Gotham Recap ‘What the Little Bird Told Him’: Short Circuited

In the latest Gotham recap, The Electrocutioner’s master plan is revealed while a battle for control of the mob finally comes to a head but who is left on top when it’s done?

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

It seems every episode of ‘Gotham’ will have a little bit of the good, the bad and the ugly.

While the series as a whole has been a great addition to the superhero lineup of shows permeating the television landscape these days, ‘Gotham’ has also fallen prey to some pretty ridiculous story telling machinations like the ‘bad guy of the week’ syndrome that has plagued at least half of the first season. The real meat of this show has come in the continuous storylines primarily led by the mob families and the internal war going on for control of Gotham’s underbelly, scored mostly by conflict between Carmine Falcone, Sal Maroni, Fish Mooney and the cog in the machine of it all, Oswald Cobblepot.

The underlying plot that’s developed all season long — Fish Mooney’s attempt to wrestle control of the crime syndicate away from Falcone — finally came to a head this week while one of the city’s other big bosses, Sal Maroni, felt the brunt of a B-level Batman villain who showed up in rather hilarious fashion after all the build up of last week’s episode.

While there were some rather obtuse parts shoved into this episode (welcome back, Barbara!), ‘What the Little Bird Told Him’ was definitely one of the finest hours of television ‘Gotham’ has produced yet.

With that, let’s get into the recap.

The Electrocutioner

Following up from last week’s daring escape from Arkham Asylum, Jack Gruber and his mindless muscle have popped back up in Gotham while visiting an electronics store where he runs into an old friend of his after shocking his way through the door. The man working inside recognizes Gruber immediately and knows he’s in a whole bunch of trouble. He tries to talk his way out of it by showing Gruber back to an old work station of his where there’s a generator and a slew of ‘experiments’ covered in dust since their inventor went away to the nuthouse.

Back at the GCPD, the captain is briefing her officers on the escapees when Jim Gordon pops into the station and basically assigns himself to the case. When Commissioner Loeb (nice nod to DC’s Jeph Loeb no doubt) shows up, Bullock tries to get his ex-partner to shuffle out the door as quickly as possible, but Gordon’s having none of that. He wants back on the force and he’s willing to gamble to get there. Gordon barks at the commissioner that it’s clear he hasn’t cared much about what’s been going on with the police lately considering the deep-rooted corruption inside these halls, but the ex-detective is ready to do him a solid. Since he knows Gruber so well and knows his every move, Gordon will track him and capture him and if that happens within a 24-hour period of time, the commissioner will give him his job back.

Bullock is curious how Jim knows this convict so well considering he just got transferred to Arkham like five minutes ago and sure enough there was a little lie tucked in his promise to the commissioner. Gordon has no idea where Gruber is going, but it got him a 24-hour detective pass with a chance to earn back his full time badge if he solves this case.

Luckily, Gordon has help on the case thanks to Edward Nygma, who runs Gruber’s prints and ends up getting a hit on an ex-con named Lester Buchinsky. He was a bank robber, who hit four different depots before getting busted. His partners in crime were never found. Meanwhile, Gordo’s next clue comes from his gal pal at the asylum, Dr. Leslie Tompkins, who comes to pay the detective a visit at the precinct. She tells him that a witch doctor on the women’s side of the prison will make a voodoo doll of someone an inmate wants great harm to come to in exchange for some sodas or candy. The doll Dr. Tompkins brought with her is the one Gruber ordered and it just so happens to look an awful lot like mob boss Sal Maroni.

Before she goes, Tompkins is all a flutter in Gordon’s presence and he can’t form a sentence properly so it shouldn’t be long before these two are doing the horizontal bop in the break room. The good news is Gordon’s got a lead and now he’s going to have to find Maroni and see if he knows anything about this escaped loony from Arkham.

The Great Takeover

Across town, Carmine Falcone is having flashbacks to his childhood, presumably when he lost his father and the woman who appears to be his mother looks a lot like his new muse, Liza. When Carmine snaps to, Liza is right by his side as usual. He tries to convince the young woman to get out and move far away from Gotham City, find a man her own age and start a new life. She would rather be close to him and Carmine can’t help but smile. He exits, but she stays behind to do some shopping when a car pulls up, tires squealing and a gunman takes out her protection. Liza gets a bag put over here head as she’s whisked away in a flash.

