Gotham - The Mask - Review

This week, Gotham was nowhere near the levels of intense as last week's Penguin's Umbrella in terms of story, but it was still a solid episode. Rather than sweep things under the rug for Gordon and Bullock, we got to see how the aftermath their Blaze of Glory is haunting them. Couple that with a few other odds and ends from this week's episode, we got a solid hour of great character insight this week. Which was not so bad, sure it wasn't high octane but it was still a great episode.

The Case: This week we open with two young gentleman fighting in an abandoned office space while being watched on camera. The fight culminates in the death of one of the men. Gordon and Jim are called out the next day when the body has been found covered in black ink and bruises, dumped as deduced by Nygma with a finger in his mouth. Bullock suggest to Gordon that they get some "uniforms" to do the work but Jim insists he'll do it himself. Jim finds out while consoling the mother of the victim, that her son was ambitious and wanting to work in finance. The Captain asks Bullock how Jim is doing, and Bullock tells her that Jim is angry, having watched all the cops run out when he needed them like cowards, no offense to her of course, and she feels that Jim will just have to get over it. Suspecting that their killer would have gone to a black market doctor for his finger, they head to an informant, who is in the middle of surgery, and question him. When the good doc, lies to them, Jim takes him despite getting the information and the fact that the doctor has a deal with GCPD. Another Detective, Alvarez, is upset that Jim has brought the doctor in since they have a deal, and Harvey begs Jim to just let him go despite his anger, but Jim walks away.

Jim heads home to find a drunk Barbara waiting in the dark with a gun, dealing with the effects of of her abduction last week. He calms her down by telling her monsters aren't real, but its clear that even he doesn't believe that. Kudos to Ben Mackenzie for consistently knocking out of the park with the subtle emotion that he is able to portray reflecting Gordon's inner turmoil. Cut to the abandoned office from before where two gentleman await in cages as a man in mask approaches and tells them their release depends on them. The next morning, Barbara comes in to apologize while Jim is taking the gun from last night with him. She asks him to leave the gun and assures him she's okay.

Jim and Gordon happen on the financial firm that our victim was interested in working for, and find that all the employees look a bit beat up. They go and speak to the man in charge, Richard Sionis, who through his speech about warriors all but confirms he killed the victim or at least played a part. Jim doesn't take to kindly to his goading of him and walks out and finds a trail of blood, which he follows in to the bathroom, where he finds our thumbless suspect who clocks him. The suspect makes a run for it but Bullock stops him. They take him to the station where he admits that Sionis has them fighting to the death as a part of the hiring process, and that they have all signed confidentiality agreements that make them accomplices. Nygma lets the team know that there have been four deaths like this over the past year or so, but before they can get a confession, the guy lawyers up. The Captain asks Jim what he thinks of all this, and he says how is it any less strange than the Goat and the Balloonman, and that maybe all this stuff has always been below the surface, waiting to come out and the death of Waynes sparked this. They represented the decent part of Gotham and maybe their death was the awakening for all the weird. The Captain then takes this time to apologize to Jim for bailing on him and he brushes her off.

Turns out Sionis owns a lot of property in Gotham, and Jim wants to just start checking out locations with Bullock to find this guy, but Bullock is not so sure he wants to be with him a the moment. He tells Jim to call him when he actually finds something. Barbara takes this time to call and check on him and he cuts her off and hangs up before she can say I love you. Jim heads to a location and finds some hopefuls locked up in a cage but is tasered by Sionis. When he awakes, Gordon finds himself in the middle of the fight club as the target, kill him you have a job and a million dollar sign on bonus. Back at the station, Bullock is trying to reach Gordon because his list crapped out, but Gordon can't be found. Bullock asks for help but is blown off, so he makes a speech defending Gordon, and suddenly they want to help, including the Captain. Meanwhile, Jim has dispatched of the three hopefuls but finds himself being attacked by Sionis wearing a the mask from before. Jim bests him and decides not kill him, just as the Captain walks in. Sionis grabs the weapon to take Jim out, but the Captain's warning alerts Jim and he clocks Sionis cold. At the station, Jim thanks Harvey for having his back, both tonight and before, but he also lets Harvey know the he will not stop until Falcone, the Mayor and every crooked cop is taken down. Harvey tells him to go home. Jim calls home to speak to Barbara who doesn't answer, just leaves a note and heads out the door with her bags.

