grow up to fast and you can see that he wants to become the man of the house as well as get rid of the corruption inside of Gotham City. There's a bit more Bruce here than in other episodes, but it works pretty well, and while there's a few times it feels a tad forced, it's still good stuff.
Selina Kyle's "cameo" felt utterly pointless and was only here to remind the viewer that she still exists. Again, if the character isn't offering anything to the story or show, they don't have to appear.
When Bullock and Gordon were questioning people on the street about who the mysterious guitarist was, there was this "cops questioning folks" music. I call it that because feels so out of place and too wacky for the show. The show has a dark tone and there's little to no humor in it, so this 20 seconds of whatever that was music really broke me out of the show.
I am also having some troubles with Fish Mooney's story. I understand where she is taking us and her plans, but she seems like a character without a leg to stand on. She's backstabbing everyone, and while I enjoy Jada Smith's over-the-top portrayal, lots of fans have spoken up and said otherwise. Overall, she's very middle-of-the-road for me.
The overall story was great. We got to see the early makings of Venom, which would become Bane's drug of choice. Hopefully, they're not going to Bane route with this but it is nice to have familiar concepts presented here so more adept fans have something to point at and say "I know what that is!" This episode offers viewers an interesting detective story in which there are larger things at play. Because of everything that happened here, Bruce knows there's something wrong with how Wayne Enterprises is running and that is what elevates this from a good episode to a great episode.
Once again, I find myself completely engaged with every scene Robin Lord Taylor and David Zayas are in. Zayas' version of Maroni is very different from what I imagined, much like how Taylor's Penguin is different, but both these actors have made these characters their own. Together, these scenes gives viewers a peek into the gritty underbelly of crime in Gotham from two very different perspectives: a man working his way up the ladder and a man so close to the top, he can taste it.
Gotham is an extremely surprising show. This was very close to a 5 out of 5 for me, but there were a few small things that really bugged me about this episode. While the show does come off as "villain of the week," each week adds more and more to the story, and the Penguin story line makes sure this show doesn't feel incredibly tedious and redundant. Surprisingly, I'm wowed by Gotham as it has become a detective show for people who aren't too fond of detective shows, as it adds a tinge of fantasy to each episode.