In the comics , the Red Hood gang introduced Batman ’s gravid , crazy villain , the Joker . In “ Red Hood , ” the titular mob also enter Gotham ’s expectant , craziest villain , and it turns out it ’s Fish Mooney . Yes , I know how insane this sounds , but … well , countenance ’s just say Fish hold us an eyeful of how entertaining Gotham can be .
Now , what Gotham can be , mainly , is unbalanced as hell . Notice I did n’t say Gotham is suddenly “ good , ” because “ Red Hood ” still has more than a few characters acting inexplicably for no ground . But unlike so many other episodes , this one used its insanity to stay moderately entertaining from start to finish . Let ’s smash down the madness of all the plot of ground in “ Red Hood ” , using a complex ranking algorithm of my own excogitation :
The Red Hood Gang
A group of bank robbers are about to commence a heist when one of them pull on a violent hood he had made for the occasion . Although his fellow robbers are annoyed , the hood somehow gives the robber the confidence to not only become the crew ’s de facto leader , but , when he ’s forced to chuck money into the street to make a bacchanalia to keep a bunch of cops from chasing them , aid give the crew a snazzy young name and a fond identity as Robin Hoods .
At the beginning , Gotham teases a enchanting expression at the allure and exponent of mask , how they hide identity while at the same time emboldening its wearer , and how baddie ( and hoagy [ and even the hoi polloi of Gotham ] ) could be draw to these totems . Then Gotham wholly abandons this for goofy - ass account about a magic red ski mask .
Okay , Gotham does n’t instantly say the poorly made punk is magic , but it does pop out empowering its wearer in increasingly nonsensical ways . The various stealer who wear the mask suddenly discover themselves lease accusation , pick up cheers from the populace ( thanks to their new habit of throwing money around at their robberies ) , and managed to survive whole when being repeatedly inject at . Hell , one guy puts on the hood and loses his debilitating stammer . And there ’s the fact the thieves without the hood keep murdering the thieves with the tough in edict to get the toughie , because they are immediately convert the hood will solve all their job .
The hood does n’t , and Gordon and Bullock end up gunning down all the remain crew members . Case closed , but still , MAGIC RED SKI MASK .
Verdict : Crazy
Reggie
Alfred ’s old warfare buddy Reggie stops by Wayne Manor , having fall on strong metre . Normally , you ’d look Reggie to bring in up old war write up and tip at Alfred ’s darker , more badass previous life , and that definitely bump . But Reggie also has the distinction of teaching unseasoned Bruce Wayne a lesson that he genuinely can expend on his journey to becoming Batman : Fights are n’t fair , so take every advantage you’re able to get . This is actually one of my favourite Bruce Wayne moments of Gotham ’s first season , and one that truly find like we ’re on a journeying to see little David Mazouz become an obsessed vigilante .
I ’m not trusted why Gotham decides to have Reggie start demanding for Bruce to plug him in the face , over and over again , like it ’s some form of tortuous absolution for him , but the show certainly does . And then , after Gotham makes abundantly clear that Reggie is an dipsomaniac , a clueless Bruce convey up a bottleful of wine-colored for dinner with Alfred ’s buddy and Alfred just says “ enh , why not . ” Yes , Gotham introduced an alcohol-dependent character and then had him toast again , with neither the characters nor the writers apparently seeing any problem with this .
Oh , and in the goal Reggie stabs Alfred in the catgut because he ’s actually a spy for the Wayne Foundation board members ! This is almost as bizarre as Gotham carry us to be genuinely worried Alfred might die in a prequel television series .
Verdict : sick as hell
In ‘Da Club
We concisely check in with Penguin and his night club , which is still failing miserably despite the fact Zsasz dropped off Butch last week and announced the lubber would be serve . Butch ’s “ help ” is to countenance the nightspot persist out of booze , take into account Penguin to get ready to literally arrange an assault to steal some booze from Maroni , have some friends dress as pig and sequester the booze at the last hour , and then just sit there and wassail . You ’d think Butch would either be ace - helpful because of Zsasz ’s ministrations , or would be dragging his feet because he hat Penguin and wants to sabotage him , but since both of those are reasonable decisions a rational human being would make , of track Gotham does n’t do that . Butch is just … otiose , I guess .
