I totally took this episode title from Farscape.
MCU: Gotham (HBO) “We’re So Screwed (Part 1)” S02E04
Kit comes to terms with her drinking as the detectives discover the extent of the Mayor’s treachery.
Okay, wow. This episode starts off slowly, focusing on Kit and the alcohol abuse, but ends up with the entire protagonists on the run for their lives. It was a very odd situation for this episode-Kit is in the spotlight and all other characters had a screen presence of one, meaning everyone is way in the background. We’re also running two episodes today, and that plus the way things shaked out in the final episode (everyone was 3/2/2/2) made one of the players feel like he didn’t contribute much, even though I think he did.
So let’s look back at last episode’s Next Time On and see how well we got them into tonight’s episode.
• Killer Croc jumping out of the shadows between Detectives Woodard and Merchant.
• A nice suburban house with Kit at the back porch. Eli enters with a glass of orange juice.
• Mayor Cobblepot saying, “No, he is dangerous. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
• Merchant saying “I don’t want you with him.”
• Charisma saying “I only have three days to put him on the stand or it’s my ass.”
• Someone saying “Oh my god, we’re all going to die.”
• Members of the SWAT team advancing on someone in a dark alley or hallway. Screams of “No! No!” then gunfire.
The Killer Croc thing was supposed to be in episode three, but we didn’t get to it. I’ll give you a heads up right now that one of the above didn’t make it in this episode and one that did also showed up in part two.
On with the show.
Kevin wants to retcon Detective Woodard’s “Hello, I’m an alcoholic” surprise announcement from the last episode. He now has said that he hasn’t had anything to drink in X weeks, Y days. Obsessive fans freak out because that’s the day that Kit left for London and told him she couldn’t love him. We think that’s cool, so that’s in the show.
I’m also thinking that the show has a cold open in season two. The Who’s My Generation just doesn’t work for me this season. So in my mind, cold open with Kit at a bar, probably right after the AA meeting. Bartender puts a vodka on the rocks down in front of her. Eli Woodard walks in and they discuss her working habits. She attempts to assure him her drinking doesn’t impact her job. Besides, everyone in GCPD drinks. Eli tries to make her understand that it’s not just her she’s endangering, it’s all the bad people that might go free if there was even a suggestion of drinking on the job. She walks out, but is visibly shaken when he brings up a case about a wife killer that was eerily similar to her own father’s case.
Cut to Internal Affairs Head Charisma Robbins and Asst. District Attorney Harvey Dent, in bed. Light from the bathroom illuminates only half of Harvey’s face, per norm. I still picture the actor from Dark Knight as Harvey and now finally have a lock on Nicole Kidman as Charisma. They’ve both been working off some steam, and it’s HBO, so there’s at least a butt shot in here. Nicole Kidman’s contract probably has a no nudity clause, so I’m betting that’s Dent’s ass we show our viewing public.
Anyway, Charisma knows that a lot of the pressure to get Merchant is coming from Dent, but why? She only has three days to put her patsy on the stand, she says. She digs in deeper (conflict) and gets him to reveal that he wants Merchant taken down as a dirty cop because 1. Jim Gordon personally appointed Merchant to MCU as his golden boy, 2. Jim Gordon has got to be dirty because back when Dent was in IA, Gordon was partnered with Harvey Bullock, a cop that everyone knew was dirty as Gotham, and 3. Gordon refused to testify against Bullock and the case against Bullock collapsed. However, Dent can’t find anything pointing to Merchant being bad. He then further reveals that the mayor’s office is hellbent on getting Merchant busted as a bad cop. Charisma realizes that someone in the mayor’s office - she’s thinking Dan O’Shea - has found out about Dent’s hatred of Gordon and is using that to put leverage on Merchant.
Our big naked exposition scene ends and we’re back at a nice suburban house with Kit at the back porch. Eli is bringing out the orange juice. As I’ve mentioned before, the players go to the Next Time On and use it like a checklist to make sure we get those scenes in the show. I think it’s nice because it really focuses the players on the story, but it’s also something that constrains what the protagonists can do, which is why when it’s time for Next Time On, I try to make the bits from the upcoming episodes as vague as possible so they can be slotted in any number of ways.
