Gotham - The Mask - Advance Preview

“Gotham” doesn’t hit the highs of last week’s installment, but fans of the show should still happily don “The Mask.”

When he and Bullock are first called to this week’s crime scene, Gordon notes that their victim put up a hell of a fight. Turns out to be a spot-on statement as the detectives soon discover that the death is tied to a financial firm that stages brutal brawls as part of its interview process. It’s an entertaining bit of absurdity, that the poison in Gotham City’s veins has taken root even in such a banal, white-collar setting. Giving it color and shade are well-staged fisticuffs, macabre touches, a dollop of Nygma wackiness, and a bad guy who’s both a proto-version of a recognizable Dark Knight rogue and who gets under Gordon’s skin about his war(rior) temperament.

There’s also fallout from last week’s siege on the precinct. Gordon is not-so-silently steamed that his fellow officers left him to die while a guilty Essen (who has an insightful exchange with Gordon about the abundance of freakish crimes since the deaths of the Waynes) speculates that the other cops are either ashamed of their actions or unwilling to have the back of a man who’s pissed off the mob. Caught in the middle of the tension is Bullock, who ends up doing something out of character to address the problem.

Meanwhile, while Falcone and Maroni have declared peace, there’s definitely still a lack of it between the Penguin and Fish Mooney, which is made crystal clear after another confrontation that’s tense yet amusing in its forced politeness. They separately spend the episode trying to shore up their positions. While Oswald interrogates his replacement for info, Fish continues to put pressure on Liza to procure leverage against Falcone. She also reveals interesting crumbs of her backstory, semi-truths she seems to immediately contradict. It all does a good job of keeping the mob war business bubbling even though it’s mostly on the back burner this week.

Bruce gets to venture outside of the Wayne Manor living room and (answering a question I’ve been asking myself) returns to school for the first time since his parents were murdered. If you’ve ever watched television before, you won’t be surprised that his classmates are cruel jerks who taunt him about being orphaned. Also, Alfred’s parenting skills continue to be…suspect. Still, the show does smartly (if not entirely effectively) introduce another familiar name from the Batman mythos, one who would actually be a peer of Bruce’s at this age. And I’m really enjoying the old soul spin David Mazouz puts on Lil’ Wayne.

On the less compelling personal front, Barbara is clearly struggling with everything that happened with her, with Butch and with Victor Zsasz. In the end, she makes a decision that will again shake up the dynamics between her and Gordon (and hey, on the eve of the arrival of Morena Baccarin’s Leslie Thompkins, what a coincidence!).

“The Mask,” the second Gotham of November sweeps, airs this Monday on FOX. Until then, make like the Penguin and waddle over to the comments section to speculate.