Gordon comes face-to-face with a dangerous hit man while he and Barnes continue to cleanup Gotham; Nygma and Penguin cross paths; and Bruce pressures Galavan to hand over the name of his parents murderer.

Gotham‘s ninth episode gets the show better on track after the first eight episodes which didn’t seem to know what tone they wanted to take.

The episode focuses on two things. Revenge for Gordon sending Galavan to jail, and Nygma who is now caring for Penguin.

The first part of that is the strongest with a great tone by dialing back the scope and instead having most of the episode taking place in an apartment as Gordon and a few others await the assault to happen. The look, tone, and vibe all take a bit from classics like Assault of Precinct 13, and in many ways I wish the episode played this out longer, dropping the rest of the plots just for this. The quieter moments between Gordon and Barnes is particularly touching and done damn near perfectly.

The episode ends with an attack that’s gratuitous and kills off another character of color, which the show lacks. Shorter version, the series decided to kill yet another black woman with more than a few lines. Add on top of that, killing the black dock security guard. Sigh.

I’m still not a fan of Nygma’s plot and him killing folks. His interaction with Penguin is great, but Riddler never came off to me as a character that got his hands covered in blood, he just likes puzzles and traps. So, while the acting is good, the plot is meh.

The episode is mixed because of all of this, but a big improvement from the rest of the season. More of this in general please.

Overall Rating: 7.1