This episode of Gotham has Gordon and Bullock chasing a bombing suspect, while at the same time, Harvey Dent is introduced and set on bringing down the corrupt Lovecraft, who he feels might involved in the Waynes’ murder. Check out Josh’s recap and thoughts on this episode, simply titled Harvey Dent!
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Episode Recap of Gotham, Season 1 Episode 9: Harvey Dent
Gotham starts with Gordon coming home to find out that Barbara has left him for now, due to her being scared of Zsasz and Falcone. He has other company with him though–Selina Kyle. Gordon has Selina Kyle talk with a sketch artist to illustrate who killed the Waynes.
Moving to the “villain of the week”, Ian Hargrove, he is currently in prison, and is being transported. He is a dangerous man, and already seems suspicious, and looks like he might have an escape plan. While in transport, the prisoner acts suspicious, and suddenly the car is ran off the road. Men kill the guards, and Ian escapes with these men.
Gordon takes Kyle to Wayne Manor, and Alfred isn’t happy to house this “dangerous” witness. Gordon tries to smooth things over with Alfred, but it doesn’t go well. Meanwhile, Wayne seems enamored by the “charming” Kyle.
Then the well known “White Knight” of Gotham, Harvey Dent, is introduced, and uses his double-sided coin to “trick” a teen to act straight. Gordon, Montoya and Allen meet with him about the Wayne murder. Dent seems intrigued about the witness, and has a theory that an entrepreneur named Lovecraft has to be affiliated with the death of the Waynes. Gordon is concerned about Kyle’s safety, but Dent seems reassuring that the witness would be safe. Gordon seems okay with this given everything remains anonymous.
Gordon shows up to the station, and Bullock gives him the rundown on their new case, Ian. Bullock finds it odd that he had help getting out of jail, given that he had such few visitors, and wasn’t known for using accomplices. Bullock and Gordon bring in Ian’s brother, and he explains that they were close, and says that Ian didn’t mean to kill anyone. He just wanted to destroy munitions companies. The brother explains that his brother is “sick” not “bad”. Meanwhile, we see that Ian has made another bomb for whoever grabbed him.
So at another munitions factory, they receive a package–the bomb. Ian sees from outside, and seems horrified about what happened.
Back at Wayne Manor, Alfred is training Bruce in fighting. Selina has some comments about their fighting, and Alfred seems a bit rude to their guest. Later, Wayne and Kyle have more conversations, and they discuss their differences in upbringing.
Cobblepot makes his entrance to this episode, and is snooping around Liza’s apartment, trying to figure out Mooney’s plan. He then pays a visit to Mooney, and figures out that the perfume on Mooney is the same found on some clothing in Liza’s apartment.
Turns out that the bombing at the munitions company was so the bombers could steal more explosives. Gordon gets a phone call, and Alfred wants Kyle out. Gordon tries to calm him down. Going through Ian’s records, they are interrupted by Ed Nygma. He finds that the shrapnel is from an abandoned metal factory, so Bullock and Havrey decide to investigate.
At the factory, they find Ian, and try to take him into custody. Ian reveals that he planted the name plate in hopes he would be found. He also reveals it’s Russians, and they broke him out against his will. They’re interrupted by gunfire though, as the Russians are back. Gordon and Bullock lose Ian, as the attackers speed away with Ian.
At Wayne Manor, Kyle is about to sneak out, but Wayne confronts her. Wayne reveals his regret in not doing anything to help his parents, and Kyle tries to reassure him that there wasn’t anything that he could do.
The mayor comes in complaining about this case going on too long. Meanwhile, Dent talks with Lovecraft, and plays his hand, trying to rattle Lovecraft. Lovecraft laughs in his face. Dent goes a little off his rocker, and screams at Lovecraft, which seems to shut Lovecraft up.
Nygma figures out that the bomb is specifically made to blow through iron, which narrows down these Russians’ targets to a specific vault in the Gotham Armory. The bombers blow the vault, but Gordon and GCPD show up to stop them. Butch was watching from afar though, and blew the van up. It looks like Mooney was behind the plot.
Back at Wayne Manor, the kids seem to be getting along pretty well. Alfred comes in, sees what is going on, and surprisingly seems happy to see that Bruce is having some fun. Alfred tells Gordon that things are going ok for now.
So back to Cobblepot, he pays Liza a visit, and he threatens her, telling her that he knows about her spying on behalf of Mooney. Cobblepot wants her to keep her work going, but obviously he has other plans in mind.
