Gotham Premiere Recap With Spoilers

The episode opens on Selina Kyle, jumping across rooftops and climbing among the gargoyles until [...]

By Russ Burlingame

The episode opens on Selina Kyle, jumping across rooftops and climbing among the gargoyles until she jumps from a building down into a crowded street where she bumps into an older woman, slashing her shopping bag and stealing a half-gallon of milk from her. She also clumsily picks a man's pocket; he follows her, but she gets away by darting up a fire escape faster than he dares try to follow.

She reappears in an alleyway, ditching everything from the wallet except the man's cash and pouring some of the milk out for a stray cat. As she's doing so, she hears the Wayne family walking by, and hides in the shadows while they're held up. Despite being cooperative and giving him what he wants, the man shoots Thomas and Martha Wayne, then seems to consider shooting Bruce before deciding against it and leaving. Bruce kneels in the alley and screams.

Cut to the police station, where a big man saying that he needs his pills attacks a police officer, stealing her gun and holding it to her head. Everyone in the room trains a gun on him except Jim Gordon, who enters and offers the man a bottle of aspirin. When the man objects that they aren't his pills, Gordon uses the momentary confusion the man's feeling to wrestle the gun away from him and punch him out. A handful of other cops start beating on the man, and Gordon tries to break it up but is dragged away by Bullock, who tells Gordon that he was wrong in not just shooting the man.

The pair are called for a double homicide and despite Bullock's protest that their shift is nearly over, the desk sergeant sends him out. 

Gordon and Bullock arrive and Bullock gets the lay of the land while Gordon tries to coax conversation out of Bruce, who is just this side of catatonic.

After looking at the bodies, Bullock becomes agitated and tries to convince the beat cops on the scene to say they never saw him; he wants to hand the case off, because he recognizes that it's the Waynes and doesn't want that kind of aggravation. He suggests calling Major Crimes, but the beat cop says that Jim talking to Bruce makes it their case.

Bruce finally speaks up, introducing himself to Gordon, who asks him what happened. Bruce breaks down crying before he can tell any of the story, and Gordon tells Bruce a story of when a drunk driver killed his father when he was young. He tells Bruce that he knows how he feels, but that things will get better.

Bruce tells him the story of the mugging, saying that the man had a black mask, a hat, gloves and shiny shoes. He says that he should have done something, but he was too scared; Gordon tells him that there was nothing he could have done then, but now he can be strong. He promises to catch the killer.

Alfred arrives, walking straight toward Bruce, who runs to him. They embrace and Gordon approaches Alfred, the two introducing one another and Gordon again assuring him that they'll get the killer. Alfred, noting that Gordon is new, wishes him luck.

The two go to a diner to eat, with Bullock upset that Gordon got them stuck with the case. He thinks it's a random street robbery, and that the pressure to close the case will be huge.

Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen enter, and Bullock introduces them to Gordon. They're from Major Crimes and want the case, but they insult Bullock and so he refuses to give it up.

The next morning, the pair are in their Captain's office, where they're watching the mayor's press conference. Bullock asks Jim to excuse the two, and gets into a shouting match with Captain Essen when she refuses to give him a different partner. He comes out, and Gordon confronts him about it, and Bullock asks him to ask for a transfer. Gordon tells him that he'll get used to him, and Bullock tells him he's too nice for this job. Gordon calls him a "slovenly, lackadaisical cynic," and the two head out to start rounding up suspects.

There's a montage of the pair rousting and interrogating muggers, at the end of which Ed Nygma comes and presents them with a very expensive bullet that was pulled out of Thomas Wayne. He presents the information in riddles, much to Bullock's frustration.

Gordon speculates that a professional contract killer or someone with a grudge against the Waynes may have impersonated a mugger, using the shiny shoes and expensive ammunition as his evidence. Bullock objects, asking how such a killer would have known where and when the Waynes would be. They head to see Carmine Falcone's lieutenant Fish Mooney in the hopes of getting some information.

They enter Fish's club and while Bullock sends the bartender to look for her, Gordon is distressed to hear a man screaming. Behind the club in an alley, Fish is beating the man with a baseball bat, accusing him of stealing money from her. She leaves to go see the police, but not before threatening Oswald Cobblepot, standing next to her and holding an umbrella over her head, with consequences if he doesn't do a better job of it.

Cobblepot, who clearly loves watching the violence, takes over the baseball bat when she leaves.

Mooney is happy to see Bullock, and the two make nice; she's immediately suspicious of Gordon, who she tells to feel free to go and check on her employees.

Bullock asks her about the Wayne murders, and while Gordon is checking on the men in the alley they continue to talk.

Behind the building, Gordon makes Oswald and the three big men with him leave the man they've been beating alone in spite of Raoul, the man being beaten, refusing help. Gordon walks away, annoyed, and returns to Bullock and Mooney laughing together. The pair kiss and Gordon stares her down before he leaves.

That night, Gordon convinces his fiancee to let him call out of their social plans because he's tired. She's clearly disappointed but moves along, just asking him about work. She's confident in him and supportive even while he says he's out of his depth, telling him that if he is, just swim.

The two begin to kiss, and then time jumps forward to after they've apparently made love. Gordon's phone rings and he answers it; it's Bullock, telling Gordon where to meet him.

When Gordon arrives, Bullock has been drinking. He tells Gordon that Mooney has a crook who tried to sell her a necklace like Martha Wayne's. They go to the house of Mario Pepper, meet his daughter Ivy, and then go in to talk to her dad.

