Gotham season 4 episode 1 review: The new Bruce Wayne is born
So what did the actual episode bring you? Well, in the opening minutes we absolutely saw Bruce closer to Batman than ever. He was fighting crime, while at the same time investigating clues. Also, it took little time giving us a returning villain: Victor Szasz, who was there as the enforcer for the Penguin’s new lay of the land. If you want to commit crime, then apparently you need a license to do it. Who knew? It was a license that Bruce found earlier in the season, and if you violate the rules, apparently Victor and his team destroys him.
Oswald rules the city with the iron fist, and apparently, some of his methods are working. He managed to reduce crime by a significant margin, and then tried to use his “efforts” as a means to blackmail the GCPD into getting what he wants. Apparently, he’s got no problems working deals with the Mayor’s Office in order to ensure that he gets his take, and the city gets a little bit safer … while the cops ignore some of his crew in the process.
This was a problem for one person more than anyone else: Jim Gordon, who wasn’t having the notion of Gotham townspeople trusting the Penguin more than the GCPD. He didn’t want to following the rules, and therefore didn’t obey the licenses that Oswald set up. (To be fair, the idea of crime licenses are pretty dumb.)
The reintroduction of Jonathan Crane
We met the character for the first time in years last season thanks in part to the robbers who were interrupted by Zsasz earlier in the episode. They made it clear that they wanted to use his father’s fear toxin for a bank robbery, and it just so happened to work. This gave Gordon all of the license (get it?) we need to go and investigate what was going on here. Technically they don’t have a license, so should be okay for Jim to investigate … right? He’s beginning that, and he found himself some surprising support in the form of Bruce. He showed him the license that he found, and through Bruce’s detective work he was able to determine that he may be able to predict crimes before they happen.
If you remember last season, Selina and Tabitha Galavan are in the process of training together in order to become the best duo of criminals that the show has ever seen. She’s training, but both of them are suffering.
Where everything could culminates: The Iceberg Lounge!
The main event tonight was the opening of the big club, but the problem there was that Jim was already trying to rain on his parade by reminding him that he had Edward Nygma frozen in front of everyone at the event. That was hard to explain, but trying to explain the license to Bruce was even tougher? Eventually, Selina and Tabitha showed up at the event despite previously showing a lack of willingness to be there. They even got licenses, mostly a way to keep up with the times.
While there was a number of interesting stories that we saw through the premiere, it wasn’t until the end of the episode where we started to get into the real meat of the hour. Bruce found Selina at the event and apologized for the actions of this past season, and upon going back down from the rooftop (where he encountered Ms. Kyle), Bruce found himself at the center of a situation. The Penguin was ready to mass-execute the bank robbers, and make a grand spectacle of it to reinforce his agenda. That didn’t happen, thanks to Jim and his men coming in and stopping the execution. Most of them were executed other than one, and he had a face to face interaction with the Scarecrow in the end.
Basically, Gotham remains Gotham, and there’s a war between the GCPD and the Penguin. Also, Bruce Wayne ended the episode doing what he could to get some of the Penguin’s licenses.
Our CarterMatt Verdict
Gotham season 4 episode 1 was dark, brooding, and all sorts of engrossing. Basically, it was Gotham in a nutshell. If you love the show when it’s dark and twisted, you had to love Bruce toying with the concept of what a vigilante means. The whole license part of the story is a little bit nonsensical, but we’re not going to lie that the closing minutes of Bruce wearing a mask trying to stop bad guys was all sorts of thrilling, even if he was pretty terrible at it in the process.
Where are things going now in Gotham season 4 episode 2?
If you want to preview more of what’s coming, you can do that by heading over to the link here. Also, if you missed our interview with Batman himself – David Mazouz then just head on over to the link here and check out what he had to say about this season of Gotham. (Photo: Fox.)