Gotham: “The Strike Force” — Oct. 12, 2015
Photo courtesy of Fox
Shifty Theo Galavan is selling something, but our special contributor, Ralph S. isn’t buying it. Take it away, Ralph! — Elaine F.
Well now, this week there’s a new sheriff in town and the mayoral race is on. These two events are sure to cause a great deal of conflict for our man Jim Gordon. So without any further delay…shall we?
Penguin’s in a bit of a quandary. He wants to know who’s behind the chaos caused by the Maniax over the past few weeks, and nobody has answers. Enter Tabitha Galavan, Tigress, looking rather fetching in a little black dress. She has an invite for Penguin to meet with her brother Theo. Theo’s angling to run for mayor and he wants Penguin’s assistance in removing the competition. During their conversation Barbara strolls in and after she shows her “affection” for Tabitha, Penguin recognizes her and realizes that Theo is behind the Arkham breakout and the Maniax.
The balance of power in the room quickly shifts. Theo not only wants to be mayor he also has some redevelopment plans for the city that would leave many low-income folks homeless. At first Penguin is reluctant but Theo quickly persuades him to come onboard. See Theo’s taken Oswald’s mother, Gertrude hostage and, well, you can figure it out. Oswald’s a mommy’s boy, so he’s going to do Theo’s bidding. I think that’s a shame. Oswald’s mom is one of the most annoying characters on the show, and I would not lose my appetite if she got herself perished. In fact, it would be interesting to see how far off the chain Oswald would go if he were suddenly deprived of his mother’s attention. Alas, one can just hope.
Gordon’s precinct gets a new commander, Capt. Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis). He strolls in and after a short rousing bit of bellowing, which on this program usually passes for a speech and begins his rule by cleaning house of the most corrupt cops in the station. He then lets it be known that any dirty cop under his command will end up in the slam. In Gotham that means they better start recruiting kids from the Boy Scout troops into the force ’cause they’re gonna run outta cops pretty quick. Barnes then pulls Gordon aside and requests him to take command of a new project Barnes has come up with, the Strike Force. Barnes likes the fact that Gordon’s been a trouble-maker. The two get right to work, heading to the Police Academy to handpick the team from the latest class of recruits. It doesn’t take them long to find four officers that fit the bill. Gordon has some slight reservations about using such young officers, but Barnes waves him off saying, “What have we got to lose?” Gotta love the concern he shows.
During an event heavily covered by the press, city officials present Theo with the ‘medal of valor and bravery’ for his “heroism” during the catastrophe that occurred at the Children’s Hospital benefit. Yes, the same catastrophe that Theo engineered. Remember kids, if you save a bunch of rich folks you get a medal! But what do you get if you try to save a bunch of poor folks? Why don’t you just ask Fred Hampton or, for a more recent example, Ed Snowden. During the ceremony, some hoods pull a drive-by and shoot up the place. Fortunately nobody’s hurt (yeah, right) but that gives Theo the opportunity to announce, on the spur of the moment no less, that he’s decided to run for mayor. Gotham needs a new hero to help clean it up. “If the bad guys wanna stop me running,” he tells the sycophant press corps, “Well then, I guess I got no choice. I will run for mayor.” You gotta hand it to him, between the fake drive-by he set up and the ton of Brylcreem that he uses to make his hair look like the Banzai Pipeline, Theo knows how to put on a show. He exits to wild applause. Meanwhile, the Penguin is busy “eliminating” Theo’s opposition using cutlery and firearms. Guess they don’t have the time or the imagination, to get rid of the competition the old-fashioned way — with a scandal.
As part of his agreement with Alfred, Bruce has gone back to school. We find Alfred waiting for him as the school day ends, and he’s not alone either. Selina shows up to see how Bruce’s day went. Alfred wastes no time in shooing her away and none too gently, I might add. Alfred violently reminds her that he knows she killed a friend of his (during an episode last season) and then he tells her to scram. “Now I don’t know what you want with Master Bruce,” he says. “But I’m certain that his life’s gonna be a damn sight better without you in it.” Clearly hurt and fighting back tears, Selina scampers off. Bruce shows up unaware of what just happened, and Alfred informs him of his dinner engagement with Theo Galavan the next evening. Then, as Bruce heads to the car, Alfred hands him sweats and sneakers and informs the future Dark Knight that it’s 6.5 miles back to Wayne Manor. Bruce will run those miles while Alfred toughs out the distance in the driver’s seat of the shiny new Bentley. This, it seems, is also part of their training agreement. What a life!
Gordon and Bullock investigate the killing of one of the mayoral candidates and find out that the Penguin is behind it. Meanwhile, Penguin and his number two, Butch Gilzean are setting up on their next target, a union boss who’s the last living mayoral candidate. When Butch asks why they’re doing this Oswald confesses that Theo has Gertrude and is threatening to hurt her. Butch reassures Oswald, telling him that they’ll get Gertrude back.
Bruce and Theo meet for dinner and Bruce thanks Theo for saving his life. Theo takes this opportunity to start winning Bruce over to his side, obviously, in his run for mayor. He also introduces Bruce to a young lady, Silver St. Cloud. Apparently she’s now Theo’s ward, and she’ll be going to the same prep school that Bruce attends. Well, great gosh almighty, what a coincidence. Ain’t life just grand?!
Back at the candidate’s office a new volunteer strolls in offering his services to the campaign. When his offer’s rebuffed, Victor Zsasz pulls out his pistols and starts shooting up the joint and almost everyone in it. He chases the candidate outside where he encounters Gordon, Bullock, and the Strike Force. Jimbo recognizes Victor as one of the Penguin’s crew and in the ensuing battle just manages to escape. Later Gordon visits Penguin to put him on notice things will go badly for him. Penguin counters reminding Gordon of the fact that Gordon killed a guy while collecting a debt for Penguin, who, in return, facilitated Gillian Loeb’s resignation as police commissioner enabling Gordon to get back on the force. Hmmm, can you say standoff? Back at the precinct Barnes names Penguin as the Strike Force’s first official target. It just keeps gettin’ better don’t it?
Oh yeah, it seems that Edward Nygma is meeting with success in his romantic pursuit of Kristen Kringle after he managed to save her life during the shootout at the precinct a couple weeks back. He invites her over to his spot for dinner, and it seems that there may be a relationship budding. Good for Ed! It’s about time he got his boots knocked.
It seems that events have created quite a predicament for our friends Gordon and Penguin. There’ll be quite a bit of damage if these two collide.
Gotham airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox.
