Gotham Recap: “Knock Knock”

After a by-the-books season premiere during which Jim Gordon faced his usual moral quandaries, I’m ready for the second episode of Gotham‘s second season to shake it up a little. Here’s hoping Tigress gets some lines this time around!

This episode opens with Theo Galavan (Tigress’s brother) torturing the mayor. Did he kidnap the mayor at the end of the last episode? I feel like I would have remembered that. Anyway, he sure does have the mayor now!

Wait, is that Tigress in the background? Is she going to do anything in this scene? Say anything? Enter the camera’s focus at all? The suspense is killing me!!

Nope. Scene’s over. Tigress didn’t do anything.

Next we see the news room at the Gotham Gazette, which has a surprisingly impressive staff count considering the demise of print media; the editors are arguing over what to put on the cover. Apparently the kidnapping of the Mayor isn’t exciting enough. Luckily, when the reporters look right outside their window, they learn all of those escaped Arkham inmates are chilling out on their roof, dumping bodies over the edge. News media is a fast-paced, cutthroat world here in Gotham.

Somehow, Jerome is in charge of this body-dumping endeavor, even though he’s like 12 years old and there’s no logical reason why grown men would be listening to him. It can’t be his noted lack of charisma; must be due to that whole “he’s the only named character in the scene” thing. Anyway, each of those thrown bodies has been decked out with one letter of the phrase “M A N I A X !” Because that’s the name of their new ex-Arkham super-group. See, “Suicide Squad” was taken … by the same characters … in the future. Whoa. Nah, just kidding, none of these characters are going to live that long. Except for Jerome. And everyone seems to know it.

Turns out the Gotham PD have absolutely no idea who broke these jerks out of Arkham. There’s no camera footage of Tigress breaking them out? No evidence whatsoever? Really? Props to Tigress for burying those clues, I guess, not that she’ll get credit for it on the show itself.

Jim Gordon’s the lead on this case, even though one of the escapees is his ex-girlfriend Barbara. I would say he’s handling it with expert professionalism, except that he lets out a dramatic sigh once his power-point presentation gets to Barbara’s photo. It’s quite telling that Arkham Asylum is what passes for acceptable mental health care in this city, because everyone’s got massive unresolved issues around here.

Theo gives the “Maniax” a pep talk over donuts and coffee. The donuts look pretty good. Can’t say the same for the rest of Theo’s décor, though. How long do you think these two nameless Maniax are going to last, by the way? And where’s Barbara? She didn’t even get to participate in Rooftop Murderfest!

Theo makes a big show of letting each of the Maniax audition their best “villain vlog” voice. I guess Theo wants to send a tape of the Maniax to the news or something, because news media coverage is very important in Gotham. All the ex-inmates give the monologue their best shot, but we know this role’s going to go to Jerome, right? Not because I want it to, but because I already understand where this show is going.

Jerome’s audition is absolutely terrible. It’s by far the worst of the four try-outs. Even the guy who refused to audition did a better job than Jerome. This boy keeps switching from syllable to syllable between falsetto and his normal voice. It’s bad. It’s really bad. Yet … everyone tells him he did great??? Theatre kids. Yeesh.

Tigress and Barbara show up, each carrying a whip. They’ve been whipping the Mayor together, which sounds like a fun hobby. Tigress finally gets her first line ever, and it’s deliciously apropos:

“We’re bored.” Yeah, I bet you are. And yet, I still have a bad feeling these two women are going to have absolutely nothing to do for the rest of this episode.

Remember the Baby Batcave that Baby Bruce snuck into last episode? Even though Bruce and Alfred are already in the cave now, and it’s a done deal that Bruce is never going to give up on his stubborn “expose corruption in Gotham and/or at Wayne Enterprises” plan, Alfred keeps telling this kid that he needs to chill out because this shit’s getting dangerous. But Bruce only responds to destruction, so … Alfred smashes his Dad’s old computer right in front of him until the kid starts sobbing. Does Alfred really think that’s going to work?

This kid has a death wish, Alfred. You might be able to slow him down, but you definitely can’t stop him.

Bruce looks up from his tears and promptly fires Alfred. Has anyone else noticed that a lot of people get fired on this show? We already know that Alfred and Jim are going to get their jobs back, though, so it’s hard to get that concerned. Plus, Bruce and Alfred were both crying at the time. Maybe they can revisit Alfred’s employment contract when they’ve calmed down a bit. Emotions are high, computers are getting destroyed, everyone’s just really stressed out right now.

Back at Maniax Mansion, Jerome has gotten into a spat with one of the other nameless inmates. They’re having a power struggle that ends in a murder-off; the two dudes brag about how many kills they’ve stacked up. It’s pretty pathetic. Theo tries to settle it by forcing the two into a game of Russian Roulette. Jerome “wins,” and even though this game is entirely based on luck, everyone seems to act like this victory matters. It’s almost as though Jerome is fated to be the lead villain on this show.

