Gotham S01 E02 – Cat got your eyes?

Previously: We met about approximately 27 villains, one baby Batman, Ryan Atwood from The OC and whatever the fuck Jada Pinkett-Smith was supposed to be.

Selina Kyle

Lorraine: Baby Batman is continuing his slightly suicidal exploration of his fears by burning his hand on a candle. Alfred walks in and startles BB, who hides his burnt hand. Alfred demands to see his hand and then freaks out at the sight, calling BB stupid and shaking him into a hug. There is no other way to describe that. I’m not sure I understand what this show is doing with Alfred. (A: Me neither).

Selina Kyle sits with some of her homeless friends playing with a necklace kind of like how a cat would play with yarn. (wink.)

 
A van comes down the alley and puts Selina on her guard. Two overly peppy people in outfits I cannot explain jump out of the van and claim to be from the mayor’s outreach program. They’ve got soup and sandwiches. Nobody moves. THEY’VE GOT CHOCOLATE. (S: INSTA BFF) Everyone scurries on over, except for Selina. It’s a good thing for her, because the sandwiches and chocolate were a ruse. (S: HOW CAN ONE EVER TRUST AGAIN?) Vicious Volunteer starts jabbing people in the neck with a pen and they all knock out. One man takes off running and in the commotion, Killer Philanthropist shoots a nearby homeless guy. He then runs after the Escaped Homeless Man. Killer Philanthropist catches him and then throws him through the window of a restaurant. Patrons of that fine Gotham establishment: It’s probably time to move.

Daylight in Gotham which is really gray and probably not best described as “light.” Ryan Atwood Gordon attentively watches as the metro rides by, as if a clue might ride in with it. After looking down at the body, he notices that Dead Homeless Man is wearing some dog tags. Donal Logue Harvey arrives with coffee and some disrespect for the fate of the murdered veteran. Gordon is feeling prickling about the general lack of cops around this crime scene, and things get worse when a cop finally does show up. This cop was down by the restaurant and not preserving the integrity of the crime scene because the restaurant pays him more. Gordon calls him a bad cop and Harvey has to break up the fight.

Alex: Aww, are we not calling him Ryan any more? That’s sad, but OK. I guess it had to happen eventually.

Sweeney: I knew it had to happen and I was just hoping the changeover would fall to one of you. Thanks for taking one for the team, Lor.

Lor: I actually deliberated over this. Alex is next in our rotation, though, and I figured I’d spare the newbie.

We cut to GCPD where Escaped Homeless Man [EHM] is trying to sell his story about a woman who took down those street kids with a roofie-pen. It isn’t going well and Harvey threatens to beat the truth out of him. EHM yells back that “Cat” was there and saw the whole thing. Gordon tries to use his words with the witness while Harvey is still yelling about beating people. Gordon pulls Harvey away is all, “that’s a minor you are threatening.” Harvey says, “but he’s tall.” YEP. IT’S OKAY, GUYS. THIS MINOR IS TALL.

Harvey claims he wasn’t going to beat the kid, just scare him. But also, if he wanted to beat him, he could because it’s “his prerogative.” Gordon tries to casually mention how that’s illegal or whatever, so Harvey reminds him of that one time he killed the Penguin. They get really close in each other’s face again and I don’t catch the actual words as I wait for the hate kiss. Any second now. Point is: Gordon is going to do what’s RIGHT. #theme

They get into a two second shoving match, until Harvey steps on some other detective’s shoes. The Stepped On Detective tells Harvey to watch it and then Harvey kicks him in the balls. JUST KICKS HIM IN THE BALLS.

I don’t know guys, Gordon might be the good cop and Harvey might be the cop that kicks people in the balls for very little reason. Let me know in the comments if you think I’m right.

Sweeney: I can hang with trope levels, but I’m pretty tired of Harvey already and I’m not sure if it’s Harvey or the writing or Donal Logue. I think it’s all of it. I’m over all of it and we’re not even done with the episode two teaser yet, SO.

