“Gotham” 1.6 – Spirit of the Goat (8.5 out of 10) – Directed by Danny Cannon; Written by Bruno Heller; Based on characters created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Howard Chaykin, Frank Miller, Greg Rucka, et al; Starring Donal Logue, Ben McKenzie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sean Pertwee…; Rated TV14” Aired on Fox 10/27/14.
More good things from the show this week. Gotham broke from the template they’ve been using and allowed this episode to focus on one character, Detective Bullock. It was a very welcome shift from showing us what’s happening with every character all over Gotham. We still saw short scenes with other characters but they served an overall purpose to the plot, well most of them.
It was a welcome change to see Bullock ten years ago and dive into the reason he is the cop he is today. In the beginning he was similar to Gordon; ready to rush into danger in order to save the innocent. His partner even told him to wait for back up but the life of an innocent girl was more important to him. It ended badly in a way for Bullock. Yes, he caught the serial killer ten years ago, but he also managed to get his partner paralyzed in the process. Bullock’s ultimate success was overshadowed by his defeat in his eyes which is a really interesting character arc and I hope they continue to do more stories like these.
Gordon was almost sidelined this week as far as the case goes. It was Bullock that put the pieces together and ended up catching the bad guys–one of the first episodes where the bad guy wasn’t killed at the end. That was the other strong point for this episode. The clues weren’t super obvious or in your face. The only clue Bullock had was that he noticed two different patients of Dr. Marks clench their hands when they were stressed; which is how he knew she was hypnotizing them. The only weak point for the villain of the week was that it was clearly going to be Dr. Marks or Bullock’s old partner who were behind the murders.
The evil doctor’s motives were believable–blaming the top one percent of Gotham for all of its problems isn’t too off the mark. Most of them just live in their bubbles and don’t care what else is going on in the city; the Waynes being the perfect example of what happens to those who try and change things.
Bruce this week was unconcerned with the fact that he could be targeted by “The Spirit of the Goat” for being a first born wealthy citizen. He even went to sleep with the window open allowing “Cat” to sneak in and steal what looked like a tape recorder but I’m not positive on that. Bruce even makes a comment to Alfred about how the one percent shouldn’t be afraid of somebody dressing up like an animal. A nice foreshadowing to what he himself will eventually. What I really like about this scene is Bruce talking about the one percent of Gotham like he’s not one of them. He doesn’t identify with the rich and wealthy of Gotham, which is an important step Bruce takes early on in his journey to becoming the Dark Knight, so I got super excited to see this start. It didn’t feel force fed like other “Bruce Wayne will be Batman” scenes.
Fish Mooney and the other Gotham gangsters were absent this week and it was a refreshing change of pace. We saw some of Penguin going home to his mom and getting a sponge bath from her. It was super awkward and I’m hoping that he will eventually kill her because he believes she’s holding him back from “becoming something in this town,” as he puts it.
The best part of the episode was when Gordon gets arrested by the MCU for the murder of Cobblepot and when Bullock sticks up for him he gets arrested too. Gordon keeps trying to say he didn’t do it and then Cobblepot walks in the door. Seeing Bullock’s reaction to Penguin alive and well was amazing. He was more upset about the Gotham gangsters thinking that Gordon and he didn’t do what they were told than being arrested for murder! He was probably thinking that Falcone would take care of the eyewitness or bail him out so no worries right? Think again, Bullock. Having the the episode end with him yelling “You son of a bitch!” in Gordon’s face while they’re both handcuffed in the middle of the police station was a perfect way to close the episode.
Downsides to this week were the scenes with Edward Nigma, which is unfortunate because Riddler is one of my favorite of Batman’s villains. It was humorous to watch him try and flirt with a file clerk in the GCPD but I would like to see more depth to his character instead of him just saying riddles every time he’s on screen.
Overall it was a great episode, I love the laser focus on one character and I hope that we will get more of this in the future. Gotham spent the first five episodes setting up the board and now we get to watch everything unfold. I hope next week is all about Gordon and the fall out with letting Penguin live and very little else. From the preview we know that Victor Zsasz will be the villain and that by itself leaves me hoping it will be the best episode yet. Gotham still has a little ways to go before it becomes a frontrunner for Monday nights but it’s getting better and better every week.