Back at the station, Dent says he thinks he rattled Lovecraft. Bullock also says that all mentally ill inmates are being transferred to Arkham.
Meanwhile, Butch returns to Mooney, and tells her the plan didn’t go as planned. But she isn’t upset, she just wanted to rattle Falcone.
The final reveal this episode is Barbara–and she has decided to make her bed with Montoya.
Josh’s Thoughts: Gotham, Season 1 Episode 9: Harvey Dent
Gotham certainly seems to do a lot better job with trying to avoid the “standard” procedural, making it a little more difficult to figure out who the “villain of the week” is. I think that certainly is a plus for the show. I do also like that the story is more cohesive than other new shows, and that there is an overarching story.
For some reason, I really am not enjoying the portrayal of Selina Kyle. This is partially because of how different it is from her “real” origin story. Most of the time I am okay with drifting away from source material, but I think this is such a big stretch—having Selina and Bruce know each other before they are their costumed counterparts—is a mistake, as their relationship seems to thrive mostly from that.
I wasn’t too impressed with Harvey Dent’s portrayal either. I guess I have to give him more time, but I was not aware of Dent being “unhinged” prior to his accident. The way he lashed out at Lovecraft was really odd. I just didn’t think that that was something Gotham’s “White Knight” would do.
But finally, the thing that angered me the most this episode—that hussy Barbara Gordon! I can’t believe what she did! First of all, she wants to stay and help Gordon despite him saying explicitly how dangerous it would be if she stayed. Then, when things are calming down, she decides to run away? On top of all that, she tells Gordon that she is afraid of Gotham, but I am pretty sure that Montoya is living in Gotham too. Montoya apparently is a safer alternative than Jim? Montoya is going after the same type of people as Jim, and probably as more people that want to kill her than Gordon does him! I really feel that that move was imply just for shock value, just like the previous scene where Montoya moves in for a kiss a few episodes ago. I really dislike using relationships as a simple “shock value”.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 9 of Gotham: Harvey Dent
Just when I thought I was starting to like Gotham, and then we get this episode. I went into it a little excited, knowing that we were going to be introduced to Harvey Dent. Things started out fine. But then he started going psycho angry on Lovecraft. Um, what? No, we’re just now meeting Harvey Dent, he’s supposed to be this nice, squeaky clean guy. Yes, we all know that he eventually becomes the villain Two-Face — but that’s not until way down the line, not until after Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, and definitely not on the first episode that we meet him, when Bruce Wayne is still a child! I mean, I understand the concept of foreshadowing, but I feel it was misplaced in displaying evil tendencies in Harvey Dent’s character already. It’s too early.
Then there’s the issue of Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman, going to live with Bruce Wayne! Whaaaat? I can take her popping up every now and then, for the sake of the re-imagining of the world of Gotham, giving the suggestion that she and Bruce Wayne may have crossed paths as children. But to actually be a resident of Wayne mansion, however temporary… just no. Then they make it clear that Bruce Wayne has a crush on her, and she even goes so far as to tease a kiss, using it as a reward?? Ludicrous. The amount of “kids” this episode was just too much for me. I’m not really liking the acting of Selina Kyle. But, as I’ve mentioned before, I usually don’t like kids or their acting on shows. However, I did like the scene where Alfred is trying to teach Bruce to fight.
I also found it a little too convenient that Cobblepot was able to figure out who Mooney’s spy was right away. He just found out she even had one last episode, and the first person he looks into turns out to be the right one? You’d think he’d spend a little more time trying to figure it out, but nope, it seemed like it took no effort whatsoever. At least make it look like it wasn’t that easy!
Then finally, that brings us to Barbara, who I’m pretty sure no one likes. I was hoping we’d gotten rid of her for awhile, but then she has to come back in at the end of the episode, revealing that she’s gone back to her ex, Montoya. That doesn’t even make any sense. The reason she left Gordon was because she wanted him to share everything with her, and then because she was afraid of his enemies. Um, hello, Montoya is a cop too, you’ll have the same exact problems with her, Barbara! So annoying. I feel like the show just wants to keep going back to the lesbian storyline for ratings, because that relationship makes no sense at all otherwise.
One thing I didn’t have a problem with was our “villain of the week.” That was fine. Nothing super exciting though. Let’s hope this mid-season finale is spectacular enough to get me back on board with the show!
Scenes from Gotham, Season 1 Episode 10, Lovecraft
Here are scenes from the next episode of Gotham, titled Lovecraft:
Scenes from Gotham, Season 1 Episode 10: Lovecraft
