‘Gotham’ Season 5, Episode 3 ‘ Penguin, Our Hero’ Recap: Gang Wars & Cults

We’re three episodes into Gotham Season 5, and it looks like more hell is raining down on the infamous city. The government still doesn’t care about them, wars and disorder are still a common occurrence, but the GCPD is still hopeful that the city can still be purged of its evil.

After a crazy night in the danger zones of Gotham, Captain Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) is the hero that everyone needs. Tonight’s episode of Gotham, titled “Penguin, Our Hero,” puts Gordon locked in arms with Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) as Cobblepot aims to overthrow Jim’s reign as the city’s savior. Then again, a lot could happen in a city as orderless as Gotham, so Penguin’s plan doesn’t go well within his expectations. Meanwhile, we’ve got Selena (Camren Bicondova) asking Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) for help in tracking down Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) so she could finally exact her revenge. Of course, Bruce wants to do it as ethically as possible, but Catwom-er-Selena sees it differently.

Penguin’s “Reich”

“Penguin, Our Hero” opens with a very fascist morning for Oswald Cobblepot. A choir is singing his praises while Mr. Penn (Andrew Sellon) gives an update about their bullet production. All is well until one of the choir members faint. Furious, Penguin asks Penn what’s really going on. Despite the good production, Penguin’s people are defecting and seeking refuge at Gordon’s “Safe Haven.”

Penguin’s breakfast comes in, but two Street Demon gang members ambush them. A shootout ensues, but Penguin incapacitates the goons with his higher-caliber rifle. The Street Demons are seeking revenge for what Penguin did at their base and slaughtering their leader. Penguin, however, doesn’t even recall vandalizing their place as what the goon remembers. And even if Penguin did want to attack them, he’ll do it straight up and not leave a mark. He then orders his guards to take them away.

At the Safe Haven, the place is overflowing with refugees after people from all over Gotham heard about Gordon’s heroics. Harvey (Donal Logue) is concerned that they might not be able to accommodate them all, but Gordon is hopeful. At the mess hall, Bruce shows them the water purifier that WayneTech lent to the GCPD. A fight breaks out, but Gordon neutralizes it and delivers a speech to everyone about finding a way to protect them even more and keep them safe. Bruce then tells Gordon about Will Thomas (Hunter Jones)—the kid that asked for Gordon’s help—an how he’s isolating himself from the other kids after breaking his arm. Gordon gives Will a pep talk and sneaks a pineapple can to his palm.

The next day, Penguin wakes up with all of his men gone, even Mr. Penn. They’ve all defected and went to Gordon’s Safe Haven for refuge. Penguin angrily stomps over to the Street Demon goon and tells him that Gordon was the one who had the Street Demon leader killed. He then tells them to suit up as they will now be teaming up to bring Gordon down.

Later, as the refugees keep piling into Safe Haven, the Street Demons, led by Penguin, attack the place. Gordon has his police officers form a barricade and Harvey seek help from Barbara Keen (Erin Richards). Penguin tries to attack, but are met with a rain of bullets from Gordon’s side. But Penguin knows that he’s bluffing. He then sends out three of the Street Demons to attack the GCPD. Soon enough, Gordon’s team loses their ammo. The gang rounds them up and has Gordon locked up in the pantry.

In the main hall, Penguin sees Mr. Penn being chained up by the Street Demons and tells them that he is his to punish. The Street Demons have none of it and shoots Mr. Penn. It turns out that they only used Penguin so they could take over Safe Haven. They then lock him up with Gordon. Meanwhile, Harvey sets out for Barbara. He humbly asks for her help, but Barbara refuses. But when Harvey mentioned Penguin’s name, they suit up to help Jim.

Back in the cell, Penguin expresses his disbelief at how the people are treating Jim as the savior when in fact it should be him. Will then leads two of the Street Demons into the pantry to get some supplies. At the same time, Will hands Jim a clip. However, Penguin takes it and initially plans for a solo escape. But when Gordon told him about how the Street Demons could catch up to him eventually and kill him, Penguin changes his mind and works with Jim to free them both.

