This is probably not going to be a deep, thought-provoking show of cathartic emotions. Just sayin'. But it is going to be a juicy delving into the interconnected back stories of Gotham's most famous characters. It's a show so full of Gotham in its totality of messed-up-ness, that Bruce Wayne is actually a supporting character, not the focus of the show. And I plan to love that.
We start with a tweenie. She's skinny, in skin-tight black, with goggles that she wears on her forehead. As if, any minute, she'll need them. Even though you won't actually see her use them for the whole episode. But they're there, a symbol of the crazy life she leads slipping through the city, cutting grocery bags and taking milk, picking pockets and jumping to fire escapes. She eventually clambers down to earth, using the milk to feed Gotham's stray cats. But someone's coming.
She jumps up to hide among the fire escapes as a wealthy couple and their well-dressed pre-teen son amble down a dark alley at night in a crime-ridden city. Dad is completely unconcerned, complaining about the movie they've just seen, and little Bruce has to agree with him, despite how much his mother liked it. This charming scene is cut short by a man with a gun, his face entirely masked except for two blue eyes. He quickly demands their money, and Dad is totally compliant. When the gunman wants Mom's pearls, the hand-off is bungled. One strand is broken, and the gunman has had enough. He shoots Dad right away, then Mom. Bruce, who has been scared the entire time, can't even register their deaths because the gun is pointed at his own face. For a second, you wonder if this will be about Gotham without Bruce Wayne. But then the gunman lowers his weapon and leaves.
Bruce spends a few moments trying to revive his parents. When reality sinks in, all he can do is scream. And all the girl who's been watching the whole thing from the fire escape can do is watch.
Gotham P.D. already has their hands full tonight. It's a precinct where the holding cells are literally in the same open space as the detective's desks, which is a two-story space perfect for a hostage situation that turns into a stand-off. Until, that is, a dashing, clean-cut, youngish detective appears at the top of the mezzanine stairs. He's unruffled, and just wants to help the prisoner get what he wants. Until, that is, it turns out he's been bluffing the guy. Our unnamed hero goes in for a knockout once the perp realizes he's been had, and the whole precinct is impressed. Well, almost the whole precinct. His partner, a more senior detective, tells Jim Gordon that he's made a rookie mistake by trying to take the guy alone. Harvey Bullock is partly blond, partly gray, stretching business casual as close to casual as he can get away with. His hair is long and not even parted. He's the perfect foil for Gordon. Bullock's lesson is interrupted by a call to actually get some detective work in before the end of their shift.
It turns out to be Bruce's parents, still laying in the alley, while Bruce has been wrapped in a blanket and stashed on some metal stairs off to the side. Bullocks realizes who the victims are right away, and immediately tries to get off the case; but Gordon has already sought out the only known eyewitness in an attempt to draw him out. In the precinct, he was all business with the hostage-taker. Here, he's all sympathetic and committed to helping Bruce. The kid is obviously impressed with this detective who is already promising to find his parent's killers. Impressed enough to tell Gordon that the killer had shiny shoes.
Their confab is interrupted by someone getting through the police lines to appear at the crime scene. Bruce instantly runs to him, to show us just how close he is to Alfred. Alfred introduces himself with his full name to Gordon, with an English accent that's less Queen's English and more rough neighborhood badass, and he doesn't identify himself as the family butler. As he whisks Bruce away, one can hear him coaching Bruce as they disappear into the light from the cameras and police cars, telling Bruce to not let anyone see him cry. It sounds horribly macho, but Alfred seems completely devoted to Bruce and his privacy from the get-go.
Bullocks is furious enough with Gordon to try to get rid of him. With the mayor ranting on television that these killers will be caught in an emotional outburst that seems genuine, Bullock's and Gordon's captain demands they find the killer quick, and that Bullock will be keeping Gordon. Bullock responds by trying to dress down Gordon, acting as if Gordon got where he is because he's a well-known veteran and his dad was a District Attorney. Gordon responds by finding fault with every aspect of Bullock's dress and hygiene, finally calling him lackadaisical. Bullock responds to this by immediately getting breakfast, and forcing Gordon to come with. No crime is more important than a good breakfast. While seated at the counter of whatever greasy spoon diner Bullock loads up on carbs and fat at, two other detectives stride into the diner.