Verdict : gently disturbed in that special Gotham “ why is n’t this role actually like a normal human being ” way
Barbara
The campaign for Barbara Kean as Saddest Character on Television continues heavily this calendar week , enough to get its own mention here . So Barbara , as you ’ll recall , is so desperate for the approval of any other human being that she allows two dispossessed , underage girls to stay in her flat , even postulate them for style advice to gain back her ex even though they are penurious children who do n’t know the players , adult relationship , or fashion . And also , Barbara just image Detective Gordon inquire the back of Dr. Leslie Thompkins ’ pharynx with his tongue .
apparently , Barbara is suffer stunned on her balcony , disheveled , essentially ineffective to function until she has a brilliant idea — make - up party with her friends / squatter ! She pulls out all her old clothes and tells Selina and Ivy to take whatever they desire . She then force Selina into the other room to do a full makeover … when she ’s of a sudden move by the idea that she has Wisdom of Solomon to impart to these girl . She ’s wrong , of course , and given that Barbara go talking about how Selina can use her beauty as a weapon , I consider she cerebrate she ’s in Game of Thrones or something . But it does n’t really matter , because as presently as Barbara is done utter her Words of Wisdom about the power of Beauty , Selina close her down hard : “ Yeah ? What commodity ’s it done you ? ”
Take a moment to really examine this tantrum . A sad sack part is endeavor to emotionally tie in with a young girl that violate into her apartment . This is pitiful on its own , but Barbara ’s decision to attempt to give the nonaged Selina a peppiness talk about the benefit of being aphrodisiac would be pretty inappropriate if they had some kind of a relationship , which they do n’t . So Barbara is try out to mentor this girl , and trying to teach her a valuable if very strange sprightliness lesson , and in response Selina goes out of her way of life to prompt Barbara she sucks .
Why ? Why do this ? I do n’t jazz , but goddamn is it fascinating to see how much miserableness Gotham heaps on Barbara . I ’m indisputable there are all sorts of horrible ramifications here I ’m not conceive of , but still , it ’s like Gotham is trying to make its own character commit self-annihilation . At this level , I expect young Bruce Wayne to grease one’s palms her flat building exclusively to force out her , and then spit on her as she exits .
Verdict : Crazier than shit
Fish
And now we get to Fish Mooney , whose actions in “ Red Hood ” almost singlehandedly turn the show into must - see showing . Pisces is brought up the stairs from the prison to meet a middle managing director , played with perfect creepiness by Jeffrey Combs . Although Combs is n’t the boss — that would be Dr. Dulmacher , who will finally be the Bat - villain known as the Dollmaker , which you probably could n’t have guessed as there are no elusive clues that would go you to the tie-up — he hear Fish ’s crack and allows her to clean up in his personal bathroom . Yes , this is creepy-crawly , but a shower is a shower .
When she returns , Combs make her a counter - offer : Fish can choose a ) letting the prison ’s goons kill her and save themselves the trouble of plow her , or b ) Pisces the Fishes can let Combs take out her eyes . Fish chooses alternative C.
GRABBING A spoonful AND SCOOPING OUT HER OWN GODDAMN EYEBALL . OH , AND THEN STEPPING ON IT .
Yes , Pisces — because she is legitimately crazy — is uncoerced to perform a self - eyeball - ectomy just to traverse her captors what they want . This second comes out of nowhere , but Gotham stages it with all the intuitive violence countenance at 8:00 pm primetime , and the slam of Fish ’s foot squishing her own eye flat would give The walk Dead a run for its money in the glaring SFX department .
I do n’t even experience what to severalize you . Even beyond the shock of seeing a character reference shove a spoon into her eyesocket , I ’m shocked that Gotham had the power to create a shot this shocking . If we can admit to ourselves that Gotham is never going to be the Batman prequel serial we want , or the Gotham Central - type police adjective we hop for , well , then being totally , massively crazy is a pretty enough back - up program . Even if the persona continue to not make any sense , at least the show wo n’t be deadening , and for that , I am grateful .
Assorted Musings :
• The opening shot of the bank looting draw an obvious comparison to the beginning of The Dark Knight . If you want a commission command from what the show wants to be , I ’d say comparing the two is a good as you ’re start to get . It ’s much , much goofier than The Dark Knight , obviously — not that there ’s anything wrong with that ,
• The pre - Red Hood loss leader of the gang is named Destro . This made me titter pretty much every unmarried time it was mentioned .
• More Chang , please . That guy was awesome . So uncanny , so unique , so all unlike anyone you would ever meet in real life .
• Bullock , like a shot after shooting a valet de chambre to death on the street : “ I need a Danish . ” Best of all , he says it angrily to Gordon , as if drink down the money box robber is forcing him to purchase a Danish he does n’t actually desire .
• Bonus Craziness : At the very end of the episode , a random dude picks up the red hood from the street , where it has been lying since the shoot out . There are still cops all around , but he puts it on , and then mimes firing a gun at a fuzz … because apparently the hood is n’t just magic , it ’s maledict . Also , what the fuck were the stacks of Gotham City cops doing ? Do you mean to separate me none of them pick up the ski mask as evidence ? None of them notice a random gallant picking up this shockingly important evidence , or putting it on ? Did they not manage that he mimic shooting them while wear the strong-armer worn by a buster who was endeavor to polish off cops 15 minute ago ? Because I feel like real police force officers might have been a morsel derange about this . Again , I have to marvel if the GCPD is n’t corrupted so much as it is terrifyingly incompetent .
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