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Gotham S01 E13 – 10 minute plot points

Previously: The Electrocutioner was defeated by one serious water toss.
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Welcome Back, Jim Gordon

Marines: Murder Warehouse. You can tell by the lighting. Fish is brought in and strapped to a table. She laughs a little even when the transport baddies introduce her to Bob, her torturer. Bob even does a little evil rubber glove snapping, because we need at least one cliche in the first minute, amIright?

Sweeney: We watch a lot of TV – this show is just trying to helpfully assure us that we’re on the right show.

Mari: Jada Pinkett Smith and a cliche? Yep. Gotham.

Elsewhere, Gordon arrives at a crime scene and Harvey gives him some quick exposition, including the fact that there is no sign of Fish. They head inside another Murder Warehouse, because all Gotham is is a billion murder warehouses and one messed up police department. Harvey introduces Gordon to a narcotics officer named Flass, who tells us about the body that is strung up just behind him. The dead dude is Pinky Littlefield, a drug dealer with a stupid name (A: That would totally be Petyr Baelish’s name if he lived in Gotham). Harvey calls this a “public service homicide.”

Sweeney: Your pre-credits reminder of how few fucks are given for the laws Gotham PD is meant to enforce.

Mari: Flass has got better things to do and Harvey walks him out. Gordon examines the body and notices that the heel of Pinky’s shoe is loose. Instead of bending a little to look at it, he actually turns on the conveyor belt the body is strung up to. Lazy. Gordon pulls on the heel and finds a bunch of little baggies. He pockets them just as Harvey returns to announce that they’ve got a witness.

Sweeney: This was weird and the fact that Gordon happened to find this totally! important! clue! was stupidly convenient.

Mari: As it always, always is.

The witness is a man named Leon who is eager to help, even when Gordon asks him to come down to the precent. We cut there and Leon is talking to his wife on the phone. A shady looking man lets himself into the room and promptly murders the helpful citizen. This is why everyone in Gotham is an asshole.

Cut to Nygma, Gordon, and Harvey checking out the now crime scene. Nygma gives a RIDDLE! about the murder weapon, which he thinks was an ice pick. It left markings that connect this killing to Pinky’s killing.

Alex: Nygma always seems to write in his notebook every time someone pisses him off. I’d love to get a look at that notebook.

Sweeney: NYGMA’S BURN BOOK!

Mari: Gonna be super sucky to be in that book when he goes all villain on everyone.

Murder Warehouse 1.0. Bob asks Fish what her name is, but she won’t cooperate with him. Instead she gets in his face, as best she can all tied up and stuff, and calls his daughters ugly. Bob smacks her across the face and Fish spits in his face. Because her hands are tied up and she can’t waggle her finger, Fish is waggling her mouth A LOT while she tells Bob that only her friends call her Fish. Trust me, waggling your mouth is apparently a thing that you can do. I just saw it. Fish laughs like a maniac and it’s really convincing.

LIGHTING CLOUDS. GOTHAM.

God bless commercial breaks. Fast forwarding through them is the best part of each episode, just because they represent non-episode time.

Some dudes park their van. Butch is tied up in the back. When Dude 1 gets out of the van to get Butch, he finds the back empty. He escaped with MAGIC, I guess. Dude 1 comes around to the driver’s side and finds Dude 2 dead. Butch grabs him from behind and growls, “where’s Fish?”

“….Mooney.”

I’m not sure why that “Mooney” sounded kind of weirdly tacked on, but it did. Probably didn’t need the last name anyway. I can’t imagine many crime lords in the city are going by Fish.

Alex: No but seriously, how the heck DID Butch escape from that van? The writers just don’t even care any more, do they?

Sweeney: I’m leaning more towards “they never cared to begin with.”

Mari: The well of not caring is deep, then.

Captain Essen is really upset that they can’t even keep people safe inside the GCPD. Bullock thinks the upside is that they have plenty of bad guy suspects to choose from. Gordon joins the conversation to say that he’d actually rather extend the suspect pool and blame a cop for it, since the security cameras were disabled. Bullock and Essen think that’s a TERRIBLE idea, especially seeing as how no one likes Jim Gordon as it is. Gordon growls a lot though, because he gets very growly when he’s going to do the Very Good Guy thing.

