Gotham Pilot Recap and Review: Welcome to the Underworld, Jim Gordon

Jim Gordon and his partner investigate the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne after they are gunned down savagely in front of their son Bruce on the streets of Gotham….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

When Gotham opens up for the pilot episode, a few things are made abundantly clear within just a few minutes. This is a modern city compete with spacious video billboards sprawled with ‘Wayne Enterprises’ across them yet dark enough to contain scores of alleys where pickpocket thieves can lurk (Catwoman aka Selina Kyle) and an unsuspecting family wanders when going to catch a cab after a movie.

The family in question is of course the Wayne clan with father Thomas leading the troop to the other side of the alley in search of a cab. The plot holes with this entire scenario goes back to the original story and the creation of Bruce Wayne becoming Batman — why was a wealthy family going down a back alley at all? Why go this way to catch a cab when you just left a major street? You have a butler yet no driver?

Investigating the matter really belabors the bigger point — Thomas and Martha Wayne soon run into a mugger dressed head to toe in black, faced covered by a bandana in classic bandit style, and a gun pointed at both of them demanding their money and valuables. Anyone that’s ever heard the legend of Batman knows this story from front to back already, but it’s understandable why Gotham needs to tell this tale in the opening moments of the show. This is the way to set the stage for everything that follows and the mythology that the series will undoubtedly change, craft and mold into a slightly new universe that could go on for several seasons on FOX.

Needless to say the mystery mugger grabs the cash and pearls from Mrs. Wayne’s neck before gunning both of them down in front of their son Bruce. As he screams in horror at the death of his parents, off in the distance young Selina Kyle watches in silence as the only other witness to the crime.

From here the murder of the Waynes shifts Gotham in a police procedural where we are introduced to boy scout cop Jim Gordon. He’s a new detective in Gotham, paired up with cynical, grizzled vet Harvey Bullock. These two are the odd couple of the police force. One of them an idealistic do-gooder who just wants to follow the letter of the law. The other has seen the darker side of Gotham and he’s more comfortable living just between the light and the shadows.

Gordon and Bullock are sent to investigate the double murder that’s just been perpetrated and when they happen upon the scene, sure enough it’s Thomas and Martha Wayne who have been murdered. Bullock immediately tries to weasel out of handling this particular crime. It’s too high profile and the press and politicians will want results. Bullock’s not interested in results. He’d rather fill his coffee, spike it with a little bit of liquor and wait until the whistle rings so he can clock out and continue his drinking alone at home. Unfortunately, he’s been paired with the ultimate good cop and before he can gracefully bow out underneath the police scene tape canvassing the alley, Jim is already talking to the little boy who witnessed his parents get murdered just moments ago.

Gordon shares with young Bruce Wayne how he lost his own father to a drunk driver when he was a kid, while promising him that things will get better. They have to get better.

“I know how you feel right now. I promise, no matter how dark and scary the world might be right now there will be light. There will be light, Bruce.” ~ Jim Gordon

Bullock has a big problem with Gordon’s brief conversation with Bruce because his interaction with the victim means they are going to get stuck taking this case. Before Bullock can shuffle his partner away, Alfred Pennyworth shows up to take Bruce out of the alley and back home to stately Wayne manor. Gordon is like a dog with a bone and he’s not going to give up until he gives this little boy at least some peace of mind that the person who killed his parents is receiving the justice they deserve.

Bullock meanwhile tries to explain why they shouldn’t go anywhere near this case, but he’s finally forced to defend his turf with two cops from the Major Crimes division show up offering to take this one of their hands. Welcome to Gotham, Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya, who comic book fans will recognize as two of the lead officers in the famous ‘Gotham Central’ stories by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker. Allen and Montoya will be more than happy to investigate the Wayne murders because they run towards the press and attention while Bullock shies far, far away from it. Their poking and prodding forces Bullock to go into full cop mode and go after the criminals responsible for this tragedy whether he wants to get involved or not.

So Bullock and Gordon start rattling the cages of every mugger and low life in town. The only problem is none of them know anything about the person responsible for the Wayne’s murder. To make matters worse, the one memory Bruce has of the entire ordeal is that the person who gunned down his parents was wearing shiny shoes — shiny shoes is apparently a sign of someone much more well to do than the regular street thugs who would roam these alleys late at night. To make matters worse, a Gotham forensics expert named Edward Nygma (aka The Riddler) discovers that the bullet used to kill Thomas Wayne was a specialized type that costs $6 each — meaning this wasn’t your average, run of the mill criminal perusing the alley looking for a quick score. Combine the expensive bullet with the shiny shoes and you’re looking at an assassin dressed up as a mugger. Gordon wants to continue pushing deeper and deeper into the underworld. Bullock is afraid of what rock he might unearth along the way.

Bullock: “You seem like a nice guy, but this is not a city or a job for nice guys, you understand?”
Gordon: “No”
Bullock: “And that’s your problem”

Bullock decides to take Gordon to meet the local crime boss in charge of the theater district and this is where we meet Jada Pinkett Smith’s character Fish Mooney for the first time. She’s an underboss of the main mob figure in town, Carmine Falcone, and she dishes out punishment one swing at a time with her handy baseball bat. Her direct underling is a sniveling bully named Oswald, who hates to be called Penguin (get it?).

