TV - Gotham Season 1, Episode 6

Gotham

Steve Taylor-Bryant dons his black leather mask and starts chanting about farm animals. He also watches Spirit of the Goat, the latest episode of Gotham...

Ten years before the present day events in Gotham City, Bullock and his partner, Detective Dix, are on the trail of a serial killer who is snatching the first born of Gotham's richest families and carrying out a ritual execution. They trace the killer to an abandoned building and, finding the latest victim dead, Bullock shoots the man known as The Spirit of the Goat but not before Dix falls through a platform and breaks his legs. Back to the present day and the modus operandi of a new serial killer has Bullock thinking there is a copycat. Nygma tries to help by researching the decade old crime but is in a strange kind of love with Kristin Kringle, the records archivist, and in doing his research he really creeps her out, leading to a rearrangement of all her files. At the autopsy, a coin is found sewn into the victim, a trademark of the original Goat and proof that it can’t be a copycat killer, it has to be an accomplice.

Bullock and Gordon, suffering his own problems with his girlfriend demanding to know what his secret is and the MCU hot on his tail for murder, visit with Dix who is now in a care home. Dix swears he never informed anyone of the coins and that it must be an accomplice and Gordon finds out that Bullock feels guilty for his accident and pays for his upkeep in the facility. After another of Gotham's richest is taken, a tradesman is traced and Bullock and Gordon rush back to the scene of Dix's accident ten years earlier, arriving in time to save the girl and, after much fighting, capture the Goat, Raymond Earl. Something just doesn’t sit right with Bullock though and he follows a hunch that Earl's physical tics are actually produced by being under hypnosis. The Therapist for one of the families that suffered at the hands of the Goat, Doctor Marks, it turns out, wants to punish Gotham and has been hypnotising people into killers to do her bidding and, after surviving an attack by one of patients, Bullock finally takes her down. Whilst Bullock is explaining his actions to Captain Sarah Essen, the MCU bring the now handcuffed Gordon through the station. Whilst Bullock tries to defend Gordon, and Gordon himself pleads his innocence, Cobblepot walks into the station. MCU are shocked and Bullock is angry that he has been betrayed by his partner.

This was a lot more Villain of the Week than a continuation of the season's story arc, but it was certainly worth a watch. Dark not just in writing tone but in direction as well, the Goat scenes were certainly creepy and would hold up against any thriller film of the same ilk. Bullock and Gordon actually working as a team, and Bullock showing he is actually a fine detective not just a corrupt cop, were a shot in the arm for the character who could have drifted into insignificance but is now firmly back as a main player. Cobblepot walking into GCPD though? Watch out next week as some kind of brown organic matter is heading straight towards the Gotham City fan.

Image - IMDb.

Powered by Blogger.