Gotham: Penguin’s Umbrella Recap

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Gotham: Penguin’s Umbrella (1×07)

Synopsis: Holy shit! Things get seriously crazy in this episode as Jim tries to stay one step ahead of the mob. Penguin’s plans continue to come to fruition and they turn out to be way more complex than we ever expected. Lines are drawn, war is narrowly avoided, and things seem to get worse before they get better. Plus: Victor Zsasz is in this episode complete with his tally marked skin!

Rating: ★★★★☆

At the end of the last episode, Oswald came forward just as Jim Gordon was being arrested to assure everyone that he as, in fact, alive. Of course, no one was at all reassured by that revelation. Because by not killing Cobblepot Jim basically put a target on not just his own head but Barbara and Harvey’s, too.

Fish is pissed and sends her guys after Jim. Instead, they find Barbara. Thankfully, Jim makes it back to the apartment in time to rescue her and get her out of town but it was a close call. Harvey is pissed. So pissed that he even makes to shoot Jim in the locker room in hopes that that can make things right with Falcone. Jim tries to get him to help but, of course, he won’t. So he’s pretty much stuck on his own trying to deal with the massive shit storm that’s coming his way.

Failing to get Jim or Barbara, Fish goes to Falcone and asks him to deal with Cobblepot and Gordon which he more or less refuses to do. Instead, while Fish and her compatriots plot against against him he goes on like he doesn’t have a care in the world. It worries Fish even more than the fact that Cobblepot being alive.

But Falcone doesn’t do nothing. What he does is send Victor Zsasz after him. I mean, the dude is so bad ass he walks into the police department, climbs up on the desks, and starts bossing around cops. Like, he orders them all out of the police station and they go. They abandon him to Zsasz. Yeah, this city has some problems. But, you know, Zsasz is pretty creepy so. I fully understand.

Jim had been trying to take the fight to the mob by issuing arrest warrants for all the bosses, underlings, and even the mayor. It was basically suicide and his boss told him as much. So it’s really no surprise he was left on his own. A massive gun battle breaks out between Jim, Zsasz, and Zsasz’s people and Jim holds his own up until he gets, you know, shot. He manages to make it out to the motor pool where he tries to escape but if not for Montoya and Allen showing up to save him Zsasz would have definitely killed him. Or, you know, dragged him bleeding back to Falcone.

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One or the other.

Probably would have killed him, though, because he took a shot at him when he was running away and then killed another cop who just happened to have the bad luck to walk in on the whole thing. And he cuts himself and gives himself his twenty-eighth tally! He’s getting there!

Montoya and Allen whisk Gordon off to a friend who patches him up. And in true action hero form he refuses to lay down and rest despite the injuries. He and Montoya make an awkward kind of peace before they go off to the only ally Jim has in this town – Bruce Wayne. (Well, and Alfred.) He basically says goodbye to Bruce and hands off his parents’ case to Montoya and Allen. The kid is understandably upset and demands some kind of answer because Jim’s basically walking to his death. He admits that everything is related and that ultimately his parents’ murder is what brought him to this. Alfred wants to help but Jim won’t let them; instead Bruce gives him a hug before he leaves.

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Meanwhile, without Gordon, Fish goes after Penguin. But Marconi isn’t going to let him go without a fight or let Fish do anything to him. Maroni and Fish meet up and Oswald makes a show of apologizing for any indiscretions he made. Which, you know, Fish basically just takes as fighting words. To the point that she kidnaps a ton of nuns and puts them under a bridge just to stop a gun truck and mess up Marconi’s business. Some how this doesn’t piss off Marconi; instead it just validates his belief that Cobblepot is such a great resource. And when it comes time to hit Falcone? He’s listening to the Penguin.

I’m just saying, this kid? He knows the game he’s playing. He takes them to Nico the Russian mobster’s base of operations and they basically massacre everyone. Way to knock off yet another one of your competitors! Except Marconi’s main guy? He isn’t really happy with him for showing them up in the face of Marconi. But it turns out he’s a total dick and his men? They were way too happy to turn on him in favor of Penguin and a little extra money.

Freakin’ Cobblepot.

He’s crazy. But he knows what he’s doing.

Afterward, Marconi and Falcone meet up on the docks to establish peace. Marconi lost a guy; Falcone lost a guy. Falcone wants to call things even and offers them Penguin which basically would also give Penguin the freedom and safety to walk around the city unharmed. So that worked out for him pretty well.

Jim, meanwhile, gears up for war back at the clock tower apartment he had – until recently – shared with Barbara. Surprisingly, a drunken Harvey Bullock shows up with a lady who I guess might be a hooker. I dunno. It doesn’t matter. He explains to Harvey that he’s back to this whole plan to arrest Falcone and the mayor for conspiracy after framing Mario Pepper and basically explains to him that if he’s going to die he’s going to do the right thing. And Harvey? That crazy son of a bitch decides to go along with it. He basically says if he’s going to die he’s going to die as one of the good guys.

And they actually do it! They go and arrest the mayor. Then they infiltrate Falcone’s own residence under the guise of the mayor’s entourage so they can arrest him, too. You can’t say that these guys don’t have guts. And it’s so great to see Harvey actually manning up and being one of the good guys.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out. Mostly because Barbara is a freakin’ idiot and came back to the city. So Falcone captures her, gives her to Zsasz and gets to hold that over Jim. So he basically just gives up. But for some reason Falcone just… let’s them go. All of them: Jim, Barbara, Harvey. They get to walk away. The only catch? According to Falcone, the only catch is that someday Jim is going to see things for how they really are and realize that everything Falcone has said about Gotham is true.

Not that I think Jim ever doubted that.

You’d think that Jim and Barbara kissing in their apartment would be a great way to end this episode, right? But nope. The writers of Gotham go and throw a wrench into EVERYTHING. It turns out that EVERYTHING was planned – by Cobblepot. And I mean EVERYTHING. Everything from Gordon’s sparing Cobblepot to his coming back to Gotham and weaseling his way into the Marconi family. Everything was a set up. It’s crazy. Cobblepot managed to do all of this. He’s even the real reason Jim is still alive. Falcone spared him as a favor.

How crazy is this shit!?

This is insane.

This is freakin’ insane.

And things are just going to get crazier.

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