TV - Gotham: Season 1, Episode 8

Steve Taylor-Bryant, looks at violence in offices and schools as he reviews this week’s Gotham, The Mask...

We kick off with a scenario that I can only imagine is a scene from my friend Chris Smith's mind every time he is in the office, as two men fight to the death using filing cabinets and photocopiers. The body is discovered and Bullock and Gordon are on the trail. Nygma discovers a man’s thumb inside the mouth of the victim and with the way he is dressed they trace him to a financial firm run by Richard Sionis. Sionis immediately gets right up Gordon's nose as he is obsessed with killing, swords, and especially masks.

Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne returns to school on Alfred's insistence and walks straight into trouble with some bullies that annoy him by talking disrespectfully about his mother. Alfred gives young Bruce some advice on dealing with the particular bully that started everything and takes him to the boy’s house and allows Bruce to basically pulverise the kid’s face before promising to train Bruce in the ways of fighting.

Penguin has his own issues as he has to deal with Fish Mooney, who stabs him in the hand with a brooch he stole as a gift for her. In return, Penguin kidnaps Fish's new protégé and has him killed, giving the brooch to his mother, who single handedly manages to bring something Burton-esque to proceedings every time she is on screen. Meanwhile Fish's inside girl, the weapon called Liza, gets into the mansion owned by Don Falcone, drugs him and steals some diary entries for Fish. However Liza feels remorse and wants out, maybe she is developing feelings for the old mob boss or maybe she has her own agenda, only time will tell.

The police still don’t like or trust Gordon and so when Sionis kidnaps him, no one wants to help find him. Bullock shouts at the entire department and eventually, led by Chief Essen, they volunteer to track down some business addresses that Gordon may be being held at. As they storm one, they see Gordon fighting his way through some wannabe office workers before taking down Sionis himself. As Gordon is wrapping up at the station, about to go home and find out that Barbara has left him, Selina Kyle pops up again, arrested for theft.

Nygma was a pleasure to watch this week, given a slightly bigger role, and the scene in the autopsy room where he talks to the victim is incredibly entertaining. The back story about financiers that live by some kind of Chuck Pahalinik code of business was okay whilst not blowing any other episode out of the water, but it is Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot that still takes my eye every single week. When the writing team decide to bring on the storylines of the other characters, and they are looking that way inclined, I just hope that they don’t disregard Cobblepot completely as he is the most intriguing character I’ve seen on a show for a long time.

Image - IMDb.