Lor: Onward:

Penguin hobbles along a highway trying to hitch a ride.

A truck stops but then does that thing where each time Penguin tries to open the door, they drive forward a little. I think the entire viewing audience decided just then that it wouldn’t be that bad if Penguin killed the people in the truck. (A: Yep. These guys are totally asking for a ‘that’s what happens’). They finally let him in and drive off. Penguin thanks them as they comment on his disheveled appearance and general stink. They also hand him a beer, though, so maybe now you’re feeling like, “aw. These are just two fratty boys. Don’t kill them Penguin.” But, alas, the passenger says he walks like a penguin. Penguin breaks his beer bottle and uses it to shank the passenger. (A: Aaaand that’s what happens). The blood squirt takes us into the credits.

OMINOUS LIGHTNING CLOUDS! GOTHAM!

Commercials. Guys, I’m totally going to watch Gracepoint, despite what David Tennant is doing with his hair. And voice. (S: That accent makes me cringe. But also I’m going to watch anyway.)

After the break, Harvey is tattle-telling to their Captain about Gordon wanting to follow the law. She says she can’t tell Gordon to break the law, but, you know. (wink.) Further establishment of the shady PD done, Gordon fills Captain Sarah in on the case of the kidnapped homeless children. Ed Nygma is creeping outside of the window.

Ed tells the detectives what he found, injecting some questions in there because Riddler. He found high levels of the knock-out drug ATP in Murdered Homeless Man’s blood. ATP was often used at Arkham (!) to control patients. Captain Sarah dismisses Ed but he doesn’t pick up on it and things are awkward. Oh no! I hope this doesn’t make him want to turn to a life of crime!

Sweeney: His social awkwardness has already made him my favorite future criminal.

Lor: Captain Sarah tells Gordon and Harvey to get back to work and to keep this case out of the press because it’ll cause panic. Gordon doesn’t agree but that matters very little. Harvey points out that the crime happened on Fish Mooney’s turf. He asks Captain Sarah if it’s safe for them to go back there, or if Fish is still mad. “That’s a good question,” Captain Sarah says. So good, she’s going to let this next scene answer it.

Lounge O’Fish. Jada Pinkett-Fish watches happily as a band on stage finishes their set and a man behind the bar gives her come hither eyes. Carmine Falcone joins Fish and we watch as Come Hither Eyes comes over to the table to pour Falcone a glass of wine. The camera focuses on his little smirk and DAMMIT SHOW. Why are you being so obvious?? Falcone says that men who are about to die are very honest and they clink glasses. It sounds like Jada Pinkett-Fish says, “Datsun toes,” but in fact, she’s “acting” and said, “that’s some toast.”

Alex: I will admit that I didn’t actually notice the terrible accent last week, so I didn’t really get what everyone was going on about in the comments, but now… yep, I get it. I most definitely get it.

Sweeney: What strikes me about it is that it’s not even ONE terrible accent. It’s this weird ever-changing accent that doesn’t even know what it is. That accent and the show should get drinks and bond over what seems to be a shared existential crisis.

Lor: A+

Falcone spoke with Penguin before he “died” and got an earful of his, “war’s a coming!” speech. Fish tries to brush it off, but Falcone says Penguin was right: killing the Waynes has caused trouble. The Waynes and Falcones had an understanding but now the Wayne empire is in flux. Criminals are going to start making moves in an attempt to gain power and he specifically mentions the Maronis. Falcone is most concerned with Penguin’s claim that Fish is plotting to overtake Falcone. Fish says she would never say such a thing and Falcone’s all, “OKAY. PHEW!” That seems all taken care of and Falcone turns talk to Fish’s current lover. Her accent checks back in as she says that she definitely does not have a lover and it definitely was not the guy smirking all over their wine and batting his eyelashes. Falcone calls Come Hither over (real name Lazlo, which intrepid watcher Polge pointed out is the name of this villain) and tells him to be good to Fish and not to break hear heart. Some of Falcone’s thugs grab Lazlo and take him off to the background to beat him up. Fish’s eyes fill with tears as she tries to keep her eyes on Falcone. He thanks her for her honesty and leaves. This has been the “best” acting Jada has done, and she was silent during it. Then she yells for everyone to get out.

