Five episodes in, and it's become clear that my approach to watching this show is not working. I'm looking for a connection between all of the disparate subplots that probably isn't there (yet?) and that's making it difficult to be invested in anything that happens. So I decided to watch "Viper" in a different way. It worked, in a way. I wasn't quite as bothered with what was happening as I had been in previous episodes. I saw this episode in a disconnected manner. One subplot is left entirely on its own, and is judged on its own merits. It has little connection with the other subplots.





So the case of the week that Gordon and Bullock deal with has the "Viper" drug cocktail hitting the streets. In another corner, you have Fish Mooney training her "weapon" to get closer to Carmine Falcone. In another, the Penguin tries to get in deeper with the Maroni family. And finally, there is young Bruce Wayne investigating the connection between the murders of his parents and the corruption of the family business. It's still not a good show, but there are traces of one embedded within all of the little narratives that are being depicted.


The cases that the Gotham City Police Department work within the episode shouldn't really form its spine. The villains being showcased veer too much into cartoon territory. Here, the Viper drug is being introduced into the city by a rogue and disgraced scientist (as if Gotham City doesn't have enough of those). The drug is designed to give any person who inhales it superhuman strength. This isn't deployed very well by the show. A busker gains enough strength to lift and carry an ATM; An elderly professor crushes his walker; The scientist doesn't do anything with the drug and commits suicide before he can get arrested by Gordon and Bullock. The drug has the unfortunate side effect of disintegrating one's bones and causing death via a calcium deficiency.


While not as silly as floating victims with a balloon, it's still silly enough not to be taken seriously as a threat. But Viper is only effective in being a precursor to the more infamous "Venom" drug that apparently gave Bane his super-strength in the Batman comics. Venom does get a cursory mention here so it functions as a kind of Easter egg shout-out to long-time fans of the comics and as something to look out for in the future. Once again, the mysteries within the case practically solve themselves. Gordon and Bullock do very little detective work here.





The drug and the rogue scientist are connected to WellZyn, a large pharmaceutical company in Gotham that is a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. This dives into the most interesting part of the episode. Young Bruce Wayne uses that connection between the two companies as an entry point to the possible reason behind his parents' murders. Through some intensive detective work that is basically looking at a bunch of files and papers, Bruce is able to deduce that Wayne Enterprises' involvement with the Arkham district plans and the mob family would have meant that his parents needed to get out of the way. Their removal from the equation allowed for the Arkham district plans to move forward and put Gotham City further into the muck.


This is such a big revelation for the young man that it gets him out of the confines of Wayne Manor and into the charity function that WellZyn's rogue scientist decides to attack. Why he doesn't immediately go to Detective Gordon or some other adult who is able to do more with it than him is not addressed. It still bothers me that Bruce Wayne doesn't do the usual things that children his age would be doing. The writers probably think sticking future Batman in school might not be the best use of the character. Perhaps this is just the start of things to come, though. Going to Detective Gordon would be a viable path for Bruce to take in the future, alleviating some of the flaws the show has been developing since the start.



There was some enjoyment to be had in seeing Maroni bring Penguin down to size. He's not the most subtle of characters, especially when he should be blending in with the crowd. Other characters take immediate notice of his constant snooping and the fact that he always happens to be within earshot of crucial conversations or actions being taken out in the open. This is the first episode where he doesn't commit a homicide, which actually defangs him a bit. Instead, Maroni put him and Gordon through the wringer with regard to what happened between the two of them at the pier in the pilot.





Maroni's dual threat of death for both characters has no real tension behind it because we know that they are both crucial to the future of the world. They can't die now. But you have to start wondering why Penguin wants to put himself through this. There has to be a payoff to what he's doing as Maroni's restaurant manager. I'm running out of patience to see what that is.



The same is true with Fish Mooney and her weapon. Fish's sole purpose would seem to be just scolding the young girl who will get sent into the fire to get close to Falcone. It's supposed to play as training of sorts, but comes off as a scolding. There's no weight behind any of this. Is this a joint venture between Penguin and Fish to take control of Gotham's underworld? Is that how the writers intend to eventually combine their respective subplots? The answers are still unclear at this point.

There's nothing regarding Barbara or the MCU detectives in this episode. The writers need to commit to either the cartoonish villainy or building the institutional corruption killing the city. They can't continue to have both. In separate parts, the show is somewhat enjoyable. When there is even an attempt to bring all of the pieces together, that's when everything either shows its cracks or falls apart entirely.