Gotham Review – S01E05 – Viper

After last week’s episode, I thought the writers for Gotham couldn’t get any lazier.  The latest episode, Viper, proves that they seem to have given up on any type of suspenseful storytelling.  With sluggish, throwaway scenes and predictable outcomes, Gotham is proving to be one of the lower quality live-action adaptations in the DC Universe.

Spoilerific Recap

We open with Bruce Wayne still vehemently looking into his parents’ murders.  The obsession has grown into a large investigation board.  To discourage Bruce from this unhealthy exercise, Alfred Pennyworth proposes the idea that he may never find out who killed his parents and never get his revenge.  Bruce answers that he isn’t looking for revenge, but looking at how Gotham works.

Sal Maroni, having lunch with his right-hand man, Frankie, proposes his latest ploy to undo Carmine Falcone — rob his casino.  Frankie finds it to be a waste of time, but Maroni wants it done.

In one of Gotham’s slums, a homeless street performer is handed a mysterious vial containing a green liquid.  The label on the vial reads “Breathe Me.”  Breaking open the vial, the street performer inhales the fumes.  He later enters a liquor store and starts to ingest mass amounts of milk.  As the owner approaches him with a bat, the street performer shows off his now immense strength.

Grabbing lunch with Harvey Bullock, James Gordon sees Selina Kyle pickpocket someone.  As Gordon gives chase, Selina quickly disappears.  Gordon and Bullock are soon alerted to the liquor store where they find the owner, who tells them that the street performer took the ATM machine with his bare-hands.

At her club, Fish Mooney has already begun training her “weapon” — Liza.  And rather roughly might I add.  She breaks Liza down by calling her “baby girl”, but doesn’t allow Liza to call her “mama.”  Liza has to earn that right.

At an isolated warehouse, Falcone meets with his underbosses, which include Mooney.  The topic of their meeting: Arkham.  Falcone doesn’t think Maroni won in any way because everyone got what they wanted.  One of the underbosses, Nikolai, thinks otherwise.  Mooney quickly steps in and defends Falcone.  With tempers flaring, Falcone stops their argument and reminds everyone that they’re still a “family.”

Hitting the streets, Gordon and Bullock find out where the street performer usually resides and his name — Benny.  As the two arrive at an abandoned warehouse, they find empty milk containers along with Benny.  Pleading to Gordon and Bullock for more of the green liquid that was given to him by the “man with the mangled ear”, Benny goes berserk and hoists the stolen ATM over his head, ready to throw it.  At that moment, Benny’s bones begin to crumble.  The ATM machine finally comes crashing down, leaving his body in a grotesque, mangled mess.  At dusk, the man with the mangled ear starts to hand out vials to every addict.

At Wayne Manor, Alfred tells Bruce that, on his behalf, he has accepted an invitation to a charity event at Wayne Enterprises.  Bruce agrees to go, but with the intention of questioning the board as to why Wayne Enterprises would give Arkham stock to Gotham’s gangsters.  When Alfred suggests “that’s how business is done”, Bruce refuses to believe that his parents would take part in such a deal.  And his parents may have been unaware since, through his research, he’s found multiple shell companies and offshore accounts.

At the police station, suspects are brought in exhibiting the same aggressive behavior as Benny.  Edward Nygma explains to Captain Essen, Gordon, and Bullock that the drug, called Viper, activates unused DNA.  Burning calcium as fuel, the victim soon requires vast amounts of dairy intake.  But the feeding is never sufficient which causes calcium to be leeched from the bones — leading to the victim’s bones crumbling and, eventually, suffocation and death.  Questioning Nygma further, Gordon learns that the only company with a lab capable of creating Viper is WellZyn — a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises.

At Maroni’s restaurant, Oswald Cobblepot grovels his way into a conversation between Maroni and Frankie.  Oswald offers up his established contacts at the casino to help Maroni with his plan in robbing it.  Interested, Maroni digs deeper into Oswald’s past.  As Oswald reveals that he was formerly employed by Falcone, Maroni reacts violently and slams Oswald’s head down onto the table.

Back at the police station, WellZyn’s general counsel, Taylor Reece, makes an unexpected visit to preemptively defend the company because of what they consider to be unfounded claims.  When Gordon asks about any former employees with a mangled ear, Reece discloses the knowledge of a terminated employee named Stan Potolsky.  Disgruntled because he felt he wasn’t doing meaningful work, Potolsky cut off his own ear in protest to his supervisor.  As Gordon moves forward with the case, he’s approached by Frankie, who convinces Gordon to go on a trip to meet with Maroni.