The Major Crimes Duo find themselves in Mama Cobblepott’s (though she’s listed on IMDB as “Kapelput”) apartment (A: Holy Miss Havisham, Batman!). She says Oswald always comes home, but she doesn’t think he’s dead because a mother feels these things. The Duo whisper to each other and are bummed because Penguin was a good snitch.

Lounge O’Fish. Butch advises Fish that it’s too early to make a move on Falcone. Fish knows. “Annie Moore money, more men, more territory,” she marble-mouths. It’s too soon now but she swears that some day soon, she’s going to kill Falcone with her hands and teeth. Butch makes the most hilarious, “well shit.” face in the background.

duck-lips

Fish’s only wish is that the Penguin were still alive because she didn’t make him suffer nearly enough.

Alex: People on TV are always so bad at TV. If only Fish had watched just one TV show ever, she’d know that no body = not dead.

Sweeney: And sometimes even when you have a body, maybe the victim’s just really super duper good at holding their breath

Lor: Segue Magic over to the Penguin pulling up in his Murder SUV to a small garage. He saw a “for rent” sign on a trailer and quickly takes the $100 per week terms. The mechanic walks closer to the SUV, but Penguin gets nervous on account of the body in his back seat. Thankfully, Mechanic is not an overly suspicious person.

Cut to a grody basement somewhere, chock full of abducted homeless children. The two most recent additions wake up and ask where they are. As they peer down a large well, another abductee says he thinks they are dead.

Commercials. It’s real funny to see both a trailer for a Matthew McConaughey movie and a Matthew McConaughey car commercial in one break.

Harvey and Gordon visit Fish, who claims she is not still mad at them for that one time she almost murdered them. (This seems backwards.) “You know me,” I hear Fish say. “I’m friend stee.” You are, Fish! You are so friend stee. (Maybe next week I’ll turn on closed captioning.) Gordon cuts right to the chase and asks about the murdered homeless man and abducted children. Fish non-answers that she was surprised a straight arrow like Gordon killed Penguin. Gordon keeps trying to do actual police work and says they are looking for a middle-aged man and woman, targeting kids under 16. Fish marble-mouths that it used to be there was only a market for good looking girls. “Now there’s a new bio all the seas,” she kind of says. (Probably “buyer overseas,” but meh. Diction.) This bio-all-the-seas will take anyone young and healthy and no one knows why or what for. More importantly, I suppose, no one cares.

I BET YOU JIM GORDON CARES.

Sweeney: That’s his tagline. “No one cares? I CARE.” It’s how he bonds with Emo Baby Batman.

Lor: That night, Gordon and Barbara discuss this case over take-out. Gordon tries to downplay how corrupt the system is and how troubled he is. Barbara suggests calling in an anonymous tip to the newspaper himself, but Gordon says he can’t. Barbara can! She dials the Gotham Gazette and spills the whole story in a minute, directing whoever is on the other line to talk to Captain Sarah. After she hangs up, Gordon says she can’t do crap like that. The stuff he tells her is confidential. Barbara says it was the right thing to do, though. THE RIGHT. THING. TO. DO.

GCPD. Captain Sarah is pissed about the story, especially since now Mayor James is under attack.

Sweeney: Is it the right thing to do, though? Much like when Keith didn’t want the bus bomber to be aware that anyone was onto the bombing thing, isn’t keeping a lid on things potentially good for the investigation?

Lor: All I know is that JIM GORDON thought it was THE RIGHT. THING. TO DO.