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The duo then surprise-attacks the Street Demons at the main hall. Jim distracts the gang while Penguin shoots all of them with his rifle, wiping them out entirely. The people see Penguin’s heroics and chant his name. Later, the Safe Haven dwellers are divided between Penguin and Jim’s leadership. But the latter offers up a convincing pep talk and promises to keep them safe even when the threat of invaders looms closer every day.

Jim then gives his badge to Will for his bravery and heads out to see Penguin off. Harvey and Barbara arrive, wanting to kill Penguin so bad. Jim tries to stop her but is cut short when an explosion rocks the entire Safe Haven compound, leaving only Penguin, Barbara, Harvey, and Jim alive.

Retribution

Selina wakes up from a nightmare of Jeremiah shooting her repeatedly. With her new abilities, she escapes from the hospital to find Bruce. She finds him at the Safe Haven and asks for his help in finding Jeremiah so she can get back at what he did. Bruce agrees, but it must be in his terms. Should they find Jeremiah, he will stand trial for what he did to Selina. With that, she agrees. The two set off to find him after interrogating one of the refugees.

The last time the refugee heard, Jeremiah was organizing a cult in the dark zone. He’s also visibly traumatized by what he experienced there, with the scars on his friend’s body a testament to the horrors that he faced there. Bruce and Selina arrive at the dark zone but are intercepted by The Mutants, a gang ruling that insane area of Gotham. They engage in a brawl, with Selina slashing the Mutant leader’s face to find out where Jeremiah is hiding. A surprised Bruce sees Selina ‘s ferocity and urges her to control herself. Selina brushes it off, and together they set off to Old Town North.

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That night, Bruce airs his concern to Selina. It doesn’t work, though, because Selina is hellbent on making Jeremiah pay for what he did to her. They arrive at an ominous-looking building where Jeremiah’s followers (referred to as Pilgrims) come to seek a higher form of service to Jeremiah’s “Church.” It’s definitely a weird scene for Selina and Bruce, but Selina figures that this is the only way that she could be closer to Jeremiah. Ecco (Francesca Root-Dodson) orients the pilgrims about the cost of serving Jeremiah. Selena then volunteers to go, so Ecco brings her in for the first ceremony.

Ecco gives the pilgrims and Selina a gun loaded with one bullet for a game of group Russian roulette. Half of the pilgrims are killed, but Selina is among the survivors. Ecco tells the pilgrims to advance to the next level while she has a chat with Selina. It turns out that she knows about what Selina wants to do so she intends to stop her there. The two fight it out, with Selina eventually gaining the upper hand. Just when Selina was about to shoot Ecco in the head, Bruce intervenes, giving Ecco enough time to escape. Frustrated, Selina tells Bruce to let her go and cuffs him to the wall as she goes after Ecco.

‘Gotham: Penguin, Our Hero’ Overall Verdict

There’s something about tonight’s episode that doesn’t sit well with me. Maybe it’s the Hitler-ish depiction of Penguin, or maybe it’s how underdeveloped the entire plot is. Penguin’s desire doesn’t seem that deep-rooted to attack the GCPD and then easily make up with Jim after a few minutes of teaming up. On the other hand, the encounter with Jeremiah’s cult seems a bit too “off.” Sure, this was where he was being built up following Jerome’s death, but it’s frustrating to see only references of Jeremiah. But at least we’re finally seeing him wreak havoc next week (that is if the preview’s hint below is true).

“Penguin, Our Hero” had a lot of action, and the ending was a nice touch to it, but the way the dialogue was written and the pace went was a bit too forced as an episode of Gotham. It might not be a good episode this season, but I’m pretty sure the next ones would compensate for the bad week.

Gotham continues next Thursday, January 24th, with “Ruin” at 8/7c on FOX. Check out the preview: