Gotham Recap/Review - S01E13 - Welcome Back, Jim Gordon

Tonight’s episode of Gotham, Welcome Back, Jim Gordon, is mostly an unfocused story that jumps from one unrelated plot to another. Though the main story is apparent, the writers don’t use it to their full advantage. This episode was saved from being a total miss by the ending scenes, which briefly delved into the motivations of each character and the consequences of their actions.

Spoilerific Recap

Fish Mooney is wheeled into a dungeon-like warehouse where she’s strapped and chained to a gurney. She’s not phased and shows this by taunting the people transporting her. Soon, a man in medical scrubs named “Bob” arrives.

James Gordon and Harvey Bullock are on scene at a murder in a factory. Bullock does a quick mention about Gordon’s and Leslie Thompkins’s locker room activities. Gordon replies with an inquiry about Mooney, and Bullock makes a note that Mooney is missing, with her club completely massacred. Gordon apologizes for Mooney’s disappearance and mentions Bullock’s affections for her. Bullock, angered by the statement, replies defensively. They move onto the investigation at hand and find the victim, Binky Littlefield, hanging on a hook. Gordon is quickly introduced to narcotics detective Arnold Flass. As Flass exits the scene with Harvey, Gordon analyzes the victim more and finds blue packets of drugs hidden in the heel of Littlefield’s shoe.

Because a janitor, Leon Winkler, at the warehouse may have seen the killer, Gordon and Bullock bring him to GCPD to work with a sketch artist. While waiting in a secluded room, Winkler is approached by a mysterious man who quickly stabs him to death. Moments later, Gordon, Bullock and forensics are collecting evidence in the area. Edward Nygma figures out that Winkler was killed with an ice pick — the same one that was used on Littlefield.

Bob starts off by asking Mooney her full name. Mooney quickly turns this around where the subject is now Bob’s daughters. Mooney insults his daughters and is met with a swift hit by Bob. Spitting in his face, Mooney continues to taunt Bob.

Butch Gilzean is transported to an unknown location where he’s being disposed of. Gilzean is able to quickly overpower his captors. His main concern is finding out where they’re keeping Mooney.

Meeting with Captain Essen, Gordon suspects that a police officer is responsible for the murder of Winkler. Both Essen and Bullock warn Gordon to tread carefully. Adamant in his theory, Gordon is allowed to go ahead with his investigation, but with oversight from Essen.

Alfred Pennyworth has been driving Bruce Wayne around on the streets of Gotham looking for Selina Kyle. Seeing an opportune moment, Bruce exits the car — wanting to circle the block on foot. Alfred agrees to escort him. They quickly run into Ivy Pepper. Bruce asks her to pass a message to Selina. She agrees after her price of twenty dollars is paid.

Bob removes a plastic bag covering Mooney’s face. She quickly comes to consciousness. Mooney dares him to do more. Bob starts to go through his various tools and settles on a hammer — he opts to take out her knee caps. At the moment of striking, Gilzean comes in for the rescue and brutally beats Bob.

Gordon question various officers about a missing page in the log book. He hits a wall at every turn. Gordon presses Harvey to help. They settle on one officer who they trick into giving them the name of the individual who removed the page — Derek Delaware. Gordon goes after Delaware and the two have a confrontation in the garage. Gordon ends up handcuffing Delware. Searching Delaware’s car, Gordon finds the same blue packets that were on Littlefield.

Gordon and Bullock meet with Essen. Flass, who’s also present, tells them that they’ve interfered with an on-going undercover investigation. Essen takes the Winkler case away from Gordon and Bullock, and assigns it to Internal Affairs.

In the records annex, Nygma corners Ms. Kringle and hands her a greeting card. After learning that it’s nothing “weird”, she accepts the gesture from him. Ms. Kringle quickly walks away and Nygma gleefully performs a small celebration.

Mooney wakes up in a hotel room with Gilzean watching over her. His plan is to escape before Carmine Falcone finds out, but Mooney makes it clear that she will not leave until she makes Oswald Cobblepot pay for what he’s done.

At Mooney’s former nightclub, Oswald surprises Gertrud with the establishment. Gertrud gushes with pride for Oswald’s new success. She finds Mooney’s silk scarf and wears it as she dances around.

At a diner, Bullock finally tells Gordon the truth about Flass. Years ago, Flass started to bust drug dealers and, eventually, took over their stash houses. Flass is a protected man and the corruption runs high — the commissioner is said to also get a cut of the sale. Gordon wants Bullock to get the location of the stash houses. With evidence linking Flass to Littlefield’s murder, Gordon can then link Flass to Winkler’s murder. Bullock agrees and makes a call to one of his contacts.

Gordon and Bullock arrive at one of the stash houses. They find Delaware and other corrupt cops taking away boxes of drugs. A fight ensues, but is quickly ended when Delaware presents a signed warrant from Judge Bam-Bam allowing them to clear the stash house upon Commissioner Loeb’s request.

Back at GCPD, Essen tells Gordon that Internal Affairs has ruled Winkler’s death to be a suicide. Gordon is furious at the false findings. Essen reinforces the idea of moving on to the next case, as Flass is virtually untouchable. She emphasizes that no one wants to lose their job helping Gordon. Seeing Winkler’s crying widow, Gordon leaves the station, only telling Bullock that he’ll be gone for an hour.

At the records annex, Ms. Kringle has opened Nygma’s greeting card. Nygma walks in as Flass and other police officers make fun of the romantic poetry written to Ms. Kringle. Hiding his hurt feelings, Nymga quickly makes an exit.

