In last week’s episode of Gotham, Oswald landed Gordon in hot water with Maroni, but Gordon’s story put him in the clear and got Maroni to trust Oswald. Meanwhile, Bruce looked into the corruption running through Wayne Enterprises, and Fish’s employee Liza made her approach with Falcone.
In this week’s episode of Gotham, “Spirit of the Goat,” the mob story is put on pause as Bullock has to confront his past when he and Gordon look into the case of a killer targeting the first-born children of Gotham’s elite. Meanwhile, Montoya and Allen make progress in their case against Gordon. Like every week, please let me know if I miss any moments of foreshadowing or overlook the introduction of an important comics character. Read on to find out if Gotham delivers the corruption and creepiness we have come to expect.
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Harvey’s Past
We flash back to the Gotham of the past as Harvey and his former partner, Dix, are searching for a serial killer known as “The Goat.” They track the killer down and discover the body of his latest victim before “The Goat” gets the best of them. He injures Dix, but after a struggle, Harvey manages to kill him. Before “The Goat” dies, he claims that he will always come back.
Cut to the present and Bullock is at a crime scene very similar to the murders of the past. While he ignores Nygma’s attempts at colleague bonding via riddle-solving, Bullock tries to get in touch with his current partner, who is not answering his calls because of personal problems.
Once Gordon finally gets to work, they talk to the family of the current victim, but they are of no help because the girl’s father is not in a good mental state. Later, the medical examiner confirms that this girl was killed in the same manner as the original victims, including a detail involving stitching a penny into the victim’s scalp that Bullock claims no copycat could have known about. Bullock is now convinced something else is going on.
Things are Never That Simple in Gotham
Gordon and Bullock go talk to Bullock’s former partner to see if he told anyone about the penny detail. Dix says he did not say anything to anyone and neither did Bullock nor the original — now-deceased — medical examiner. If they were the only three people who knew about that detail, they must have been wrong about the original killer working alone.
Gordon and Bullock’s visit to Dix also reveals that Bullock has been paying Dix’s bills and sending him awful magazines every month to assuage his guilt over Dix’s injury. (Back then, Bullock was a gung-ho rookie who tried to play the hero by going after the Goat without back-up and Dix paid the price.) I guess this is meant to humanize Bullock and explain his “Don’t be a hero” mode of police work, but I think it falls flat on both counts.
After another girl is kidnapped, Gordon and Bullock narrow down the suspect list to several men who worked maintenance on both buildings. Bullock narrows the list even further when he hears that one of the suspects has been squatting in the same building they caught the original killer in. Gordon and Bullock arrive in time to save the latest victim and arrest this new Goat, but things have wrapped up too easily for that to be the end of the story.
Bullock watches the second Goat and notices a physical movement he does with his hands that is very similar to one exhibited by the first victim’s father. Bullock looks into the father’s hypnotherapist and figures out that this woman manipulated both Goat killers — both men were suffering from mental illnesses even before she got to them — into their crimes. She explains her reason for wanting to wipe out Gotham’s 1%, but since this is the third time we’ve heard this kind of reasoning in as many episodes, I can’t say I care. She tries to escape, but Bullock shoots her in the leg and takes her into custody.
Montoya, You Should Be Smarter Than This
Montoya and Allen are still looking into Oswald’s “murder” because apparently Gordon and Bullock are assigned all the good murder cases and they have nothing else to do. They question a homeless man down by the docks who claims to have seen Gordon pull the trigger on Oswald and Montoya thinks this is enough evidence to get a warrant for Gordon’s arrest. I really like Montoya, but I doubt the testimony of one homeless man would be enough to convict Gordon when there is no other evidence that the crime had even taken place.
Still, by the end of the episode, Montoya and Allen have taken Gordon into custody. They drag him to the GCPD and Gordon tells Bullock that he did not kill Oswald. Montoya and Allen decide this must make Bullock an accomplice, so they arrest him, too. Captain Essen is not pleased that the MCU detectives are arresting her people, but before she can put up a good fight for them, Oswald strolls right on in to GCPD headquarters, very much alive. While Montoya and Allen pick their jaws off the floor, Bullock goes after Gordon, furious that Gordon did not kill Oswald like he was supposed to.
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Before Montoya takes Gordon into custody, she gets a visit from Barbara. Barbara pleads with Montoya to keep an open mind and not condemn Gordon simply because she thinks he’s dirty. Montoya tells Barbara that Gordon is right to keep her in the dark about what is happening because the people Gordon is involved with will kill her. Montoya tells Barbara to leave town for a while, but Barbara refuses to leave Gordon’s side because they are apparently still together despite their many problems.
I wish the show would pull the trigger on the Barbara-Montoya thing already. The only time Barbara is remotely interesting is in scenes with her ex, and if Montoya no longer has to worry about Barbara’s relationship with Gordon, maybe she could get back to doing actual detective work on real cases.
Other Happenings
— In the best sub-plot of the night, we get a closer look at Cory Michael Smith’s Edward Nygma. While we already know that Nygma is overlooked and unappreciated by his colleagues, we now know that he is also terrible at flirting. Nygma has a thing for the records room girl and he tries to impress her by re-organizing her system to give it a better flow. Unfortunately for Nygma, he does this against her explicit plea for him to leave her things alone, and she comes away from their encounter thinking he is even odder than she originally realized. But perhaps there is still hope for them. Stranger things happen every hour in Gotham.
— Bruce and Alfred get a brief scene in this week’s episode that shows Bruce still investigating the conspiracies surrounding his parents’ deaths and the other goings-on in Gotham. But things do not get interesting until Selina Kyle breaks into the Wayne mansion. I still have not figured out why Selina is stalking Bruce, but I like that she is concerned about him. She pays close attention to his conspiracy wall and watches him sleep before she leaves. She also pockets something before she makes her exit.
— In another sub-plot, Oswald finally pays a visit to his mother, who is none-too-pleased that he did not call her to tell her he is still alive. Their relationship is twisted, to say the least, and it helps you understand why Oswald is the way he is. Oswald promises his creepy mother that he will make a name for himself in Gotham, and he tells her that he finally found a friend he can count on in James Gordon. I hope this is not leading to a story where Oswald’s mother goes after Gordon for stealing her son away from her.
What did you think of this week’s episode of Gotham? Are you glad Montoya and Allen can finally drop Oswald’s “murder” investigation? Will Gordon and Bullock be able to stay alive once Fish and Falcone learn of Oswald’s resurrection? What did Selina steal from Bruce’s home? Did you like the absence of Fish and the mob storyline in this episode, or did you find the episode lacking without the season’s main through-line? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm on FOX.
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