Gordon looks sheepish, though he truthfully says that he didn’t call it in. In any case, they have a thin lead. There are three companies in Gotham that stock ATP and they are going to lean on all three and see where they get.

We get so many establishing shots of Gotham in between scenes. Not even particularly interesting or good looking things, just Gotham buildings. WE KNOW WE ARE IN GOTHAM, THANKS.

A balding man yells at Vicious Volunteer [VV] and Killer Philanthropist [KP] because he provided them with the ATP now he’s catching heat for this whole child kidnapping thing. He holds up the newspaper for clarification. (S: Meaning, this entire scene wouldn’t have happened without that right! thing! to! do! tip call.) Killer Philanthropist says they are going to take the merch away, and by that he means the human beings. Balding Baddy demands more money that the VV and KP don’t have. He says he can wait, and if the cops arrive before he gets his money, he’ll get rid of the children. VV finds this completely unacceptable so she takes out her little roofie-pen and takes out Balding Baddy’s bodyguard. On a surveillance screen, VV sees a cop car pull up.

Alex: Can anyone tell me when this show is meant to be set? The cars and the technology (the surveillance screen, for example, or the phones we’ve seen) all seem very dated, but I can’t tell if they’re going for a particular era or just going for a general sort-of-retro comic book look. If you know what I mean.

Lor: I do, but I also have no answer for you.

As Gordon and Harvey get out of the car, they are talking girls. Harvey has guessed that Barb was the one who called the newspaper and tells Gordon to control his woman. Gordon scoffs at getting lady advice from Harvey, who scoffs back because he can pretty much guess Gordon’s entire romantic history: high school sweetheart, a bunch of “hos” overseas and then Barbara. Gordon says pretty much and then gets back to detecting stuff.

Inside, VV runs to the front of the store and greets the detectives cheerily. She announces to Balding Baddy that some detectives are there to see him. Balding Baddy stands and we see that to his left, KP stands with a gun trained at him. Balding gives a very twitchy speech about how he used to stock ATP until Arkham closed. He heard the Waynes were going to re-open it, but now that is all up in the air. VV has been slowly making her way to a switch. She turns off the lights and there is a gun fight in which, amazingly, no one is hurt. VV and KP escape in their Kid Snatcher Van and Gordon and Harvey are only in time to see it disappear around the corner. No attempts are made to, I don’t know. Follow it. Inside again, Balding Baddy tells one of his men to get rid of the kids and hose down the room. Thankfully, Gordon hears that. He saves the children from being gunned down.

At the GCPD, Mayor James is holding a press conference with the rescued kids to one side and some detectives to the other. The hero music swells as Mayor J grandly announces that he’s going to take care of these kids and has already initiated a “tough love” kind of program to get them off the streets. This is all intercut with a scene of police leading handcuffed homeless youth away (including Selina) and into cop cars.

HE MUST SMELL CAT ON YOU, GIRL.

Alex: Aha! It is that guy! More specifically, Richard Kind, who has been in Spin City and Scrubs and a million other things. I thought I spotted him in the crowd at the Waynes’ funeral last week, but it was such a brief shot that I wasn’t sure. But now it turns out he’s the Mayor. Cool.

After the speech, Captain Sarah leads Mayor J, Gordon and Harvey back into her office. Gordon tries to nonchalantly ask about where the kids are going, but you can almost see the righteous veins throbbing in his neck. Mayor J says the cute kids will go into foster care and the rest will go upstate to a correctional facility. He tries to explain to Gordon that, like, some of the crime is sometimes caused by people who are sometimes homeless. They need “structure.” Yeah, Rudy Giuliani called from 1999. He wants his governing strategy back. Gordon doesn’t back down and says Mayor J is locking these kids up without a trial. Mayor J thanks him for his “valuable, refreshing” input.

Later, Alfred visits Gordon and asks him over for tea and probably some light counseling for Baby Batman. (A: Ryan Atwood saying ‘tea time’ was probably my favourite moment of the episode).

