It's a bit crazy as well as disconcerting that this show is thirteen aired episodes in, and it can't find any semblance of stability. There have been enough episodes shown there are patterns that do emerge, though. They are patterns that are indicative of a series still searching for a consistent tone and voice that can be built on going forward.

Does it want to be purely a police procedural that explores the hazards that Jim Gordon encounters daily at the Gotham City Police Department? Does it want to play out the mob war between Fish and/or Maroni and Falcone to see how it affects the city at large? I think the bigger question is where the show is going in its future (even if that future is already largely laid out for them) or how it's going to get to that point. This episode is another in a line of ones that were all over the place in terms of story, characterization, and tone.



Instead of dealing with the fact that Detective Gordon has returned to the police force or anything regarding the fallout of the previous episode (where at least there was the question of whether he was going to Arkham or not), he's treated as if he had never left. He and Bullock are assigned to the murder of a gang member who somehow has drugs stuffed into the heels of his shoes. Some detectives would ask questions about the drugs in the shoes, but Gordon and Bullock are part of the homicide unit so the investigation is focused there.


A witness named Winkler wants to confide in Gordon who might have killed the gang member, but he is instead murdered inside the police department. This rightly raises all sorts of alarms within the department. Only, Gordon is fully convinced that a corrupt cop murdered Winkler to cover up something. The most obvious guilty party would be Detective Arnold Flass, a big shot detective who embodies sleazy and slimy and corrupt.

But the episode delays this revelation for as long as possible in order to get through the staples of its procedural side. There's Gordon going through a montage of suspects (whose interrogations aren't quite as amusing as the ones he did as a guard in Arkham, though that can be blamed squarely on the feeling of similarity with the montages) and then going to an authority figure to stick with his original assertion, in this case being Captain Essen. It's Captain Essen's job to tell Gordon that he can't go after Flass or any officer without concrete evidence, but Gordon only resolutely soldiers on. He gets the evidence he needs by calling in a favor with the Penguin and Flass is arrested.



Flass' assertions that he won't be touched because he's "protected" by Commissioner Loeb and his lieutenants fall on deaf ears because he as well as the Commissioner have only been introduced in one episode and will, most likely, disappear for long stretches only to come back onto the show whenever the plot dictates as such. We don't see the protection Flass is referring to ad nauseum. This is another pattern that makes Gotham somewhat frustrating to watch. It can't maintain arcs within the season. They come in fits and spurts.



As for the other storylines, it's become harder and harder to invest in them because they largely feel directionless. Fish Mooney is about to get tortured by one of Falcone's "best" guys, though he doesn't even get a head start on the torture before Fish is rescued by her henchmen. She vows to tear the Penguin a new one, and yet, when she and Butch have the Penguin dead to rights in humiliating him as he revels in controlling her club, she doesn't strike. Part of that is because psychopathic killer Victor Zsasz gets in the way, but it only enhances my already-present (and growing) doubts about Fish's legitimacy.




At this point, she feels like a character full of hot air, showy enough to add color to the show's universe but possessing little in the way of teeth. She isn't as fearsome as Falcone (who is an imposing presence without having to do anything drastic) or even the unpredictable Zsasz. While his cold-blooded murder of "torturer" Bob was arguably unnecessary (where is Falcone going to get another guy like him?), it is clear that Zsasz will do anything to light up the screen. Fish has none of that kind of charisma or presence to me. Her association with Bullock could be something interesting, if the writers ever bothered to keep developing it instead of sticking it in the background.


The same could be said of the other periphery characters in the episode. Bruce and Alfred are wasted in a small subplot that essentially boils down to finding Selina. The big revelation that Selina didn't see exactly who killed Bruce's parents is largely dented by the feeling that the whole story will be put on the backburner for who knows how long.


Nygma is basically stalking Miss Kringle for no apparent reason other than to eventually be made fun of by Detective Flass and the other bullies in the precinct. I don't get it; he knows he works in a police station, is surrounded by law enforcement, yet is willing to skirt close to doing something that would all but demand a restraining order. It's likely putting off the moment when Nygma will snap and turn into a sociopath. Or maybe not. The entirety of this show seems so frustrating to me, and there doesn't look to be any signs that it will get better soon.