Gotham 4×1 Review: Pax Penguina

Gotham is back for its fourth outing and judging by the events that took place in ‘Pax Penguina,’ it’s going to be an enjoyable ride.

Gotham Season 4 picks up around three months after the events shown in the season 3 finale. In ‘Pax Penguina’, Baby Bruce is wearing a proto-Batman costume to fight criminals, Kitty Selina is being trained by Tabitha, and Oswald has gone on to license crime in the city.

I liked the concept of licensed crime. For a city like Gotham it works. Crime is never going to go away from Gotham, so controlling who gets to commit what crime sounds like a good move. Of course, people like Baby Bruce and Jim Gordon aren’t going to go with it and that starts to cause problems for Oswald. Also, other criminal groups that don’t want to be licensed also begin to stand up to him.

I don’t know when licensed crime will end in the series but for now, it does seem like an interesting concept for the writers to work with. It also shows Baby Bruce and Jim Gordon standing on different sides even though both want to stop Penguin.

Gordon isn’t able to do much because the mayor has prevented the GCPD from taking action against licensed criminals. Baby Bruce, on the other hand, can work outside the law as a vigilante, but that’s also something that Gordon won’t be happy with even if their goal is the same.

The big bad of this season seems to be Jonathan Crane, the son of Dr. Crane. Charlie Tahan played the role impressively and I’m looking forward to seeing more from him as The Scarecrow. While the fear gas is a problem for the residents of Gotham, I do think they should’ve brought in another threat, especially after we went through something similar with the Tetch virus in season 3.

Gotham is all about its villains and ‘Pax Penguina’ delivered. Victor Zsasz is incredibly sassy and I want more! Also, Warden Reed looks like a very interesting addition to the series. We’ll also be getting Professor Pyg and Sofia Falcone (played by Teen Wolf’s Crystal Reed) this season.

Robin Lord Taylor continues to shine as the Penguin. We’ve been with him from the very first season. We’ve seen him grow as a character and I can’t wait to see what happens to him in the upcoming episodes. He’s definitely not over Nygma yet. So, we can expect a lot of drama as far as Nygmobblepot is concerned. I even did a ‘Nygmobblepot Edition’ review of this episode!

Some thoughts and questions:

• I still can’t take Baby Bruce seriously as a fighter. He looks and feels so small.
• Kitty Selina, on the other hand, looks awesome during fight scenes.
• Ra’s al Ghul is being a creep and keeping an eye on Baby Bruce.
• I don’t think Bud Ivy can side with any human being, except for Kitty Selina. She ruined Penguin’s plan and I have no idea if she’ll leave him soon or change her tune.
• I can’t get enough of Baby Bruce and Kitty Selina’s fun interactions.
• Baby Bruce disappearing before Gordon could say anything was a very Batman thing to do.
• I loved Penguin’s explanation about why Ed had to be frozen. It works for a show like this!
• Still waiting for Barbara to come back.

All in all, ‘Pax Penguina’ was an enjoyable episode. It set things up for the characters, letting us know what their arcs will be this season. I’m still not invested in Gordon but at least he was tolerable this week.

What did you think of ‘Pax Penguina’? Let us know!

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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