There’s no room for heroes in Gotham. So be it that it all fell to the most unsuspecting of them all this week, namely one Detective Harvey Bullock. A decade-old cold case, a hammer-wielding goat-man, and grade A scripting brought out the best in Gotham and Spirit of the Goat set up the series on its highest note yet.
It’s clear that Donal Logue’s Bullock shone brightest this episode as the character carrying the darkest baggage. To see that once upon a time he was the kind of guy who would rush into the path of a serial killer to save a girl before backup arrived stood as a moving contrast to the dirty cop we’ve come to love and loathe. Inadvertently getting his partner – Dan Hedaya’s Detective Dix – permanently injured was enough to sour him brought with it a satisfying pathos to Bullock’s past and a statement about the city’s own decay in itself.
Our horned goat killer may have boiled down to an inoffensive hodgepodge of horror clichés, making a list of scary things and checking it twice, but served as one of the better embodiment of the show’s cartoonish psychopathy we’ve seen thus far, nonetheless. Sacrificial rites and the cheap mask may have been a stretch, but his plan for killing first borns proved serviceably creepy and possibly loving homage to Batman Returns. The coins sowed into his victims as calling cards were also a nice touch. Better still that Gotham does, in fact, refer to “Home of the Goats” as a name. Way to go, Gotham.
Writer Ben Edlund (Firefly, Supernatural) notably steps up to the plate with the magic touch, meanwhile, crafting the best piece of television Gotham‘s been exposed to. Edlund masterfully weaves in and out of the episode’s humor and horror with unpredictability and characterization to match. Throwing Bullock out of his element and having him actually solve a case (with even a bit of psychology) was an ambitious touch and The Americans‘ Susan Misner as a conniving – albeit vanilla – front for wiping out Gotham’s rich and privileged put a smart spin on Gotham‘s gang war as a class war.
Elsewhere, Spirit of the Goat excelled in lending its supporting cast their respective pieces of the pizza pie. Young Bruce got an unexpected houseguest through an open window, Gordon patched (some) things up with Barbra, Cobblepot returned home, and Montoya and Allen closed in on Gordon’s looming secret. The Cobblepot household brought a welcome window into Penguin’s psyche and its very particular mama’s boy angle was as creepily effective as Carol King’s Mrs. Cobblepot, almost uncanny rendition of a Tim Burton directed Helena Bonham Carter. Bruce continues to fall in and out of relevance (albeit with the worst mansion security), but just what kind of foreshadowed bond he has with Selina is as interesting as it’s terribly untapped .
Gordon and Fish Mooney may have been the only odd ones out this episode for reasons we’ve seen being made all too apparent. It’s been hard to think of Fish Mooney as little more than fanciful eye-candy than a character or Gordon’s dead-end detective work as a tiring means of bridging everyone else’s arcs. The latter may have set up the episode’s most paramount moment – a particularly dramatic finale at the police department – and its party-crasher might be the series salvation.
Among other things, it was Nygma who proved to be a joy most unexpected. Probably clocking in at about five more minutes than we’ve ever gotten of him, Cory Michael Smith’s quirky antics made finally did the show’s campy fun right, creeping a file clerk with an even funnier name than his own. All the same, it’s an enigma (see what I did there?) why he’s employed by the GCPD rubbing shoulders with louts like Bullock. Maybe it’s that oddball nature that’ll get him into his comic tropes sooner than we hope. Some of us would love for him to answer his riddles for a change.
It’s impossible to say there Gotham‘s headed from week to week, but something good’s slowly but surely coming out of the woodwork. Frankly, Gotham juggled its ensemble cast with a precision and delicacy almost alien to it thus far, and if it meant branching out from the shaky mob subplot, then more power to it. Though it’s got a ways to go before hitting any kind of consistency, Spirit of the Goat set a gold standard Gotham ought to note. How long these high spirits can last, no one can say. But heroes, they come and go.
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Gotham airs on FOX Monday nights at 8/7 central. Catch all the latest episodes at FOX.com and the latest reviews at BagoGames.
Gotham: Spirit
Pros
- A Lot of Depth Added to Bullock
- Superb Use of the Ensemble Cast
- The Shock Ending
Cons
- Something Needs to Change with Gordon and Mooney
- Wayne Manor's Terrible Security
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