There’s a new gang in town.
What They Say:
Red Hood – Gordon and Bullock track the Red Hood gang; Selina bonds with Barbara; Fish trie to reclaim her place in the underworld.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
There’s been a lot of things that I’ve been more than willing to overlook with Gotham because there’ve been so many interpretations of all of this over the years that I wanted to see just what they could do as a whole. But the show continues to suffer under its main weakness of just not giving the procedural side enough weight, making it feel like it’s so tacked on that it’s pointless before you get to the end in favor of whatever reveal they want. The previous episode was the weakest yet for me, particularly because we had almost no Bullock, but because it went really silly with the whole Grayson and Lloyd decades long fight and then the actual resolution itself, all just to set things in place for a Dick Grayson to be born in a few years. It also really made me cringe in how it’s dealing with Barbara, a given from the start, but it’s also floundering hard with Thompkins and Gordon. The only saving grace here is that I simply like watching Morena Baccarin act and she’s just having fun with it all here.
And with the way they’ve thrown feints before, I’m not getting my knickers in a twist over whether that’s really our first Joker appearance or not. Because it’s not going to mean anything unless they really invest in it in some way.
With the cold open here, we get another look at crime in Gotham, which is pretty much like you’d expect, though this time it gets a little creative with one of the guys in the group wearing a red hood while everyone else is in all black. It has a taste of comedy as they go to rob the bank, but it works well in setting the right kind of tone. Particularly as the Red Hood starts to take more center stage here, which doesn’t go over well with the actual boss of the group. What helps cement the Red Hood’s position is that when one of the security guards starts shooting at him, he misses him with all six shots. That just makes him even more of a risk taker and uses this kind of loose and reckless style to really ensure their escape in a surprisingly fun and enjoyable way. What’s less fun is when the gang is together later and going through things, the guy with the hood finds himself shot by the other guy who in turn takes the hood in order to cement that he’s the boss. Suffice to say, the power of the Red Hood is starting to come together and with a price.
The story for this is one that plays out rather well in this episode compared to a lot of other basic crime pieces we’ve seen in the season, partially because of the comedic element of the hood itself but also because of the way that Gordon and Bullock handle it. They haven’t been paired up well for a bit and when they get their first hook into the leader with Destro and start following him in order to catch the gang as a whole, it keeps it all moving along nicely amid the other stories in the episode. It’s not a huge story, but it has a very fun feeling about it, even when it comes to that final shootout that brings it to a close.
While we had some decent but short material with Bruce the last time around, things have him operating from a different angle this time as it’s a bit more about Alfred at first with an old soldier mate of his now visiting after reaching rock bottom. Naturally, there’s a difference in how the two men’s lives have turned out, but Bruce is one that makes sure that he’s taken care of for the short term at least. Not surprisingly, Reggie ends up paying a bit of attention to Bruce and the two get into a little bit of sparring as Reggie learns that Alfred’s training him. What we get though is that as much as Alfred does, Reggie takes it further since he’s not protective of Bruce and that helps to drive Bruce into more. It’s more anger driven violence than the kind of violence he was looking for, and it’s interesting to see how it shocks Bruce. Reggie really gets into it, but it’s what drives men like these with their pasts. Those pasts are explored a bit here, though we have Alfred still trying to hide who he really is from Bruce, but it all comes crashing down towards the end when Reggie betrays him in a cold and hard way, which provides for a nice bit of tension, even though you know they won’t kill off Alfred.
Penguin’s story this time around is him getting further used to the fact that he doesn’t have what it takes at the moment to run the club as not only does the entertainment suck, but he’s not able to get liquor for the place either because it’s all controlled by Maroni and he has absolutely nothing he wants to do to help Penguin with it. What helps, of course, is that Butch has a lot invested in the club overall even if it’s not Fish’s anymore, and he works things in a way that surprises Penguin about it. It’s the kind of deeper mob mentality with how things work and the kinds of rules there are, which is fun to play out. And giving Butch more screen time is good in my book. I do like the change we’re getting with Butch here as he’s intent on not being a sidekick anymore and he sees a path with Penguin that can get him where he wants to be. You do wonder how much he’s doing just to cement a position should Fish resurface as well.
With Fish, things haven’t been all that interesting with what she’s doing, though it’s fun to see her cementing her position. Now that she’s made some bargaining through Schmidt previously, she now finds herself in front of the manager, which is definitely all business amid all the body parts being carved up around the floor. Fish does her best to try and get further up the ladder here as the manager is not the one in charge, as that’s someone known as the doctor named Dulmacher, but he’s got enough power to get her to pay attention to things and the Dulmacher name catches her off guard, which has her falling into his control just enough.
But that’s the thing. Fish is always in control and she doesn’t cede it easily at all. So when the manager makes his play, either kill her and everyone in the basement or she gives up her powerful eyes, she makes one hell of a play by gutting one of her eyes herself so that he doesn’t have a pair that he can sell off to a client. It freaks out the manager – and pretty much everyone I was watching the show with – and reinforced just how intense and committed Fish is to surviving no matter the cost.
In Summary:
After what was probably the weakest episode of the season last time around, Gotham hits the ground running in a really good way here that kept me entertained throughout with each of the stories. While some of the inherent weaknesses are still here, even that felt reduced in the biggest area which is the procedural side. That continues to be just one of several plots running so it only gets so much time, but this one with the Red Hood was just fun. That alongside the other stories kept it moving well with some fun as Penguin deals with his trust issues towards Butch, Fish makes a huge play that changes her in a significant way and then all the time with Bruce, Alfred and Reggie that is part of a bigger series of events moving along towards the season finale.
Grade: B+
