Violet provides a recap of Season 1 Episode 4 of Gotham, titled Arkham, where councilmen are dropping like flies! Following the recap, both Violet and Josh share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Gotham, Season 1 Episode 4: Arkham
This episode picks up where last episode left off — with Cobblepot showing up at Gordon’s door. Gordon plays it off to Barbara as Cobblepot being a “work friend.” Gordon walks out out, then roughs him up in the alley, angry that he returned when he told him not to. Cobblepot tells Gordon he wants to help him, asks him to trust him, and says that there’s a war coming. He mentions Arkham, then disappears into the night.
Meanwhile, atop a parking garage, a man approaches Councilman Ron Jenkins and his aide. They reluctantly agree to check out a device that the man has constructed. The device stabs the aide in the eye, killing him instantly, then the man uses it to stab Councilman Jenkins in the chest. Jenkins tries to run away, but the guy easily catches up to him and finishes off the job. The next day, Captain Essen gives the Jenkins case to Gordon and Bullock.
Over at Fish Mooney’s place, she is having a young lady sing for her as an audition for a job. Although the girl says she likes boys, Mooney asks her to pretend she’s a boy, and to seduce her. The girl begins to massage Mooney, who doesn’t seem impressed, then they send her on her way.
Bullock and Gordon question a parking lot thug, but it quickly becomes evident that he’s not the perpetrator. Gordon becomes aware of a plan for the Arkham city district. Before the Waynes died, they had planned for the area to become affordable housing, and to tear down Arkham Asylum, replacing it with a state of the art mental facility. There is also an opposing plan to make the surrounding area into a waste disposal site, but the Mayor announces that he supports the Waynes’ plan.
Over at the restaurant where Cobblepot is working, Maroni meets with his colleagues, and Cobblepot eavesdrops.
Gordon goes to the Wayne mansion to talk to Alfred about the Wayne plan for Arkham. Alfred informs him that it’s Falcone plan now, and that Councilman Jenkins was killed because he was backing Falcone’s plan — because of the opposing plan, which is Maroni’s plan. Bruce overhears, and joins the conversation, informing Gordon that he wants to fulfill his parents’ dream of helping the less fortunate. However, Gordon warns him about the potential resulting gang war, which Bruce tells Gordon that he has to stop. Just then, Gordon gets a call from Bullock that Councilman Zeller has been abducted — one of Maroni’s guys.
We see that Zeller has been taken to Arkham Asylum by the guy from the beginning of the episode. Zeller is in a barrel, and the man pours gasoline on Zeller. The man tells Zeller that he’s doing this at the request of his customer to send a message, and sets him on fire, as Zeller begs the man to tell Falcone that he’ll change his vote. However, his pleas go ignored, and Zeller goes up in flames.
The next day, Gordon, Essen, and Bullock investigate the crime scene at Arkham. Gordon tells the others that this is about that Arkham vote, and that these councilmen were killed to swing the vote each way between Maroni and Falcone. Essen says she’ll put guards on the other councilmen and the Mayor. Ed comes over to give his report about the deaths of Jenkins, his aide, and Zeller — they all had puncture wounds from a metal spike, indicating that they were all killed by the same person.
At the restaurant, Cobblepot’s boss catches him snooping, and he gets reprimanded.
Bullock and Gordon question someone about the murders, who gives them some info about that guy who created the metal spike and where to find him. They go to the landscape building in midtown to find Richard Gladwell, who notices the detectives’ entrance, and goes to the back, where he readies his metal spike weapon. Gordon goes to the back and draws his gun, but Bullock calls him over to Gladwell’s desk to show him newspaper clippings of Jenkins and Zeller. Bullock and Gordon go to the back again, but Gladwell is gone. They find a slip of paper with the initials “C L M” and wonder what it means.
Bruce awakens screaming from a bad dream — about his parents’ murder. He asks Alfred to see all the Arkham plan files — he is looking for a connection between the councilmen murders and the murder of his parents.
