Gotham 3x05 Recap: “Anything for You” (Nygma is Bonkers) [Contributor: Jon]

“Anything for You” 

Original Airdate: October 17, 2016 

Well... THAT happened. To call this episode bananas is an understatement, as plenty of crazy went down. This was, hands down, one of the series’ absolute best. Penguin’s storyline was put front and center, which allowed for all the series’ best qualities to shine.

SEEING RED

Cobblepot hasn’t been mayor for more than a day or so (as seen by helping in soup kitchens, opening a new school, introducing a speech and statue of his own mother... the usual mayoral things) when he already faces his first major issue. The Red Hood Gang, not seen since last season, has resurfaced, destroying the statue of Penguin’s mother and warning Penguin that the city is theirs.

Penguin, naturally, doesn’t take too kindly to this and assembles a gaggle of criminals, including everyone’s favorite sociopath Victor Zsasz. Penguin orders them to hunt down and eliminate the Red Hood Gang, while he goes to celebrate his victory at Barbara and Tabitha’s club.

The Red Hood Gang is playing cards at their hideout, waiting for the boss to arrive. That boss turns out to be none other than Butch. Butch tells the boys that there’s still work left to do and gives a select few suits orders to crash Penguin’s party while the others cause chaos in the streets.

Tabitha and Barbara discover Butch and his goons, as well as what they’re up to. Butch explains he’s using the Red Hood Gang to cause chaos, only to kill them later in order to become Cobblepot’s right hand man again, as he felt overshadowed by Nygma’s sudden rise. Tabitha and Barbara agree to keep quiet regarding the plan, but warn Butch that he owes them.

Penguin then finds the Red Hood gang’s hideout and contacts Butch to rendezvous. Butch, realizing that things might need to be accelerated, kills the gang just as Penguin comes in. Penguin and the media hail Butch as a hero, putting him back in the limelight.

Butch’s plan elevates him beyond that of a normal henchman. He’s loyal to his boss; but in time, he could become a formidable threat in his own right. In a way, it’s reminiscent of what we saw a few episodes ago with Penguin and Mooney: one creates the other, whether they realize it or not. Butch and Penguin’s relationship feels eerily similar to Mooney and Penguin, and it’ll be interesting to see how it further develops throughout the season.

Before we see Butch continue his plan, let’s see on how Barnes, Gordon and the rest of the GCPD is faring.

“I HAVE MISSED ALL OF YOU”

At the GCPD, the police are investigating the Red Hood massacre. Barnes is worried about his recent run in with Alice’s blood, fearing its power. This isn’t helped by the fact that he keeps hearing reports of it being contaminated.

Before anyone can make a move on the Red Hood case, Nygma walks through the front door, in what might be one of the funniest scenes of the show. After all, Nygma was the one who lied about Kringle and murdered her. So to see him walk in the door, with the biggest grin on his face, is darkly ironic.

Barnes demands that Nygma leaves, but Nygma states that, with his new position, he will become the new liaison for the Red Hood case. Barnes initially refuses vehemently, but realizes he has to live with it, lest Penguin elect a new commissioner.

Nygma immediately heads to his old stomping grounds, where he runs into Lee. Lee, not forgiving him for killing Kringle, punches him square in the face. Nygma is initially angered, but Lee threatens that she’s about to be married to the son of Carmine Falcone, and if she so much as whispers, Nygma’s a dead man.

It seems Lee is fully aware of what she’s getting herself into with Mario, which leads one to wonder if she herself is heading down a dark path. It’s an odd choice, given how much of a shining light Lee has been within this madcap world. She’s the voice of reason — the one who remains sane throughout the insane.

Barnes talks to Lee about Alice’s blood, doing the old trick of “finding information for others when it’s really for yourself.” Lee explains that the blood was tested on three rats: two of them began showing immense strength, but the third went berserk and murdered the other two violently. This obviously worries Barnes, as now he has that potential power inside of him (it’s like a more violent Jim Powell Sr., and if any of you remember what character that show is from, give yourself brownie points).

