Gotham season 4, episode 6 review: Hog Day Afternoon
Reviewing Thursday’s episode of Gotham.
Picking up right from where we left off the last episode, we see the Lee is definitely back in Gotham City working as a sports doctor in the fight club. Nygma thinks he can charm Lee into helping him get smart again, but that was an epic fail. Grundy, on the other hand, is turning into a superstar in the ring. Watch out, Rocky Balboa, there’s a new kid in town and he’s from a swamp!
Later we see a GCPD officer walk down an alley into a trap. Our villain wearing a pig’s face strikes down the officer. The next morning, Gordon and Bullock find the victim, in uniform, wearing a pig face. Batman fans will recognize Gotham has welcomed Professor Pyg to the show, and they have turned up the creepiness on this character. The scene where Pyg was literally putting makeup on a pig was both funny and jarring.
Gordon and Bullock double team as they search the city for leads. Unfortunately, no one wants to be the snitch. Finally, when Pyg strikes in broad daylight, Gordon is able to question a “blind” man to get some information on where to find the culprit. This leads Gordon and Bullock to an abandoned where they find an officer in a chair, and with something unpleasant in his stomach. Kaboom!
Poor Penguin gets stood up on his date when Sophia is a no-show. Zsasz providing moral support is too funny. This is enough to send Penguin’s temper off and Zsasz sets out with his camera to spy on Sophia. It seems like Sophia is making moves to build a base to overthrow Penguin, but when she’s confronted, the building she purchased was nothing more than a home for orphans. Looks like Sophia is hacking away at Penguin’s distrust for her. By the way, Zsasz’s reaction to children is priceless.
Back at the fight club, Nygma isn’t any closer to getting smarter. After he learned that he couldn’t buy Lee’s services, he follows her and finds out that she’s running a free clinic out of her apartment. Unfortunately, the broken Nygma can’t come up with a devious plan to make Lee help him. However, it doesn’t take long for his luck to turn. When Lee realizes that she needs cash to restock her clinic, she has no choice but to accept Nygma’s offer.
Meanwhile, Gordon wakes up with his arms and legs duct taped to a chair and our piggy villain looming over him. Turns out that Pyg is only targeting the cops on Penguin’s payroll, and Bullock is one of them. As Pyg disappears into the next room to terrorize Bullock, Gordon has to make haste and figure out a way out of the chair to save Bullock. Luckily, after a few hops, Gordon breaks free. Unfortunately, Pyg gets away.
Hog Day Afternoon was an amazing cop thriller. The highlight of this episode was Pyg. He’s such a great addition to Gotham. He makes us believe that Gordon has finally met his match. I appreciate the camera shots in this episode and feel that it magnified the audience’s uneasiness. There’s an amazing shot in the beginning with the officer in the alley where everything is at an angle and sharp pink light cuts right through. Sublime!
My only criticism on tonight’s episode was Gordon waiting in the shadows for Sophia to come home from her date with Penguin. It’s obvious that Sophia is playing both Gordon and Penguin at this point, but she’s still building up to the big reveal.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the cat and mouse chase of Pyg and Gordon in Hog Day Afternoon. I did miss Bruce and Alfred, but Gotham’s decision to keep the focus on Gordon and the coronation in the GCPD was right on the snout (pig pun)! For these reasons, I’m grading episode 6 of Gotham a 4 out of 5.