You didn’t see that coming? Assumption is always the bane of any prequel setup. Everyone knows the ending enough to start second-guessing any added chapter zeros. It’s a state of mind that Gotham brilliantly exploited last week in the stunning “Last Laugh” twist. It made us believe we were witnessing an adolescent Joker only to see the crown firmly ripped off the head of this would-be clown prince of Gotham. Going forward, if we should expect anything, it’s the unexpected... just not as much this week. In many ways, the first three episodes became their own self-contained trilogy leaving this week’s episode a lot of restarting to do. It’s still good but feels a slight step down from the explosive opening salvo.
Strike Force – As the GCPD’s new hard ass Captain puts together a special unit of cadets for Jim to lead, Theo Galavan manipulates himself into the lead of Gotham’s upcoming Mayor Elections with a little help from a rather less willing Penguin. Meanwhile, Bruce seeks to thank Theo for saving his life and makes a surprising new friend.
After weeks of a more comic “Rise of the Villains” focus the police drama side literally smashes its way back into the spotlight. From the moment Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic Four) walks on screen as the new GCPD Captain, Nathaniel Barnes (aka Captain Clobbering Time) has our full undivided attention. His early scenes have a good feel of rallying police moral as he plays on ideals of pride and respect for their police work, along with shame for their recent tragedy, “I wasn’t even here and I was ashamed..... Anyone here that’s not ashamed and angry should resign right now”. The resulting story is almost a “Rise of the Police” good guy compliment to the villains. The idea of putting together an elite team may be a bit generic but it works in the context of the show, and from a narrative point of view, compartmentalises the police side of the story nicely. There’s a great feeling of The Untouchables as Gordon and Barnes assemble the Alpha Squad (aka The A-Team) of cadets. Not to mention a few fun references to the Police Academy series. As well as visiting Gotham’s own academy during Barnes early naming and shaming. There’s an officer High Tower in their ranks (and a Coulson too apparently). Despite getting some good moments in their selection interviews, all the new squad members feel rather bland characters at the moment but it’s likely we’ll see them developed over the season. Here, they mainly serve as a unit presence to contrast the more traditional approaches of the GCPD. Bullock becomes the effective point of comparison as the old man surrounded by kids. This does get some good laughs when Harvey’s forced to admit their strengths, “Okay, so they move well”. A final thought on Captain Barnes: he feels an awesome character.... but is he too perfect? There are some good odds he’ll ultimately be revealed as part of Theo Galavan’s master plan, given his documented style of rigging the game from both sides.
Theo’s master plan evolves well this week, again with a few Court of Owls story similarities as he seeks to obtain greater governing power in the city to implement his grand plans for building of urban neon genesis. His new Gotham model has a cool Delta City vibe to it, but he’s unlikely to face any Robocops. His Mayor campaign comes as no surprise, but it’s still great to watch the way he manipulates the public into his approval. The real fire of this episode comes when Theo gets face-to-face with Penguin. The waddling little fellow’s refusal to join the gang builds well on his detesting of Jerome last week. He has no interest in creating further chaos Penguin’s blackmail coercing, like the elite cop squad, is a tad clichéd but it has one crucial advantage: It allows Penguin to drift into the same anti-hero territory he so flourished in the last season. Robin Lord Taylor revels in the conflict and complexity as the “Kind of Gotham” suddenly gets stringed up by the Galavans. His car scene confession to Butch is genuinely touching, and all his suffering and misery lay excellent groundwork for his eventual pay off revenge, most likely a common enemies team up with Jim.
We see things get pubescently spiced up for Bruce Wayne this week as Gotham puts a younger spin on one of his recurring comics love interests: Silver St. Cloud (Natalie Alyn Lind – The Goldbergs). While her introduction to Bruce may go too OTT (sure...she just happened to playing in the fountain by their window) but there’s a lot to enjoy about it. Silver herself presents as quite cute and likeable despite clearly being a honey trap to lure Bruce into his role of Theo’s master plan. Then of course, there’s the contrast of a scorned Selina Kyle being sent away by Alfred with her tail between her legs. There are no doubts as to where this is heading so the riddle simply becomes, "Do we want a young Bruce love triangle?" Speaking of The Riddler, the Edward Nigmas are on superb comedic form this week as things finally develop between him and Miss Kringle. You have to love the green glowing neon outside his window during dinner but its Kringle’s reaction to glimpsing (and not being put off by) his crazy side that intrigues the most. It’s one of two possibilities: either she’s heading on her own villain origins trajectory or she’s just dumb enough to pick two violent and potentially abusive boyfriends in a row.
Strike Force is still a good episode of Gotham that just happened to follow a few great ones. It successfully sets up a main story that links the GCPD, Penguin, and Theo Galavan together nicely, all while giving many supporting characters some good progression. Yet again, there’s no “Villain of the Week” bad guy, which really speaks of Gotham’s developing strengths in world creation. As the show rebuilds itself, it has laid some solid foundations.