Gotham S1x06 “Spirit of the Goat”

WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS!

Spirit of the Goat has got to be one of the better outings so far for the first season of Gotham. I’ll get to that awesome ending later, but first let’s look at the episode as a whole, which is very awesome indeed. Ten years earlier, Harvey Bullock killed a serial killer preying on the firstborn child of the city’s rich and famous.  Now however, a copycat killer is back. However, is it just a copycat killer, or something far more sinister?

We got a great flashback to a younger Harvey Bullock in this episode, when he was much more idealistic than he is today. It was amusing to see Gordon’s reaction when he learned that Harvey was once very much like he is now, and although it wasn’t anything major, it was good to see the flashback sequence which was handled pretty well.

It’s no surprise that as this is Halloween week there was a touch of horror to Spirit of the Goat, with the killer’s mask being pretty unsettling. On top of that, there’s even a few jumpy moments that help create a great level of tension running high throughout the episode. It’s one of the most unpredictable episodes of Gotham that we’ve had so far, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s the best yet.

The main story is pulled off well, full of surprises. For the first time the case of the week stuff doesn’t feel like a letdown, with both Bullock and Gordon’s scenes in this episode impressing. We also got to see Montoya and Allen in Major Crimes arrest Gordon in one of the more tension-packed moments of the episode, which featured a standoff in the GCPD HQ. This was the highlight of the episode for me as it ended in an excellent way, with Cobblepot, who everyone thought dead, entered the building to announce that he had survived. This will surely have dramatic repercussions for everyone involved (as displayed by Harvey completely losing his cool) as it raises the stakes for the next episode. It certainly should be pretty spectacular if this episode was any indication.

However, Spirit of the Goat wasn’t perfect. Once again, the Selina Kyle parts didn’t really work in this episode and the Bruce stuff also subtracted from the main storyline. Hopefully they can have more important roles to play as the series progresses, but with Bruce just sitting in his Manor constantly, it never really feels like there’s any progression. Sure, he can’t start fighting crime just yet, but there’s still plenty of potential there for some Bruce stuff that doesn’t involve Wayne Manor.

Spirit of the Goat is an episode that looks really good. TJ Scott, who has worked on both Orphan Black and Constantine does some great job with production here as he makes an excellent visual display that I hope the show will continue to follow. Pretty much everything about the episode’s design makes it look good, and Gotham looks more like the actual city from the comics with every passing episode. So needless to say, it’s fantastic to see it pulled off so well.

Despite some issues then, Spirit of the Goat is another strong episode of Gotham. It’s off to a pretty good start and this episode ends on a really strong cliffhanger that will have everyone looking forward to more. Next week’s episode can’t come soon enough.