Hey! It’s Baby Batman. He’s riding around in his limo, looking for Selina. Slow down, Baby Batman. This is the kind of behavior that could lead to a “he’s hot, but he’s probably a stalker” tag in your near future. Real convenient-like, he runs into Ivy instead. Ivy agrees to pass a message to Selina for $20.

Alex: The Gotham ‘homeless kid’ makeup seems to bear a striking resemblence to Faith’s coma makeup. Also, my head is hurting in sympathy at the sight of all that backcombing.

Sweeney: I had some pretty intense backcoming for a play once when I was a little kid and getting it out was a truly traumatic experience. Cosign on those sympathy pains.

Mari: Murder Warehouse. Fish has got a plastic bag over her head and she appears to be not breathing. A CHEER ROSE UP FROM THE LANDS. Bob pulls the bag off and she does a hilarious gasp straight into taunting him for his basic torture methods. Bob talks a whole lot as he prepares to smash Fish’s knee but he doesn’t get that far because Butch shows up to rescue Fish. Now, I HATE torture scenes. Hate them. Hate, hate, hate them. Sorry, I flashbacked to Theon scenes in Game of Thrones and really needed to emphasize the hate. HOWEVER. HERE GOES GOTHAM, PROVING AGAIN THAT IT CAN’T DO ANY AMOUNT OF TENSION OR CONFLICT. Fish was literally kidnapped for 10 episode minutes. TEN MINUTES. Boom. Plot line over.

Alex: YES. THANK YOU. I tried to articulate something similar on Twitter but I couldn’t seem to phrase it in a way that didn’t make it sound like I was desperate to see Fish get tortured. The impending torture scenes were making me SUPER uncomfortable, especially with all the lingering shots on Fish’s skimpy outfit, and I was relieved that they were over so quickly. HOWEVER, if you’re going to do something, then do it. Just commit to one freaking plot point for more than 30 seconds, PLEASE. (It would also help if you got better plots, though).

Sweeney: Endless YES to all of the above. It’s not about wanting more torture, but about how fucking tortuous it is that this show is devoid of any actual stakes or tension.

Mari: Gotham PD. Stupid montage of Gordon questioning some cops about who was on duty outside of the interrogation room. The cops say nothing and we cut to Gordon telling Bullock that no one is talking. Like, “GOSH. I asked them straight up and they didn’t hand me the answer easily! WHAT IS THIS? MUST I INVESTIGATE?” No worries, Gordon. I’m sure the answer will be conveniently supplied shortly. Blah, blah, Gordon is convinced a cop is the killer and asks Bullock for some help with his questioning.

We cut to Gordon questioning one of the cops again, this time with Bullock present and 100% less rock soundtrack. Through some sneaky “well this other guy said you did it!” stuff, Gordon conveniently gets handed the name of the shady cop: Delaware.

Gordon goes to confront Delaware, who makes a run for it and hops in his car. Gordon just stands behind the car though and Delaware is all, “YOU GOT ME. Good move, bro. I didn’t see the whole standing behind my car while I was in reverse thing coming!” He gets out of his car and has a little shoving match with Gordon. He gets punched in the face and handcuffed for his trouble. in the trunk, Gordon finds a bunch of those blue little baggies he first saw in the heel of that dead guy from the beginning of the episode. That was convoluted. Basically: GUILTY. (A: I’m glad you were paying attention, I didn’t know what he was supposed to have figured out from this).

Gordon pushes Delaware into the GCPD and generally makes a big scene. Bullock shows up to be all, “REALLY? Can’t you just be subtle ONE TIME?” Pretty much no. Gordon is here to make a statement. (S: Ideally a big, blundering statement that actively undermines his ability to investigate shit.)

After a way too short ad break, Essen is pissed because she told Gordon to take it easy and consult her first. Gordon triumphantly holds up his evidence: the same drugs he found on the victim’s body. Flass says that “evidence” is just part of an ongoing investigation, because see Delaware is a COP. Gordon doesn’t believe this, but Essen does, seeing as how he’s been knee-deep in this investigation for months. Gordon is an ass. I don’t even care that he’s the Good Guy. I’m rooting for the crooked cops at this point. (S: Same.)

File room. Nygma shows up to harass Kristen a bit. She looks so scared. He gives her a card and she accepts it only after asking if it says anything weird. Legit. Nygma looks pretty pleased with himself as she grabs it and hightails it.

Fish sleeps, recovering from her 10 minutes of torture. Her lip isn’t even bloody or bruised or busted. This just looks like a nap. She wakes up and her main complaint is that she’s starving. Butch says they need to get going, but Fish says she isn’t gong anywhere until she gets Penguin back for tattling.

