Tagged as Rise of the Villains, season two of Gotham premiered Monday night and it was quite good. Picking up a month after the finale, a lot has changed. Warning Spoilers Ahead…
Both Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon have been removed as detectives with Bullock as a bartender at some dive and Jim being reduced to walking the beat and directing traffic. As for Penguin, with Fish and Falcone out of the way, he is the new king of crime in Gotham City with Selina Kyle in tow. Back in Arkham, Barbara is the queen bee with just about every inmate wrapped around her finger with the slight exception of Joker… I mean Jerome.
Things get dicey when a drugged (we’ll see by whom later in the episode), crazy guy in a cape wields a gun and later a sword has a showdown with Jim at the intersection he is working. The guy claims to be a soul ripper named Zaardon. Jim quickly puts an end to the threat and arrests Zaardon. After a “confrontation” with his replacement, Commissioner Loeb, who has had it out for him since season one, fires Jim from the GCPD.
With nowhere to go and very little in the way of options, Jim turns to Penguin for a favor. Penguin is all to happy to help his friend Jim but to prove his friendship is reciprocated, Penguin wants Jim to collect a debt that is owed to him. Jim refuses and leaves. Later, he visits with Bruce to tell him about what had happened and to apologize for not keeping the promise of finding his parents killer. Bruce questions whether Jim’s pride outweighs the greater good. The thought of this weighs heavily with Jim, which causes him to accept Penguins offer.
Collecting the debt proves to be problematic when Jim is forced to kill the man who was indebted to Penguin. Penguin assures Jim that both this unfortunate circumstance and Loeb will be taken care of. Later that night, Penguin and Zsasz visit Loeb at his home. Loeb has the option of death or retirement. Loeb wisely chooses retirement and Jim is reinstated as detective and Captain Essen is promoted to commissioner. At the retirement ceremony, we meet philanthropist Theo Galavan. He is the man behind the drug induced Zaardon.
The final act deals with Zaardon who’s brought into Arkham and dies shortly thereafter. A cloud of blue smoke emerges from his mouth and renders the inmates unconscious. A small army led by Tabitha, Theo’s sister frees Barbara and company and brings them to her brother where they now work for him. Those who choose to not be employed will be dealt with in a deadly and efficient way.
The ending completely foreshadows Bruce’s future fate as the Dark Knight when Bruce, after a month of trying to break into his father’s hidden room, finds a letter written by his father begging him to find happiness or his “true calling.” The true star of this premiere though was Barbara. The once useless character that served no purpose through most of season one is now the character with the most potential to wreck some serious havoc for Jim and Gotham as a whole. Whether or not she’s an offshoot of Harley Quinn as some have speculated around the net, it doesn’t matter to me. She intrigues me now and that’s what matters.
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
