Knight Moves: Gotham Episode 406, "Hog Day Afternoon"

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Judgment comes to the Gotham police as those on the payroll of Penguin (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR) start to find themselves being slaughtered, their bodies left wearing the heads of pigs. This is the introduction of the character Professor Pyg (MICHAEL CERVERIS), and his motives have yet to be explained. But he's a big fan of Jim Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE) and his stance against police corruption. Too bad he doesn't feel the same way about Gordon's partner, Harvey Bullock (DONAL LOGUE).

Meanwhile over at the underground fight club, Ed Nygma (CORY MICHAEL SMITH) is raking in the dough with Solomon Grundy (DREW POWELL) as his champion fighter. He's hoping to raise enough money for a doctor to restore his lost intellect, and he believes he's found just the doctor: Leslie Thompkins (MORENA BACCARIN). Leslie is the doc for the fight club, and she has a deal with the club's owner, Cherry (MARINA BENEDICT). She tends to the wounded, and she gets to run a free clinic out of her rundown apartment. She flatly turns down Ed's pleas for help, however, and realizes just how far he's fallen in intellect as he struggles for words and is unable to come up with a way to threaten Leslie's work in order to obtain her help. But when Leslie begins to run short of supplies to help those who need it, she makes a deal with Nygma. He gives her his money, and she'll try to do something for him.

The relationship between Penguin and Sofia Falcone (CRYSTAL REED) hits a few bumps when she stands him up for lunch and he orders his right-hand man, Victor Zsasz (ANTHONY CARRIGAN), to spy on her. He returns with reports of her meeting with high-ranking politicians and rebuilding an old hotel, leading Penguin to believe she is trying to rebuild the power base her father Carmine once held in Gotham. When he forces her into revealing her plans, however, he falls prey to her final act of kindness, almost permanently endearing her to him -- which, of course, was exactly her plan all along.

There's no Bruce Wayne and Alfred segments in this episode, which focuses more on the villains of our story, but you can be sure soon enough Bruce will get pulled back into things, and we can expect to see him next episode. It's actually a refreshing break to get away from "young Batman-to-be" for a bit so we can focus more on the evolution of our classic and newer bad guys.

Grade: 
4.0 / 5.0