At this time in the game session, a couple arrives too late to get into a game, so they join us as audience. They’ve only played D&D before, so this is their first time with a role-playing game like this one. They loved it! The wife, Tracy, wound up getting two bits of fan mail during the game. They stuck through the entire episode, but left before the season finale.
The conflict at the back porch scene seemed like a replay of our first scene, where even though Kat lost her character’s conflict, Kit remained defiant. But in this scene, we were breaking through Kit’s belief that what her work was perfect. Bam. Eli pulls out a file he buried where she totally screwed up. They knew the guy was bad, and they got the guy, but it’s only because he hid evidence that was botched. If she had submitted this file, he would have walked. How many other cases have you screwed up like this? She wants to leave but can’t. They’re auditing her caseload as we speak.
Oh, and Woodard’s home is straight out of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver: white picket fences, rose bushes, neighborhood kids chasing after the ice cream truck. It was so wholesome, Kit Ryan had trouble keeping her food down.
Throughout this scene, we follow a file from Kit’s office through the building and over to a small office. An unseen figure hands the file to Charisma Robbins.
Back at MCU, Gordon wants to know the status of the actual case we’ve been following this season, so we infodump more onto the viewers (including our audience, Tracy and Dave). There were three teeth prosthesis ordered: one by an unknown party (location unknown), one by the Jamaicans (location unknown), and one more that was going to be made. So there’s two out there. Somewhere.
Merch calls in Woodard who says that “he and Kit” will be back to police plaza ASAP. Remember that line from last episode? “You’re a good cop, but you’re not a good person”? Yeah, Merch is really hating Woodard’s relationship with Kit right now. On the way down to the dentist’s cell for questioning, Kit + Woodard is really eating at Merch, who keeps bugging Woodard about it. Woodard doesn’t want Merch to know about the AA thing, thinking that if Gordon wanted Merch to know, Gordon would tell him. Plus, isn’t Merch Kit’s best friend? Wouldn’t she tell him? “So what the hell were the two of you doing all day?” “Fucking her brains out. What do you think we were doing?”
Big fight in the cellblock. Our audience wants to see some sort of brain injury. Brain injury in Gotham City? You didn’t even need to ask. A prisoner gets his arms around Woodard’s neck, choking him. More violence ensues as the detectives work together to place some old fashioned beatdown on already imprisoned goons. After this wonderful scene of male bonding, they get to the dentist’s cell only to find he’s hanged himself.
Kit’s back and patching up the detectives with Gordon in the room. She’s directing her comments at the boys, throwing Gordon’s words back at him. “Beating up prisoners? Do you know how many of those people are going to walk? Do you know how many people you’ve put away might walk?” Conflict: Does she piss off Gordon so much that he suspends the two? Yes, he does. Oh crap. However, it’s going to be a delayed suspension. Bring in this guy, then we’ll talk. Until then, they’re checking out the sewers near where the bodies were found.
Charisma confronts Gordon with the file the auditor brought her. Gordon demands to know why Charisma ordered the audit of Kit Ryan’s work-we had a deal, I send her to AA and we take care of this in house. Charisma shows him her copy of the paperwork authorizing the audit: signed by Jim Gordon. Gordon shows her his copy: signed by Charisma Robbins. Conflict: does Charisma realize that whomever is behind this came out of IAD? Or does Gordon realize that it’s someone in MCU? We showcase showdown and Charisma wins: it’s someone in MCU. Matt, Charisma’s character gets narration rights. She and Gordon both realize that there’s something wrong here, but she thinks that the room is bugged. She gets him to follow her to the elevators and they have the reveal that someone is orchestrating the whole thing. This thing with Merchant, the unknown audit of Ryan, it’s all pointing to someone trying to discredit or take down the MCU.
However, they don’t realize that the security camera on the elevator is active. We follow the signal to Mayor Cobblepot’s office, where the mayor delivers the line about how Merchant is dangerous. He wants this taken care of, now.
