There’s nigh an episode of Gotham that’s begun quite like What The Little Birdie Told Him. Within seconds, it sees Arkham Asylum escapee, Jack Gruber, (Christopher Heyerdahl) and his hulking, mind-controlled manservant Aaron (Kevin McCormick) prowling the streets to the tune of Johnny Cash “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” Dressed in full, rubber trench-coats (as one does in this city to not look like hipsters), they zap a man to death via doorknob. He still stands upright, even though he’s very much dead. His boots have melted and he’s glued to the floor. Grim? Arguably.
For an episode title suggesting gossip and rumor, What The Little Birdie Told Him is as remarkably direct in its first few minutes as it is absurd for the next forty. Gruber – who we’re told was committed to Arkham for rape and murder? – threatened to be a thorn in Detective Jim Gordon’s side last time we saw him. This week proved him to be a man of his word, if not an equally perplexing one. Revenge is a dish best served cold, I’m told, but whatever Gotham serves here reheated leftovers you expect. While it’s refreshing to spend more time with a single villain than time usually permits, there’s little progress that Gruber (or The Electrocutioner as he’s finally called this episode) will likely make with viewers as to just why he like – err, electrocuting people, frankly.
His attack on the Mob, the police, or anyone really basically serves to do nothing more than piss off everyone and give them red marks on their faces and there’s no one present to as an “arch-nemesis.” Whether it’s Gruber, the Electrocutioner, or just plain Buchinsky as we’re told, it’s hard not to think of even Heyerdahl’s serviceable performance as much more than “Creepy Workshop Guy” than a Hannibal Lecter. The fact that Gordon and Bullock’s lead on Gruber stemmed from an electronics store compounds the worst of what Gotham’s gag villains have been relegated too lately, but that a weird voodoo doll should telegraph his next target makes me wonder how Gotham’s detectives really do keep on the payroll.
I’ll admit that Gruber and Gordon’s showdown ending with galoshes and a cup of water made for a bit of playful irony (Water? Electricity? Get it?!). My patience is running thin, though, for how Gotham’s beginning to treat every one of its supervillain cases. Dumb clue, mandatory action sequence, easy arrest. If it’s going to be this easy for Bruce Wayne in another decade, then Batman might just get an early retirement.
It should be more ironic that Fish Mooney’s long overdue betrayal of Don Falcone should be the highlight of the episode, even at its strangest. While Fish’s plans for conquest of Gotham’s underworld was a decent premise in its onset, I’m surprised it’s lingered as long over the season; maybe just as much that it’s so quickly – and definitively – resolved. I’ve found it hard to believe in Liza’s espionage skills and even less in her fetishized maternal figure to Falcone, but it’s doubly harder to think of her as an emotional bargaining chip to a Mafia don she’s never even touched.
Never once did Gotham convince me that Falcone was so enraptured with Liza that he’d quit his life for her, nor did it ever show me Fish feeling anything but contempt for Falcone. It’s only appropriate, then, that Falcone should (literally) squeeze the life out of Fish’s plans, because I’m not sure I would’ve blinked at the outcome either way.
What is up in the air now is just how Fish and the gang will survive under an even tenser Falcone administration. Her value to the series has always seemed debatable at best, and with her distance from Penguin growing greater with every passing episode, I don’t think Oswald needs her, or Gotham, for that matter. Her part in this week’s episode was anything but boring, granted.
Speaking of our dapper tuxedoed friend, the Penguin’s parts in these past few weeks have been oddly uneventful in spite of a few telling moments. His and Don Maroni’s test of loyalties hasn’t gone many places quite yet. Robin Lord Taylor gets at least one more toe-kissing moment with the don and, well, our other Don and sells it with his usual wide-eyed grandeur. I also wonder how well the Penguin will do as people’s errand boy forever until all of his wheeling and dealing will start to run together after season two rolls around.
I will say that I enjoyed the fact that this installment really only focused on two stories this week, Barbara Gordon going home to her rich, domineering parents being among them. I can’t be sure what exactly is going through Barbara’s head these days, but if it’s as mundane and removed as watching her live with her parents for half-a-season, then I’m not onboard. At least there were no kids for a change – though someone should be living in that loft if Barbara’s just decided to abandon it. At least Jim’s not living there anymore, but he is, apparently, smooching with a co-worker. Wait – what?!
On another note, there were a few curious developments couple as far as the greater Batman-verse was concerned. This week saw Peter Scolari as Commissioner Loeb and Ray Donovan’s Dash Mihok as Detective Flass in brief. Considering both their appearances in Nolan’s Batman Begins and a considerable amount of comic history, it’ll be interesting to see where Gotham goes with them, especially since Flass’ dirty cop persona has essentially been replaced by Bullock. And could he be on a collision course with Edward Nygma over the affections of Kristy Kringle?
Gotham certainly kept pace better than last week’s fair did behind the walls of Arkham Asylum comparably, but it didn’t push much of the series forward either. I’m unsure where anyone should be by now in Gotham going forward and piling on a few more potential leads for the ride hardly seems wise when the series still seems so unsure of itself. None of this week’s antics were boring in the slightest, yet none of it useful – or rational. What The Little Birdie Told Him ultimately tells you everything I should’ve heard by now, but nothing you really cared to know.
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Gotham airs Monday nights on Fox at 8/7 Central. Catch all the latest episodes on Fox.com and all the latest reviews here at BagoGames.