Reaping the Peace.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Gotham returned for its fourth season with "Pax Penguina," a episode whose title would have been much cooler if Oswald didn't actually say it, and explain it, in the middle of the story.
Still, out of the gate, this season opener was interesting. The idea of controlled, managed crime strangely reminded me of The Wire's "Hamsterdam" arc in Season 3 - in what I assume will probably be the first and only instance where I compare Gotham to The Wire.
Briefly though, on The Wire, a sectioned off area of the city was created, unbeknownst to Baltimore higher ups, where crooks were free to push drugs and do all sorts of illegal things with the intent of giving them their own space away from families and neighborhood stoops. And, on the show, it worked.
Once everyone found out about it though, "Hamsterdam" came to a crashing collapse because even though it was a logical and effective measure for actually lowering the crime rate and making citizens safer, "allowing" crime was never going to fly with the public. It's something that could only work in secret.
Gotham being the city of chaos that it is though, this concept actually perversely works. Yes, as required, Penguin's "get out of jail" crime cards were being shielded from the public but a part of me feels like...they public would totally go for it. It's the best option they've had so far and I'm sure Gothamites are sick of deranged lunatics rampaging all over their streets. It's nuts, but it's the least crazy thing the town's been through. Also, the results, so we're told, are pretty damn good.
Leave it to Jim Gordon though -- and to a lesser extent young Bruce Wayne -- to rock the boat and ruin things for the entire city. We all know that chaos will eventually come to Gotham. It's understood that Jim thinks it's important for people to still see the need for cops so he's looking for every loophole in Penguin's plot to license and unionize crime, but the fact that his actions will probably all lead to some large scale catastrophe for the city just makes everything he's doing now cringe-worthy. We as viewers have the foresight, for sure, but Jim should too at this point. It's very hard to side with Jim here given that the best argument against him, when it comes to Gotham, will always be a city NOT on fire.
A bit of context here: I actually just finished playing Arkham Knight so both Scarecrow AND Gotham's countless career criminal goons are on the forefront of my mind. As you glide around the city in the game, you hear them riff on everything from their favorite riots to their significant others to which supervillain is the best to work for - it can be pretty hilarious. It did make me think though, honest truth, about how in Gotham someone's day job can just be "henchman for hire." Or "crook for rent." I even thought about how they might need a union, as a joke (well, half-joke). And now here Gotham is turning it into a reality.
Sure, Penguin authorizing murder would be "bad" (quotes used purposefully) and a straight arrow like Jim (or at least the straight arrow that Jim is right now) would never allow that (even though they've both murdered a man together), but all of this still seems like a great idea. I'm actively looking for the show to sell me more on Jim's side of the argument.
Speaking of which, the idea of a vigilante being the one who can go after "licensed" criminals because the vigilante operates outside of shady deals between Cobblepot and the cops is a fun one. The GCPD has their hands tied -- Jim, under protest, went after an "unlicensed" crew because it was all he could do -- so this could be the window that allows Bruce to slip in and get some more in-the-field training. In the very least, it'll alert Jim and Bruce to the fact that there should be someone in the city that's beholden to no one and nothing - except justice.
The debut of Scarecrow was this chapter's other big notable happening. It's a little jarring going from Arkham Knight's John Noble-voiced Scarecrow, who was out to gas the entire city, to watching a teenager don the costume for the first time, but it all wound up feeling okay. Basically, poor traumatized Jonathan Crane became his own boogeyman as the "Scarecrow" monster in his mind took over. From there, it was a lot of Batman Begins-style fear elements and effects - with shaky-cam flaming eyes and all that. The main concern here though is how will the show fully differentiate the fear toxin from the Tetch blood. We know that one cripples you with fear and one sends you into a rage but overall it feels too soon to be dealing with toxic gas that can infect large areas of people. The city's still coming down from the blood virus mass contamination.
When you're thinking about Gotham, it's really best to do it without Batman in mind at all. Yes, Bruce's journey is meant to lead us up to the doorstep of the Caped Crusader, but thinking along those lines can make his story an unbearable tease. Instead, just think of him, and Jim, as Batman. Right now. Together, given all they've both been through and dealt with, in their past and on the villain front, they're both our Batman. So Bruce now standing taller, speaking in a more commanding monotone voice, and vanishing on Jim Bat-style, is just this show's way of giving us Batman. Bruce is still on a learning curve, sure (he got busted by the cops while trying to stop a crime), but he's already getting advice from Alfred about how to use both sides of his identity to evoke change. I have no problem with him trying to take out crooks on his own at this point. It's all we've got (and all we'll get). Thinking "Well, it'll be obvious that Bruce is Batman one day because he's already sounding like him and vanishing like him" is a moot point. We don't need to borrow worry from a show we'll never see.
Elsewhere, Zsasz was sassy, Selina and Tabitha were poor (but violent), the Iceberg Lounge made its debut, and Penguin sported a new do - right before getting a face full of fear gas and seeing a psycho vision of Edward through the ice block. There wasn't anything truly great about this premiere, but there also wasn't anything too terrible. All in all, the legalized crime concept is a fun one.
The Verdict
Gotham returned with a fun look at how much of the city's problem's could be solved with morally questionable outside-the-box thinking. It's up to the show now to convince me, basically, that Jim has a leg to stand on with regards to his objections of having a staggeringly low crime rate and a city at peace.
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