Fish’s bar. Penguin is showing it off to his mother, who is really impressed by the classy joint and by Penguin almost-kind-of owning it.

Bullock and Gordon are at a diner. Bullock hits us with the very unexpected plot twist that Flass is a crocked cop! SAY IT AIN’T SO. Bullock didn’t mention this before because of reasons. Or, I mean, if I had to actually apply reasons to it, probably because whenever Bullock tells Gordon anything, he growls a lot and then goes and punches people. #RyanAtwoodSyndrome

Harvey gets the location for one of the stash houses the crocked cops are running. They go in, guns drawn and find Delaware packing up boxes of drugs. There are many men here, but Gordon’s Ryan Atwood Syndrome flares up (A: best), and he decides that the best course of action would be to confront these men and throw some punches. He is quickly overpowered, but Delaware calls off his men. He tells Gordon that he’s got a warrant for search and seizure of the building, requested by the commissioner and signed by the judge. Everyone is corrupt! You’re corrupt and you’re corrupt!

After a not!break, Gordon and Bullock return back to headquarters with nothing. On top of that, Essen tells them that Internal Affairs is ruling that witness murder a suicide and releasing the body to his widow. Man, I don’t care how corrupt this police department is. DID THEY JUST MAKE THAT FAKE-ASS DECISION IN TEN MINUTES TOO? ARE THEY EVEN PRETENDING?

Sweeney: “I don’t want to go upstairs. IDK, suicide?” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mari: The victim’s widow is on hand to cry and tell us this has to be a mistake. Next, we get the fourth scene in this episode (in 31 minutes, really) where someone tells Gordon how dumb going forward with this investigation would be. Essen says that there are people actually trying to help him, but this investigation is dead and he needs to move on. Imagine if Gordon actually did and a couple episodes later something happened that would give him the opportunity to close this plot line.

LOL. Nope. Gordon takes off and says he’ll be back in an hour.

Alex: Poor Captain Essen. She seems like she’s generally trying to make the best of a shitty situation, and it’s so frustrating that Gordon insists on stomping around making her life even more difficult. Just do what she asks for once, dude.

Mari: File room. A bunch of dudes are gathered and laughing over the card Nygma gave Kristen. Whatever, dudes. I’m not going to feel bad when he murders you guys and leads the police to your body with riddles. Oh, the guy reading the card is Flass (A: Who also told Nygma to back the fuck off last week, I think) (S: Check you out, remembering shit!). Nygma walks in and embarrasses himself a little more. Kristen looks sad for him.

Gordon visits Fish’s club where the Cabblepots are drinking and dancing. After introductions, Gordon gets straight to the point: he wants Penguin to help him investigate Flass? I’m not real clear on what exactly he’s asking. And I rewound it twice. Penguin agrees to whatever and says Jim doesn’t owe him anything for the favor. (A: Great idea, Jim. There’s no way that this could possibly end badly).

Victor Zsask finds Bob all beat up and bloody and then shoots him in the head.

Back at the club, Penguin sends his mom home and then continues to get very drunk. He gets onstage and starts giving a “welcome to my club” speech. He’s interrupted when Fish walks in with a steel bat and a sarcastic slow clap.

Baby Batman is playing chess with himself. That’s not a metaphor for anything.

Selina climbs in BB’s window and calls him a weirdo for playing chess alone. Like she didn’t just climb in his window. BB gives her a snow globe as a gift and then invites her to stay at Wayne Manor. She can help him find the man that killed his parents and she can have a better place to stay. Selina doesn’t see what’s better about a MANSION. She hands the snow globe back and tells BB to stop hassling her. He’s hurt and says he thought they were friends. Selina says it’s no use because she didn’t actually see who killed his parents. She storms out.

Delaware’s house. A thug has him at gunpoint so he confesses that Flass killed Pinky. The thug says he believes him and we see now that the thug has got his foot in a tub. He lifts in and a woman sits up, gasping for breath. That was actually rather chilling. Right? I can never tell with this show if a thing that happened was actually decent or just less completely awful. (A: I think it was awful, but the right kind of awful?) (S: “The right kind of awful” is rarely achieved on this show, but I would also agree this was just such a unicorn of a moment. A horrifying, tragic unicorn.) Anyway, thug says he needs something more tangible and pushes the woman back into the water. Delaware is freaking out.