Arriving at the restaurant, Maroni forces Gordon to corroborate Oswald’s own story about being a Falcone/Mooney turncoat.  With their stories matching, Maroni stops the impending execution of Oswald and allows Gordon to leave.

Going through Potolsky’s desk items sent over by WellZyn, Gordon and Bullock discover that Potolsky had a close friendship with his Gotham University philosophy professor, Issac Steiner.  Visiting Steiner, Gordon and Bullock learn that after Potolsky brought his concerns to the Waynes, both Thomas and Martha planned to shut down WellZyn.  But after their deaths, Wayne Enterprises revived the program and perfected Viper, calling the new formulation Venom.  When Gordon figures out that Steiner conspired with Potolsky, Steiner inhales his own personal vial of Viper.  After a brief fight, Gordon shoots Steiner.  On the verge of death, Steiner says, “Empty altruism will not erase what they’ve done.”  Gordon understands it to mean charity, which alerts him to Potolsky’s next target.

At Wayne Enterprises’ charity event, Bruce corners Molly Mathis, an executive who worked closely with Thomas.  Pressing her with difficult questions, Bruce finally requests a meeting directly with the board.  Meanwhile, on the roof, Potolsky has rigged the hotel ventilation system to release Viper gas onto the attendees of the charity.  After giving his manifesto, Potolsky initiates the delivery of the drug.  Gordon arrives on the roof and shoots one of the valves — spewing Viper gas into Potolsky’s face.  Potolsky, still refusing to surrender, tells Gordon to investigate Warehouse 39 and then jumps to his death.

Gordon and Bullock arrive at Warehouse 39 only to find it abandoned and empty.  Outside Mathis has them under surveillance.  Contacting an unknown person, Mathis assures that Gordon and Bullock will not find anything, but her team will “review” something if the two get close.  At Wayne Manor, Alfred starts to help Bruce with his investigation into his parents’ murders.

Outside of the casino, Maroni, Oswald, and Frankie wait for the results of the heist.  As Maroni’s men run out of the casino with the loot, a relieved Oswald gets back into the good graces of Maroni.  In an unknown location, we learn that Mooney is actually conspiring with Nikolai to bring Falcone down.

Finally, an Aria-humming Liza grabs the attention of Falcone.  As Falcone introduces himself to Liza, he tells her that Aria was something his mother frequently sang to him when he was young.  Knowing that she now has Falcone in her grasps, Liza invites him to share in the music.

Good Moments

• The visual effects showing the Viper victims’ bones crumbling under their flesh.
• When Bruce corners a patronizing, condescending Mathis and asks her some difficult questions about Wayne Enterprises.

Bat Signals (References and Giveaways)

• The mention of Venom can only mean one thing — Bane.  It seems that, in this universe, Wayne Enterprises has a big hand in creating the various supervillains Bruce will one day face.
• In one scene, Bruce was watching Zorro on television.  Multiple origin stories of the past have shown Bruce’s Batman disguise being inspired from Zorro.

Riddle Me This … (Predicting the Past)

• Could the unknown person who Mathis talks to on the phone be Antonio Diego before he becomes Bane?

Final Thoughts

I’m getting more and more disappointed with Gotham.  The acting, set designs, and visual and special effects are all there … except for the writing.  Week after week, I’m noticing scenes with zero tension and bland storytelling.  This week was a big letdown due to repetitive exposition and clumsy outcomes.

A glaring example of wasteful words was when Gordon retold his story to Maroni.  This scene should’ve been cut and we could’ve come back to it.  There was no need for the audience to hear something that didn’t contribute to new information.  The set up of Liza playing to Falcone’s oedipal feelings deprived that storyline of a potential twist.  It would’ve been better played had we met Liza when she meets Falcone for the first time: an innocent girl saved by Falcone from common street thugs; while humming the tune of Aria, he starts to warm up to her; then, a few episodes later, they show Liza to be a pupil of Mooney’s.  These are all simple tricks that could’ve been employed to spice up Gotham‘s intrigue.

At this moment, I’m very surprised that Gotham received a whole season order.  If the writing doesn’t improve soon, Gotham will most likely be a single season show.  The writers really need to challenge themselves, and with a team of them, that shouldn’t be too hard.