But now, there’s a party to attend to — one that’s about to set things off!

TWISTS AND TURNS

Penguin’s party at Sirens is under full swing, allowing for many of Gotham’s elite to show their support, with two of those elite being Bruce and Alfred. Bruce spots Selina and, going off on the advice Gordon gave to him earlier in the episode, wishes to speak to her privately. Ivy is also at the party, as she briefly teases Selina about her true identity.

Bruce and Selina head to the roof, where Bruce admits that he likes Selina. Selina initially rebuffs him, stating he only likes her because he’s the only girl that he’s ever really talked to (so I guess we’re going to forget the whole “Silver St. Cloud was briefly my girlfriend even though it was a lie” thing ever happened?). Bruce persists, stating that he knows Selina feels something too. Selina tells him that no one tells her what to do, and they kiss. It’s a brief but all too bittersweet moment for the young lovebirds, as come adulthood, both of them will be on opposite sides of the ideology of good and bad.

Remember when I said earlier that stuff hit the fan in this episode? It starts here. Nygma confronts Butch during the party, stating that he knows Butch is the leader of the Red Hood after examining the crime scene and finding inconsistencies.

Rather than turning him in, Nygma offers him a deal: Butch will don the Red Hood mask and take out the Penguin, while Nygma will divide the city with Butch so that they may rule Gotham together. Nygma claims to have played Penguin all along, stating he had no intention to be number two upon freedom.

Butch initially refuses this offer, to which Nygma issues an ultimatum: don the mask or Nygma orders Zsasz to kill Tabitha, who is being held at gunpoint. Butch reluctantly agrees, and dons the mask. While Penguin is in the middle of the speech, Butch attacks. The bullets that Nygma gave Butch are, however, non-lethal, and therefore have no effect on Penguin.

Nygma begins to gleefully gloat in Butch’s ear, before publicly revealing Butch as the leader of the Red Hood Gang. Cobblepot, overcome with fury, berates Butch for betraying him after everything they’ve done. Butch then attacks Nygma, and — in order to save his friend’s life — Penguin hits Butch on the head with a bottle.

It’s a powerful scene between the three actors that shows many layers to their characters. Cory Michael Smith, Robin Lord Taylor, and Drew Powell have consistently been on their A game week after week, and with this episode, they bring their characters to a turning point. Butch’s fury toward how he used to be someone with Penguin is a testament to how far the character has come in the past three seasons.

JUST FRIENDS...?

Speaking of Smith and Taylor, they get an emotionally powerful moment toward the end of the episode. While Penguin tends to Nygma’s injuries, Nygma apologizes for not letting Penguin in on the plan, as his reaction needed to be genuine in order for the public to believe and embrace him. Penguin, touched by this gesture, leans in towards Nygma and hugs him.

It’s been widely speculated by many that Penguin and Nygma were about to kiss, leading them into something more. It would certainly be an interesting twist on the characters, especially as to where it may lead them somewhere down the line. The relationship between the two thus far has been very personal with each other, but as to where it goes from here, it’s truly anyone’s guess.

BEFORE WE GO

While Butch is being taken away in the ambulance, Tabitha tails and later captures the ambulance, freeing Butch. Barnes angrily finds out about this, but soon discovers that he no longer needs his crutches and is walking normally. This is immediately followed by his veins going haywire, just like last week.

Meanwhile, Valerie Vale is having dinner with a medical examiner trying to find more information about Alice’s blood. Gordon, taking his own advice that he gave to Bruce, goes to visit Valerie and the examiner right when the examiner starts being a bit more... pushy.

Gordon threatens him to leave and sits with Valerie, stating that he wants something more than what they have now, and they proceed to have their first official date.

