TV Review: Gotham Season 1 Episode 3 “The Balloonman”

Episode 3: "The Balloonman"

Synopsis: Detectives Gordon and Bullock track down a vigilante who is killing corrupt Gotham citizens by attaching them to weather balloons. Meanwhile, Oswald Cobblepot returns to Gotham and gets a new job close to an influential figure in the underworld.

Recap: After two episodes,I thought I had GOTHAM figured out.  With a pilot that tried way too hard to force feed us Batman references and characters, the second episode was a nice gritty episode right from the pages of a DC comic book.  With the opening of this third episode, I think we can firmly assume that GOTHAM plans to be the comic book equivalent of THE WIRE with a heavy emphasis on the comic books.

Opening with Oswald Cobblepot returning to Gotham CIty, he witnesses every type of vile petty crime in broad daylight: prostitution, purse snatching, pickpocketing, and dirty cops extorting money. All of this leads into the current bad guy in town, Ronald Danzer.  Danzer apparently has bilked Gotham citizens out of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme.  As he tries to sneak out of his building, a man pushing an old balloon cart and wearing a pig mask confronts him and straps a weather balloon to his wrist, sending him high above the city.  Only in Gotham could such a niche criminal get away with convoluted murder.

Bullock and Gordon continue to argue about what is right versus justice in Gotham, a tiresome argument I already find to be overly repetitive this early into the show.  Gordon and Selina Kyle meet to discuss her admission that she witnessed the Wayne murders.  When Gordon doubts her, she proclaims she can "see in the dark".  Personally, I find the character references much better when they are unspoken rather that overt like this.  Seeing Oswald Cobblepot waddle like a penguin last week was much more effective than the throwaway characters calling it out to his face.  The Selina Kyle character is well cast and looks the way you would imagine a young Catwoman would, so there really is no need for her to drink milk or bat at things like a ball of yarn.

Montoya and Allen arrive at Fish Mooney's looking for Cobblepot and Mooney tells them rumor has it that James Gordon killed Cobblepot.  Mooney overtly leads the two cops to believe Carmine Falcone ordered the hit on Penguin.  The Major Crimes duo confront Gordon who denies killing Cobblepot, but this is obviously going to be an ongoing theory.  The showrunners are making Gordon into their makeshift Batman: a white knight in a city flooded with evil who has no superpowers but is a good detective determined to solve the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne.  When we next see Cobblepot, he is recognized on the street by a thug who is quickly dispatched via switchblade.  I am really liking this take on Penguin as he is clearly psychotic but also brlliantly one-sighted and determined.  Hell, he even murders a guy at a restaurant he wants a job at just for his Crocs.  This guy is brilliantly perfect.

On the Bruce Wayne side of things, Alfred play fences with the young orphan who looks simultaneously excited and angry at the mock battle.  Upon knocking over some files, Alfred discovers crime scene photos of the murdered Waynes.  Bruce admits he is looking for clues to try and solve his parents' murder.  I am not sure if we will be seeing the younger Wayne each week, but so far it really doesn't offer much in the way of progressing the story.  In fact, everyone else seems to be much more interesting that the future Batman himself.

After interviewing the man who owned the weather balloons used to kill Danzer, Gordon and Bullock learn there are 3 more out there.  This quickly leads to the thuggish cop Gordon met earlier, Lt Cranston, in the episode to be confronted by Balloonman, this time dressed like The Shadow.  The tussle and the dirty cop is sent slowly into the skies.  When Barbara and Gordon discuss the crime, she tries to tell him he is a hero.  He clearly outlines the lack of balance between who the ciity cares about being murdered.  Thus begins the montage of Bullock checking his sources.

Revisiting the Barbara/Renee Montoya relationship from the pilot, they discuss Gordon's supposed murder of Cobblepot.  Montoya suggests that Barbara is a drug addict and alludes to their prior relationship.  While I do not have any issue with this subplot, it does seem a bit convenient that he ex is also a cop and just happens to be a lesbian.  As Gordon interrogates the man who stole the weather balloons, he admits he sold them and left them for a drop and doesn't know who took them.  But, he does explain how weather balloons pop and they find Cranston after he lands on an old lady walking her dog in a darkly funny scene.  Gordon and Bullock also indicate the Cardinal was the third victim when they find something with Gordon's name on it.  Gordon then indicates that he knows who The Balloonman is.

Cobblepot's job as a dishwasher is within a mob restaurant where he begins to befriend another gangster, Don Moroni, within Falcone's organization who plans to fight the kingpin.  Arkham is mentioned as a major project coming soon.  Falcone mentions it again to Fish Mooney, leading us to believe the former asylum will be significant in the near future.

Gordon believes Davis Lamont, the social worker who dropped of Selina Kyle at the open of the episode, is the killer due to the signed slip found on the body.  Gordon deduces there is an old juvenile detention building and when they arrive, they see the final balloon.  Lamont corners them and holds Bullock at gunpoint and compares himself to Gordon fighting for good.  Bullock cuffs Lamont to the balloon but before he can float away, Gordon grabs on, forcing Bullock to shoot the balloon, bringing them down.  Gordon asks him who the final victim was going to be.  Bruce Wayne watches the news footage as the media hails the vigilante Balloonman as a hero for Gotham, giving Bruce a glimmer in his eye.

The episode ends with Jim and Barbara talking about the sickness of the city.  Gordon reveals that the Lamont said the final victim "didn't matter", a sign of the apathy felt by everyone in Gotham City.  Jim hails that he would never do what the criminals do, even those in the name of good, and she believes him, putting Montoya's claim to rest.  A knock on the door reveals Oswald Cobblepot with a mischevious smile, calling Gordon his "old friend".

Rating: 7/10 Gotham PD Badges

Another consistent episode, as strong as last week's in my opinion.  Unlike ARROW, which has a central hero and a focused superhero plot, GOTHAM is beginning to feel like the city populated by comic book characters that it set out to be.  I can see the potential for this to be the comic book take on THE WIRE, but the series needs to not take itself so seriously.  The lack of Edward Nygma in this episode truly helped as it didn't force more comic book references than were needed.  Honestly, if Oswald Cobblepot were the sole Batman character this entire season I would have been happy.  Hell, they don't even need any scenes with Bruce Wayne to make it work.  I like Gordon as the central character and hope the show can stay consistent going forward.

Next Episode: "Arkham" airs October 13th. As a contentious city council vote on the future of the Arkham district approaches, politicians from both sides are in danger. Gordon and Bullock must race to protect the council and an old friend visits Gordon