So it looks like we cant call this show Batman Without Batman anymore. The Dark Knight is here, in Gotham, albeit in the form of young master Bruce Wayne. But thats not Batman! you cry. It absolutely is Batman, just 10-20 years pre-cape. The fact that we might never see the pointy ears and the batarangs is a good thing.
Why? Because weve spent so much time with that guy from all those comic books and films and TV shows and video games the international icon whose Wikipedia entry goes on for 18,000 words. Bruce, though? Compared to his superhero alter ego, we barely know the kid. Gothams second episode Selina Kyle opens on the new orphan working through the pain of his parents death in an unhealthy, Batman-ish fashion, seeing how long he can burn his hand on a candle. Later well learn that hes also listening to death metal, drawing disturbing art, and experimenting in cutting himself.
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In the pilot, it seemed like the show could avoid the Problem of the Week format that makes so many network dramas feel dangerously similar. This time we see that Detective James Gordon might indeed find himself solving a crime an episode, which could be acceptable if each weeks problem is as dark and plot-expanding as this one. Gordon and his boorish, alcoholic partner Harvey Bullock are after a pair of psychos disguised as do-gooders, the type of mid-level crooks who stab homeless children with a tranquilizer-tipped pin, kidnap them, and ship them overseas to someone called the Dollmaker. (Overseas, huh? Is Batman ber-villain Ras al Ghul going to show up?) Selina Baby Catwoman Kyle, for whom the episode is named, saw Bruces parents die in the pilot, and now shes skulking near the scene of the crime again.
Unlike the Waynes mystery murderer, these kidnappers feel eminently catchable, and thats a great way for us to start rooting for and siding with our police-detective protagonist. Gothams pilot repeatedly told us how rotten this town is and how great Gordon is, but this week, hes walking the walk. Hes also fighting a secret now, one thats got all the key players thinking hes just another corrupt cop: Gordon is known as the man who executed Oswald Cobblepot. Whats going to happen when Bullock, or mob boss Carmine Falcone, or Fish Mooney learns that Gordon let the scheming maniac escape with his life?
And whats Oswald doing with that life? Shuffling down a lonesome, gray highway just outside Gotham, looking like the cousin of Danny Devito in Batman Returns. Oswald gets picked up by some antagonistic bros and makes short work of them with a beer bottle. Actor Robin Lord Taylor provided the most instantly intriguing portrait of a nascent Bat-villainin the pilot, and hes still on a roll this week. (Also, his mother is being investigated by Gordon and Bullocks cop-nemeses, Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen. In a hard-to-pin accent, she reveals that the Cobblepots, in the Old World, were Kapelputs.)
At Fish Mooneys downtown club, Falcone vents his nervousness about the power vacuum opened up by the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Parent figures are becoming a big theme: Falcone has been a father figure to Fish, the woman whose own surrogate son, Oswald, just betrayed her. Alfred and Jim have never had kids, and theyre working together to help Bruce choose his own cause.
Fish tells Falcone she welcomes no lovers, only a lad, Laslow, she keeps around for exercise. Fish isnt always honest, of course: She tears up when Falcones goons start pummeling her boy. Later, with her head henchman Butch Gilzean, Fish schemes. I need more money, more men, more territory. Once thats taken care of, though? I am gonna kill that old man with my bare hands and my teeth. Jada Pinkett Smiths styling those earrings! that dress! are still spectacularly on-point, and shes mastering the language of High Villainese more and more with every scene. Shes also back on speaking terms with Gordon and Bullock, despite having just tried to murder them.
Our weekly shootout happens in a pharmacy, where Gordon and Bullock are ambushed by the kidnappers. Gordon finds his way to a back room where the kidnapped children are being held. Mayor Aubrey James (Richard Kind) uses the rescue to announce a humane, tough-love, program to take care of the citys homeless youth. Foster homes for the cute, undamaged ones, he tells Gordon in private, upstate for the rest. The mayor is opportunistically turning a criminal conspiracy into a way to sweep up half the citys petty crimes. Gothams best man has his first staredown with Gothams biggest wolf in government clothing. Neither likes what he sees.
Selina whos already nicknamed Cat is one of the kids destined for the juvenile detention center upstate. Her bus is commandeered by the pinprick kidnappers, who successfully stash everyone but her in a shipping container. Selina mauls a thugs eyes and creates enough of a diversion for Gordon to save the day. Like Bruce, this feline tween is much more than she seems. And now shes offering to tell the detective who killed the Waynes.
By the nights end, its clear that Gotham is quickly figuring out how to be Gotham. The bevy of side characters the mayor, Gordons fianc Barbara, Edward One Day I Shall Be the Riddler Nygma, Montoya and Allen are implemented seamlessly, without taking up too much time. The feel of the show, from the grimy streets to the glowing interiors, is distinct. And the story with its Dollmakers, its endangered city, and its single, floundering hero is just heating up.
Last week, we mulled the rumors of a new Joker candidate hiding in each episode. This weeks nominee isHarvey Bullock! Hes got a real grin thing going, and a cop very pointedly calls him clown. And Harvey just isnt a good-guy name in the Batman universe, even if Bullock is a longtime comic-book character. (Fishs handsome waiter/boy-toy seems Jokerish, too.)
Edward Nygma says the chemical the kidnappers are using is something that was used at Arkham Asylum. Its a Batverse staple that, in the world of Gotham, has been shuttered for a decade, although the Waynes were apparently working to reopen the joint. Stay tuned.
Previously: Welcome to the Boom Town