The final scene of the episode concerns Tetch, who has now been driven to madness and has embraced his Mad Hatter persona. He kidnaps a girl and dresses her eerily similar to Alice, before murdering her in cold blood. Tetch then writes Gordon’s name in her blood while uttering, “Those who hurt you will feel my pain when my sweet and terrible vengeance upon them rains.”

As I stated previously, a LOT happened this week. However, in doing so, Gotham delivered one of its finest episodes to date, expertly bringing to a head multiple plotlines while also forging new paths for old favorites. One can only hope this upward trend of can continue after this episode.

NEXT EPISODE: Nygma sees a familiar face from the past and the Mad Hatter is even more deranged after the death of Alice.

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Gotham 3x04 Recap: “New Day Rising (Butch v. Nygma: Dawn of Overacting) [Contributor: Jon]

“New Day Rising”

Original Airdate: October 10, 2016

The Mad Hatter began to take his first steps into darkness, Penguin and Nygma finally became the dream team I’ve been waiting for, and Nega-Bruce did... things, I think?

Let’s begin with our main story from last week, which is the continuing tale of the Mad Hatter.

IMPULSE

In the wake of Alice’s arrest last week, we see Bullock is interrogating Alice about her story. Bullock, who does not believe Alice’s story about Hugo Strange — even though he was JUST hypnotized by Mooney two episodes ago — is still adamant that she killed her landlord.

We then later cut to Tetch as he finalizes a deal to obtain an abandoned amusement park, all while hypnotizing and immediately killing the owner of the park, as he wants no witnesses to his plan. Tetch is on the verge of going fully nuts. He’s getting there, but he’s not there, YET. Perhaps he needs to have a bit of a push.

Speaking of a push, it seems the hypnotizing Tetch put on Gordon last week hasn’t fully left him. Tetch still has a hold on him in some sense, tempting Gordon to end his life. This is evidenced by Gordon nearly walking out and getting destroyed into the path of an incoming truck.

Later, Gordon goes with Barbara to find Tetch, only to find he’s recruited some local wrestlers to his cause. These trio of wrestlers are known as the “Terrible Tweeds,” aka the show’s interpretation of Tweedledee and Tweedledum from the comics (they really went for broke with the “Alice in Wonderland” references in the comics).

This leads to what might be the most Tim Burton-like sequence in the show thus far: to the tune of carnival music, the wrestlers invade the GCPD, where Alice is located.

BREAKING FREE

Gordon and Alice attempt to escape the GCPD, but the impulse Tetch left in his brain rears its head the moment Tetch appears. Tetch proceeds to kidnap Alice (who, as it turns out, never liked her brother all that much to begin with) and leaves Gordon with a gun at his temple. Gordon looks like he’s about to pull the trigger before Barnes hits him with a fire extinguisher.

Gordon wakes up restrained, where he is being checked on by Lee. This leads to yet another subplot being wrapped (for now) as Lee and Gordon discuss why Jim left. Gordon states he wanted her to be there for him after the madness died down, but she justifies leaving, saying he was never there when she needed him most. Mario was there when Jim was not.

The youngest Tweed brother is then interrogated by Bullock, who gives up the location of Tetch. Tracking him to the amusement park, Gordon and the other members of the GCPD confront Tetch and Alice, but Tetch uses that impulse in Jim yet again. This time, however, Jim is able to fight through the impulse and break it, reminding himself to let go of his past with Lee.

A gunfight ensues, and in the fight, Alice attempts to escape Tetch’s clutches. Tetch attempts to regain control of her, but, not wanting to let herself be a pawn in his game, Alice proceeds to impale herself on a wooden spike, killing her instantly. Heartbroken, Tetch runs, swearing vengeance.

Finally, as Barnes is investigating the crime scene, a drop of Alice’s blood drops into his eye, causing his veins to bulge and his eyes to turn red…

BAD MEETS EVIL

Meanwhile, Penguin’s bid to become Mayor of Gotham is now in full effect, with both Butch and help Nygma along the campaign. However, both men have different methods of running it. Butch wants to do it the dirty way, through bribes and threats, but Nygma wants to do it in a legitimate way, in order to make Penguin legitimate and well-liked in the public eye.

