TV Review: Gotham – Season 1 Episode 20 “Under the Knife”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Episode 20: "Under the Knife"

Synopsis: Gordon and Bullock continue to investigate the Ogre (guest star Milo Ventimiglia), who begins to make his move on someone close to Gordon. Meanwhile, Bruce and Selina team up to expose a corrupt Wayne Enterprises employee and Nygma comes to Kristin Kringle’s defense.

The GCPD: After realizing The Ogre could come after him next, Jim heads to Dr. Thompkins and reveals that he loves her. The two have a nice moment together but it is not her the killer is after. The Ogre is actually on a date with Barbara Kean, assuming she and Jim are still together. He is even prepared to kill her when she tells him she is single and he has to rethink what he is doing next. Gordon and Bullock speak with the initial investigator on The Ogre case while the killer takes photos of the detectives. Tracking down one of the victims, The Ogre tries to run down the cops. At the station, he calls and gives Gordon one final warning before he kills one of his loved ones. Gordon answers the challenge by staging a press conference acknowledging The Ogre's crimes. They track the killer to the Van Groot estate, one of Gotham's oldest and richest families. There they find the matriarch mummified in her bed and her butler trying to kill himself. It turns out that he was actually the butler's son with a horribly disfigured face. Mrs.Van Groot raised him as her own and rejected him when he asked for her name. The Ogre murdered her and had his face changed with plastic surgery to his current appearance. Gordon and Bullock find out his real name is Jason Skolinski but they cannot find him anywhere and only have a sketch. Gordon then realizes the photo of him in the paper featured him with Barbara and he rushes to her penthouse where Selina tells him she left with the man in the sketch. At The Ogre's apartment, Barbara enters his torture room and smiles.

At Wayne Manor: Selina and Bruce have to deal with the aftermath of killing Reggie last week. Selina claims she did it because Bruce couldn't, but the two put their argument aside to find the man, Sid Bunderslaw, who was paying Reggie to spy on Bruce and Alfred. Feeling better, Alfred is informed by Bruce that he intends to attend the Wayne Enterprises charity ball. Alfred offers to attend to protect Bruce, but Bruce tells him that he invited Selina Kyle. Alfred gives Bruce a hard time but is very accepting of his young ward's love interest. Barbara helps Selina prepare for the ball which gives Bruce a big smile when he sees her. At the ball, Bruce tells her he did want to kill Reggie but that is a line he will never cross. Selina says that is where they differ. They meet Buderslaw and Selina gets a copy of his key.

Fish Mooney: Fish does not appear this week.

The Penguin: At the club, Cobblepot meets with some thugs to plan the murder of Don Maroni. Maroni arrives and spends time with Penguin's mother, much to Oswald's discontent. Maroni reveals to her Oswald's true crimes as a killer and psychopath but she doesn't believe him. Oswald threatgens Maroni who takes it in stride. At her home, Oswald tries to tell his mother that Maroni was drunk but she says she wants the truth. Oswald tells her he is just a nightclub owner but she doesn't believe him. She walks away and there is a knock at the door: flowers from Maroni. In a rage, Penguin murders the delivery man.

Other Characters: Edward Nygma gets a funny scene where he smashes watermelons to deduce stabbing patterns. He then brings it as a gift basket to Ms. Kringle and spots bruises on her arm from her police officer boyfriend. Ed is naturally upset and defensive despite her protests. He confronts the cop, Officer Doherty, with a riddle and threatens him if he hurts Ms. Kringle again but he brushes it off. Nygma follows Ms. Kringle home and confronts Doherty again. He tells Doherty to leave Gotham and the drunken cop laughs at him and suckerpunches him. When he stands, Nygma stabs him again and again and with his dying breath calls Nygma "Riddle Man". Looking at the bloody knife, Ed says "oh dear" and laughs.

Review: Will wonders ever cease. This was a pretty damn good episode of Gotham! The Ogre case carrying over from last week allowed the development of the villain a bit more, but sending it into a third episode was surprising. It was with that that I realized the VIllain of the Week format is what has been killing this show. The more interesting plot arcs on Gotham have involved the secondary characters because Jim Gordon has been embroiled in solving mysteries each week. Giving him a single foe for two episodes in a row, leading to a third, has allowed for more organic development which made the entire hour feel more palatable. Even the appearance of Barbara Kean felt warranted for the first time in twenty episodes. No Fish this week and I barely missed her because we finally got great sub-plots for Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot. Penguin has been strong this year but lacking in recent episodes. Tonight, he gets to go crazy as does Nygma, literally, which helped this become a very strong hour. I hope next week wraps the story nicely before the season finale.

Final Verdict:

Next Episode: "The Anvil and The Hammer" airs on April 27th – Gordon and Bullock track the Ogre, who manages to break down Barbara's emotions; Penguin leads a massacre that kick-starts an epic war; Bruce learns the truth about Wayne Enterprises; and Nygma deals with his recent actions.