First rule about Business Firm Fight Club, is you don’t talk about Business Firm Fight Club.
After the huge plot twist courtesy of last week’s episode “The Mask” failed to maintain the hype level from the previous chapter of Gotham. The episode returned to the usual template that has plagued Gotham for the majority of the first season. New villain of the week storyline, Gordon is still ostracized by the Police Department, and the drama between him and Barbara reaches new levels. If there’s one thing we can count on for Gotham it’s allusions to future Batman characters. We received two this week, in the form of Black Mask himself Roman Sionis, and Bruce’s classmate Tommy Elliot aka Hush. While Black Mask’s storyline was sadly boring and predictable, the interactions between Bruce/Alfred/Tommy were enough to keep this episode from being a complete fail.
POSITIVES
After the whole damn department left Gordon high and dry last week in fear of Victory Zsasz, Gordon has taken it upon himself to further show his resentment for everyone. The man is unafraid to ruffle some feathers and it makes the show all the more interesting, from watching Harvey actually  defending Gordon’s honor, to Captain Essen herself owning up to being a coward. Surprisingly though, Harvey’s speech to his fellow officers to aid Jim, instead of shunning him, actually coerced a couple officers to help out. Perhaps there is hope after all! Gordon’s declaration to Harvey at the end of the episode where he said “It’s not that I love to fight, it’s that I’m not afraid to.” was really badass and further cements Harvey and Gordon as the best duo of this show.
That’s not to draw attention from the other high profile duo though. Alfred soared to new heights in my book as he actively pushed Bruce to exact vengeance against Tommy for teasing Bruce about his parent’s deaths, which  is such an a*****e thing to do. After hearing that Bruce is always angry, Alfred figures the best way for him to work out that anger is by learning how to fight, and so the training begins.
A quick shoutout goes to Fish and Penguin’s interactions with one another, the pair keeps plotting the other’s destruction and it’s delicious to watch. Penguin remains the most consistent character on the show and his development over these past episodes is spectacular.
NEGATIVES
Another week, another weak villain. Roman Sionis should have been depicted as a badass, but instead he’s shown as a ridiculous guy who spends too much time watching war movies. He stood out too much and in the wrong way, the masks were overdone and it was predictable that Gordon would mop the floor with him.
The one thing that I hate more than anything about this show is it’s desire to make every Batman villain an average of thirty years older than him. By the time this show’s Bruce is of age to assume the mantle of Batman most of his villains will be pushing forty. Falcone might not even make it long enough to see Batman. Black Mask, Penguin, Zsasz, Harvey Dent, Riddler are all going to have twenty years on Bruce, that’s no fun! At least Hush and Catwoman should be around his age.
VERDICT
“The Mask” failed to live up the hype that last week’s episode exhibited but with cool moments between Harvey/Gordon and Bruce/Alfred, this episode was not a total waste to watch. The show is still lacking a tone at this stage so let’s hope they pull it together soon enough.
RATING