Jim pops over to Harvey’s bar and meets his friend’s new girlfriend – scratch that, fiancee – a redhead named Scotty. Scotty already hates Jim, because like all the women on this show, her job is to moralize about how men should take better care of themselves.

Harvey tells Jim he’s not interested in becoming a cop again, but now he gets to do it with a nagging wife-to-be in the background. Sigh.

As Jim walks out the door, Harvey reminds him that the Maniax only killed workers from a specific shipyard. Wow, is that really the kind of help that Jim needs? Did it not occur to him to investigate that particular shipyard? No wonder he was begging Harvey to come back and help him.

Jim soon learns that the Maniax stole a supply truck full of gasoline from the shipyard in question. Then, Jim and and his boss Sarah Essen talk about how nice it would be to just quit, like Harvey did. And how they can’t quit. They just can’t. Because of their morals. Get a room, you two!

Alfred and Bruce bid one another a tearful goodbye. Not much of note here, except that Alfred still uses a pocket watch and it’s adorable.

Oh, no, no, no – now the Maniax are spying on a school bus full of high school cheerleaders. NOPE. Noooooo.

Speaking of story-lines that make me squirm with discomfort, Nygma gets another one of his classic “awkward flirtation” scenes with Miss Kringle in this episode. I feel like the last time these two talked, she accused him of murdering her boyfriend. He denied it, admittedly, but shouldn’t she be a little more unnerved to see him? She looks a little weirded out, but no more than usual. It’s like someone pressed the reset button on where these two were at back at the beginning of season one, almost like that whole “maybe he’s a murderer” thing never happened. Not like there’s anything Miss Kringle could do to avoid this guy, anyway. Does Gotham PD even have an HR department?

After Miss Kringle exits the room, Nygma starts arguing with his “split personality” again – his glasses-free, confident alter-ego – because the Riddler has an inexplicable Fight Club storyline on Gotham. I’m really glad that isn’t the focus of this particular episode, because that way lies dread.

Back to the Maniax. And the cheerleaders. Damn it.

At least Jerome is the same age as these girls … I can’t believe I even wrote that. There’s no justification for this scene at all. The other Maniax unravel a huge gasoline tube from the supply truck, and then Jerome hoses it over all of the cheerleaders. No, I didn’t want to take a picture of how this looked. Just be thankful that I spared you. It looked exactly the way you think it would.

Luckily, the cops show up before Jerome and company get around to lighting up the gasoline-soaked bus. Jim orders his colleagues to hold their fire, because he knows the bus will blow if anyone shoots at it. A Maniax lackey manages to light up a nearby gasoline puddle, but then Jim jumps in the bus and drives it a few feet away from the fiery puddle, which … works, for some reason. Before Jim can interrogate the nameless Arkhamite that Jerome left behind to blow up the bus, though, Tigress head-shots the guy with a sniper rifle from afar. See? I told you he was marked for death. I think he might have had a name, actually, but I knew I’d never need to know it.

Bruce goes to the train stop to talk Alfred out of leaving. I actually thought the pair were meeting on a church pew at first, but it’s just a beautiful station. Which train was Alfred taking, anyway? Is there a train that goes all the way from Gotham back to the United Kingdom?

Bruce starts begging Alfred to come back, which is weird, because he’s the person who told Alfred to leave in the first place. But Alfred uses this unusual turnabout to gain an advantage, so now he’s back to being the disciplinarian that Bruce badly needs. Alfred agrees to return if Bruce goes back to school and resumes his “training” from Alfred in both fisticuffs and survival tips. I had forgotten that Bruce had dropped out of school, actually; I guess he thought studying his Dad’s old paperwork was all the education he needed. I’m glad Bruce will return to learning pre-calculus or whatever. That’s valuable stuff for a Batboy.

Alfred goes to a bar and gets a gin and tonic with an “ice and a slice” (aww), perhaps to celebrate getting his job back. He coincidentally runs into Mr. Lucius Fox from Wayne Enterprises at that bar … but it sure doesn’t seem like a coincidence. Looks like Alfred came to this particular bar for his own reasons. Alfred proceeds to tell Lucius a story about someone he used to know back in his street gang days, a guy who asked him to do a “right iffy favor” and who then betrayed him. Alfred then reveals that “I tucked him up. Like a kipper.” After a beat, Lucius says, “What’s … a kipper?”

So, wait … did Alfred kill that guy? We never find out. But Lucius does soon learn why Alfred’s shown up to this watering hole to tell him intimidating stories. Folks familiar with season one will recall that when young Bruce visited Wayne Enterprises, Lucius told him some confusing facts about his dear old Dad – namely, that the late Mr. Wayne was a “stoic,” which was a strange use of terminology that Bruce took to be a clue.

Alfred decides to spell it all out “crystal clear” for Lucius, rather than sticking to fishy analogies: if Lucius betrays them, he’s “a dead man.” Can’t get any clearer than that, Mr. Pennyworth!

