When Last We Were in Gotham:

The Penguin caused everything. Cat stole something from Bruce Wayne. Falcone won’t kill Gordon for now.

Just Another Day at Anders Preparatory Academy

Bruce Wayne is forced to go back to school by Alfred. This is his first time back since his parents were murdered. A weirdo school bully named Tommy immediately finds him and wants to talk about his parents dead bodies.

Now, fans of the comics may think this is Tommy Elliot. Elliot grows up kinda like Bruce but actually kills his parents to inherit their money faster. His mother survives though. He goes on to become a skilled surgeon and then the villain named Hush. Elliot is jealous of Bruce able to inherit his money so early

 

Clearly this Tommy was friends with Bruce at some point, but when he won’t give him details on dead bodies they fight. Tommy wins the school fight against Bruce and Alfred isn’t happy about that. Alfred drives Bruce to Tommy’s place so that Bruce can give him a proper beating. Yeah, this Alfred is old school. He also promises to teach Bruce how to fight. I predict he will come to regret this promise.

 

Like Taking a Broach from an Old Lady

Penguin steals a broach from an old lady. He first tries to give it to Fish. They have a discussion where Fish reveals she is still mad at him. Penguin was like a son to her, and he should suffer more for snitching, according to her. She takes his gift and stabs him in the hand with the pin. He then regifts the broach to his mother.

 

During Penguin’s brief meeting with Fish, he meets her new umbrella man, Timothy. Poor Timothy. Penguin kidnaps him and tortures some information out of him. Timothy tells about Fish having someone close to Falcone. Penguin then has him killed. Poor Timothy.

 

The Laughing Fish

Liza reports in to Fish from a confession booth. Very inconspicuous, Fish. Liza is beginning to have second thoughts about snooping around and lying to Falcone. Fish wants some documents from Falcone’s private office. She gives Liza a vial of sleeping medicine to knock out Falcone while she copies the papers. She’s hesitant but agrees.

 

While pouring the medicine into Falcone’s tea, she spills some. Even though less than half of the vial remains, she appears to be successful. I think this is a bluff. Either Liza was caught and is now another rat in Fish’s pond, or Penguin got the information to Falcone before he drank the poisoned tea.

 

Liza does deliver papers to Fish though, and Fish gives herself a backstory. While Fish Mooney was a little girl, her mother was a prostitute. Fish heard her mother killed by one of Falcone’s men while they were in the middle of a transaction. This immediately turns out to be false, at least partly. Fish’s mother is alive, she was shown singing in the club moments before and asks Fish why she lied moments after. As far as I can tell, this is just more of the writers not knowing what to do with Fish and giving her every story they can for a few minutes at a time.

The Cat Came Back, She Just Wouldn’t Stay Away

Cat briefly shows up climbing out of a sewer grate, throwing various fur coats out ahead of her. She is promptly arrested for breaking and entering. At the end of the episode she shows up at GCPD asking for Gordon. I’m not sure what he can do for her now. She ran away once already, so I doubt he’ll be tempted to trust her again. If rumors can be trusted, she’ll soon be living at Wayne Manor. I don’t trust these sources though. Maybe she’ll be convinced to go to Anders Academy though.

 

The Boiler Room Fight Club

The case this week involves a washed-up body dressed in a suit and suspenders. Detectives Gordon and Bullock investigate the scene aided by Edward Nygma. Before leaving the crime scene, Nygma alerts the men that a thumb was in the dead guy’s mouth. They eventually check in with a “blackmarket sawbones” that Bullock is acquainted with. The doc withholds at first, but eventually tells that he did help a thumbless man just that morning. He hands over a business card that fell out of his pocket. Gordon then arrests him.

 

The business card is for Sionis Investments. The offices of Sionis Investments are filled with bruised men in suits. Gordon and Bullock go to meet Richard Sionis, played by Todd Stashwick. Stashwick is really great as Sionis. His office is filled with accoutrements of war: swords, knives, and masks. Gordon remarks how a shrink would say the masks means he’s hiding something. Gordon then also accuses him of being a killer. As Gordon leaves he just happens to step in a puddle of blood that leads him to the bathroom. He enters, gun drawn, but finds only a guy with a nosebleed… and then the thumbless guy walks by. They scuffle, but Bullock enters in time to stop the perp. Gordon literally stumbled onto this suspect.

 

Sionis’ lawyers are too quick for the GCPD, stopping the young one-thumbed man before he can sign a confession. Nygma played a little game of medical examiner and found that four others in the past year have died from office supply related deaths. This leads Gordon and Bullock to check out abandoned office buildings in the city. Gordon finds the place and is immediately taken by Sionis.

Gordon wakes up in the abandoned office space with three of the men in suits surrounding him. Sionis announces that the first to kill Gordon gets hired with a million dollar bonus. Gordon can’t appeal to them as a police officer, so he fights. He defeats all three and Sionis steps in, wearing his trademark mask.

Bullock is worried since he hasn’t heard from Gordon. He has trouble getting help from other officers to look for Gordon, prompting him to yell at the whole precinct about how they left Gordon when he needed them most. This prompts various members of the station to go looking. Captain Essen finds Gordon at the end of a fight. He’s defeated Sionis.

 

I find the capture of Sionis to be disappointing. Although the comic book villain is Roman Sionis(perhaps a son or nephew in this show), Richard Sionis could have been an interesting player in the non-mobster realm.

 

Side Notes

There’s an odd theme in this episode. Two unrelated events involving rats happen. First, while at the crime scene, Nygma estimates the time of death partially involving rat bites on the victims ear. Bullock calls them “sneaky little buggers.” Later, Mrs. Kapelput is excited when she hears a rat trap go off in her home. She picks up the trap, which looks like a decorative house. She says she caught him because she knew his secret.

 

While both incidents seem unrelated, I think they work to a larger point. Rats are attracted to the vile culture in Gotham. But this same culture treats them well, in Mrs. Kapelput’s case and the metaphorical rat Penguin. He’s a rat to his core, but Falcone keeps him close and Maroni gives him benefits.

 

Dear Jim

I’d like to make a plea for the character of Barbara Kean. She’s been mostly used as a damsel in distress for Gordon. Early on, she was involved with some intrigue involving Montoya. I think, as a viewer and from a writing standpoint, her relationship with Montoya is much more interesting than her relationship with Gordon. There’s a reason why the writers keep going back to the idea that Barbara is leaving Gordon. Can anyone even remember if she has a job?

 

Next Time

Harvey Dent will be showing up in the next episode. I’ll refrain from making a drinking game where the viewer drinks every time a reference to his Two-Face persona is made, I’m not a supporter of liver disease. With Barbara gone, maybe Gordon can seek refuge with one of Bullock’s castoffs.

 

I rate this episode with Batman: Arkham City‘s Hush

Because he’s the villain Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.