It should come as no surprise that Gotham continues to disappoint.  Rather than focus on the characters already introduced, the writers seem intent on tossing every possible villain imaginable into the mix.  While the basis of the Batman tale insists that Gotham be overrun by the time the Dark Knight arrives on the scene, it’s hard to take Jim Gordon seriously when so much is going wrong.  How, exactly, does he gain enough support to become Commissioner in the years to come?

Of course, the episode itself is focused firmly on a future we will never see in the context of this particular show, and so it’s essentially the equivalent of putting the Scarecrow on the mantle in Act One when there’s no Act Three.  It’s all well and good, but what’s the point of investing in Jonathan’s plight?  It’s just another symptom of the same condition that goes back to the very beginning of the pilot.




Meanwhile, the writers continue to insist on shoving Bruce Wayne into the story when there’s no logical reason for him to be there.  What exactly was the purpose of this episode’s subplot, other than to tell us what we already knew about the father/son dynamic between Alfred and Bruce?  It might have occasionally distracted from the antics at the GCPD, but maybe spending that time actually making the GCPD look like something more than a complete disaster would have been a better way to go.

On the plus side, coincidentally, the writers seem to be finally doing exactly what I’ve been begging them to do for quite some time now: put Fish Mooney and Penguin into positions where they are locked into longer plot arcs regarding their ongoing battles.  Seeing them jockey for position in ever more crushing ways, all within the space of episode, has robbed them both of any semblance of competence or strength.  What the audience needs is evidence of how each of them can gain ground and undermine the current power structure, so when Penguin takes control over time, it feels legitimate.