TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Gotham Season 01 Episode 12: What The Little Bird Told Him

After a two week break due to Football, Gotham returned with an episode that dealt heavy material to many of the seasonal storylines. Truly things will not be the same after this episode.

Let’s start off with the Gordon storyline, as he used his wits and words to all but con his way back onto the GCPD, as he promised to bring in Buchinsky (aka the Electrocutioner) cause he “knew how he thinks”. I really liked this because Gordon would not have done this at the beginning of the show. He would have petitioned to try and do this, but he wouldn’t have resulted to blackmail essentially.

This also gave us the arrival of Commissioner Loeb, who is a man steeped in Batman lore. Especially since he is one of two commissioners we know of that come before Gordon’s turn in office. Of the two, Loeb is one known for corruption, which you can basically taste via the scenes we had with him. It was also worth noting the line Gordon dropped about how Loeb “had never been seen with the rank and file before”. A sign of things to come maybe?

The storyline itself may have been pretty basic, but it did have its moments. The Electrocutioner really did shine here, as his mastery of electricity made for some really cool moments. My personal favorite being when Gordon showed up behind him, unharmed, because of the rubber boots he got from Nygma.

However, I really didn’t like the “water to the power circuits” thing, mainly because there was no over-the-top explosion. But, I did like the dialogue that came before it, as Buchinsky really talked about what Gordon was fighting for. And, what Batman will eventually fight for.

With Gordon now officially back on the job for the GCPD, things should get back to “normal”, but that doesn’t mean nothing changed…

The Fish/Falcone power grab took an excellent turn here, as Falcone was literally seconds away from being driven out of Gotham, only for the words (honest words mind you) of Penguin to show him the truth we’ve known for a while. What made this story fascinating to me was we truly got to see a low, broken, beaten Falcone here. One who had a true acceptance of his situation. His crew wanted him out, Fish betrayed him, his “love” Liza was kidnapped, and all he had to do to get her back was leave Gotham.

It was fun watching Zsasz try and convince Falcone to just let him take out Fish and her crew, only for Falcone to say, “What’s the point?” It’s rare we see the bad guys in this state, so it was a genuine pleasure to watch it unfold…and then do a 180.

And of course by 180, I mean Falcone killing Liza once he truly learned the truth. You could just feel the shock in the room, both from Liza and from Fish, who honestly didn’t expect that on her worst day. This also lead to a moment I hope gets capitalized on, Falcone reborn. He has fire again, purpose again, I hope we see what’s to come of it.

There were some other small storylines going on in “What the Little Bird Told Him”. Penguin accidentally outed his relationship with Falcone to Maroni, Riddler continued to become who we WANT him to be, Barbara (why was she in this episode again?) went home, literally. And Gordon and Leslie got together officially.

True, that scene was a little awkward, but honestly? After all the stuff Barbara? I don’t really care.

“What the Little Bird Told Him” truly did a good job of both resetting the status quo, and obliterating it. Things are about to change, and I can’t wait.