TV – Gotham: Season 1, Episode 11
Back after its mid-season break Gotham picks up four weeks after Jim Gordon’s sacking from the GCPD with a play being acted out by the inmates of Arkham Asylum, his new home. A fight breaks out and the Warden, Doctor Lang, is not pleased with his new recruit. The victim of the beating that occurred needs medical attention and with the asylum not yet up to staffing capacity a doctor is brought in from the female wing in the shape of Leslie Thompkins, and the doctor starts to take quite a shine to Gordon. An inmate known as Frogman is discovered by Gordon in his cell completely unresponsive and it turns out that someone has been practising a very crude form of electroshock therapy on him leaving him essentially brain dead. Other victims start to come to light and much to Lang’s displeasure Gordon calls in his old partner Bullock to conduct a police investigation. Gordon had questioned all the inmates and was certain it was a member of staff so when Bullock questioned Lang it transpires that Nurse Dorothy Duncan is in fact an old inmate who had been hiding in the closed asylum and pretended to be staff when it reopened.
Gordon tries to confront Duncan when Thompkins arrives and in a split second Duncan had shoved the good doctor and made her escape. To make it easier for her to run from Gordon, Duncan shuts off the electricity to the cell doors allowing all the inmates to flee. In the chaos that follows Duncan is trampled to death and back at GCPD the Captain, Bullock, and Gordon celebrate Gordon’s win that is until the coroner arrives with photographs showing that Duncan was also a victim of the electroshock therapy. Back at Arkham the Grade A sociopath that is Jack Gruber escapes with a fellow inmate and electroshock participant, Aaron, killing a guard and Doctor Lang in the process. He leaves a note for Gordon admitting it was him all along and that he hoped the two men would meet again soon.
Elsewhere in Rogue’s Gallery The Penguin is jailed by GCPD for trying to raise the taxes on the fishermen. Don Moroni eventually shows up at the station a day later to have Penguin released but not before explaining that it was he that had Penguin arrested as a lesson that Penguin cannot go around doing things without the Don’s permission. The fight over control of the main family should anything happen to Don Falcone is going on still. Fish tells two of her rival bosses her plans for taking control but Saviano is having none of it declaring he is next in line. Butch pays his lifelong friend a visit but ends up staying on the side of Fish by executing his pal.
Selina Kyle and a very sick Ivy Pepper break into Jim’s apartment while he is at Arkham to feed, rest and get out of the terrible weather. After breaking up her affair with Barbara, Montoya leaves Barbara to pack so she can go home. Barbara phones the apartment but Ivy answers and pretends she is Jim’s new squeeze which upsets Barbara who smashes her phone.
What a comeback from a holiday! The very dark directing and tone of Arkham and its inhabitants along with the Burton-esque landscape shots added a real depth to quite a thrilling and violent episode. There was a little of One Flew Over A Cuckoo’s Nest about the asylum and Allyce Beasley (Moonlighting) as Dorothy was quite magical to watch. What this show has done very quickly is shown that it can cast solid leads that consistently perform above average for a television show but when a villain is needed the producers excel.
Welcome back Gotham.
Image - IMDb.
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