TV Review - Gotham "Penguin's Umbrella"

by Jen

If you’ll pardon the expression, this entire episode was just balls to the wall. 

The episode begins with nearly everyone clamoring for Gordon’s head - his partner, Fish Mooney, and in fact many layers of the Falcone organization are looking for him.  This leads to the surprising discovery that Barbara Keene is made of stronger stuff than I’d originally suspected.  

Gordon finds new allies when he attempts to arrest the Mayor and Falcone.  He makes peace with Montoya and Allen when they ride to his rescue after Victor Zsasz takes apart the Gotham PD in an attempt to bring Gordon to Falcone for a “chat.” 

He takes them to Wayne Manor to meet young Bruce and let him know they can be trusted in the event of his demise.  (For the record, I’m not entirely convinced of their trustworthiness yet, though they do seem less smarmy than the rest of the GPD.)

Penguin is so slippery that you can almost see the oil oozing out of his smile.  Every episode takes us deeper into his story, and I’ve never been as intrigued by the development of this particular Batman villain until now.  By the end of this episode, we see why Falcone is so mysteriously happy - Penguin is his inside man, and he knows all about Fish’s plan to unseat him.  

Fish seems to be coming slowly unhinged.  As much as I love Jada Pinkett Smith’s performance on the show, I wonder how much longer it will be til Falcone has to take her down.  

And finally, a shout out to Gordon’s partner.  At the beginning of this episode, I had written off Harvey Bullock and assumed he would now play the part of Gordon’s enemy - but he mustered under pressure and did the right thing, even when it meant standing up to Falcone. 

Waiting for next week, when Alfred teaches Bruce how to fight!