Gotham: Review: Series 1 Episode 18: Everyone Has a Cobblepot

Jim finds the leverage he needs – but at what price?

When even Harvey Bullock is questioning whether you’ve crossed the line to achieve your aims, you need to start looking carefully at what you’ve done – and that’s the situation Jim Gordon finds himself in at the end of this episode. The show has returned to its Boardwalk Empire-type structure, with the focus on the corruption and blackmail that’s been at the heart of the Gotham City Police Department for so long and the way that Commissioner Loeb has exploited it (hence Harvey’s comment which forms the title of the episode). Harvey Dent makes a decent partner for Jim for the first part, but it’s only when Bullock gets involved that things really start to move.

There’s plenty for the Penguin to do in this, and Jim is getting himself increasingly tangled in the nightclub owner’s machinations – something which we are reminded is incredibly dangerous by Oswald’s dealings with the elderly couple who were guarding Loeb’s secret. His erstwhile boss, Fish, is also continuing to make her mark with Dr Dulmacher whose schemes are starting to appear rather outlandish (to put it mildly). As for the future Riddler, he’s added a new name to his list of enemies; Alfred swears he’ll get revenge for being put in hospital – and Selina shows a softer side to a worried Bruce.

It’s an episode that moves the pieces around on the chess board rather than being a self-contained procedural or supervillain story, and reminds us why the series is called Gotham, rather than Gordon or Batman: The Early Years – the world in which Bruce is growing up stinks, but will Jim be able to do what he wants to?

Verdict: An episode that goes to the moral heart of the series. 8/10

Paul Simpson