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Gotham – Post-Spring Hiatus Primer

By Steve Lam

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Next Monday will mark the return of Gotham for its final four episodes of Season One.  Having been on a spring hiatus for over a month, we’re going to do a short recap on where each character is at.  As Gotham has various plotlines and characters that weave in and out of other characters’ lives, we’ll try and do the best we can to compartmentalize the current situation of each major player.

James Gordon

James Gordon started out as a guy who wanted to do the right thing.  He’s still a guy who wants to do the right thing, but this drive has pushed him to make some Faustian bargains with a few unsurley people.  Oswald Cobblepot — to name one of them — is now owed some favors for helping Gordon out.  The latest “help” came in the form of Oswald leading both Gordon and Harvey Bullock to a secret house that hid corrupt Commissioner Loeb’s insane daughter.

Oswald Cobblepot

Since we’re on the topic of Oswald, our favorite waddling villain was almost killed by Sal Maroni when he found out Oswald was double-crossing him.  After Carmine Falcone stepped in to quell this little quarrel, Maroni has promised to step off a bit — but moreso a “winking” backing off.  After all, accidents do happen in Gotham’s underworld.  Knowing Oswald, he probably put in some insurance procedures after this incident.

Harvey Bullock

Harvey Bullock finally has a clean slate … well … semi-clean now that Gordon has acquired the files used to blackmail Bullock.  After butting heads at the start of the season, both Gordon and Bullock now seem inseparable.  The two have been through a lot together.  We’ll just have to see if the final four episodes of Season One will introduce anymore new friction between the two.

Fish Mooney

Venturing outside of Gotham City, we have Fish Mooney who’s now well into her own storyline.  Abducted from her escape yacht, Mooney ended up as a prisoner in an unknown location.  Her first plan was to create a rebellion by uniting the prisoners via cult-like inspiration.  She soon earns a meeting with the Manager.  It’s soon discovered that the Manager was not the big honcho.  When Mooney demonstrated the lengths of her defiance with self-mutilation, the real puppeteer meets her — Dr. Dulmacher.  After quickly proving her worth to Dulmacher by sacrificing her prisoner friends, Mooney has been brought on as a partner.

Bruce Wayne

Bruce Wayne’s investigation into his parents’ murders have certainly snowballed into something bigger.  By connecting the dots, Bruce hypothesized that Wayne Industries had a hand in the murders of his father and mother.  This fact was confirmed when an old friend of Alfred Pennyworth’s critically injures the good butler and is revealed to be a hired spy of Wayne Industries.  The company’s involvement in this attempted murder is still unknown to Bruce, but it’s all a matter of time before the future Dark Knight discovers this fact.

Barbara Kean

Barbara Kean who left after finding out that she couldn’t handle Gordan’s burdens (something she once implored to be allowed to help with) has now returned to Gotham City in the hopes of rekindling her relationship with him.  She finds out that it’s not going to be that easy when she secretly walks in on Gordon and Leslie Thompkins kissing.  As of The Blind Fortune Teller, Barbara has been relegated to taking advice from apartment squatters Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper.

Evaluation of the Season so Far

Gotham got off to a good start with some mood-setting sets, but it quickly devolved into something ridiculous.  A lot of the writing was flat for each character and there were too many introductions of known famous villains — something this season relied on too heavily.  The plot, at times, was overly convoluted for no reason.  The writers were doing things that were the opposite of good storytelling — that is they should’ve focused on complex interesting characters and a simple story.

Another large downfall of the show has been its need to try and surprise the audience, which ended up predictable half the time.  Some of the retconning done in the show was also unnecessary: Barbara having a previous relationship with Renee Montoya; Gordon having a relationship with Leslie; the introduction of the Joker as a maniacal teenager; Edward Nygma working for the GCPD.  I can go on and on.  Hopefully, the month-long spring hiatus has allowed the writers to really evaluate where they want to take the characters, and we get a strong finale and a much better second season.

Fox’s Gotham returns next Monday, April 13, 2015 at 8:00PM EST with its nineteenth episode, Beasts of Prey.

Next: Check out our predictions for Gotham's final four episodes

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