Gotham’s most recent outing, “The Mask”, felt like one of the more complete episodes of the show yet. There are still some structural issues as, yet again, a villain is introduced and dispatched of by the end of the episode, but because of the growing relationship between Gordon and Bullock as well as the competent juggling of plotlines “The Mask” showed some maturation in Gotham. However, critical mass will be reached if the audience does not soon find out where some of these well known Batman villains are being placed once Gordon catches them.
After last week’s run-in with Falcone, Gordon had an intense edge to him. He was short with Barbara, mad at the policemen who abandoned him when Zsasz staged his shoot out at the precinct, and was confrontational when talking to Sionis. This was a fundamental shift in Gordon’s character – he is no longer going to take guff from anyone. To this point Gordon had been walking on egg shells, not trying to get in anyone’s way as he pursued Gotham City’s criminals but being attacked by Zsasz and having Barbara kidnapped by Falcone might have disintegrated some of Gordon’s veneer. Hopefully this will become a trend and not just the immediate aftermath of one episode. Gordon has always been a sympathetic guy but this sharper edged version, especially since he is still very young, is a nice change to the character.
Likewise, Bullock’s decision to follow Gordon into Falcone’s den last episode also saw some change in Bullock’s character. While Bullock still isn’t the most proactive cop, and isn’t above using his connections to the underworld, his character seems much less ambiguous than before. He is fully attached to Gordon and Gordon’s desire to clean up Gotham. He even goes so far as to make an impassioned speech, which was perfect for his character, to get the rest of the force to help find Gordon when he goes missing in the episode. While the two will probably continue to butt heads every once in a while it is good to see both Bullock and Captain Essen fully in Gordon’s corner – Essen and Gordon even mention in passing how crazy the criminals have gotten in Gotham (it’s the lazy man’s way out but at least there was a mention of what Gotham was like before the series began).
Gotham’s main problem still comes by structuring the series around the villain a week format. While this can keep the show fresh it also can be detrimental to the show as the episode’s quality could be too dependent on how good the villain is. This week’s villain, Roman Sionis of Sionis Investments (amongst other business ventures), was an example of an interesting villain. His investment firm hires applicants based on whoever wins in office fisticuffs in one of his abandoned office buildings. This conceit was set up nicely by his character who is obsessed with warriors and was far too interested in decaptiative (a step above cutthroat) business strategies. The fact that Sionis’s employees all partook in viewing and betting on these fights between applicants was particularly interesting. It also was a good way to show the disparity between the haves and the have nots -- and the desire to become one of those haves -- which has been a running theme this season.
So this week’s villain was interesting and wasn’t your a serial killer, which many of the villains have been so far this season. But Sionis’s capture by the end of the episode begs the question, what happens with all these villains once they are arrested? This becomes especially important when the villains, like Sionis, are known entities in the Batman world. While Arkham Asylum has been mentioned a few times throughout the series, the audience has yet to see what Asylum really looks like and who exactly is already there. And for a villain like Sionis, who is very rich, it almost would not make sense for him to end up in Arkham as his money would almost certainly be able to buy off a judge or two to get him off. Perhaps that is what Harvey Dent, who we are introduced to in next week’s episode, will be working on.
The easy dispatch of villains (by way of arrest or death) also directly feeds into the villain-a-week structure, which cannot be maintained throughout the entirety of the series. Eventually these villains will have to either be released from Arkham or evade police capture. And having some of these villains terrorize the city for multiple episode arcs, or even just randomly pop up from time to time (though Selina Kyle’s random pop ups offer much to be desired) would create a continuity in this universe and might create a cohesiveness that the show lacks from episode to episode.
Despite “The Mask’s” reluctance to get away from the villain of the week format it did show some competence in its ability to juggle multiple storylines. Aside from the investigation of Sionis “The Mask” also showed the escalation between Fish and Penguin as well as a somewhat meaningful subplot for Bruce. After visiting Fish, Penguin realizes that she has something planned for Falcone. His “interrogation” of her new servant, with a hint at Liza’s role, was a good way to move the Falcone-Maroni War forward without doing too much. Likewise, Fish’s order to Liza to get Falcone’s tiny little ledger also showed Fish’s plans moving forward. They didn’t receive much focus in the episode but it was enough to keep that main overarching plot moving forward. Even better may have been Bruce’s return to school. Not only was he bullied, and supported by Alfred to exact his revenge, but Bruce’s enjoyment of the retaliation was a seminal moment for the character. While we still know he eventually becomes Batman this instance was a good way to wink at the audience without making it obvious. And if Bruce’s newfound bloodlust becomes one of his main subplots – maybe he enjoys it too much – it could become a smart subplot for Bruce to learn how to keep his emotions in check.
“The Mask” was one of Gotham’s better offerings in its first season. While there are still some questions and problems with the format of the show, “The Mask” saw some interesting traits introduced into the recurring characters. Hopefully these all will show up again throughout the season and not just in this episode. “The Mask” was the most complete episode of Gotham and showed some improvement, although with the roller coaster quality of its first season who knows what the next few episodes will bring.