To remind us that maybe after his parents were murdered right in front of his eyes, Baby Batman isn’t in the best head-space, we cut to him drawing creepy things while listening to rock.

You’re Under Arrest for Living Without a Home Lot. Many children are being shuffled onto buses. A woman asks Selina for her name, and she insists that there has been a mistake. He voice is a lot younger than I expected. YOU GUYS. Carmen Bicondova is FIFTEEN. SHE WAS BORN IN 1999. (She was also a runner up on America’s Best Dance Crew…) In contrast, Baby Batman is played by David Mazouz, who is 13. Huh.

Sweeney: This episode confused me. I guess I knew that a Catwoman/Batman thing is part of the canon and something they are clearly setting the stage for, but I really thought this actress was a woman in her 20s during the pilot. I hadn’t even thought about the budding romance story – that’s just how she came across. Then she started speaking and appearing side by side with Ryan Atwood Gordon and others and it was all very “Oh snap, she’s actually, like, a kid. Weird.”

Lor: I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

Selina says she has to talk to James Gordon, but the lady taking names doesn’t care. On the bus, she takes out her yarn-locket. There is a picture of presumably her mother inside. The kid next to her is crying so she tries to impart some juvie wisdom.

HISS.

 

Selina’s head snaps up when she hears Vicious Volunteer’s voice. She tries to make a run for it, but VV has a gun. Selina is forced back into a seat and VV threatens the rest of the children as the school bus takes off.

After a totally real break, Mayor J is freaking out at Captain Sarah about the bus full of missing children. Sarah says they are working the case. Cut to Harvey beating Balding Baddy with a phone book. We actually have a tag for phone book sightings but it’s “LOOK A PHONE BOOK. LOL.” which is a little strange in this situation. I’m still going to use it, though. This time, Gordon is watching the beating with no objections. Balding admits that he once saw the Kid Snatcher Mobile and it had a logo of a plate and fork. Gordon asks him to draw it.

Establishing shots of Metropolis. JUST KIDDING. GOTHAM. At a warehouse, the kids are filing off the bus and into a crate. VV and KP notice that there is a child missing and VV goes back onto the bus to see if anyone is left. Selina very stealthily moves from the floor to a seat, depending on where VV looks. She manages to escape the bus unnoticed. VV, unable to find anyone, tells KP that there must’ve been a miscount. They high five anyway ’cause they did real good snatching all those children!

GCPD. The detectives aren’t having any luck with blue plate/fork logos. Gordon is staring at the crude drawing and realizes what it truly is: a trident. (You can see the logo on a billboard used in the first gifset in this post.) Cut to the door of the crate close. The logo is for Trident Shipping Co. From further in the warehouse, a man comes screaming and covering his eyes. Selina “scratched” him as in SCRATCHED HIS EYEBALLS OUT. I’m sorry for the gifs in advance:

 
 

Alex: Is Kirsti reading these recaps? I feel bad for her if she is. DON’T LOOK, KIRSTI.

Sweeney: Except, TOO LATE! Oops.

Lor: Vicious Volunteer shoots the eyeball-less man to put him out of his misery, I guess.

She goes off in search of whoever caused the eyeball trauma and we see Selina sneaking about to avoid her. Unfortunately, her special locket falls out of her pocket and alerts VV to her presence atop some crates. VV calls her a very naughty girl, thankfully allowing Gordon enough time to swoop in and save the day. Gordon asks for Selina’s name, and she basically says, “nonya.” Harvey grabs Killer Philanthropist and we go to the last commercial break after Gordon demands to know where the rest of the kids are.

Wayne Estate. Alfred is telling Gordon some of the symptoms of Baby Batman’s childhood trauma like lack of sleep and nightmares. Gordon asks about professional help, but BB isn’t getting any because he doesn’t want any. See, Papa Wayne told Alfred that should they die, he should raise Baby Batman to basically make all his own decision. He’s 13. SPOILERS: He grows up to run around in spandex and probably not be that well adjusted.

