Gotham S02E07 Review: Penguin :(

Gotham, Season 2, Episode 7: Mommy's Little Monster

The first few minutes of this episode is definitely strong, as Penguin goes on a giddy little run to save his mother, only to find that it is a trap set by the Gallavans and a traitorous Butch. Oh, if only Penguin had brought the army he did at the end to rescue his mother in the opening act! Alas, that is not the case, and we see him basically groveling, doing anything to save his mother. And while Gallavan seems to throw him a bone and let the poor, confused, and implied-to-be-tortured Gertrude out of her cell, he ends up stabbing the poor woman in the back, and Penguin just pleading, apologizing and simply breaking down as his mother dies in his hand, confused but happy that her son is near... that was fucking heartbreaking.

He does manage to get Gallavan to turn back around by insulting the Dumas family as a bunch of cowards, allowing him to slice Gallavan and make his getaway. That was awesome, but the rest of the episode ends up being underwhelming as things that really should've been concluded then and there end up being stretched out for later on this season, and the haphazard jumping-around-the-many-characters we had for the past few episodes end up harming the story somewhat.

Penguin doesn't really get much time to react after that opening scene, and ends up just leading an army of Penguin lookalikes to assault Theo Gallavan, and while he did get a great moment just asking Gordon to step aside, and Gordon telling Penguin that he knows all about Gallavan... nothing really comes of it due to status quo. Granted, I'd prefer for things to play out a bit longer, but the way they handled the climax was kinda weak.

Also, where was Zsasz during the big shootout? He showed up with his army to kill Butch -- something that ended up being an anticlimax of itself because Butch just escapes off-screen while Gordon and Bullock went all machinegun.

Gordon knows that Gallavan is pulling the strings and all that, having pieced things together, and admittedly like Barnes said, there really isn't much they could do without solid evidence, but he's just being rather stupid, announcing that he knew what Gallavan is doing in front of the man instead of just trying to fool the prick until he actually does have evidence. Also, the reason that Gallavan has been keeping Gordon alive these past few episodes -- he needs Gordon to give him public support or some shit -- kind of falls thin and is such a silly reason I forgot to mention it before.

Oh, and Strike Force Member #2... or is it #3? Get killed by Tigress. Yeah, they aren't going to stick around and I have no attachment to them.

We also has this eye-cringing scene where Silver St. Cloud reveals herself to be, well, a bitch. Nevermind my feelings of them ruining a character by turning her into the exact opposite of what her character really is -- someone who fell with Bruce Wayne but can't really deal with the Batman stuff... we also get a bit of an idiot ball from Selina, who just goes all "this slut is bad news!" without telling Bruce just what Silver told her.

The Riddler bits is more interesting, and while I'm still not really liking the split personalities deal, the fact that he's playing the Riddler game with himself instead of with a proper opponent like Batman or Gordon really gives a great spin. Apparently Evil-Nygma has 'hijacked' the body and cut up Kringle's body and hid her in the GCPD building the night before... somehow managing to put a hand in the snack machine. Real-Nygma's desperation to locate Kringle's body is well done, if a bit gruesome and kind of overstays its welcome, but it's not like the rest of the episode, Penguin scenes aside, had much to deliver.