Moments later when the bag is removed, Liza comes face to face with her real benefactor, Fish Mooney. It’s time for Fish’s plan to go into effect and she’s ready to take over Falcone’s territory.

She places a call to the elder mobster and tries to play coy with a fake voice, but Falcone sees right through it. He knows it’s Fish Mooney finally making her move to take over his crime family. With the rouse dropped, Fish promises to return Liza to him unharmed so long as he promises to give over his territory and leave town forever. Falcone agrees and it seems Fish’s plan is finally working to perfection.

Before Falcone is ready to hand over the keys to the kingdom, he calls in his favorite pet, Oswald Cobblepot, who will soon have some trouble making it to see his real boss, but stay tuned for more on that later. Back at home, Falcone is readying plans to exit the city and leave everything to Fish. His No. 1 henchman Victor Zsasz is dying to seek out Fish Mooney and wipe out her entire crew. Falcone has other ideas.

He’s tired of this life and all he really wants to do is retire to the country with Liza by his side and if this opportunity affords him that, why not take it? He orders Victor to stand down and instead protect him and Liza during the exchange with Fish before he leaves Gotham forever. Did anyone really believe he was actually going to leave Gotham forever?

Needless to say, Falcone’s time on top isn’t finished yet.

Short Circuited

At Maroni’s restaurant, the mobster is telling stories and having a good time when Oswald gets the call to go see Falcone. He makes up an excuse about seeing his mother because she’s ill (does that trick still work?!?) and heads off, but before he can even get out the front door, he’s shocked and tossed back about 10 feet. The outside guard then wanders in before falling dead on the floor and he’s got a rather large electric grenade in his hand, which proceeds to explode in building.

Gordon gets there seconds later because he was already on his way to see Maroni after discovering that he was probably one of the gang that worked with Lester on those bank robberies back in the day. Maroni isn’t copping to anything, but he does agree to go into ‘protective custody’ so the man dubbed as ‘The Electrocutioner’ will know exactly where to find him. Before they head to the station, Oswald half wakes up from his electro-shock state and mumbles something about needing to get to Don Falcone because there’s business to be handled. A rather sloppy and convenient way for him to reveal his true allegiance, but none of that matters by the end of the episode.

Back at the station, Maroni is back to laughing and telling stories before Oswald wakes up again and realizes he’s about two hours late to his meeting with Falcone. Maroni tells him what he said in his electric induced stupor and Oswald does his best to bumble his way through an excuse. The mob boss clearly doesn’t buy it or if he does he’s the worst mobster this side of ‘Lefty’ from ‘Donnie Brasco’.

Oswald stumbles off to find Falcone, but not long after he leaves, the Electrocutioner shows up to unveil his master plan. His big ass generator is getting hooked up to the outside circuit breaker and it’s clear he plans to send a jolt through the building that will zap everyone including one rat bastard mob boss. When he flips the switch, everything goes snap, crackle, pop inside and when he saunters indoors, the Electrocutioner is happy with the results although he was hoping all the people were fried and not just knocked out. The one person who is still very much awake is Jim Gordon because he had the foresight to put on a pair of rubber boots, which grounded him out when the shock came through the building.

It was 1966 Adam West Batman levels of trickery. I was waiting for Gordon to reveal he was wearing rubber ‘Bat-boots’ but it never happened. To make all this even better, Gordon quickly dispatches of his henchman and then foils the Electrocutioner’s entire mechanical set up with one glass of water. Yep, he tosses water on him and the whole contraption fizzles out in a spark.

Now first reaction to this scene was — really? That’s how this arch criminal is going to get brought down? What is this an M. Night Shyamalan movie?

But then I started to rethink this a little bit. Remember, Gotham is a Batman prequel. The villains aren’t supposed to be unstoppable yet or what good does it do when the Caped Crusader finally shows up? These ‘super criminals’ are supposed to screw up and make dumb mistakes while the real threats — over obsessive weirdo Edward Nygma, do-gooder prosecutor Harvey Dent and criminal mastermind Oswald Cobblepot — are still developing into the people that will one day become too much for the police to handle and a Batman is the only way to stop them. The Electrocutioner is a B level Batman villain at best. More likely he’s a C or D level villain. He’s a guy that would make a suit that could get shorted out by just throwing a cup of water on it. He’s a dumbass. No need to flash that Bat signal just yet, Jimbo.

