Gotham: The Penguin’s Umbrella

Yes, I know this is running a little later than usual.  What can I say, life happens.  Moving on…

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is how make a great episode!  Redemption, taking a stand, twists, turns, it’s got it all!

We begin with everyone reacting to the revelation that Cobblepot is still alive.  Basically, the Falcone people, including Harvey Bullock are freaking out and wanting Gordon dead.  Gordon is also freaking out and calling Barbara, knowing that she’s going to be a target.

Naturally, he’s too late and has to stop on Fish Mooney’s henchmen and send Barbara out of town while he takes care of business.  Essentially, his plan is to arrest everyone hope to at least attract some attention to corruption in Gotham before someone kills him.  Before he can enact his plan though, Victor Zsaz shows up at the station to bring Gordon to Falcone and literally orders the rest of the cops out of the station.  It is a real mark of how bad the situation is that they all, all 50 of them leave and Gordon is on his own against Zasz and his two flunkies.  Needless to say, this doesn’t go well and Gordon only survives because he is rescued by Montoya and Allen.  To be honest, this sequence was both awesome and disappointing.  I enjoyed seeing Gordon having to take on Zasz on his own but I would have liked the battle to be less one-sided, with Gordon taking down at least one of the flunkies and/or wounding Zasz.  After all Gordon has combat experience and in the comics at least is a former Green Beret.

This is all a good start but after Gordon gets patched up, things get really good.  Knowing full well that he is probably going to die, James goes to visit Bruce Wayne, telling him that he probably won’t be able to make good on his promise to find his parents’ murderer.  I don’t want to completely spoil this one for you but the scene the passes between them may generate a tear or two.

After that, Bullock reappears and having decided that he’s probably on Falcone’s hit list anyway agrees to help Gordon.   At this point, the cinematography and music really kick in as the duo goes after first the mayor and then Falcone, generating expectations for a great and noble stand against the forces of evil.  And in a sense, that is exactly what we get.  However, the run into a bit of a snag when Falcone reveals that rather than leaving town, Barbara came to him to beg for James’ life.  Needless to say, Gordon and Bullock stand down, but only be allowed to walk by Falcone.

At first, this looks like more example of the aging crime boss losing his edge, a sign of weakness.  But as Fish noted earlier in the episode, Falcone isn’t so much acting weak as he is acting like he knows something.  And that something is that he’s known about Cobblepot all along.  In fact since the very beginning he and Cobblepot have been working together.  Or at least that is when Falcone thinks.  It goes almost without saying that Falcone is actually getting played by Cobblepot who has proven to be a master of appearing weak and pathetic while secretly moving all the pieces on the board to his own advantage.  The only question is, how long before the Penguin makes his big move?