Fun time in the sewers, gang. Killer Croc has been roped into guiding Woodard and Merch around. (Near each body was an opening into the sewer system, so they’re canvassing for clues.) Meanwhile, there’s the killer camera thing following them. Croc heads into an abandoned subway station and gets away from them in the darkness. Really spooky scene with bad/no lighting. Killer camera inches closer. Suddenly Killer Croc jumps out between them and attacks the person sneaking up on the detectives. Conflict: can they stop Croc before he kills their stalker. Sadly, no. A lot of blood and gore in this scene, illuminated by a dropped, skittering flashlight. “He was coming up behind you with that rifle out,” Croc says, pointing to a military-grade machine rifle next to the corpse. “I can see better than you in the dark.” Both Merch and Croc recognize the guy. He’s an enforcer that hangs around the underground fight club, says Croc. He’s a guy on SWAT, says Merch. His nickname is Deadshot.
Everyone descends on Kit’s office at the same time. The signatures on the audit orders were written by the same person, she says. Look at the loop on the o, the hesitation on the capital R. Time to go to a safehouse and compare notes; Gordon stays at the MCU to work on things from his end.
At the safehouse, it’s an infodump time - both Kit and Charisma realize they’re both being used. It’s a pooling of knowledge scene where everyone realizes that the mayor is using the SWAT team as his own personal hit squad; that it’s the mayor that wants Merch ruined; and that OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE. Kit is doing something with the computer, probably hacking to get more incriminating evidence on the mayor’s schemes or something, but what really mattered here is the SWAT team is coming to get you, Barbara. Merch gets a call warning him of this from a friend on the SWAT team. They’ve got few precious moments to get the download and out before the assassination squad arrives.
The episode ends with the SWAT team assaulting the safehouse and our heroes running for their lives.
NEXT TIME ON
It’s Eli’s episode and everyone else is at screen presence 2. Upcoming:
• Woodard’s suburban home. A cop gets into the car out front and BOOM! CARBOMB!
• A gun is on Charisma. “Your services are no longer required.”
• Eli getting saved by Merch.
• A funeral scene with uniformed police officers in attendance. Lots of rain.
• Arresting Mayor Cobblepot at a public function.
• Eli has a shocked look on his face and drops a bottle on the floor.
All that in the next episode, plus I deliver a really kickass line as Jim Gordon. Gordon turned into a much cooler background character than I thought. I like how his backstory with Harvey is almost identical to Merch’s relationship with Woodard. Stay tuned for part two of our season finale after these promos for Entourage.
Kit comes to terms with her drinking as the detectives discover the extent of the Mayor’s treachery.
Okay, wow. This episode starts off slowly, focusing on Kit and the alcohol abuse, but ends up with the entire protagonists on the run for their lives. It was a very odd situation for this episode-Kit is in the spotlight and all other characters had a screen presence of one, meaning everyone is way in the background. We’re also running two episodes today, and that plus the way things shaked out in the final episode (everyone was 3/2/2/2) made one of the players feel like he didn’t contribute much, even though I think he did.
So let’s look back at last episode’s Next Time On and see how well we got them into tonight’s episode.
• Killer Croc jumping out of the shadows between Detectives Woodard and Merchant.
• A nice suburban house with Kit at the back porch. Eli enters with a glass of orange juice.
• Mayor Cobblepot saying, “No, he is dangerous. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
• Merchant saying “I don’t want you with him.”
• Charisma saying “I only have three days to put him on the stand or it’s my ass.”
• Someone saying “Oh my god, we’re all going to die.”
• Members of the SWAT team advancing on someone in a dark alley or hallway. Screams of “No! No!” then gunfire.
The Killer Croc thing was supposed to be in episode three, but we didn’t get to it. I’ll give you a heads up right now that one of the above didn’t make it in this episode and one that did also showed up in part two.
On with the show.
Kevin wants to retcon Detective Woodard’s “Hello, I’m an alcoholic” surprise announcement from the last episode. He now has said that he hasn’t had anything to drink in X weeks, Y days. Obsessive fans freak out because that’s the day that Kit left for London and told him she couldn’t love him. We think that’s cool, so that’s in the show.
I’m also thinking that the show has a cold open in season two. The Who’s My Generation just doesn’t work for me this season. So in my mind, cold open with Kit at a bar, probably right after the AA meeting. Bartender puts a vodka on the rocks down in front of her. Eli Woodard walks in and they discuss her working habits. She attempts to assure him her drinking doesn’t impact her job. Besides, everyone in GCPD drinks. Eli tries to make her understand that it’s not just her she’s endangering, it’s all the bad people that might go free if there was even a suggestion of drinking on the job. She walks out, but is visibly shaken when he brings up a case about a wife killer that was eerily similar to her own father’s case.