Gordon asks what he’s supposed to do and Baby Batman sneaks in. Alfred yells at him for being stealth and so begins a long life of Bruce Wayne sneaking up behind people, I suppose. Baby Batman swears he’s fine, though he admits that he burned his hand. Gordon says talking about bad things helps. Baby Bruce asks if he talks about the terrible things he saw during the war and Gordon lies badly. Baby Batman says he isn’t hurting himself, he’s testing himself, which is different. He changes the subject to the child snatching case, which he’s been following in the newspaper. He wants to give the kids money, but Gordon says it doesn’t work that way. They need someone to shake them into hugs, like Baby Batman has with Alfred. Still, BB thinks his money can help somehow, like with buying them all new outfits!

It’s okay guys! I played Batgirl!

At GCPD, the homeless kids all have their new clothes on. They are still being sent to juvie, though. Selina pitches a fit and we actually hear the cop call her Selina. I was all prepared to make a comment about how cool it was that the episode was obviously titled “Selina Kyle” but they never used her name. AND THEY RUINED IT. Selina demands to see Detective Gordon and threatens to scream and accuse the cop of touching her. He runs off to do her bidding.

Penguin is on the floor of his trailer, looking up at some sort of stalker collage that features Gordon. His phone rings and he answers it. He’s got a man tied up in his trailer and tries to negotiate ransom from his mother, who does not cooperate because she doesn’t believe him.

Alex: I gather that these are the kind of guys who pull a lot of pranks on people (see above re. pulling the car forward) so obviously no one’s going to believe that one of them has actually been kidnapped. You see, guys? THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS.

Lor: Back at the police station, Gordon talks to Selina and calls her a survivor.

 

‘Cause nine lives, y’all.

Selina asks if he could get her out of police custody if she had useful information. See, she’s been watching him and knows he’s friends with Baby Batman. Gordon says he could possibly get her out so she says she saw who really killed the Waynes. DUN DUN DUN. End credits.

Alex: Really? Because I saw the whole thing too and I don’t have the faintest idea who that was under all those layers of black clothing.

Sweeney: We also saw the literal front of this human, unlike the slightly removed aerial view she got and nope, we’ve got nothing. This being an episode-ending cliffhanger, though, we don’t really know that she’s actually going to give him anything useful. She saw but it doesn’t mean she actually knows who it is. Though maybe she could offer something slightly more useful than “owns shiny shoes.”

Lor: I have no strong feelings about Carmen’s acting, I guess. She moves very gracefully and I was mostly taken with how she favors young Michelle Pfeiffer. That’s excellent casting for that reason. Also, this was certainly less clunky than the pilot, but still far from subtle or nuanced.

Alex: I liked it a lot more than the pilot, although I groaned every time Selina got called ‘Cat’ because WE GET IT, GUYS. The child-catchers were genuinely scary monsters-of-the-week and there was some real suspense in some of the scenes, which was a welcome change from the stupidly fast pace of the pilot. For an episode with her name as the title, though, I didn’t think Selina/Cat got all that much to do, and that’s a shame since it feels like she’s probably got a lot more to offer.

 

Here are our favorite #gothamsnark Tweets for this week:

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone for tweeting along! Be sure to join us next week for #gothamsnark (even if you’re watching a day or so behind – we’ll keep checking for tweets until the post goes live!)

 

Next time on Gotham: The Major Crimes Duo keep up their investigating in S01 E03 – The Balloonman.

 

Marines (all posts)

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.





Nicole Sweeney (all posts)

Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.





Alex (all posts)

I'm a thirty-year-old postgrad living in Scotland. When I'm not writing (which, between my degree and Snark Squad, is almost never) I watch entirely too much TV, and live in constant fear of the day that I run out of things to watch.





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