GOTHAM Arkham Review

War Is Just Politicians By Other Means

Gotham picks up right where it left off from last weeks episode with Cobblepot at the front door step of Jim and Barbara's home. Jim decides not to offer Cobblepot a drink and it cuts quickly to the back allies of Gotham. Jim has to do everything in his power to keep calm knowing that if Falcone sees the two together, it will be the end of their lives. After convincing Jim that he is a good man and that there is going to be a war coming to Gotham, Cobblepot walks off unharmed. Cutting to our villain for the week, we see a man approach two councilmen in the street. He tells them he is a supporter of their work and asked them to take look into this flute like scope. One councilman looks into the object and it quickly shoots a spike out, killing the councilman. The villain is a new character named Gladwell that was hired to take out the Councilman who are in the pockets of Falcone and Maroni.



Every Batman fan geeks out about Arkham, not just because it is the home of our favorite villains in Gotham, but because we don't know how it came to be... until this episode. Gotham did a great job with keeping the Arkham sign and gates old and creepy much like in the comics. Respect. The focus of the episode is, naturally, what to do with the Arkham section of Gotham. Falcone wants to build low-cost housing and retrofit the asylum into a state-of-the-art mental health facility. Incidentally, this was what the Waynes had been working towards. Maroni wants to use it as a dump. It is a huge chunk of property, and would be a huge win for whichever gang gets the bid.

Back to our creepy friend Oswald, he is gaining trust in the Maroni organization. He stages a robbery in the restaurant he works in, which is owned by Maroni. The robbers kill Lou (restaurant manager) and steal one of two sacks of money Maroni’s men are counting in the back room. Oswald sets it up so that Maroni’s goons find him hiding in the refrigerator, clutching the remaining sack of money. Maroni is so grateful he promotes Oswald to restaurant manager.



Fish auditions a couple of stage singers for her club, but really wants them as some kind of secret weapon, the details of which she does not elaborate on. She can’t decide between the two, so she lets them fight it out. Liza is the winner. And Barbara finally comes clean to Jim the relationship she had with Montoya. He is pissed, but not about the lesbianism; but because she kept the relationship a secret for so long. She, in turn, is pissed that he won’t be honest with her about who Oswald is. “Let me in or let me go,” she implores. Jim says nothing so I assume they are broken up (at least temporarily). Finally, Bruce, having nightmare about his parents death, starts to go through their old files, thinking that their murders are related to the war brewing over Arkham.

Jim cracks the case and knows that the next target for Gladwell's killing is the Mayor. Gladwell is then shot down by Jim and Bullock in the Mayor's house. Jim and Bullock are working better as a team but still clash from time to time. Oswald Cobblepot ends the episode by going to the robbers house and thanking them with a poisoned cannoli.