Gotham Season 1 Episode 12: "What the Little Bird Told Him" Review

Gotham's First Supervillain

Two weeks ago, we saw one Mr. Jack Gruber and his former Child-Minded Associate, Aaron, escape from Arkham Asylum. To those who don't know, Gruber is a bit crazy with a love of SHOCKING his enemies. Gordon, being our white knight of Gotham, will have none of that. He is ready to go on the hunt with his partner, to catch the psycho before he kills anyone else. I loved this because we finally had a super villain. People might disagree saying that Gotham already had super villains, such as the kidnapping couple and the assassins that went after Selina Kyle. I, on the other hand, see them only as villains. Super Villains need a plan, a henchman or two, a gimmick that makes them powerful, and a name. Guess what Mr.Gruber has? ALL OF THEM. Along with that, it seems Fish's plot for control finally has come to a head, but is there a Penguin-shaped wrench in her plans? Do penguins eat fish? Enough of the rambling and the questions lets dive in!

Everybody relatively played their parts well this week, all on edge trying to figure out where Gruber is going to strike. I loved getting the GCPD team back together again, Jim and Bullock working together; even Edward appearing to give his two cents and a riddle to remind us bluntly who he's destined to become, I was happy to see him too. We also get an introduction to Commisioner Loeb, still as big a jerk as ever. I am actually surprised it took this long to get him into the show, especially considering how important his butting of heads with Jim lead to his eventual rise to take his place. We get more Barbara drama, but it wasn't even necessary for the episode. Barbara needs to kick in the door and be Jim's rock once more because right now its a waste of a character and an actress. But speaking of love interests, we get Leslie Thompkins back in, and as much as I wanted to say I want a romance with her and him, it just got ridiculously ramped up in the way that you see in most bad action movies. Overall, the writers need to work on this thing called development with some of their characters. On the flipside however, the villain of the episode, Jack Gruber played by Christopher Heyerdahl, stole the show's police side this week. This is the only part I will spoil from the episode, just the opening makes me pumped. We see the evil creepy smile of Gruber walking towards his target's shop, wearing a rubber trench coat, having his mostly brain dead henchmen carry his power source. Though it sounds ridiculous to look at, the thing that makes the scene is the fact that they play Johnny Cash's God's Gonna Cut you Down in the background. It set the entire mood of Gruber and the hunt for him in that short minute and a half. He's a man on a mission — a mission of death. I hope we see more of him past this episode, because he just replaced the "Spirit of the Goat" as my favorite criminals. Also the final battle between him and Gordon was probably one of the greatest moments I've seen on the show.

As much as I praise the fantastic acting of the cast this week, I feel emotionally I was drawn to the mobster side of Gotham. All of Fish's plans came to a head as she executes the plan to take over Falcone's Crime Family. I felt my heart break whenever I saw Falcone and Liza together, knowing soon the truth will come out and blow up in both of their faces. It's a tale we've all heard before; a spy sent in to study a target, but soon develops feelings for said target. The thing that makes this one feel different though is because they expanded it well, and they never get together. This isn't a romantic relationship, but a friendship. He wanted what was best for her, and she didn't want to see him get hurt. Jada Pinkett Smith does a good job as usual, especially this week when we see the human side to her. She feels bad that she has deceived somewhat of a father figure to her, all for the sake of power. We didn't get any of the epic Robin Lorde Taylor moment's this week as most of the time he was knocked out by the Electrocutioner. The biggest moment of this side of the show however was it's end. It almost brought a tear to my eye, but also brutally cemented the fact that Falcone is the king of Gotham's underworld. The real question remains for that side of the story. What will happen to Fish now that the truth is revealed?

Final Verdict:

This was a good episode with a fantastic villain to add to Gotham's scoreboard, despite certain character's being off. I'm pleased to see the show has been renewed for a second season; despite the gripes I had with the first half, they have begun to fix the issues that plague it. While the cop side of the show provided the action and mystery supplied by Gotham's first super villain, the mobster side shined through with the emotions. There are certain characters I had issues with, but in the end I enjoyed this episode, and can’t wait for next week.

That's my review for this week! What did you think of the episode? What did you think of this review? Leave a comment and see ya tomorrow for my review on the return of The Flash!