A robbery takes place at the restaurant where Cobblepot works, and Cobblepot’s boss, Lou, is shot dead, along with some other guys. The robbers drive off, just before Maroni’s men arrive. They find Cobblepot hiding in a closet, and he has managed to save one bag of money, though the robbers got away with the other bag.
When Gordon returns home, Barbara confronts him about keeping secrets from her, and asks who Oswald Cobblepot is. Gordon refuses to answer, then realizes Montoya told her the name. Barbara confesses that she and Montoya were in a relationship years ago. Gordon gets angry at her for lying to him.
Maroni is angry about the robbery, saying he wants to strike back against Falcone. He also promotes Cobblepot to restaurant manager.
Bullock reports to Gordon that the real Richard Gladwell has been dead for 5 years, and this other guy killed him to assume his identity. Bullock thinks the CLM initials are a waste of time.
Meanwhile, another girl is singing for Mooney to audition for a job. This girl, Liza, also likes boys, and Mooney tells her to seduce her. Liza sits on the table and kisses Mooney, takes a drink, then walks off. Just then, Bullock shows up, and asks her to find Gladwell for him, telling her that he’ll owe her.
Cobblepot calls Gordon and tells him there’s going to be another murder, and that the hit will happen tonight. Gordon requests the list of officers working protection tonight — the last names of the officers protecting the Mayor begin with C, L, and M. He leaves a voicemail telling Bullock that the Mayor is the next victim, then goes over to the Mayor’s house to warn him. Sure enough, the police cars outside of the Mayor’s house are empty. When Gordon informs the Mayor of what’s going on, the Mayor says he needs to get something out of his safe, and Gordon accompanies him upstairs. Meanwhile, Gladwell shows up outside, and when Gordon opens the front door to exit with the Mayor, Gladwell is right there, and attacks him.
Gordon is able to fend Gladwell off, and he and the Mayor run upstairs. However, Gordon loses his gun in the process, and Gladwell picks it up. Gladwell uses the gun to get through the locked door, then he and Gordon fight, as the Mayor cowers off to the side. Gladwell is just about to shoot out his metal spike at Gordon, when Bullock shows up and draws his gun at Gladwell. However, Gladwell says he is going to finish the job, and begins to lunge at the Mayor, but both Gordon and Bullock shoot him dead.
Back at the police station, Barbara apologizes to Gordon for not telling him about Montoya. However, she gives him an ultimatum: either he tells her his work secrets, or she’s gone.
Mooney can’t decide which of the two girls she wants to hire, so she has them fight for it. The second girl, Liza, ends up winning.
Cobblepot meets up with three guys in an empty apartment. It turns out he had hired these guys to rob the restaurant, and they are sitting there counting the money. Cobblepot gives them some canolis.
The Mayor announces that he is going forward not only with the affordable housing plan, but with the waste disposal plan as well, and that Arkham Asylum will be retrofitted and re-opened. Maroni is pleased that he gets a huge piece of Gotham in the waste disposal site, and the contract to refurbish Arkham. Bruce Wayne is upset that the Mayor made a compromise and that everything his parents worked for is falling into the hands of criminals, though Gordon thinks that this compromise may have stopped a lot of bloodshed and a dangerous war. However, Gordon tells Bruce that he thinks it’s worth trying to save Gotham.
It turns out that the canolis were poisoned and killed the robbers. Cobblepot takes the sack of money, and leaves the dead bodies behind.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 4 of Gotham: Arkham
Was it just me, or did anyone else find it a little hard to follow why it was a big deal between the two opposing plans? Bruce Wayne is over there all adamant about wanting his parents’ dream to be realized, but the Mayor did say that Arkham Asylum would be retro-fitted and would be a world-class treatment facility… so why is Bruce pouting? The waste disposal site, on the other hand, yeah that’s obviously bad news. I don’t think anything good has ever been associated with a waste disposal site, especially in a town filled with criminals. In any case, I do like the opposing mobs story that continues to be set up, not only between Falcone and Maroni, but also with Fish Mooney off to the side, secretly plotting to take Falcone down.
