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Gotham #118 - Everyone Has A Cobblepot

2

A recap and review of this week's episode.

Cr: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Cr: Jessica Miglio/FOX

Note: There may be spoilers for this week's episode contained within. You have been warned.

Recap

On this week's episode of Gotham, Gordon visits a stabbed Alfred in the hospital, but he's called away by the Captain. Alfred won't tell Gordon that it was Reggie who stabbed him. Alfred decides to leave the hospital before doctors say it's ok, but Bruce demands he gets back in bed.

Fish awakes in a bed with her eye missing. Dr Francis Dalmacher checkers her out. Fish demands to be made the Doctor's number two. The doctor says eyes are tricky and they couldn't match her original color. Fish removes the bandage and sees she has a bright blue eye now.

The corrupt cop Gordon busted, Flass, is reinstated and he's a big jerk to Gordon. Gordon finds Bullock made a statement saying he planted false evidence. LIES! Gordon confronts Bullock and Bullock shares a story, much like Gordon's, about a time where he had to kill a mobster. Gordon is going after Loeb now. He's had enough!

Nygma pops in on Ms Kringle to tell her about pheromones and that Flass was released. Gordon meets with Harvey Dent and the two go and confront Loeb's ex-partner, Griggs, from when he was a cop. Griggs sends the duo to Xei-Lu.

Back at the creepy hospital, Dollmaker shows Fish around the place. They make a conditional deal with each other. Fish has to send Dollmaker bodies from the basement. Over at the hospital, Selina visits Bruce and a passed out Alfred. Bruce has pieced everything together about Wayne Enterprises and Reggie.

Gordon and Dent head to see Xei-Lu. They press him but get nothing out of him. Magically, Lu gets a phone call and tells Gordon and Dent to wait. All of Lu's men, who look like accountants, pull out some knives and chase after them. However, they are stopped time and time again by impenetrable chain link fences. Bullock saves them and after some interrogating through montage, they find Loeb and Falcone are in bed with each other. Gordon makes a deal with Penguin to get the files he needs.

Fish returns to the people underground. One of the men is complaining about her absence. He gets taken out of there. He's probably going to have his big toe taken from him or something. Gordon, Bullock, and Penguin pull up to the farm where the files are being kept. After a cup of tea with the owners, it turns into a ridiculous shootout. The group heads upstairs and finds Miriam Loeb.

Nygma brings Ms Kringle some flowers, but she has a boyfriend in the department named Tom. Apparently, she'll date all the cops at the station, bit not Edward. Poor Edward.

Bullock and Gordon chat with Miriam who has some issues. Miriam is making some jewelry out of bird bones. She eventually reveals she killed her mother. Penguin walks in and Miriam reveals she loves birds because she snaps their necks to make necklaces out of their bones.

Gordon walks into Loeb's office and shows him the bone necklace. Loeb says he'll resign, but Gordon doesn't want that. He wants to use leverage. He wants Flass tried and wants all the files Loeb has, Penguin is going to ask for the favor. Dollmaker shows Fish where they are, on a snowy island no where near land.

Cr: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Cr: Jessica Miglio/FOX

Thoughts

This episode of Gotham feels like a caricature of itself. It's a bit silly and more over-the-top than normal and is crossing the barrier of "so bad, it's good." Especially, in this episode, there's lots of moments that feel like this is less about telling interesting stories and more about trying to be HBO's Tales from the Crypt. That's right, there's a ton of moments in this episode where I felt the Cryptkeeper was going to jump out and deliver at least 15 horror-filled puns.

Fish removes her eye and Dollmaker puts a new one in? Boo! That was a really cool risk Fish took and all-in-all, it's worthless. How cool would have it been to have Fish with an eye patch? Anyway, her story is probably the most interesting here and the least silly, believe it or not. She's slowly working her way back up the ladder with the situation she's in, and by "slowly," I mean, "super quickly." The turn at the end of the episode, with the hospital being on an island, really puts everything into perspective. She's stuck in a bad situation, so she may as well do what she can. The only question I have is how does this all connect to the Dollmaker taking kids at the beginning of the season?

The CGI when the office manager is shown with the transplant is really bad. The lighting and movement look really off. It sticks out like a sore thumb. Again, we're getting this weird Tales from the Crypt feel to it (not as much as the hidden daughter in the attic of Loeb's place, mind you), and while I understand where they're going with this, it would have been a lot cooler if they didn't show it and gave us a reaction shot coming from Fish.

I laughed out loud during the shootout at the farmhouse, where the woman tripped and hit her head on the mantle. This show has jumped into the world of "so bad, it's hilarious" territory. Once again, everyone on this show is a terrible shot.

This episode of Gotham was a bit silly, but all-in-all, I actually really enjoyed it. There's a lot of problems with fluctuating direction for the series and the fact we're in this never-ending battle against corruption but the one step forward, two steps back story line isn't compelling and has become tedious and redundant at best. However, if the show keeps being this silly and ridiculous, I'm all in. Now, where's my Clayface episode? Let's get nutty.