Directed by Danny Cannon
Written by Bruno Heller
First episode of the series.
Nighttime. Mixing herself with people, a young girl mugs them, first for milk and then for a wallet. After escaping to another street, she feeds a stray cat with the stolen milk and proceeds to empty the wallet of its money. Hearing footsteps, she climbs back up.
A couple with a son comes downstreet, talking about a performance they just saw, when the mugger approaches from another side. Pulling a gun out, he orders them to give him the money. When they oblige, he shoots the couple and points the gun at the boy before escaping, leaving only the kid alive.
Gotham City Police Department station. A man is led to the cell, talking about his missing "pills", when he suddenly takes the cop leading him hostage. A tense situation is defused when Jim Gordon, one of the policemen, distracts the man with a pack of aspirin and disarms him. His partner, Harvey Bullock, is visibly pissed off about it, telling Gordon that when a policeman is taken hostage, you just shoot. Moments later, both men are called to the crime scene, despite Harvey's protest.
They arrive at the scene of the couple's murder, with their son sitting on the fire staircase, visibly shaking. Gordon approaches him, while Harvey, horrified, learns that the murdered pair are Thomas and Martha Wayne, Gotham's most prominent citizens. He tries to give their case away, but Gordon has already started to talk with young Bruce. It takes some time before the boy starts to talk back, but he finally tells Jim what happened, noting that the killer "had shiny shoes". Alfred, the Waynes' butler, appears to take the boy home. Before that, Jim promises Bruce that he'll catch the killer.
Later that night, Harvey and Jim are sitting in the bar when Allen and Montoya, two cops from the Major Crimes Unit, approach them, suggesting that they take over the case. Harvey is on the edge of agreeing when Montoya starts insulting him, prompting him to keep it to the Homicide unit.
With the GCPD under pressure, Gordon and Bullock go to Fish Mooney, local crime boss with some apparent ties to Harvey. When they arrive, she's beating up a man who has failed her, while a person, called "Penguin" by the others, holds an umbrella for her. When she leaves to talk with them, he takes the opportunity to kick the man as well, visibly enjoying it.
Fish tells Bullock and a disgusted Gordon that one Mario Pepper tried to sell off a necklace like the one stolen from Martha Wayne. The pair go to Pepper's house, where his young daughter Ivy opens the door. She and her mother are visibly afraid of Mario and he tries to weasel himself out before suddenly breaking into a run. Jim chases him on the fire staircase to the ground floor when Mario attacks him and is on the verge of getting a shot at him. Bullock appears at the last moment, killing Pepper. The police look like they're heroes.
At the Waynes' funeral, Jim apologizes to Bruce for not bringing Pepper to justice, but the boy doesn't mind. Meanwhile, MCU cops meet with Penguin, who turns out to be their snitch in Fish's organization. He tells them that Mario Pepper was framed. Montoya comes to the house of Barbara, Gordon's fiance, and tells him that her boyfriend framed an innocent man for murder. Later, Barbara confronts Jim about it. He's visibly shocked and assures her that he didn't. Later he comes to Montoya and tells her the same, with the promise that he'll catch the real killer. He goes to Pepper's house again - with Mario's family being reluctant to let him in - and, in a stroke of inspiration, decides to check their shoes.
Mario Pepper had no shiny shoes.
After going to Fish to tell her that he knows they framed Pepper, he's rendered unconscious and dragged to the slaughterhouse which is apparently Mooney's property. Fish's goons appear ready to kill him and film his death when Bullock appears and tries to negotiate letting Gordon out. Negotiations seem to be going well, but Fish has a change of heart and soon Harvey hangs next to Gordon. Their execution is stopped by Don Falcone, Fish's boss and the main crime lord of Gotham.
Falcone reveals to Gordon that he and Jim's father (Gotham's district attorney) were friends and that Mario Pepper was "sacrificed" so that the people of Gotham will stay calm and keep some trust in the police. Jim seems unconvinced. Later, Harvey takes him to the old riverside warehouse area. In the car's trunk there's a stowed Penguin, whom Fish outed as a snitch following Jim's visit. Bullock gives Jim a choice: either he kills Penguin, proving that he's with the program of police-mafia agreement, or Bullock will kill Penguin and Gordon, and Falcone's men will kill Barbara. Jim pretends to go with the program but shoots in the air and pushes Penguin into the water, warning him never to return to Gotham. Then both cops leave. Later, Jim visits Bruce and tells him what he finds out, asking Bruce to give him time. Bruce doesn't mind.
Penguin emerges on the other side of the river and kills a fisherman.
Tropes:
- Animal Motifs: Fish Mooney, perhaps on purpose. Her dress is sewn so that it appears to have fish scales, and her earrings have the shape of fish skeletons.
- Bystander Syndrome: Bullock has it, although Gordon, being on the opposite side of the spectrum, forces him to abandon it from time to time.
- The Cavalry: Falcone's men save Bullock and Gordon when the two are about to be executed.
- Chekhov's Gun: The fact that Wayne's killer had shiny shoes. Later, Gordon uses it to prove (to himself, at least) that Pepper wasn't the killer.
- Create Your Own Villain: Given what happens in the next episodes (and how this episode ends), Jim's decision to let Penguin go was not the best one.
- Downer Ending: An innocent (for a very given definition of the term given that he was guilty of many other crimes) man was killed (the last of which was resisting arrest and attacking a police detective), Wayne's killer is still at large, and Gordon has to kill Penguin to show that he's "with the program". Even though he tries to subvert it by letting the Penguin free, the first thing Oswald does after coming out of the river is kill another man.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Selina Kyle appears in the first two minutes of the show, without being named, and then at the end of the episode, just for a few seconds. Her catlike behavior makes it pretty clear who she is.
- Establishing Character Moment: First scene at the police station. Jim solves the situation cleverly and tries to avoid bloodshed, while Harvey just reads the newspaper through the entire crisis.
- The Mole: Oswald "Penguin" spies on the Fish for the MCU.
- Mythology Gag: When we see the Penguin for the first time, he's holding an umbrella - the comic book Penguin's weapon of choice - for the Fish.
- The place mentioned where Bullock and Gordon meet is "Fourth and Grundy."
- This isn't the first time we've seen Gordon comforting the young Bruce whilst draping a coat over him
- Sadistic Choice: Jim is given one by Falcone: kill Penguin and compromise his own personal crusade against corruption or else others will and execute Jim, Bullock, and/or Barbara. Jim is able to take a third option.
- Spare a Messenger: Falcone kills the men about to execute Gordon and Bullock. He spares Butch so he can take a message back to Fish.Falcone: Tell Miss Mooney she's too impetuous. If she wants to kill policemen, she has to ask permission.
Falcone: [bends down and looks at Gordon and Bullock] There are rules. - Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Bruce says that he'd like to meet his parents' killer again. Alfred and Jim are visibly distressed by that.
- Unwilling Suspension: After being caught by Fish, Gordon is hung upside down from the slaughterhouse's ceiling. Soon Bullock joins him.
