Note: There may be minor spoilers in the review. Big things are left out.
Quick Recap: In this episode, the Spirit of the Goat is kidnapping and murdering first born children from the rich and powerful of Gotham. Ten years prior, Bullock killed this serial killer and ended his reign of terror. Is this a copycat killer or has the Spirit of the Goat return from the grave?
We get to see a Harvey Bullock that's a bit younger, even though he doesn't look younger. 10 years ago, Harvey Bullock looked exactly the same. His beard had less gray but that's about it. Regardless, it was cool to see Bullock with a bit more hope for the city in his eyes. He once had a partner who lived under the motto "No heroes in Gotham" and it sees Bullock, years later, took that to heart. Although it was brief, we got to see where Bullock came from and how different he was, way back when.
The Spirit of the Goat killer has a great horror feel to it. The weird looking leather mask, which could be made of human flesh for all we know (too far?) adds a nice horror element to it which reminds me of Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Spirit of the Goat is a great addition to the cast of villains and a nice additive for an episode so close to Halloween. There's even a few really good "jump" moments here. In addition, it's pretty dang suspenseful.
As far the main story goes, this was extremely well done. When Bullock finds out who is really behind the Spirit of the Goat, it's a wonderful turn and one I wasn't expecting at all. This is the first time where the Gordon and Bullock story outshined everything else in the episode. However, with limited amounts of Penguin and the building tension between crime bosses no where to be seen, it wasn't too tough for this story to be the stand-out portion of the show.
It's great to see Allen and Montoya working on trying to take Gordon down for the supposed killing of Penguin. It shows there is a glimmer of good inside of the MCU, even though many of the GCPD cops are owned by the mob. This leads to Gordon's life getting turned upside down, right up until the final moments of the episode, which are awesome. It really did end on a high note here, which will lead to some great tension between Bullock and Gordon in the coming weeks.
Guess who pops back in this episode? Selina Kyle. Enough of Selina Kyle. She adds nothing to this show anymore. There's no reason for her to be in this episode. In addition, the Bruce Wayne elements of this show also felt like a bit of filler. They gave the viewer a little bit of viewpoint of how Bruce reacts to the Spirit of the Goat, but honestly, no one really needs to know that nor cares. These little shoehorned-in elements only hurt the entirety of the show.
This episode had a ton of Edward Nygma in it as well. The Nygma scenes in this episode were hit and miss. We get to know Nygma a bit more, and he's quite an awkward guy, but the scenes are a bit comical and come off a bit too zany. However, he's almost an equal to Bullock and Gordon when it comes to his side of the police work. Sometimes, Nygma feels forced into the scene and other times it really works. Overall, he's actually a nice addition to the episode and the show though. It makes viewers start to wonder "how did he get to the point where he wanted to be a criminal?" Obviously, throwing too many DC concepts into the first season of the show can over-complicate things, but as weird as this may sound, the Nygma scenes really work well.
Overall, this is the strongest main story line that Gotham has yet to offer the viewers. It was cold and a bit creepy, and it had a couple of great turns at the end of the episode that were a bit of a surprise. Best of all, the ending is a great cliffhanger that's going to lead to some huge problems between Bullock and Gordon. Sure, Bruce and Selina had no business being in this episode, and I would have liked to see Falcone, Maroni, and Mooney in this episode too, but this actually was one of the strongest episode of Gotham to date. Really well done episode and I'm actually excited for next week.