Fish’s club. Penguin is kissing her feet and begging her to hear him out. They could join forces and work together. Fish waggles her finger in his face, which means a big no. Fish says he’s a nobody and that pisses Penguin off, especially because he out-foxed her at every turn and she didn’t have the sense to see it. We get a another conveniently timed rescue when Zsask interrupts and starts a gun fight. Butch grabs Fish and gets her out of there. Penguin laughs maniacally.

Alex: Yep, this does it. I’m officially over Penguin. I feel like I see the same Penguin-does-something-shady-then-acts-super-sycophantic routine every. single. week. He’s a good character but please, have him do something else already.

Mari: I’ve seen the next episode. The answer is no.

Butch and Fish seem to be getting away mostly because Zsask and his ladies seem most concerned with walking in time and posing stylistically. Butch gets Fish out of the building but stays inside to slow them down. Zsask shows up and shoots Butch in the knee.

LAST COMMERCIAL BREAK DANCE PARTY!

Nygma is working and Kristen comes to see him. She apologizes to him, though she didn’t give Flass the card. She struggles a bit but does say she thought the card was thoughful. Nygma tries to say something but she shushes him so he won’t ruin it and runs away. Nygmas smiles.

GCPD. The thug drops a brown paper bag on Gordon’s desk and says it’s the murder weapon and a taped confession. Flass gave the icepick to Delaware to get rid of, but he kept it in case he had to cover his own ass. Gordon reluctantly thanks the thug who takes off. Gordon looks between Essen and Flass, I guess deciding what to do. I’m surprised he’s not already over there punching Flass.

Alfred finds Baby Batman crying, the now-destroyed snow globe in front of him. BB explains that Selina was lying. Alfred asks if he should get a broom or if Baby Batman wants to keep crying over his baby dreams. BB wipes his tears and tells Alfred to bring that broom. He’s going to sweep those fragments under the rug of his childhood trauma and find other leads for his case. Alfred says, “I knew she was a adfkslkds.” I don’t at all understand that last word. A runner? A woman? What? (A: Fortunately, I speak Alfred. He called her “a wrong’un”) (S: OH. Weird. I also replayed this a couple times trying to figure out what the fuck Alfred said and still could not decode. So glad we have a translator on the team!)

Gordon, still having 0 subtle bones in his body, yells across the station that Flass is under arrest. He dumps the evidence out and tosses the brown bag way like it’s a mic. Flass is surrounded by other cops and says these are his friends who will protect him against being arrested. Maybe if Gordon would’ve, I don’t know, told someone about his evidence and impending arrest, he could’ve gotten help with this, or something.

Gordon is surrounded by cops now and he gives a speech about how the witness from earlier trusted them as cops and got good and murdered. He says he’s arresting Flass. Finally, Essen steps in and arrests Flass herself. Which is a thing that could’ve happened in the first place if Gordon used his words for anything other than boring, hero speeches. Gordon thanks Essen and a few cops glare at him.

Dock. Bullock is meeting with Fish. She says her plan is to leave for now and come back and kill Penguin later. Bullock tells her not to come back AND A CHEER WENT UP FROM ALL THE LAND. (S: ALL THE LAND! I mean, sort of – most of the land stopped watching a long time ago and just reads the recaps, but ALL HALF DOZEN OF US CHEERED!) But Fish says we will see her again. She asks Bullock to find Butch and to help him if he’s still alive. Bullock says he will, they kiss and part ways.

Dark alley. Delaware finds Gordon and asks if they are even now that he ratted out Flass. He asks Gordon to back off. Gordon is confused and tries to get away but Delaware drops to his knees and begs Gordon to leave his wife and kids out of this. Gordon has a whole Good Guy crisis right before our eyes.

AND THE END.

This post is crazy late, but some of you are still keeping #gothamsnark alive, and we love you so much for the commitment:

 

 

 

Next time: Dr. Inara is back and Essen tells Gordon to let something go again. He probably won’t on Gotham S01 E14 – The Fearsome Dr. Crane.

Marines (all posts)

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.





Nicole Sweeney (all posts)

Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.





Alex (all posts)

I'm a thirty-year-old postgrad living in Scotland. When I'm not writing (which, between my degree and Snark Squad, is almost never) I watch entirely too much TV, and live in constant fear of the day that I run out of things to watch.





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Marines

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.