GOTHAM RECAP AND REVIEW: SEASON 1, EPISODE 7, ‘PENGUIN’S UMBRELLA’

Legion contributor Christina Janke is recapping and reviewing Gotham this season! Follow her on Twitter @IntroToGeek!

The battle for Gotham’s soul continues! Gordon’s faces the consequences for not doing what Falcone ordered him to do, and Penguin makes a move that could shift the power in Gotham’s crime scene.

Starting a little after where we left off last week, Gordon is scrambling to get his ducks in order after Penguin revealed himself to the entire GCPD and MCU that he’s alive and well. He may be off the hook from the law, but now Fish Mooney and Falcone are after him. Unfortunately for Gordon, they know where he lives and how to get to Barbara.

Two of Mooney’s men are already waiting for Gordon when he gets home. Barbara is there too (does she ever get out of the house?). The goons were instructed to bring Gordon in alive, otherwise he and Barbara would be dead already. Not interested in coming in with them, Gordon puts a bullet in one guy and knocks the other unconscious. The two break for the bus station where Gordon makes Barbara leave town on her own; Gordon still has some business to take care of. If he doesn’t meet her in the next few days, however, she can’t ever come back to Gotham. What do you do when your significant other says something like that?!

Gordon heads straight back to the precinct, a dumb move by anyone’s standards (in Gotham, anyway), and asks for some pre-signed, blank warrants from Judge “Bam-Bam.” With these, he plans to bring in the Mayor, Don Falcone, and any one else closely associated with the Wayne Murders. He plans to charge them all for conspiracy and perversion of the law. Yeah, good luck finding someone brave enough to prosecute any of these guys. Crime, fear, and corruption has this city by the…well, you know.

Meanwhile, the Falcone crime family in a meeting. Mooney and Nikolai want Gordon and Penguin dealt with (dead), but Falcone opts for the alternative — for Mooney to politely ask Maroni for Penguin, and to send Victor Zsasz to fetch Gordon at the GCPD. Already we know something is up with Falcone, and Mooney senses it too. Why isn’t Falcone furious that a cop supposedly under his thumb disobeyed his orders?

Back at the precinct, Zsasz and his men arrive to pick up Gordon. Of course, Gordon will not comply; he wants to fight and stand up to Falcone on his own terms. Zsasz, with a polite request I might add, clears the entire precinct. Only Captain Essen stands by Gordon’s side. Gordon resigns to the fact that no one has his back, and urges his boss to leave too. As soon as the captain clears a gun fight ensues. A wounded Gordon barely makes it outside alive until Crispin Allen and Renee Montoya grab him and speed off.

At Maroni’s restaurant, Fish Mooney is demanding she have Penguin back. Maroni refuses her request. As a result, Falcone blocks/intercepts several of Maroni’s trade routes, including a large shipment of guns. Maroni is furious and wants to hit Falcone back right now. Good news, Maroni! Penguin knows just where to strike first, and that’s wherever Nikolai and his men hide out. Penguin and Maroni’s men make short work of everyone in the warehouse, but they’re not celebrating just yet. Maroni’s right hand man, Frankie, has been suspicious of Penguin since he gained the boss’s favor. A snitch is a snitch, after all. Little does Frankie know, Penguin already has the upper hand in this situation. He paid Maroni’s goons off to follow his orders instead. After he was done monologuing, Penguin then sticks a knife in Frankie until he’s dead.

Gordon, Allen and Montoya head to Wayne Mansion where he introduces the latter two to Bruce. In case Gordon doesn’t survive his ordeal with Falcone, Allen and Montoya have volunteered to continue the Wayne case. While short, it’s a bit of a touching scene between Gordon and Bruce. We don’t see them forming an attachment to one another, but it’s there when Bruce lunges himself at Gordon to hug him.

On the docks, Maroni and Falcone meet face to face to set up a truce after the tragic loss of both their men, Nikolai and Frankie respectively. Falcone decides that Maroni can keep Penguin in exchange for some real estate. Penguin suggests Indian Hill, a piece of land on Arkham that is a toxic waste dump built on top of an indian burial ground, according to Fish Mooney. How charming. Does this mean that Falcone now has more land on Arkham than Maroni does?

Gordon is back at the apartment arming himself for a one-man raid to Falcone’s house. Then a semi-drunk Bullock stumbles in. He was mad at Gordon at first for not killing Penguin, but after mulling it over, he decided to venture on the moral high ground with his partner…and friend. That’s right guys, there is definitely some sort of camaraderie forming between these two. Like with Bruce, we don’t really see the bonding take its natural course. We maybe get a couple scenes and some passing, friendly correspondence between the two, but it’s there. Everyone who thought Bullock was being portrayed as too much of a bad cop can start resting easier now. Donal Logue’s got this.

Maybe the funniest thing about this scene is that Bullock brings a hooker with him to confront Gordon. After Gordon’s rousing speech to take down Falcone, he starts playing sexy Marco Polo with the lady.

The first person Gordon and Bullock nab is the Mayor. They commandeer his car and ride all the way to Falcone’s house. But Barbara, who came back to plead to Falcone for spare Gordon, is already there as Falcone’s hostage. Dang it, Carl…I mean Barbara! Now Falcone has every opportunity to kill all of them, but he doesn’t. Falcone wants them to see how much Gotham needs his steady hand, especially Gordon.

Little does anyone know, Falcone spared Gordon and company as a favor to Penguin. Say what?

So here’s the deal: Penguin and Falcone have been in cahoots since episode one. When Falcone discovered that Penguin snitched on them to the MCU, Penguin proposed an idea that would ensure his power over Gotham. First, Gordon had to be the one to “kill” Penguin since he’s a straight enough cop to be convinced to fake his murder. Then he’ll come back under an assumed name, gain favor with Maroni, and snitch on him for Falcone. Do you get it now? But that’s not all, the first piece of information Penguin gives Falcone is that Nikolai and Mooney are working together to overthrow him. Nikolai would become the next don, but only until Mooney can betray him and take over herself.

So Falcone has been in the know this whole time, and that’s probably why Mooney’s girl hasn’t been able to get any valuable info from him either. Bum bum BUM!