Efficient: ‘Gotham’ Introduced, and Killed, Two Batman Villains in Under an Hour

Spoilers for Gotham “Nothing’s Shocking” past this point.

Wow, talk about efficiency! Where most superhero shows slowly build up their villains, some over the course of 13 hours that end without even a costume or mention of the bad guy’s name, Gotham doesn’t have that kind of time. After tonight there are only four episodes of the show left — ever — so kudos to them for introducing two Batman villains, and then killing them off, all in well under an hour.

The first villain? Mr. Scarface, a mobster puppet, and his companion The Ventriloquist. There were a few surprises there, particularly the return of Mr. Penn (Andrew Sellon), Penguin’s (Robin Lord Taylor) former assistant who previously died. But like everyone else on Gotham, he was brought back to life, woke up in a magic shop, hooked up with a puppet and went crazy. This week he returned on the “orders” of the puppet, Mr. Scarface, who wanted him to kill either Penguin or Riddler (Cory Michael Smith).

A fight ensues, Mr. Scarface gets shot in the “head,” and then Riddler kills Mr. Penn. Again. I guess since he already came back from the dead once he could definitely do it again; and certainly you can repair a puppet. But hey, finally introducing one of Batman’s more bizarre enemies and then eliminating him so quickly simply so Riddler could profess his friendship with Penguin? Sure, why not! Gotta get that out of the way, I guess!

Then there’s the A-plot, which follows an old cover-up by Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) and his partner Dix (Dan Hedaya, who has been off-screen since Season 1). They left a little girl to rot as part of a crime investigation, and the girl — Jane — ended up being experimented on by Hugo Strange (BD Wong), as often happens in Gotham City. The girl gained shapeshifting powers, and used them to gain revenge on the people who wronged her.

This is another tweak, this time on a more recent character (as of 2003) named Jane Doe. She’s not as entrenched in the canon as Mr. Scarface, but she has popped up now and again. On Gotham, Bullock ends up shooting her, so now she’s dead. Though they doesn’t seem to be an issue for anyone.

As a bonus, Bruce (David Mazouz) and Alfred (Sean Pertwee) spend some time wandering through the sewers and discover a man driven crazy by the Joker toxin — sorry, Jeremiah toxin — that’s infested the Gotham water supply. For a moment I thought we were meeting a third villain, Killer Croc, based on the sewer setting and the dude’s talons. But nope, just an awful looking dude Alfred beats the crap out of. If they had introduced Killer Croc, they probably would have killed him though, so a big win in Croc’s column.

Regardless, good work, Gotham! It’s a busy world we live in, and I don’t have the kind of time to meet villains, get to know them, etc, etc. If you can keep jamming through them at this pace, I’m sure we can finish off the entire list by the time the series finale rolls around.

Though they’ll just come back to life later.

Gotham airs Thursdays at 8/7c on FOX.

Where to stream Gotham