Gordon arrives at the club and is quickly introduced to Gertrud by Oswald. After an awkward introduction, Gordon gets down to business. Since Oswald works with Maroni, who runs the drug trade, Gordon wants to know if there’s dirt on Flass to put him away. Oswald happily obliges and promises Gordon that he’ll make some calls. Gordon is uneasy with the deal, but Oswald reassures him that friends don’t “owe” friends anything, and that no one will get hurt.

Victor Zsasz and his henchmen arrive at the facility that acted as Mooney’s prison. Finding Bob incapacitated, Zsasz quickly executes him.

Oswald has his bodyguard, Gabe, take Gertrud home. Now alone, Oswald immerses himself in the enjoyment of owning Mooney’s club. In mid-celebration, Mooney and Gilzean enter — ready to exact revenge.

Selina visits Bruce at Wayne Manor. She wants to know why he’s been looking for her. Bruce hands her a snow globe as a gift and invites her to stay at the mansion — this way she can help him find the man who killed his parents. Selina rejects the offer and quickly changes her story — she never saw the man who killed his parents; she lied so she wouldn’t end up in juvenile hall. Selina hands the snow globe back to him and leaves.

Gabe questions Delaware at gunpoint. Delware reveals that Littlefield was killed by Flass to send a message. Gabe believes him and allows Delaware’s wife to rise from the bathtub for air. Gabe has a change of heart when he wants more concrete information — he submerges Delaware’s wife underwater again.

Oswald begs Mooney for his life. He tries to win her over by proposing a plan to work together. Mooney makes it clear that she would never work with someone as low as him. Oswald, pushed to his limits, lashes out at Mooney. Suddenly, Zsasz and his crew storm in. A gunfight ensues and Gilzean pulls a reluctant Mooney out of danger. The two run through the club’s back hallway. Gilzean forces Mooney out a window while he stays behind to slow Zsasz. Zsasz shoots Gilzean and ponders on what to do next.

Ms. Kringle visits Nygma during his lunch break to apologize for Flass going into her desk and finding the card. She tells him that she thought the card was thoughful. As he tries to say something, she quickly leaves in a bid to preserve the moment.

Gabe arrives at GCPD and surprises Gordon with a paper bag containing evidence to put Flass away. Gordon contemplates how to handle the situation.

Bruce cries while in front of the now shattered snow globe. Alfred enters and gives him a pep talk. Bruce, with renewed strength, vows to find other avenues in solving his parents’ murders.

Gordon confronts Flass with the evidence, and announces the charge of murder. Flass taunts Gordon and repeats his status as a protected man. Gordon tries to rally the whole department in doing the right thing. Essen finally steps in and arrests Flass. As he’s taken away, Nygma watches in glee.

Bullock escorts Mooney to the Port of Gotham. For her own safety, he tells her to leave the city. Mooney vows to return and asks Bullock to find Gilzean. The two then share a parting kiss.

In an alley, Gordon runs into Delaware who begs him for the safety of his family. Gordon, not knowing what Gabe did to get the evidence, is horrified by the favor he asked of Oswald.

Good Moments

Fish Mooney not giving “Bob” any satisfaction.

Bat Signals (References and Giveaways)

Arnold Flass also appears in the comics. He was first introduced in the Batman: Year One (February 1987 – May 1987) story arc. Starting out as Gordon’s corrupt partner, he would later testify against Commissioner Loeb and be spared a harsh sentence. He’s later murdered by the Hangman Killer in Batman: Dark Victory (November 1999 – December 2000).

Riddle Me This … (Predicting the Past)

I see Oswald going to Gordon for a favor even though he emphasized the fact that Gordon owes him nothing.
Even though Gordon was disgusted in the manner by which the evidence of procured, could he slide further into this moral quandary when he requires the assistance of the underworld for more leverage? Perhaps this is how Bullock and the other officials started on their path to corruption — each man trying to do the right thing.

Final Thoughts

Welcome Back, Jim Gordon contained some good ideas, but it never really followed through. Like my complaints about previous episodes, this episode had too many subplots which detracted from the main story. The overall theme of this episode deals with Gordon selling his soul for his crusade — the cleaning up of GCPD and, ultimately, Gotham City. However, this theme got lost in the various story lines that the writers felt were necessary.

Mooney’s predicament could’ve been explored in an episode all by itself, instead of having it delivered in pieces. Having power taken away her, Mooney actually became more interesting. It was great to see how she reacted to those who cared for her. Since we’re on that topic, the show may need to delve into why Gilzean is so loyal to her.

The Bruce and Selina plot line seemed to be shoehorned in to fill up some time. Nothing really came of it. In past episodes, it was already made clear that Selina wasn’t going to help Bruce with his investigation, yet they’re repeating this like a broken record. Whenever the episode went to this subplot, everything felt out of place and forced.

Though the main plot was interesting, it wasn’t without its mistakes. The eventual discovery that Flass was the murderer didn’t come as a surprise. Being played as a jerk, the character was set up to be a villain from the beginning. And not a very smart one might I add. Being a seasoned narcotics detective, shouldn’t Flass have inspected the body of Littlefield a bit better? How could he miss something so blatant as drugs hidden in the heel of a shoe? Gordon, who’s a homicide detective, found it within seconds. Also, why would you not have dispensed with the murder weapon or cleaned it with bleach. This should come as no surprise since every week we get a taste of Gotham’s bad habits — plot conveniences.

I felt that the meat of the story was actually the ending scenes: Gordon being approached by a begging Delaware; and Bullock showing how he truly feels about Mooney. The writers could’ve explored these two themes in depth and that would’ve been enough. At every step, Gordon should’ve been conflicted with making a Faustian bargain. That’s the real character study right there. Like I said before, Gotham needs to know that it’s the characters that drive the story. But they seem to enjoy having the characters react to the plot.

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Gotham Review – S01E13 – Welcome Back, Jim Gordon

By Steve Lam | Jan 27, 2015