Tuesday, January 20, 2015

My Review of Gotham's 1x12: "What The Little Bird Told Him"


Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Eagle Egilsson

Falcone (to Fish): “I can forgive all kinds of betrayal and dishonesty but my mother? How dare you use my sainted mother against me? That’s wrong. You’ll suffer for that.”

The good news is that things finally happened in this episode with Fish and Falcone that went beyond their passive aggressive and veiled threats dynamic. The not so good news was that the former made her move too soon and blew everything that she had been working for over the last twelve episodes.

The funny thing was that she had nearly succeeded with getting Fish to sign over his power to her and retire in the country with Liza but Oswald had to go and ruin things for her. I was a little sad to see Liza die – she didn’t deserve that but as soon as Falcone realised that Oswald was telling the truth about her, I knew her days were done for. Watching Falcone strangle the girl though was horrible but probably not as bad as what he’s going to do to both Fish and Butch now.

That leads me to another thing – how the hell can Fish get out of this one alive? If Falcone shows her mercy, it’ll just go against everything he said about her using his mother against him but at the same time, I don’t want to lose the character just yet either. Perhaps Falcone will be the one to die instead.

As for Oswald, he probably shouldn’t gloat too much. While Fish was dumb enough to reveal her hand too quickly and got taken down for it, Oswald also slipped up about working for Falcone to Maroni when he got electrocuted by Gruber. I don’t believe for a second that Maroni bought his lies either, so it’s quite likely that Oswald could be in for a similarly rough time like Fish and Butch are probably experiencing off screen as well.

As for the rest of the episode – you have to hand it to Gordon – the man managed to get his job back pretty sharpish. I actually thought we were going to have a few more weeks of him in Arkham but he managed to take out Gruber pretty quickly and even managed to threaten Loeb after getting his job back as well. I think I might like this slightly edgier version of Gordon for the time being.

Then there’s Leslie Thompkins as well. It’s like the show didn’t even bother wasting time and just decided to hook both her and Gordon up after some flirty banter. I don’t mind it as such but I am hoping it doesn’t fizzle out quicker than Gruber’s plot to kill Maroni did in this episode though.

Also in “What The Little Bird Told Him”

Barbara decided to stay with her frosty parents in this episode. It’s going to take more than that to get audiences to feel for her. It’s a start though.

Loeb: “Why are you here?”
Gordon: “I have a bigger question – why are you here, commissioner?”

I know Nygma is meant to be a bit socially awkward but even he should’ve guessed that a cupcake with a bullet in it was going to creep out Kringle.

Bullock (to Gordon): “You’re like a human rollercoaster, except you go down.”
Nygma: “Wouldn’t that make him more like an elevator?”

Fish (re Falcone): “Liza, you can like him all you want but you can never tell him the truth.”
Liza: “I know that.”

I noticed in this episode that Oswald’s walk has gotten even worse than before. Also no Bruce, Alfred, Selina or Montoya or Allen this week. I did like Victor Zsasz somewhat needling Falcone too in this episode.

Gordon (to Gruber): “You know what? I do hate to lose.”

Standout music: Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”.

Gordon (to Loeb): “Next man who tries to take away my shield, one way or another, I’m gonna make him eat it.”

Chronology: Not long from where “Rogues Gallery” left off.

Something of a mixed episode but definitely enjoyable. I do like that “What The Little Bird Told Him” genuinely shifted some gears with the whole Fish, Falcone, Oswald and Maroni dynamics but at the same time, the Gruber plot was hastily done away with too quickly and it did feel like Gordon got his job back a bit too easily as well. Other than that, really enjoyed this one.

Rating: 8 out of 10

No comments: