'Gotham' Recap 'Penguin's Umbrella': Opening Shots Fired

And so the first skirmish in the long rollout of Penguin’s promised mafia war begins. Gotham’s roller coaster of a first season continued with “Penguin’s Umbrella”, which was the most fun episode of the series yet. While there are still problems with the show, certainly more than a few kinks to be worked out, “Penguin’s Umbrella” was a fine example of what the show could be weekly if the “criminal of the week” format was ditched.

“Penguin’s Umbrella” began with the fallout of the end of last week’s “Spirit of the Goat”. Needless to say no one was too pleased to learn that Penguin was still alive. Bullock basically denounced Jim and left for a good chunk of the episode. Fish was irate and wanting Falcone to not only kill Penguin but also Jim. And so both Penguin and Jim were in the crosshairs of the mob.

However, Falcone was not nearly as gung ho about the whole ordeal as Fish was as he wanted to avoid beginning a war. After Fish’s failed attempt to capture Jim by holding his wife hostage – Jim subdued a couple of Fish’s henchmen, showing a lack of restraint Jim is not known for – Falcone took it upon himself to reign Jim in. And thus we were introduced to Victor Zsasz. Zsasz is a well known lesser criminal (i.e. a level below Joker or Riddler) to Batman fans and is known by his trademark kill tally he etches into his skin after killing someone. Zsasz was used to excellent effect in “Penguin’s Umbrella” as he was introduced as a crazed killer, but the distinction between he and future supervillains was present, which isn’t how Gotham has done things so far this season. It also introduced him as a henchman of Falcone, allowing for another canonical figure added to this new Gotham City while not having him be the criminal of the week. Hopefully Zsasz will pop up again in later episodes. After a solid but unspectacular gunfight between Jim and Zsasz and associates at the Gotham Police Station and their garage Jim was saved just in the nick of time by Montoya and her partner.

Despite this minor setback Jim proceeds with his plan that includes using blank warrants by a corrupt judge for the arrests of both Falcone and the mayor for conspiracy to commit murder, specifically the Wayne’s murder. After a brief visit to Wayne Manor to tell Bruce Montoya will take up his parent’s case if Jim is to die (and Alfred’s awesome subduing of Montoya’s partner) Jim returns home to get ready to put his plan into motion. And surprise, Bullock shows back up at Jim’s house and tells him he’ll join Jim because Jim has the moral high ground.

While all this is going on Penguin is making moves of his own. After he and Maroni disrespect Fish, who then retaliates by stealing a shipment of guns Maroni was bringing in, Penguin and Maroni’s right-hand man go hit Falcone’s underboss and Fish’s lover Niko. After quickly disposing of them Maroni’s right-hand man confronts Penguin about Penguin’s Rasputin-like whispering into Maroni’s ear. Unfortunately Penguin has already paid off the right-hand man’s thugs, who turn on him at that moment, and Penguin takes care of him making Penguin Maroni’s new right-hand man. Even though Penguin had a nice little monologue telling the right-hand man his weakness, Penguin’s character traits are still pretty murky. We know he wants power and seems to enjoy killing but neither of these two traits have been different from other villains on the show. More of his true motivations, maybe some introspection from his character, would certainly make Penguin feel more like a real character. After this incident Maroni and Falcone broker a peace where Falcone trades Penguin for a piece of worthless, according to Fish, property in Arkham.

This only leaves Jim and Bullock to arrest the mayor, which is all too easy, and Falcone. Following some very lax security at Falcone’s front gate (how does the mayor get by without his car being checked for bugs or other criminals?) it seems as though things are going according to plan. But a snag in the plan arises when Falcone tells Jim that Barbara, who Jim had sent away from Gotham earlier in the city, came back to beg Falcone to spare Jim’s life. This became one of the better scenes of the series as Jim has to decided whether Falcone is bluffing or not while also showing Falcone wielding some of his smug power. Bullock’s added commentary about Falcone bluffing Jim both lightened and heightened the tension in the scene appropriately. Falcone’s speech about why him being in charge is better than anarchy was also a nice touch, although Gotham seems plenty anarchical already. It turns out Falcone wasn’t bluffing and had Barbara the whole time and once Jim puts his gun down Falcone, in a surprising turn of kindness, spares everyone’s lives. Then the “bombshell” drops.

After the standoff between Jim and Falcone, Penguin approaches Falcone in his chicken coop where it is revealed the two of been working together ever since “Pilot”. While this certainly made things more interesting it would have been nice if this relationship had somehow been hinted at throughout the season. This continued to show why Falcone was top dog, though, which is good because his character never seemed capable of being the major crime boss in Gotham until last night. It also showed Penguin’s ability for cunning and deviousness, which also felt somewhat lacking this season. Penguin also was the one who asked Falcone to spare Jim’s life, which is nice repayment for Jim’s favor.

“Penguin’s Umbrella” was a fun hour of TV. It saw lots of season-long arcs come to a head while also offering up some stronger character traits for some of our weekly characters. It wasn’t the tightest or most polished episode of TV I’ve seen but if Gotham can somehow make sure that this type of episode becomes the weekly norm, as opposed to it being the peak mixed in with some valleys, then Gotham should be a very watchable and enjoyable show.