They're full of confidence and bravado. Crispus Allen, he of a shaved head, and Renee Montoya, with a Brooklyn accent, try to convince Bullock to turn the case over to them. They're detectives in Major Crimes, where they investigate the local mob. It's high profile, high stress work and since Bullock didn't even want the case, shouldn't he just hand it over to them? Why keep the case? Bullocks is turned off by these two. So turned off by their assumption that he can't solve it, that he'll go and solve it. And show them.
Bullock decides they'll solve the crime his way, and leads Gordon on the full Gotham crime-solving experience. Which starts at a nameless club, the kind that will have stand-up comics and scantily-dressed dancers. It will also have an alleyway off the back exit, where the proprietress will be dressed to the nines, as if she'll be meeting the Kardashians later. She'll be questioning a hapless man about money while someone else beats him with a baseball bat. She'll have a lackey who holds her umbrella and better not let her hair get wet, because frizz would be bad for his kneecaps.
Her name is Fish Mooney, and she's the neighborhood crime boss out of her club. She knows what's happening in her neighborhood, which is the same neighborhood the Waynes were killed in. Mooney and Bullock are probably the best-developed characters in the episode. Mooney is the smoothest operator in the neighborhood, but she can turn on you without breaking a nail. She and Bullock are old buddies, exchanging pleasantries while Gordon visibly fumes at the sound of the beating taking place outside. Mooney and Bullock are highly amused by Gordon's sense of ethics. Mooney sends him outside and dares him to try to get the victim to report her. It's a show of her power, so Gordon will realize he shouldn't mess with her. By the time Gordon gets back inside, Bullock and Mooney have concluded whatever tete-a-tete they needed, and it's time to go.
Gordon goes home, which is a high-priced apartment he shares with his gorgeous, blonde, skinny fiancee, Barbara Kean. Barbara is the perfect girlfriend, willing to ditch dinner plans that probably took planning on a moment's notice, on Gordon's whim. He's a lucky man, and he looks like a guy who can't believe he got the pretty girl.
Gordon and Bullock start the next day talking to someone from ballistics. He's a conversationalist, full of good humor, or at least cute riddles. Bullocks has been cutting Edward Nygma's riddles short by barking demands for information for years. Gordon is more willing to play along, solving one of Edward's riddles and gaining a bit of respect from him. With his riddle answered, Edward reveals that the bullets recovered are ridiculously expensive, fired from a gun he can't identify. Which, for a big city police department, means some sort of custom gun that's not on the market. What kind of mugger has that kind of equipment? Gordon is immediately convinced that the Waynes weren't mugged, but targeted.
Bullocks will have none of it, insisting instead that they round up every mugger they can find in one day and tirelessly and ruthlessly interrogate each one. Gordon insists on standing off to the side during these interrogations, looking like he'll gladly step in and do worse than question if he's called upon. It gets them nothing. Gordon is looking dejected for a minute, when Bullocks announces a major tip- somebody seems to have tried to fence Mrs. Wayne's pearl necklace. An ex-felon named Mario Pepper.
Pepper lives in a decrepit walk-up, and an urchin with unruly red hair answers the door. Gordon, trying to sound nice, asks her her name. Why, she's named Ivy. How interesting. Gordon asks if they can talk to her dad. She warns them that they don't want to. Because he's kind of a big, violent jerk. Once around a kitchen table, Mrs. Pepper fidgets nervously by the stove, backing up Mario's alibi, her black eye indicating just why she's got to lie. Ivy stands silently by, just waiting for the violence to begin. Which it does, once Mario realizes they're fingering him for the Wayne murders. He escapes the apartment, dashing through a restaurant, and purloins a huge knife as he manages to get out to yet another alley. Has Gotham considered outlawing alleys?
Gordon is close behind, and as he follows Mario, who we know has a badass knife, he's cautious as he edges around the building, which saves his life. Gordon quickly loses his gun, but improvises with a trash can lid, and then good old fashioned fighting, and almost has the moves to bring Pepper down. But Pepper is bigger than he is, and Gordon's not that much faster. Gordon goes down and is about to get knifed in the head when Mario is shot dead. Gordon looks up to see Bullock standing at the entrance to the alley, gun in hand. His look says, case closed. Gordon thanks him for saving his life.
The cops quickly find Mrs. Wayne's pearls in the Pepper apartment, and Bullock and Gordon are massively relieved. The front page of the newspaper can't congratulate them enough. There's only one problem. Allen and Montoya, for some reason, find themselves in a car for a few minutes, and it's the perfect opportunity for somebody's umbrella holder to slip in and slip them some information. Like, that Bullocks and Gordon set Mario Pepper up, with help from Fish Mooney. Montoya and Allen are incredulous, but they know the lackey, named Oswald Cobblepot.