Odds and Ends:
This week Cobblepot seems determined to make things right with his old pal Fish, he even steals a brooch from an unsuspecting woman on the street as a gift to his old friend. His attempt to broker piece with Fish while talking terms of the Falcone-Maroni peace is an intense scene to watch and even though I knew it was coming, I couldn't help but squirm as Fish quite charmingly(Whaaa?) plays the situation, pointing out to her new stooge how Penguin used to be right where he was, and then stabs Penguin with the brooch and tastes his blood. Penguin takes the brooch to his mom, who points him in the direction that everybody has a secret he could leverage. He has his goons kidnap Timothy, Fish's new stooge. He questions him and finds out that Fish has a man close to Falcone. Satisfied, Penguin has his men kill Timothy.

Bruce heads back to school this week, despite being apprehensive. It doesn't go well and he finds himself being teased by some other kids because he is now an orphan. Bruce stands up for himself and slaps the ring leader and finds himself getting beat up. Alfred sees the damage and asks him what happened and Bruce tells him that he didn't stand a chance at fighting back. Alfred drives him to the boy's house and hands Bruce his father's watch, which he uses like a brass knuckle and punches the boy a few times. When the boy yells that Bruce tried to kill him, Alfred says that's right and remember that next time you see Bruce and remember that Alfred was going to let him. Later, back at the Manor, Bruce tells Alfred that he enjoyed beating that kid up and that he is angry all the time. He then asks Alfred if he would teach him to fight and Alfred agrees. (Too bad that he can't see where this is going and just get Bruce some therapy)

Nygma had a brief scene where he is doing the forensic examination on the victim. Well, where he attempts to do the examination before being interrupted by the examiner and kicked out. Seems like our Nygma has a habit of trying to do other people's job for them, or more accurately, better than them be because he is smarter than everyone else after all. I was about to question why we got this scene, but couple this with the file clerk scenes from a few week's ago and I think they are to prove that Nygma has a nasty habit of trying to prove to everyone he knows best and that he is smarter.

Selina Kyle makes an appearance this week, climbing out from underneath a store with two very large fur coats. Too bad for her there are two cops waiting for her and she delivers the line, "Girl's gotta shop". At hours end, while at the the station she is brought face to face to Gordon again, by her own request of course.

Fish tasks Liza with the task of getting some information from Falcone's ledger by drugging him. Liza is concerned for her safety, but she owes Fish a debt it seems and she completes the task. When she returns to Fish, she asks to be out and Fish says no. Liza tells her that Falcone will find out, and that Fish already has power and money, why is that not enough? Fish tells her that she was in the room when Falcone's men killed her mother when she was young and she wants revenge. Liza is swayed and hands over the information as requested. Fish assures her that she will be safe. Later, we find out that the story she just told Liza was a lie, but Fish deemed it necessary to get the job done.

Overall Thoughts: This week, I am not going to gripe. I usually do, but this week I didn't feel the need to. This was a good hour for the show. Even the Selina Kyle scene looks to have purpose. I really loved how rich this episode felt for our characters. We got facets of Alfred, The Captain, Barbara, Bullock, Nygma, Liza, Fish, even Alvarez(We learned he's a cheater). This was a great episode because everyone has something to gain from it. It was very meaty in terms of getting know more of these characters, about what makes them tick. I didn't really care for the case of the week, but it did provide a way for some closure for Jim, Harvey and the Captain. I liked Todd Stashwick's portrayal of the Mask and at least he didn't die like many of the case of the week villains before him, maybe he'll be back. That would be fun to watch. I like that even though episode just appeared as filler, it wasn't. It may not have contributed much to the overall arc of the show, but it contributed to the characters who are far more important part of the show. Fish didn't bother me as much this week, and I actually cared about what she had going on. This week may have been a whisper compared to last week's scream, but sometimes a whisper can be more haunting than a scream and I like that. On a scale of West to Bale, this week was a Batman Begin's. Which is pretty solid. Oh, and next week, Harvey Dent!

So what did you think of this weeks episode? How did you feel about Bruce admitting to his darkness? Did you like the portrayal of the Mask? Are you sad Barbara is gone? How soon do you think Penguin will find out about Liza? How awesome were the brief Ngyma scenes? Are you excited about this week's introduction of Harvey Dent?

About the Author - Winston Mize

Winston is a 24 year old goofball, born in the north, and currently living in the south. He loves TV.... for some it's coffee, for him it's TV talk that gets his day going. He wants to be a screenwriter, and watches some of everything. You name it, he's probably checked it out. And he would like you to know that it is okay for a 24 year old to play with action figures... well, he does anyway.