2.17.2015

Television: Gotham, "The Blind Fortune Teller"

More origin stories. Apparently we're going with Jerome as the Joker's name in this version. Also, every time I see Mark Margolis, I can only think of that ST:TNG episode: "I'm not the fool you take me for!"

We also meet Robin's parents, but unless this show skips ahead by a lot between seasons, we may never get around to meeting Robin (Dick Grayson) himself.

So what do we have? Well, Jim Gordon takes his new squeeze to the circus only to have to intervene when a fight breaks out and a snake dancer named Lila is discovered murdered. We get Mark Margolis as a blind fortune teller named Cicero who claims to be receiving messages from Lila. Jim isn't buying it, but Leslie is keen to investigate. After some roundabout logic, it's determined Cicero is lying to cover for Lila's son Jerome, who, as it turns out, is also Cicero's son. The kid playing Jerome (Cameron Monaghan) does a pretty nice job of flipping the personality switch, but if we were supposed to be surprised by the reveal at the end, well, I wasn't; I called it the moment we met Jerome.

Barbara returns to the penthouse only to find Jim gone and Cat and Ivy hanging out. They give her some fashion advice, and she sets out to win Jim back only to find him liplocked with Leslie. He never even sees Barbara. Which is fine because we don't want to see her either. She's a drip of a character, though I suspect they're building toward something?

And Fish Mooney is rallying her troops against whatever black marketeers are holding her and her new band of misfits prisoner. Her negotiating tactics earn her face time with the manager, which I guess we'll see happen next week.

Penguin's terrible taste in music is brining the nightclub down, so a reprogrammed Butch is installed to help Penguin retune.

Bruce addresses the board at Wayne Enterprises. ::yawn::

All in all a solid enough episode. I do feel like they're stocking the pond a bit much here, though; there are almost too many characters now, and they might have done better to dole them out fewer and farther between.

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