Oswald is classic future-psychopath material. He's horribly pale, with huge, inset eyes that look like he's imagining everyone he sees as a corpse. He seems mild-mannered, but that's because he considers his own form of violent pathology completely normal. He thinks Fish Mooney is on her way out; and if she goes down for framing Pepper, he has some idea that he'll step up. But for now, he just wants to share some potentially incriminating information on her. Oh, and don't call him Penguin, even though he looks like one. It makes him all pissy.
Gordon and Bullocks, now that they've solved the crime, decide to attend the Waynes' funeral, where Alfred is pretty much Bruce's constant companion. Gordon basically offers up the solved crime on a silver platter to Bruce for his comfort, wishing only that Bruce could have seen the guy tried. Bruce looks unconcerned about that, trudging off while Alfred thanks them for finding the killer. Totally unseen at a major funeral attended by all the hangers on of a wealthy Society couple is one little tweenie, clad in skin-tight black, with goggles on her forehead, ready for use and action. But she only sits on a ledge, watching Bruce leave.
Montoya decides to totally improperly share information from an investigation with a civilian. Who she just happened to have an affair with years ago, and is now engaged to a man. Montoya shows up at Jim and Barbara's apartment to warn her old friend and lover that she's got something on Jim, and that he's a crooked cop. Barbara self-righteously shows her out. But in the evening, when Jim is home and they're alone, she confronts him about it, asking point blank if he set Mario Pepper up. When Jim answers solidly no, he convinces Barbara to tell him who called him dirty.
Gordon is furious when he confronts Montoya, who stays relatively unruffled while Gordon demands to know where she heard he had anything to do with it. Gordon promises to get to the bottom of it himself, which Montoya acts like she's heard before. Just as Gordon reaches out to keep her from turning and leaving, Allen approaches. Allen's concerned about his partner, and slightly enjoys how angry being suspected of a frame-up job makes Gordon. Gordon angrily repeats his promise to really solve this crime before stalking away.
Gordon returns to Mario Pepper's apartment, where Pepper's widow declares that her husband wasn't a killer, because look how many times he could have killed her and didn't? Gordon doesn't know what to make of it, and little Ivy, still with seriously mussed red hair everywhere, is declaring cops to be fair game. So, Gordon asks Mrs. Pepper to show him Mario's shoes. All of them. Not a single one of them is shiny. Or even could be. Gordon realizes Mario wasn't his man, after all.
Barbara shows up at Gordon's precinct, and she has the good fortune to run into Bullock, who gives her a helpful look as he reassures her that Gordon is on a stakeout and his phone probably ran out of juice. He'll upgrade to something with a better battery once he's off duty.
Gordon, who is honest but not very clever, basically marches alone into Fish Mooney's lair, accusing her of masterminding the cover-up, and threatening to bring her down over it. Fish Mooney responds by cooing at Gordon while her men beat him up in her office. Gordon comes to while being dragged along the floor. In a slaughter-house. Exactly what butcher would allow this? Anyway, Gordon is already hanging from the ceiling, about to be killed, when Bullock shows up.
Sure, Bullock is a louse. But he's a cop. And other cops have his first loyalty. Especially junior partners who remind him of himself when he was younger. Getting the first mate to put him on with Fish, Bullock tries to talk her down. Fish was interviewing a new comedian, whose father was apparently a really bad passenger jet pilot. But she's happy to talk to Bullock, who threatens to take her down if she kills his partner. When Fish demands to know just how Gordon suspected her of framing Pepper, Bullock says it must be someone in her operation, because Bullock knows how to keep his mouth shut. Mooney gives Oswald, seated behind her and seeming attentive to her every need, a knowing look. How does she know?
After telling Bullock that he wins, she gets her first mate on the line and immediately demands that Bullock be killed too, for threatening her. First Mate is happy to comply. Mooney then hangs up. After asking the comedian, who is already regretting setting foot in the club, to wait just a little more. She then instructs Oswald to give her a foot rub, and he willingly settles down only to find that Mooney wants to nail him for squealing. She knows it was him, as he was the only crony to see her with the incriminating necklace, which turned out to be a fake anyway, since Mrs. Wayne's necklace is actually who knows where.
