Gotham - Recap: Up
Recap and review of Gotham - Episode 3 - The Balloonman:
Now that's more like it. For a lot of viewers, I would imagine that Gotham is a show that derives a lot of its interest from its connection to the DC Comics source material, yet writer John Stephens and director Dermott Downs have crafted an episode that doesn't have to hit that mark as hard as the previous two installments. While "The Balloonman" was every bit as busy and cluttered with plot as last week's misfire, it offered flashes of the kind of show Gotham could be if it had more of a narrowed focus.
Credit: Jessica Miglio/FOX
Of course, I may call this episode "overstuffed" and "plot-heavy," but it's actually my favorite episode of Gotham so far. Sure, I would have preferred to have less going on, as many of these subplots probably could have been trimmed to allow for more of a focus on the bigger issues of the episode. For example, I'm not sure we need to keep checking in on Bruce (David Mazouz) each week unless something significant is actually going to come of it, since right now, he's basically just a kid still in mourning. Nothing interesting is really happening with him, at the moment. Hell, I would have preferred to have Bruce's time cut and given to Oswald (Robin Lord Taylor), who returns to Gotham and gets a job in an Italian restaurant owned by Salvatore Maroni (David Zayas) himself, who tells Oswald he can be a key figure in Gotham if he keeps his head down and works hard. And we can see how this imagined destiny is affecting Oswald's path in life. He envisions blood in the streets, and imagines he'll be the man standing atop the pile of ashes that the city once was. Thus, there's a strange kind of symmetry in Oswald committing blunter versions of the crimes committed by the gangsters he wishes to emulate. Guys like Maroni don't get their hands dirty, but Oswald can't help but find his hands covered in red, because he's a blunt instrument himself. He's a representation of the desperation, ambition, and survival instinct Gotham inspires in its criminals, even the rank-and-file types. The city is a land of opportunity, but it seems criminals are the only ones keen on seizing it.
Here, Oswald straight up murders two men: one in self-defense, the other for work shoes. Both are acts of savage necessity for Oswald, who has no money nor any way of obtaining employment. Oswald, at this point in the story, is far more like the people Jim (Ben McKenzie) is trying to defend than the future Batman himself currently is, which is why it's interesting when the episode brings them face-to-face at the end. Oswald brazenly knocks on Jim's front door and reintroduces himself to his "old friend." Jim, who's spent the better part of the episode denying to everyone that he killed Oswald, is stunned to see him so blatantly ignoring his earlier warning against ever coming back to Gotham again. It's this character conflict between the two, and the promise of witnessing how it all plays out, that has me anxious to see the show next week, much more than any mystery or case. And that's a big success on the part of the show, because it's growing its characters, its setting, and its themes. For instance, "The Balloonman" suggests that Gotham functions as a drug of sorts to its residents: you can be free of Gotham, but you can never truly be free of Gotham. Oswald comes back to the city, which he declares his "home," even though he knows the minute the wrong person sees him alive, he's as good as dead. Yet he just can't stay away. He's linked to the city like an addict to the needle. And that story is worth far more than Bruce fencing with Alfred (Sean Pertwee), or refusing to eat, or looking over crime photos of his parents' murder, or watching the news for talk of a vigilante. These stories can't possibly pay off this season, much less in the run of the series, so I'm still struggling to understand why Bruce even needs to be here other than to say, "Hey, this kid is going to be Batman some day." And that doesn't strike me as a good enough reason, from a narrative perspective, to have him there, even if it does make for a decent promotional hook for the series. Same reason Selina Kyle (Carmen Bicondova) is here, and the same reason she's able to escape from Jim this week: it's just plain useful for the series to have the future Catwoman out on the prowl, ready to drop in at a moment's notice.
Credit: Jessica Miglio/FOX
The Case of the Week was interesting enough this week, as a vigilante known only as The Balloonman is going around handcuffing crooked public officials to a weather balloon, which hoists them up into the sky to their deaths. It's an amusing visual conceit in itself, and it illustrates how Gotham is a town ripe for vigilantism thanks to how readily the public accepts The Balloonman as their savior, paving the way for a more regimented, professional vigilante type like Batman. The case also allows Jim to confront the nature of justice. Really, one of the problems I have with the premise of this prequel series is that Jim sets out to clean up the streets of Gotham, but we know that Jim can't truly succeed, because we know that in 10-15 years time, Batman will be a public figure. And there wouldn't be need of a Batman if Jim had been able to clean up all the corruption. So we're essentially setting the hero on a journey that can only ever end in exasperation or failure. Jim can keep doing the right thing all day, but it's not going to matter to the bottom line any more than the contributions of the social worker who assumes the role of The Balloonman.
The Balloonman states that he wanted to save the children of Gotham by purging the streets of the corrupt officials blocking any real change, and when he explains his motivations, you could almost understand his reasoning. When he asks Jim, point-blank, what good the law is when it's overrun by corruption from root to stem, he doesn't have an answer. Because Balloonman is right. The current Gotham police force is ineffectual, and we know it will largely remain that way, even with the arrival of Batman. The GCPD is failing its citizens, but there's no indication that anyone but Jim plans to do right by them. It's a moral quandary that is as intriguing as it is frustrating, as the sting of predestination sets in. Jim can't affect change, or else Batman won't be necessary. But if Jim can't affect change in Gotham, then what kind of successful character journey can he really have? I'm more interested in seeing how showrunner Bruno Heller and co. find an answer. Evil never truly goes away, but it doesn't have to be omnipresent. Eliminating The Balloonman is a start. Hopefully, the series allows Jim to clean up Gotham and leave his mark. Batman can be the face in the shadows, but Jim Gordon needs to be the public face of good.
Credit: FOX
"The Balloonman" was a solid episode that appears to put Gotham back on the right track. Sure, it's a bit cluttered with extraneous plot, but I like that we got a bit of background on the tumultuous former relationship between Barbara (Erin Richards) and Detective Montoya (Victoria Cartagena), as well as Montoya and Allen (Andrew Stewart-Jones) continuing the investigation into Jim's role in Oswald's "murder", and Fish Mooney's (Jada Pinkett Smith) attempts to undermine Falcone (John Doman) and drive him out of Gotham for good. These are all necessary stories to tell, and I'm glad that the episode at least found a way to keep moving. Poor pacing can really make a heavy plot episode unbearable, but Stephens and Downs strike the perfect balance here between patience and urgency. Here's hoping the show overall can manage such discipline.