Cut to Internal Affairs Head Charisma Robbins and Asst. District Attorney Harvey Dent, in bed. Light from the bathroom illuminates only half of Harvey’s face, per norm. I still picture the actor from Dark Knight as Harvey and now finally have a lock on Nicole Kidman as Charisma. They’ve both been working off some steam, and it’s HBO, so there’s at least a butt shot in here. Nicole Kidman’s contract probably has a no nudity clause, so I’m betting that’s Dent’s ass we show our viewing public.
Anyway, Charisma knows that a lot of the pressure to get Merchant is coming from Dent, but why? She only has three days to put her patsy on the stand, she says. She digs in deeper (conflict) and gets him to reveal that he wants Merchant taken down as a dirty cop because 1. Jim Gordon personally appointed Merchant to MCU as his golden boy, 2. Jim Gordon has got to be dirty because back when Dent was in IA, Gordon was partnered with Harvey Bullock, a cop that everyone knew was dirty as Gotham, and 3. Gordon refused to testify against Bullock and the case against Bullock collapsed. However, Dent can’t find anything pointing to Merchant being bad. He then further reveals that the mayor’s office is hellbent on getting Merchant busted as a bad cop. Charisma realizes that someone in the mayor’s office - she’s thinking Dan O’Shea - has found out about Dent’s hatred of Gordon and is using that to put leverage on Merchant.
Our big naked exposition scene ends and we’re back at a nice suburban house with Kit at the back porch. Eli is bringing out the orange juice. As I’ve mentioned before, the players go to the Next Time On and use it like a checklist to make sure we get those scenes in the show. I think it’s nice because it really focuses the players on the story, but it’s also something that constrains what the protagonists can do, which is why when it’s time for Next Time On, I try to make the bits from the upcoming episodes as vague as possible so they can be slotted in any number of ways.
At this time in the game session, a couple arrives too late to get into a game, so they join us as audience. They’ve only played D&D before, so this is their first time with a role-playing game like this one. They loved it! The wife, Tracy, wound up getting two bits of fan mail during the game. They stuck through the entire episode, but left before the season finale.
The conflict at the back porch scene seemed like a replay of our first scene, where even though Kat lost her character’s conflict, Kit remained defiant. But in this scene, we were breaking through Kit’s belief that what her work was perfect. Bam. Eli pulls out a file he buried where she totally screwed up. They knew the guy was bad, and they got the guy, but it’s only because he hid evidence that was botched. If she had submitted this file, he would have walked. How many other cases have you screwed up like this? She wants to leave but can’t. They’re auditing her caseload as we speak.
Oh, and Woodard’s home is straight out of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, and Leave it to Beaver: white picket fences, rose bushes, neighborhood kids chasing after the ice cream truck. It was so wholesome, Kit Ryan had trouble keeping her food down.
Throughout this scene, we follow a file from Kit’s office through the building and over to a small office. An unseen figure hands the file to Charisma Robbins.
Back at MCU, Gordon wants to know the status of the actual case we’ve been following this season, so we infodump more onto the viewers (including our audience, Tracy and Dave). There were three teeth prosthesis ordered: one by an unknown party (location unknown), one by the Jamaicans (location unknown), and one more that was going to be made. So there’s two out there. Somewhere.
Merch calls in Woodard who says that “he and Kit” will be back to police plaza ASAP. Remember that line from last episode? “You’re a good cop, but you’re not a good person”? Yeah, Merch is really hating Woodard’s relationship with Kit right now. On the way down to the dentist’s cell for questioning, Kit + Woodard is really eating at Merch, who keeps bugging Woodard about it. Woodard doesn’t want Merch to know about the AA thing, thinking that if Gordon wanted Merch to know, Gordon would tell him. Plus, isn’t Merch Kit’s best friend? Wouldn’t she tell him? “So what the hell were the two of you doing all day?” “Fucking her brains out. What do you think we were doing?”