Oswald tries to pacify her with talk of being willing to slash a vein for her. But when she dares him to do it, he balks, as he only likes seeing other people's blood spilt, not his own. Mooney erupts, and while the comedian, who's seen the whole thing, continues to regret being there, Mooney viciously beats Oswald with some wooden stick she's acquired, pounding his legs especially.
Bullock and Gordon are now both suspended upside down, and First Mate calls out a blacksmith to deal with them. He's about to caress his butchering tools when the garage door opens, sunlight spilling into the slaughterhouse, and armed men taking out all but First Mate, Gordon and Bullock. Is it the cavalry?
No. It's Mooney's boss, Carmine Falcone, the dreaded main don of Gotham. He's composed as he frostily interrogates First Mate, who is just glad to be left alive to transmit Falcone's message to Mooney. No cops without permission, he tells First Mate. We don't need to ask whose permission. We know. Falcone is next in line this episode to inform Gordon that Gotham is horribly corrupt and Gordon needs to get with the program. He informs Gordon that only his longtime friendship with DA Gordon Sr. has saved Jim's life today. When Gordon tries to pin the Wayne murders on Falcone, Falcone admits that he actually doesn't know who killed the Waynes. But, someone needed to go down, and it was Pepper's turn. When Gordon threatens to go public, Falcone calmly reminds Gordon that he has no real evidence. He'd be getting himself killed with absolutely no results.
After schooling Gordon, Falcone has one last lesson to teach. Bullock and Gordon, now free, pull up at an abandoned dock. Gordon doesn't expect anything good to come of this stop, and he's right. Bullock walks him around to the trunk, which contains Oswald Cobblepot. Partially crippled by Mooney, he's desperate to survive today. As he pleads for his life, Bullock pleads with Gordon for Gordon's life. And Barbara's, which enrages Gordon. All Gordon has to do is kill Oswald, who is the weak link. Oswald went to the cops. Oswald knows Mooney had the necklace planted in Pepper's apartment. Oswald has to go. And Gordon has to prove that he's a team player by killing Oswald.
Barbara is the trump card, and Bullock isn't afraid to play it. Or rather, to tell Gordon that Falcone will play it. Bullock isn't necessarily evil. He doesn't get anything out of this. He's helping Gordon and Gordon's fiancee stay alive. Bullock figured out long ago that the game is rigged, and that he wasn't smart enough or tough enough to win against it. So, he's considered it his job to keep Gotham from falling apart, bring in whatever criminals the mob will let him have, and get home alive at the end of his shift. And he will spend the entire series convincing Jim Gordon that that's the best anyone can do.
Gordon, angry at himself for actually walking Oswald to the end of the dock, doesn't want to hear anything from Oswald. Oswald can only hobble, knees at awkward angles. Gordon has only one thing to tell Oswald, as he holds a gun to Oswald's head at the edge of the dock. His last words are to stay away from Gotham. Forever. Oswald realizes he'll live just as Gordon fires the gun right next to his ear and dumps him in the river. Oswald falls in with a silent splash, floundering in ice-cold water while still in shock from his beating. Oswald will surface somewhere downriver, knifing a lonely fisherman and eating his lunch greedily and messily. He's becoming the Penguin. Will he ever tolerate the name?
Gordon finally appears at home to a Barbara so relieved to see him, she doesn't mention how beat up he looks. Gordon probably tells her nothing, but after getting some shut eye, he proceeds to Wayne Manor, where he gets out of his car to find Bruce, standing on the edge of a roof railing, just hanging out at a great spot to fall to his death. Alfred appears at the front door, and Gordon doesn't even know what to ask, but somehow they talk Bruce into coming inside so Alfred can scold Bruce for being so reckless. Gordon, perhaps thinking that Bruce is suicidal, tries to coax an explanation from Bruce, who only tells Gordon that he's trying to conquer his fear.
Bruce is pretty calm, and Gordon doesn't know what to make of the kid, but he came here to give a speech, and he launches into a description of just how royally fucked up the case really is, and admits that neither he, or anyone else, currently knows who killed the Waynes. But he does vow to find out. It may take a season or two of episodes, but he will find out. Somehow. And it involves putting his badge on the coffee table for some reason. As if Bruce can hold on to a badge he needs for work until the mystery is solved. Which he does. We end, watching Gordon drive away. We're not the only ones. Bruce's only other co-eyewitness, still clad in skin-tight black, goggles still perched on her forehead, watches Gordon drive away too. She stares winsomely back at the mansion, maybe thinking about Gotham's newest orphan. Maybe she wants to tell him it's not so bad, being on your own.
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