Lucius assures him that he wants the best for Bruce. We all know that’s the case. But Alfred’s got no reason to believe it, at least not yet. This is one of those rare situations when Gotham manages to make its inherent “the audience knows what will happen, but the characters don’t” problem into an interesting quandary, thanks to good pacing and clever dialogue. Gotham‘s mythology may be a foregone conclusion, but ideally, it shouldn’t be a boring trip. In brief, I liked this scene.

Back at the police department, Barbara decides to call Jim on his work phone. I’m sure she knows they can tap that, but Jim doesn’t even look like he’s bothering. Lucky for him, Barbara turns out to be calling him on a cellphone from within the police department. She’s literally across the room, staring at him. Okayyyy. Is that supposed to be scary? If this were any other police department, she’d be apprehended immediately. Instead, she walks – not runs – right out the front door, and Jim immediately loses her. HOW?!!!

The rest of the inmates show up at the department wearing cop outfits, then they immediately take over the department with weapons. Why even bother with the cop outfits, then? Just to get in the front door? And, really, no one is stopping this from happening??? Does anyone actually do their job here besides Jim? Oh, sorry, I know the answer to that question already.

There’s a massive shoot-out in the department, but we don’t see anybody die. We do see Nygma “saving” Miss Pringle by jumping on her body during the firefight, though. Sigh.

Barbara lures Jim down an alleyway on foot. As soon as she turns around to talk to him, Jim puts his hands (and his gun) up in the air, even though Barbara doesn’t have a gun. She does, however, have a big muscly Maniax member hiding in the shadows to do her bidding … which is to beat the shit out of Jim, apparently. She looks a little sad while it’s happening, though.

Once Jim’s down and bloodied, Barbara straddles him and tells him that everything’s actually really great for her now. Oh, I see — this is like one of those post-breakup coffee dates at which everybody tries to act more impressive than they really are. She gives Jim a quick kiss, which he doesn’t even try to dodge, then walks off.

Why did this entire scene happen? Just to lure Jim out of the police department so that it could more easily be taken over by goons? Or did Barbara just want to make sure Jim was safe from the upcoming gunfight?

Jerome ties Sarah Essen up and brings out a video camera. I guess it’s time for him to put that horrible audition from earlier into action. Jerome calls her an “old lady,” which is pretty bizarre, but he is a literal baby so I guess she’s old by his standards. She spits in his face, then headbutts him into a bloody nose, which is pretty bad-ass for a captive. Except she’s still tied up, and needs Jim to come back and rescue her …

Which he’s working on. Bruised Jim struggles out of that ol’ alleyway and back to his blood-spattered workplace. A slow pan over the police department shows a lot of bodies. Are all of the unnamed characters dead around here? Once Jim makes it back up to Essen’s office, Jerome and the rest of his cohorts are long gone. Essen’s lying on the desk, covered in blood herself. She passes out in Jim’s arms.

Lucius has earned himself a private invitation to the Baby Batcave, thanks to Alfred’s rigorous screening procedure. He and Baby Bruce work on that broken computer together, trying to see what data can be salvaged from Alfred’s “protection.” Earlier, Alfred called Lucius a “science guy,” but I guess he also knows about computers, because why not? The plot needed someone to know about computers. (I like Lucius — I’m not really complaining, I swear.)

Here’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment with Miss Kringle bringing Nygma an aspirin. La la la, this plotline isn’t happening, wake me up when it’s over …

Bruce rushes to the station as soon as he hears about the killings, and he’s soooo relieved that his friend Jim is okay. Uh, kiddo, the entire rest of the police department visibly isn’t okay. But, hey, that one guy who actually does his job? That guy survived. Gotham is saved! Except for all of those other people who died. They weren’t saved. But Jim was busy.

Harvey shows up, wearing his old hat. His beard looks like its old self, too. The two guys talk about Sarah Essen in the past tense, like she died, but that can’t be right … she’s Sarah Essen!! She has to come back! She’s the only woman who does anything whatsoever on this show! (Also we already know she survives in a bunch of Batman storylines. So there’s that too.)

Anyway, sounds like Harvey’s rejoining the police force. Jim asks what Scotty would say; Harvey says it doesn’t matter. Yeah, I bet it doesn’t, because we’ll probably never see Scotty again on this show.

Harvey, Jim, and the audience immediately get distracted by a newscaster with unforgettable hair. Okay, her hair is never mentioned or explained, but still — get a load of that impressive mop! She shows us that video footage Jerome took earlier, which is far less visually compelling than her hair. Jerome’s vlog tells us that we “ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” but he doesn’t even sing the song or anything. There’s also a lot of cuts; he probably removed all the “ums” and “uhs” in post. It’s pretty overproduced for a hostage video, is all I’m saying.

That’s a wrap, folks! What did you think of the second episode? I liked it better than the premiere; the less time we spend with Jim’s tortured feelings, the more fun I tend to have. I liked Alfred and Lucius’s budding friendship best of all. I’m still disappointed that Tigress had only one line. Maybe next time she’ll get two?

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