Big fight in the cellblock. Our audience wants to see some sort of brain injury. Brain injury in Gotham City? You didn’t even need to ask. A prisoner gets his arms around Woodard’s neck, choking him. More violence ensues as the detectives work together to place some old fashioned beatdown on already imprisoned goons. After this wonderful scene of male bonding, they get to the dentist’s cell only to find he’s hanged himself.
Kit’s back and patching up the detectives with Gordon in the room. She’s directing her comments at the boys, throwing Gordon’s words back at him. “Beating up prisoners? Do you know how many of those people are going to walk? Do you know how many people you’ve put away might walk?” Conflict: Does she piss off Gordon so much that he suspends the two? Yes, he does. Oh crap. However, it’s going to be a delayed suspension. Bring in this guy, then we’ll talk. Until then, they’re checking out the sewers near where the bodies were found.
Charisma confronts Gordon with the file the auditor brought her. Gordon demands to know why Charisma ordered the audit of Kit Ryan’s work-we had a deal, I send her to AA and we take care of this in house. Charisma shows him her copy of the paperwork authorizing the audit: signed by Jim Gordon. Gordon shows her his copy: signed by Charisma Robbins. Conflict: does Charisma realize that whomever is behind this came out of IAD? Or does Gordon realize that it’s someone in MCU? We showcase showdown and Charisma wins: it’s someone in MCU. Matt, Charisma’s character gets narration rights. She and Gordon both realize that there’s something wrong here, but she thinks that the room is bugged. She gets him to follow her to the elevators and they have the reveal that someone is orchestrating the whole thing. This thing with Merchant, the unknown audit of Ryan, it’s all pointing to someone trying to discredit or take down the MCU.
However, they don’t realize that the security camera on the elevator is active. We follow the signal to Mayor Cobblepot’s office, where the mayor delivers the line about how Merchant is dangerous. He wants this taken care of, now.
Fun time in the sewers, gang. Killer Croc has been roped into guiding Woodard and Merch around. (Near each body was an opening into the sewer system, so they’re canvassing for clues.) Meanwhile, there’s the killer camera thing following them. Croc heads into an abandoned subway station and gets away from them in the darkness. Really spooky scene with bad/no lighting. Killer camera inches closer. Suddenly Killer Croc jumps out between them and attacks the person sneaking up on the detectives. Conflict: can they stop Croc before he kills their stalker. Sadly, no. A lot of blood and gore in this scene, illuminated by a dropped, skittering flashlight. “He was coming up behind you with that rifle out,” Croc says, pointing to a military-grade machine rifle next to the corpse. “I can see better than you in the dark.” Both Merch and Croc recognize the guy. He’s an enforcer that hangs around the underground fight club, says Croc. He’s a guy on SWAT, says Merch. His nickname is Deadshot.
Everyone descends on Kit’s office at the same time. The signatures on the audit orders were written by the same person, she says. Look at the loop on the o, the hesitation on the capital R. Time to go to a safehouse and compare notes; Gordon stays at the MCU to work on things from his end.
At the safehouse, it’s an infodump time - both Kit and Charisma realize they’re both being used. It’s a pooling of knowledge scene where everyone realizes that the mayor is using the SWAT team as his own personal hit squad; that it’s the mayor that wants Merch ruined; and that OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE. Kit is doing something with the computer, probably hacking to get more incriminating evidence on the mayor’s schemes or something, but what really mattered here is the SWAT team is coming to get you, Barbara. Merch gets a call warning him of this from a friend on the SWAT team. They’ve got few precious moments to get the download and out before the assassination squad arrives.
The episode ends with the SWAT team assaulting the safehouse and our heroes running for their lives.
NEXT TIME ON
It’s Eli’s episode and everyone else is at screen presence 2. Upcoming:
• Woodard’s suburban home. A cop gets into the car out front and BOOM! CARBOMB!
• A gun is on Charisma. “Your services are no longer required.”
• Eli getting saved by Merch.
• A funeral scene with uniformed police officers in attendance. Lots of rain.
• Arresting Mayor Cobblepot at a public function.
• Eli has a shocked look on his face and drops a bottle on the floor.
All that in the next episode, plus I deliver a really kickass line as Jim Gordon. Gordon turned into a much cooler background character than I thought. I like how his backstory with Harvey is almost identical to Merch’s relationship with Woodard. Stay tuned for part two of our season finale after these promos for Entourage.