Speaking of Mooney, what exactly is her plan for Liza? She said that she wants to use her as a “secret weapon” against Falcone, and she kept having the girls seduce her as part of their audition. So I guess she’s going to send Liza to seduce Falcone? And learn all his secrets? And report back to Mooney so that she can bring him down when he least suspects it? Or maybe have Liza kill Falcone when he’s in a vulnerable state? That could be interesting, I suppose. But again, the show insists on bringing in lesbian elements in what seems an effort just to spice things up, which is kind of annoying when it seems like it’s just a ratings grab early on in the series, to get the numbers up and keep the straight guys interested — which is probably the core target audience.
The part that I liked most about this episode was how clever and conniving Cobblepot was. I hadn’t expected him to be so shrewd. So it was an interesting twist to find out that he set the whole robbery up. Although, I find it a little hard to believe that Maroni would promote him from a lowly dishwasher all the way to restaurant manager! Especially considering that he hadn’t even worked there that long. I also find it odd that he wants to help Gordon. I suppose maybe he’s trying to repay Gordon for sparing his life, but it’s kind of weird that it seems like he’s genuinely trying to help him, and give him tips about what he knows. I wonder how long that will last.
Then we have Barbara’s little ultimatum to Gordon. Why does he have to tell her everything about his work? He’s kind of not supposed to, and plus, it’s dangerous for her to know this stuff. Sometimes there’s just things you have to leave at work. But I guess Barbara doesn’t see it that way. Well, we know they end up getting married, so I guess he ends up giving in and telling her. The question is, how long will it be before he does that?
I think I’m starting to get into Gotham, but I’m still not quite there yet, though this episode was overall a pretty good one. Let’s hope they keep it up. I am interested in seeing what happens to Arkham Asylum. Does it actually get a nice update, and then later fall into disrepair? Or does Maroni just not do a very good job in refurbishing it? I am quite curious about the show’s future use of this iconic Batman site!
Josh’s Thoughts: Gotham, Season 1 Episode 4: Arkham
I always seem to have a big question every episode that I have to get off my chest after watching an episode of a show, no matter which show it is as long as it holds my interest. I guess that’s a good thing about Gotham, I am interested enough to ask this question, despite how silly the question is.
So what is the question? Here it is: Why would two rival mob gangs hire the same hitman to take out their competition? I guess it is possible that the opposing sides didn’t know that they were hiring the same person, but considering how easily Gordon found out who the killer was, I have to imagine Falcone or Maroni would be able to figure it out.
The other big thing this episode has going for it is Arkham City/Asylum. For people only familiar with the films or video games regarding Batman, it is the place the Joker or other high profile victims escape from. It is kind of interesting seeing it pre-Batman and how it influences the show. I am curious to see if we will get to go into the asylum, and find some villains for Gordon to chase down.
Cobblepot is becoming an interesting character. I never really knew him as a shyster, fast-talking, deceiver that the show is portraying him as, but it is interesting. He is clearly out to make his own name/fortune, and I wonder how this all ends for him. We know that he doesn’t die, as Batman has to face him, but I have a feeling he will end up held in Arkham Asylum himself eventually.
But after these past few episodes, I am going to give the show a bit longer. I am mildly intrigued. I still have some problems with it—such as the formulaic relationship Gordon and Bullock have. Gordon has an idea to investigate and Bullock has to come up with every possible scenario that proves Gordon is wrong. Then Bullock comes on board and takes his own methods to get the answers they need. So far, the past few episodes have worked out similar to this. Hopefully the show can add some dynamic to their relationship, and not be the same cycle every time. But again, I want to give the show a shot, so we’ll continue on!
Scenes from Gotham, Season 1 Episode 5: Viper
Here are scenes from the next episode of Gotham, titled Viper:
