A vigilante went after corrupt citizens of Gotham in a rather unique manner on Gotham Season 1 Episode 3:
He killed them by hooking them up to weather balloons and setting them aloft.
The storyline was very effective for two reasons: first, it was an interesting investigation and a cool Villain of the Week.
While some may tune in to Gotham for its obvious connection to Batman, others (such as the THG staff) would easily grow sick and tired of a series based entirely around winks and nods to future big bads such as The Riddler and Catwoman.
Gotham has to stand on its own feet and exist as its own entity in order to truly thrive – and it can be do this by being an NCIS-like procedural, one that just happens to be set in a sort of familiar world.
It’s almost like a bait and switch: lure viewers in with the series title and character names… but keep them interested via strong protagonists and intriguing weekly enemies/cases. That was definitely the case here.
Secondly, The Balloonman helped further illustrate the differences between Gordon and Bullock; the former is an idealist who believed in a black and white world, while the latter lives perpetually in the grey.
He would gladly have let The Balloonman sail away to his death, if Jim hadn’t forced Harvey’s hand and ordered him to shoot that balloon down in the episode’s climactic scene. The suspense here was palpable and even Harvey himself seemed impressed by his brave partner by the end.
Jim Gordon is a man who sticks to his morals, that much is certain.
The other main focus of the hour, of course, was on Oswald Cobblepot.
As played by Robin Lord Taylor, he’s been the breakout character of the series through three episodes… and for good reason. In this case, we watched as Oswald committed another murder (without batting an eye) and then as he aligned himself with David Zayas’ Maroni.
Cobblepot is getting in well with this mobster, intelligently biding his time before he makes any major moves on Fish Mooney or even Carmen Falcone.
And then we concluded the episode with The Penguin Oswald showing up at Jim’s door, likely aware he has major leverage on the detective right now. Bullock, Fish and company believe Jim killed Oswald. How will they react when they find out otherwise?
And how will Oswald blackmail Gordon to make sure they don’t? Very intriguing stuff and another strong outing for this freshman drama.
Sound off on it below and visit TV Fanatic if you need to watch Gotham online.