To that point — where the hell is Bruce Wayne? He kept popping up in episode after episode before the winter break, but now two episodes into the second half of the season and he’s nowhere to be found. Maybe we’ll get lucky and when he reappears he’ll be 16 instead of 11.

One more thing to toss into this section because I have to get it out of the way — Barbara shows up at her parents house with a few pieces of luggage asking to stay a few days. Her parents are apparently the same people who raised Cameron Frye from ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ because their house is like a museum. It’s very beautiful and very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything. Her mother looks more like her grandmother and she barely blinks when Barbara asks to stay there for a few days. Barbara also lies and says her relationship with Jim is in tact and they are doing just fine. Her parents are about as boring as she is so I’m not sure why I’m surprised at anything that happened during this scene other than to say it’s three minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

A Bird in the Hand

Falcone is ready to concede everything to Fish and give up his empire. Why not? He’s got Liza and probably a ton of money. He’s even got an eyebrow-less psycho to give him protection. Before he can make the exchange, Oswald finally shows up and apologizes for being late, but when he hears Falcone is ready to give everything to Fish, he finally has to come clean about Liza. He’s known for weeks that she was a mole and he made her promise to own him one, but apparently that story isn’t going to go anywhere now.

Falcone is hesitant to believe him and heads off to Fish’s club to make the trade.

When he arrives, Fish is cordial and asks that this entire transition of power goes as smoothly as possible. She brings out Liza for the exchange and hands her over to Falcone. He quickly asks his accomplice how long she’s known Fish. Despite her best efforts to lie and say today was the first time they met, Falcone already knows the answer. Oswald was right. She was playing him.

Falcone has to let Fish in on the news — she’s not getting his territory or anything else for that matter. Victor Zsasz pops out from the shadows along with a dozen gunmen, who quickly take the weapons from Fish and her goon Butch. Falcone is very displeased that Fish would use memories of his mother against him. He’s even more disappointed in Liza so he wraps his hands around her throat and chokes her to death. Definitely one of the more brutal endings on ‘Gotham’ thus far.

Falcone does thank Fish for one thing during this entire ordeal. Her play for his power was just about to see him retire and fade into the sunset, but her tactics not only pissed him off, but made him feel alive for the first time in years. The boss is back and he’s taking no prisoners. Well that’s not true — he takes Fish and Butch captive because they don’t deserve a quick death. Before he goes, he lets Fish in on his secret weapon that’s been helping him out these past few months.

The Penguin aka Oswald Cobblepot comes limping down the aisle and comes face to face with his former boss as a smile creeps across his face. He tells Fish hello but by the tone in his voice, he’s really telling her goodbye. Oswald just got himself a club and a territory it seems. Loyalty pays off.

Detective Jim Gordon, Part 2

Gordon gets his full time badge back after apprehending The Electrocutioner and he also tells the commissioner that he’s not going to stop being the boy scout this department needs to clean up the streets of Gotham.

Downstairs in the basement where Gordon is currently living, Dr. Leslie Tompkins shows up once again because she needs to retrieve her patient’s voodoo doll. In reality she’s there for other reasons and Jim picks up on the signals and plants a big kiss on the good doctor. She’s a little shocked, but mostly just happy he picked up on what she was putting down. It seems this relationship is a little rushed considering they just introduced Dr. Tompkins last episode, but then again I was hoping they’d leave Jim as an asylum guard or at least the second half of the seaosn to introduce more characters from Arkham but that’s a lost cause already. They keep kissing until an officer busts in and tells Gordon that a shooting just happened at Fish Mooney’s place.

With one glance, Gordon feels a sense of déjà vu. Before he can even finish his kiss, work gets in the way of life once again just like it did with Barbara. Unless Jim can find a way for these two words to co-exist he’s never going to be happy or he’s just going to have to learn to live without one of them.

Make sure to return for the newest episode of ‘Gotham’ next Monday night at 8pm ET on FOX.