A private conversation with Fish Mooney is all Bullock needs and they are on the trail of the person responsible for the Wayne’s murder. She leads them to a guy named Mario Pepper, whose daughter Ivy loves plants just a little too much (Poison Ivy anyone?). When they confront him about fencing the pearl necklace that belonged to Martha Wayne, he runs and they are forced to pursue. When they finally catch up to him, Mario gets the drop on Jim but thankfully Bullock gets the drop on him — with a bullet right through the chest.

The cops are celebrated as heroes for bringing the Wayne’s murderer to justice. The only problem is Jim is still not satisfied with what he found in the investigation. Everything worked out just a little too conveniently so he starts digging again. When he finds that Mario Pepper didn’t own any shiny shoes, he knows he has to go back to the source of this piece of information to find out why Fish Mooney led them to this guy’s doorstep.

In the midst of the investigation, Oswald Cobblepot takes time to drop dime on his boss to Allen and Montoya letting them in on a little secret — Fish Mooney had the pearls that belonged to Martha Wayne and she set up Pepper to take the fall for the crime. This leads Allen and Montoya to believe that Gordon is just as dirty as Bullock, but the boy scout with a heart of gold wants too prove otherwise.

When he finally lands back at Fish Mooney’s doorstep, she doesn’t have anymore answers for him. Only actions. It’s clear staring back into his golden eyes that Gordon can’t be bought and he can’t be convinced that this was just a crime of necessity.

“You have a little danger in your eye. I wonder what you plan to do with that.” ~ Fish Mooney.

She quickly has her goons grab Gordon and take him to a local meat packing warehouse where he’ll be dispatched. When Bullock gets wind of this he has to go rescue his partner from her grasps before he ends up another dead body in Gotham harbor. When he threatens to come after Fish if she doesn’t let him go, she quickly turns on him and hangs him right beside his partner. You see, Fish Mooney is no fool. She even realizes that Oswald was the one that ratted her out to the cops and despite treating him like a son for so many years (a son that has to hold an umbrella over her head in the rain and rubs her feet in the evenings), she has to get rid of him for his betrayal.

Meanwhile, Jim and Bullock are ready to meet their demise when a group of gangsters show up out of nowhere demanding that the thugs let the cops down. The lead man is Carmine Falcone — who they refer to as Don Falcone (Don as in crime boss like Don Corleone) — he says that Fish has gotten a little overzealous and killing cops is something only he can command. She doesn’t have that authority. He cuts them loose while passing on a message to Gordon that this city only runs if the people in power work together to make it livable. The people in power might seem like the cops and politicians but in reality it’s the criminal element who run the streets. Unless Gordon is gunning for World War III inside Gotham city limits, he has to learn to play the game.

The game in this case is taking Oswald Cobblepot out to the end of the pier and putting a bullet in his head for betraying the Falcone crime family. It’s his penance to prove he’s loyal. Instead of shattering Cobblepot’s brain with a bullet, Gordon tells him to leave Gotham and never come back before firing a bullet near his head as he falls into the water. Bullock believes he’s found a partner he can trust and Gordon stays inside the circle of trust while not breaking his own moral code in the process.

Finally, Gordon returns to Wayne manor to tell young Bruce that he didn’t actually get the man responsible for killing his parents but his job isn’t done yet. Bruce offers him words of encouragement and Gordon is back on the trail to find out who killed Thomas and Martha Wayne in cold blood.

Bat Bites:

It seemed the creators of Gotham wanted to stuff as many easter eggs into one episode as possible to ensure the series got picked up. We saw Catwoman prowling the rooftops of Gotham City. Edward Nygma was a forensics investigator and Ivy Pepper is a strange little girl who loves plants. There was also a comedian auditioning for Fish in her nightclub with a not so subtle smile that will make everyone believe this is The Joker, but I for one don’t believe that’s a fact. I think The Joker will be a big tease all season long with hints surrounding dozens of characters until the real deal is finally revealed somewhere much further down the road.

Barbara Kean aka Barbara Gordon is also introduced this episode as Jim’s fiancée. She’s only there as a sidekick to Jim so hopefully her story picks up and they give her juicier stories than just being a gorgeous girl to prop up Jim whenever he’s in trouble. There was a hint of a mysterious past that she shared with officer Montoya when she comes to visit to warn her old friend that Jim is on the take and set up Mario Pepper for the downfall.

Review:

Overall, the first episode of Gotham was standard pilot fare. It wasn’t great but it also wasn’t’ bad. Donal Logue — as expected — was the standout from an acting standpoint and something tells me his anti-hero bad cop will end up being the bigger favorite for fans as opposed to Jim Gordon’s “I must always do what’s right” good cop act. The inclusion of so many characters in one episode was almost overload and heavy handed (I don’t have time for riddles, Nygma!) but again I have to remember this was a pilot intended to introduce a series that has a full season order ready to go.

The underlying sinister tones of how Gotham has to work is a good foil for the series as Gordon tries to fix things long before there’s a Batman around to swoop in to help save him. The investigation into the Wayne’s murders will almost certainly be a plot point all season long and watching crime heads like Falcone and Fish Mooney butt up against each other will be a lot of fun this year.

All in all, Gotham was probably going to have me as a viewer all season long regardless of how good or bad the pilot was but thankfully this first hour was intriguing enough and laced with potential plots to make sure I’m still interested by the midway point and not already tuned out in my own head.

‘Gotham’ returns next Monday on FOX at 8pm ET/PT