I don’t understand network TV, I really don’t. I guess it’s just normal to take a six-week break for some reason? At this rate it’s going to take Gotham a year to finish its first season. You know who I blame for this? Breaking Bad. As much as I adore that show (obviously), the whole midseason finale thing didn’t really exist before BB split its final season in two. Now everyone is doing it, even shows that arguably are harmed by the structure, i.e. Mad Men. Anyway, rant over, let’s talk about “Beasts of Prey.”
I find it odd that Gotham would come back from hiatus with what amounts to a killer of the week story. There are attempts made at the episode’s end to tie the events into the larger narrative, but it feels shoehorned-in.
After becoming president of the Policemans Union – was there an election? Is that where Gotham spent the last six weeks? Or was Gordon appointed by Loeb? Cause presidents aren’t appointed – Gordon finds that he’s inspiring other officers in the GCPD to do the right thing and actually be, you know, cops. A young officer named Moore asks Gordon to solve a cold case, the murder of one Grace Fairchild. Of course Gordon says yes, because while his vice might not be corruption, it is arguably vanity. Before long, Gordon finds out that Grace went home from a speakeasy with a good-looking date, who is now suspect No. 1. (He finds this out from a classic TV bartender who remembers Grace from three or four months ago.) Anyway, her date, Jason, is played by Heroes‘ Milo Ventimiglia, who’s trying real hard to look like McConaughey and is obviously the killer.
He keeps Grace captive because he’s looking for “unconditional love,” and when he decides it’s not working out he kills her. I liked this story the first time I saw it, on American Horror Story: Asylum. Anyway, it’s discovered that Jason is the Don Juan Killer, aka the Ogre (WHAT), and that he kills any cop who talks about him to the press. That stupid cop Moore set Gordon up! I’m shocked. Naturally this is Loeb’s doing, and Gordon vows to catch the DJK and then go after Loeb. See what I mean about this being shoehorned-in?
Bruce and Selina go looking for Reggie, trying to find out who hired him to steal Bruce’s documents. Wait, let’s back up. When Bruce enters an alley looking for Selina, she clambers down a ladder – like a cat! – and says “I could’ve smashed your head with a brick, you know.” What the fuck? Even for Gotham that’s clunky dialogue. This show needs to let Selina be a kid, because I am not afraid of a 90-pound 11-year-old. She and Bruce find Reggie at a “shooting gallery,” also known as a warehouse where people just hang out and shoot heroin. Holding his drugs hostage, Bruce gets a name out of Reggie: Bunderslaw. Then, after some incredibly hokey threats from Reggie (“You’re silly little kids, and I’m going to tell on you”; even David O’Hara’s brogue can’t make that menacing), Selina pushes him out the window, which honestly surprised me. She did it both to save herself, and Bruce, who was inching towards Reggie with the same intention.
Fish is easily a season ahead of everyone else. You know what I mean? Like, any other show would have had Fish kidnapped at the end of season one, and had her escaping from the island in season two, but Gotham‘s first season is so fucking scattered it’s gotta cram all of this into twenty-two episodes. Keep in mind that Jada Pinkett Smith isn’t returning for season two, and the whole thing looks even more pointless.
She escapes in a helicopter, which she can apparently fly. The Catcher, who dresses like Sam Neill in Jurassic Park, manages to shoot her in the stomach as she’s flying away, but she doesn’t let the chopper go down. I guess Gotham now wants to make Fish look like a hero. I don’t care what it does, as long as it makes itself more interesting.
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