They ask him where he was at the time of the killing, and when he says he was home, they say they're going to search the house for the necklace. He bolts out a window, and when pursued tries to shoot at Gordon. Gordon chases him onto the roof, then down the fire escape and onto the street, where Pepper -- whose gun is now empty -- gets the jump on Gordon with a knife. The two struggle briefly before Bullock shoots and kills Pepper.

After his death, the GCPD are looking through his house and find the necklace hidden away inside of a bag of drugs in a box. The mood is celebratory.

The next day, Cobblepot meets with Montoya and Allen, telling them that Fish Mooney set the whole thing up and framed Pepper as part of a deal with the GCPD. He claims he'd seen her with the necklace, talking about how to pull off the frame. Allen jumps to the conclusion that Falcone had the Waynes killed, and deduces that Copplepot is making a play for Fish Mooney's place in the organization.

At the Wayne funeral, Selina is watching from behind a large monument in the distance. Gordon stops to pay his respects, shaking hands with Bruce, who thanks him for keeping his promise.

At Barbara's apartment, Montoya comes by and warns her that Gordon is dirty and framed Pepper. Barbara doesn't believe her, in spite of the loaded language that indicates the pair have a past.

That night, Jim asks Barbara what's wrong and she asks if he framed Pepper. He says no, and asks why she would even ask that. She tells him it was Renee, and Gordon confronts her the next morning. She tells him that she is working on prosecuting he and Bullock. Gordon tells her that if Pepper was framed, he'll be the one to find out.

He goes to the Peppers' house, and asks his wife to see his shoes. When there are no shiny shoes, he goes back to Bullock and suggests that Mooney set it up to cover up for the real killer, that Falcone could have killed them. He tells Bullock that Montoya gave him the idea, and Bullock dismisses her as a "pillhead looney." When Gordon brings up the issue of the shoes, Bullock becomes enraged, saying that they killed Pepper and they'd get fired if he was innocent.

Gordon won't forget about it if it means the real killers are out there. He goes to see Mooney, telling Cobblepot that it's about Pepper. He asks Mooney what she and Harvey had talked about. When her goons come in to see him out, he tells her that she has confirmed his suspicions. On his way out, the men jump him and while he's wrestling with them, Mooney attacks him from behind, knocking him out.

The next day, Barbara approaches Bullock at the office and asks if he's seen Gordon. Bullock lies, saying he's on a stakeout.

At a meat-packing plant, Gordon comes back to consciousness. He's being dragged through the place, begins to object and is kicked back into unconsciousness.

he wakes up hanging upside down, with the goons getting ready to kill him while one films it. Bullock shows up and says he wants to talk to Mooney.

Mooney is at her club, watching a mediocre comedian and being endlessly amused by him. She talks to Bullock, who says that she has to let Gordon go because it puts him in the position of having to pursue her if she kills his partner. She tells him she will and then asks to talk to her "butcher," whom she tells to hang Bullock up next to Gordon for threatening her.

He does so, but not before we see Mooney beating Cobblepot after realizing that he's the one who blew her in to Major Crimes. The comedian is clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing, but says nothing. She says he was the only one who saw her with the necklace.

Mooney's men call in a man dressed as an executioner, who picks up a meat cleaver and goes toward Bullock and Gordon; before he can do anything, Falcone leads a small group of men into the meat locker and shoots everyone except Gil Zine, the guy who had spoken with Mooney. He tells Zine that Mooney needs to have permission to kill police -- that there are rules. After they're cut down, Falcone brings Gordon off together, saying that the only reason they're alive is that he was friends with Gordon's father.

Gordon figures out that the necklace was a replica -- that they framed Pepper just to make peace in the city. Falcone says they needed a culprit before the funeral so that the poeople of Gotham could see swift justice done. He says he loves Gotham and that organized crime depends on law and order.

Falcone tells Gordon to keep quiet about what he knows -- that bringing down City Hall and the police force wouldn't make things better even if hey coudl do it, and he tells him "in bocca al lupo" -- "break a leg" -- and leaves.

Bullock drives Gordon out to a pier, telling him that he hadn't been ready for the truth. They get out of the car and Bullock opens the trunk, where Cobblepot is. He tells Gordon that Falcone wants him to walk Cobblepot to the end of the pier and shoot him in the head, otherwise Bullock will kill both Cobblepot and Gordon.

Gordon roughly grabs Cobblepot, walking him to the edge of the pier with the gun to his back, while Bullock hangs back behind him to watch and be sure it's done. At the end of the pier, he fires off a shot next to Cobblepot's head and pushes him off, whispering to him never to return to Gotham. Cobblepot swims away, Bullock is satisfied and Gordon returns to Barbara's, where they embrace.

Gordon then goes to Wayne Manor, where he tells Bruce and Alfred the truth about what's happened, and asks them to keep the secret, to give him more time to find the real killer.

Bruce tells him that he's glad the killer is still alive, that he wants to see him again. Over Alfred's objections, Bruce decrees Gordon should get another shot. Gordon thanks him and leaves, with Selina Kyle skulking on the Wayne Manor gate as he drives off.

Somewhere presumably outside of the city limits, Cobblepot surfaces and comes ashore; when a fisherman sees him, Cobblepot kills the man, stealing his sandwich and eating it like an animal.

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