Gotham 01×10 – Harvey Dent (SPOILERS)
SPOILERS
Back to Shit City, USA. Selina’s totally eyeing the joint as Gordon takes her home (she will steal ALL THE THINGS). He finds the note that Barbara left. Which Selina steals. She wants to stay in Barbara’s house, but Gordon decides that Wayne Manor is a better place. Alfred is TOTALLY against the idea after Gordon brings by Selina and the sketch she gave the cops of Bruce’s parents’ murderer. And, Gordon doesn’t trust her in a safe house because of all the dirty cops in Gotham. REALLY?! Bruce wants her to stay though, and Gordon points out that witnesses who don’t back out often don’t because they care about the victim. So, the Cat and the Bat are now under one roof. Gordon’s also meeting with a ‘trustworthy’ ADA with Montoya and Allen. Alfred is totally justified in being skeptical.
We also have a thing with a bomber being transported from Blackgate prison. There’s lots of security since he can apparently make bombs like MacGuyver makes bombs. He doesn’t have a mullet (or any hair) though. He has a piece of paper that he is folding in his leather oven mitts, but that’s not what breaks him out. It’s the deliberate car crash by some dudes with a Russian accent. I imagine they probably had something to do with the now-dead Nikolai.
We also get our first glimpse of Harvey Dent, who tricks a kid into taking the bet with a two-sided coin where the kid can walk free. We see Dent as a firebrand, starting out in his career. He’s got a little bit of a shit-eating grin, which I actually really dig. We didn’t see that as much in the most recent incarnation of the character, Aaron Eckhart. But with a TV show, Dent’s duality can be more explored. He wants to create a big story about the eyewitness connecting the murder to a businessman named Lovecraft. Gordon doesn’t want to give out names, but that’s not Harvey’s plan. He’s doing a giant game of chicken.
Selina’s kind of a jerk when she’s hanging out at Wayne Manor. Alfred wants her gone yesterday because he sees her as a bad influence on Bruce. Bruce likes having her around though, and wants to make friends. He’s also interested in her life on the streets.
When the bomb dude makes the initial bomb (which is the reason they kidnapped him), he throws in a metal nameplate from the abandoned metal factory he’s being held in. Nygma finds it, and Bullock and Gordon go to check it out. Ian (said bomber) is thankful to see them. He’s mentally ill, and not what you’d call a true villain, at least not by Gotham standards. His brother pointed out that he blew up munitions factories because they made guns and weapons, and that it was wrong, but he was sick. Too bad the Russian dudes come back. Gordon and Bullock then turn into Stormtroopers and can’t hit the blind side of anything. Before the gunfire, Ian points out that they have a plan against Falcone (probably to do with Fish). And Ian’s totally taken away by the Russians without so much as a scratch on them.
In the Adventures of The Penguin, Oswald breaks into Liza’s apartment, and winds up finding a picture of Liza and Falcone, as well as a slip or something that smells like lilacs. He smells the things like a total weirdo, and the goes to visit Fish. He also smells her like a giant weirdo, and wanders off with the air of contentment.
Back at Wayne Manor of Hormones, Selina is trying to leave, but Bruce sneaks up on her. He’s already good at sneaking. She asks if he’s ever kissed a girl, and he stammers and gets all cute and embarrassed and wonders why she wants to know. Then Alfred totally cockblocks because it’s time for homeschooling. Batschooling. Selina’s invited to enjoy, but she totally passes.
We see Dent with Lovecraft, and he plants the story, but Lovecraft’s a steely character. Dent then totally goes APESHIT when Lovecraft threatens him. We’re seeing the Two-Face aspect of his character already.
Fish is found out to be bankrolling the Russian dudes. They want to bust into Falcone’s vault as a way to get back at him for Nikolai’s dead (says Fish). She says the money’s there, but really…. STOP BELIEVING PEOPLE IN GOTHAM. When has it ever brought anyone anything good on this show? You can tell that she’s got an ulterior motive. As we break to commercial, she’s practically tenting her fingers.
Back from the break, we find out that Batschooling includes static apnea. When he surfaces from the pool, Selina thinks he’s weird as hell, but tells him that none of this ‘strength and willpower and discipline’ stuff is going to work because you also have to be ruthless, and Bruce isn’t ruthless. Yet.
As far as the explosives go, Nygma figures out that the compound was only made to go through iron, and all bank safes are steel. That leads Gordon and Bullock to the Gotham armory, where Falcone keeps his money. Hey, the money is actually THERE. That makes me even more suspicious. So, the gangsters start unloading the car (and my mouth starts salivating at all that money). But the cops show up and the gangsters are surrounded. Turns out that there was another bomb – under the car that Fish so conveniently got for the guys. It blows up all the money with a bomb that was triggered by a cell phone – with Butch on the other end. I told you motherfuckers not to trust Fish!
Back at pre-teen love house, Selina and Bruce are eating together in the makeshift Bat Cave, and she chucks a doughnut at him. She then dares him to hit her, and if he does, she’ll let him kiss her. Then then start in an inside snowball fight. Alfred comes along to cockblock again, but when he sees the smile on Bruce’s face, he’s actually kind of okay with her for now.
Fish is glad that everything went off without a hitch, and I gotta say that her clothes and jewelry are always fucking AWESOME. I love her spiked rings, and all the metal accouterments on the back of her dresses. The only thing is that Hargrove told the cops that the bomb under the truck wasn’t his, so that plants all kinds of ideas in Gordon’s head.
Oswald pays another visit to Liza’s house, but this time she’s there. He fesses up about knowing everything about her and Fish. He is all ready to call Falcone and out her, but she says not to. He says he will keep her secret, but she can’t breathe a word to anyone that he knows. He’s got something on everyone, that Oswald.
We end the episode with Gordon calling Barbara, telling her how much he loves her, and misses her, and that he’s incomplete without her. Too bad that as she’s listening to this, she’s in bed with Montoya. Even the good cops in Gotham are shitheads!
