Episode no. Season 1
Episode 5 Written by Rebecca Perry Cutter Original air date October 20, 2014 | Directed by Tim Hunter Production code 4X6655 | |
"Viper" is the fifth episode of the television series Gotham. It premiered on FOX on October 20, 2014 and was written by Rebecca Perry Cutter and directed by Tim Hunter. In the episode, detectives Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and Bullock (Donal Logue) are investigating a new street drug that causes euphoria and then death. Meanwhile, Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) works his way deeper into Maroni’s (David Zayas) inner circle and Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) continues to plot to take down Falcone (John Doman).
Contents
The episode was watched by 6.09 million viewers but received mixed reviews, mostly for lack of character development.
Plot
Bruce (David Mazouz) plans to find a way to speak to the board members of Wayne Enterprises to learn their connections to the Arkham District Project. A new drug called "Viper" (which is a prototype of Venom) is hitting the street, which endows the user with super-strength, but eventually kills them. Maroni plans to rob a casino owned by Falcone (John Doman), and Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) reveals his past. Gordon (Ben McKenzie) learns that "Viper" is being distributed at a charity event held by WellZyn and Wayne Enterprises. Gordon shoots the canister on the roof and former WellZyn employee Stan Potolsky (Daniel London) is exposed, jumping off as he suggests they check out Warehouse 39, where Gordon and Bullock later find nothing. As Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) makes plans to conspire against Falcone with her lover and Russian mob boss Nikolai, a disguised Liza visits him in the park where she shares her opera music with him.
Viewers
The episode was watched by 6.09 million viewers, with a 2.3 rating among 18-49 adults. With Live+7 DVR viewing factored in, the episode had an overall rating of 10.12 million viewers, and a 4.0 in the 18–49 demographic.
Critical reviews
"Viper" received mixed reviews. The episode received a "rotten" rating of 58% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's consensus stating: "While 'Viper' adds some much-appreciated Batman mythology to its origin story, Gotham struggles to figure out what kind of show it's going to be."
Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.8 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "Gotham is still figuring itself out but I think setting Wayne Enterprises itself as possibly the 'big bad' of the series was a nice step. The gang feud continues to interest me while the cases-of-the-week continue to more or less feel arbitrary and, at times, unnecessary. But at least this week's played into the larger Wayne corruption angle while also introducing the important visual of green serum and green gas to the show. I hope that the series will find the confidence to, at one point, take a break from some of the stories and not feature everything/everyone in each episode."
The A.V. Club's Oliver Sava gave the episode a "C" grade and wrote, "The show has offered tiny crumbs in regards to these questions: Jim has a strict moral code forged during his time as a hero soldier; Harvey is complacent because he's afraid of what would happen to him if he wasn't; Fish and Oswald are both disrespected and condescended to by their superiors. But Gotham needs to give us more, and every week we get another fantastical mystery of the week instead of the grounded character development a successful cop show needs.