Gotham, Episode 5, “Viper” Recap

Yesssss, I know. This is soooo behind, but I had some things to do within the past few weeks. Here is the recap, but MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW. PASS IF YOU DIDN’T SEE LAST WEEK’S EPISODE!

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The episode opens with Alfred trying his hardest to make young Bruce understand that he’s just a kid that doesn’t need to research his parents’ deaths or the corruption of Gotham City. In any other household, someone would have called Gotham’s variation of a Hold 5150, but when you have that much money, it’s okay to be morbidly curious and eccentric. It’s all for the greater good in the future, when he wears that Batsuit.

Sal Maroni plots to steal from Falcone’s casino, to cause a shakeup. His second-in-command, Frankie, doesn’t approve. Penguin watches on while cleaning glasses. By-the-way, if anyone stared me down like Penguin did to Frankie, I would freak out. I am POSITIVE someone will be swimming with the fishies very soon.

There is nothing more endearing to my heart than an honest and musically-inclined panhandler. Like, I don’t judge. I may still give you food rather than money for your addiction, though. Mangled-eared Stan Potolsky handed out “Viper” without telling Benny (the panhandler) the effects and my heart felt sad. We all know “Viper” is the parent to “Venom” (Bane’s magic potion to his strength), so it wasn’t surprising to see that Benny went all cray and stole the ATM machine. WHAT was intriguing was all of his dairy consumption. During this time, Selina Kyle slides right on through to steal a wallet, exactly where Detectives Gordon and Bullock are having lunch. (I ADORE Selina. I want more screen time of Selina.) Bullock and Gordon’s get-along-time ends when they hear the alarm to the bodega going off.

Favorite quote of this part: – “Do not vex me, mortal.” (So is this why Bane speaks that way? Is the drug also a supplement to sophistication and God-like talk? That’s cool.)

We move on to Fish Mooney and her “weapon”, Liza, attempting to sing “Oh Mio Babbino Caro”. I love Fish, but so far, I can live without Liza. She seems so boring. It’s also lazy writing to have a mother-complex so soon in her story arc, by calling the older woman “mom” and Fish telling Liza she has to earn being her daughter. As much as I laughed when she was bitch-slapped, I immediately felt bad for Liza. Also, she can’t sing. Blah.

Source: http://kane52630.tumblr.com/

Crime bosses meet-up time!

Nikolai (another boss under Falcone) and Fish verbally spar. Nikolai tried to tell a good-hearted story by stating in his home country, women belong in bed or in the kitchen, depending on their talents. Fish replies with, “I bet your mother was a lousy cook.” She won.

Gordon and Bullock find Benny amongst milk cartons and cheese wrappers, but before he can harm them, he loses his strength (and bone structure) to crumble underneath the ATM machine. Gross. Back in their boss’ office, Nygma (The Riddler) is fascinated by his research about this drug. Apparently, “Viper” steals calcium off the subject’s bones to increase their strength, which is why dairy seems to run out so fast that week. What lab is capable of this? WellZyn. WellZyn representatives arrives at the precinct, and OF COURSE they’re singing Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” They bring up Stan Potolsky so the detectives know who to look for.

Oh, let’s not forget about Penguin. I mentioned in a previous post that I hate when the Good Guys can’t kill a villain, due to their morals. Well idiot, now you’re letting this fool mess you up all over the place. Due to Gordon’s mistake actions, Penguin has killed and doesn’t know how to mind his own business. He tells Maroni that he knows how Mooney and Falcone work, but being a traitor doesn’t bode well. Frankie goes to pick up Gordon so he can confirm the truth, but Penguin puts him in a pickle. Now he has to pretend to be in with Falcone AND Maroni. Fun times ahead!

Bullock tries hard to get Gordon to open up about his present problems. Which, I’m sure the sneaky little bastard knows something is up other than Barbara and he’s being a mole. Gordon finds a picture frame of Stan with a professor. The A-Team takes a visit to Gotham University and finds out the truth: That Stan was creating biochemical weapons for WellZyn, the Wayne’s shut the project down, but WellZyn continued after the death of the two. My favorite part of this segment is seeing Bullock get attack once more. Jim has gotten some hits, but it always seems like his partner is the punching bag.

Favorite quote: “WHAT’S ALTRUISM?” (Bullock tickles my funny bone.)

Alfred and Bruce arrive at a charity luncheon, where Bruce’s main goal was to annoy the board of his company. He is downtrodden when realizing he only has access to middle-management, Mathis. Mathis tells Bruce that Wayne Enterprises would never work with crime bosses, but Stan streams a video through about the evil tendencies of WellZyn.

He kinda flummoxed me here, because of a couple of things: 1) You’re going to poison Bruce, the kid of the two people who believed you and shut down WellZyn in the first place, before their deaths. 2) EVERYONE IS GOING TO DIE AND WON’T SPEAK OF THIS MOMENT. Why didn’t you stream through the news as well?

Gordon saves the day and Stan flies off a building to his death. Adios, bud.

Other things:

• After seeing Bruce in harm’s way during the luncheon, Alfred seems to have given up his stance of giving the kid a normal childhood. He’s now helping him research through the Wayne’s files.
• There’s more to Mathis.
• Fish and Nikolai are sharing their bedroom talents while plotting against Falcone.
• Liza IS BORING AND STILL CAN’T SING, but she got a makeover and has attracted Falcone’s attention in a park.

See you guys tomorrow for tonight’s episode!

Iris

 

 

‘Gotham’ – Semi-Review and Next Week’s Preview

Last night was the premiere of Gotham and I enjoyed it. I’m going to try to not be spoiler-y in this post, but I can’t promise that the next episode I’ll do the same.

My thoughts? During my first watch, I felt that I put the show on too high of a pedestal, so I had to remember that this is only THE FIRST EPISODE. During the second watch, I was fine when I immersed myself in to the noir storyline. It DID introduce tons of characters from the comic book, setting the stage as soon as possible. I’m all for accepting Ben McKenzie‘s straight-edged portrayal of Detective James Gordon. In fact, I am looking forward to see if Gordon will bend some rules for the well-being of others. I gotta admit, when it comes to the world of fictional heroes letting the villains live to destroy another day, I roll my eyes when they don the white hat crusade instead of eliminating the threat. Our particular hero doesn’t know what he has done yet, so I have to forgive and accept his morals.

Three things that I thought about while watching the show:

1) I hope I will adore Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper.

I don’t have any evidence (yet) that says this will point to the opposite direction of what I want, but still. I want to say it out loud so the universe can hear me, please let these two characters rule. I’ll have a better idea next week, with the episode titled “Selina Kyle.”

2) Woah. A TON of characters  in this first episode!

Source: Ohawkguy

I didn’t think that would happen so fast. I thought they would dole them out as the season progressed, so this gave me some whiplash.

3) Don’t fuck with Jada Pinkett Smith aka Fish Mooney.

Seriously. Don’t mess with her. Fish will force you to give her a pedicure, but if you get polish on the side of her toes, be prepared for that nail file to stick out of your eye. On the plus side, it’ll be a neat Halloween costume!

Next week’s preview:

Bonus: 

During SDCC 2014, my friends and I got a chance to meet David Mazouz aka Young Bruce Wayne! The 13 year-old is incredibly sweet. He was happily interacting with all the fans, took many pictures, making sure to give everyone around a moment of his time. What a cutie! Here’s a picture of my friend Patty with David!

Until next week’s review!