Nygma catches Butch paying off a campaign official and immediately checks the envelope. He lets the man leave, but Butch orders his men to follow Nygma’s movements.

It is revealed that Cobblepot is aware of Butch’s movements, but allows it to happen. A little girl then comes up and says how inspired she is by Penguin. Penguin’s heart is touched, but it’s revealed the whole thing was a ruse by Nygma to prove a point. Penguin angrily tells Nygma to leave.

Later, while waiting election results, Butch holds Nygma at gunpoint, revealing to Penguin that Nygma took back the money from the official that was bribed earlier. Cobblepot orders Nygma to be killed, but it’s then shown that Cobblepot is now the official new mayor of Gotham. Nygma then tells Penguin that he always knew he could do this, and that the people really wanted HIM, Oswald Cobblepot all along.

At his inauguration speech, Penguin announces Nygma as his new Chief of Staff, surprising Nygma and angering Butch. Something tells me that at some point, Butch is going to want his vengeance on Nygma.

FACE/OFF

Not much happened in regards to Bruce and Alfred this episode, with the exception of the temporary wrap up of Five/Nega Bruce’s arc. Bruce and Alfred discover the location of the car in the Narrows, deducing that Nega Bruce is with Selina.

Selina and Five make their way to a bar where Selina briefly separates from him in order to rob the place, but she immediately gets caught by some thugs. Just as she’s about to get her finger cut off, Five comes in and beats down the thugs with his immense strength (remember kids, eat your veggies). Unfortunately, Five gets injured in the process.

Selina begins to dress Five’s wounds when she discovers the scars Five has, deducing that he is not the real Bruce (the super strength or the random “Hey, I’m a 15-year old billionaire who’s driving a car let’s go for a ride” shtick didn’t tip you off?). Five then reveals how he wants to be his own person, and, while Selina is attending his wounds, he kisses her.

Bruce and Alfred later find Five on a rooftop. Five berates Bruce for not knowing what he wants in life, which may or may not be alluding to Selina. This is further suspicious when Five tells Bruce to thank Selina for their kiss before jumping off a rooftop parkour style. This comment seems to affect Bruce deeply, which may hint towards something more with Selina

ONE FINAL THING

While escaping Gotham and doing his best Elliot Alderson Halloween costume, he’s followed by a limo, which happens to contain Kathryn, leader of the Court of Owls. She immediately sedates and captures Five, stating that they have big plans for him.

What’s the Court got planned for Five? Will Barnes go full on nuts after getting a hit of Alice’s blood? And what happens in the ongoing fight between Nygma and Butch? What I’m enjoying consistently about Gotham this season is how quickly the storylines get wrapped while still leaving enough room to possibly continue it further. Yes, not every storyline is perfect, but everything is moving at a brisker pace, something the show desperately needed in the beginning.

NEXT EPISODE: The fight between Butch and Nygma heat up, and a certain gang make a return appearance.

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Gotham 3x02 Recap “Burn the Witch” (All Aboard the Awkward Train) [Contributor: Jon]

“Burn the Witch”

Original Airdate: September 26, 2016

After the events of last week, you think things would get a bit calmer, perhaps settle into a kind of groove. Of course not, this is Gotham. This is the show that decides to keep on getting nuttier week after week. This week, we dealt with aging, mobs, mysterious courts, and crazy ex-girlfriends. You know, the usual.

PLAYING THE GAME

We immediately pick up right after Bruce was kidnapped by the Court of Owls (they’re never really given a name on the show, but all signs pretty much point to this group). Bruce then notices the mysterious woman that we’ve seen the last couple of episodes and recognizes her as someone within Wayne Enterprises. But who exactly she is remains to be discovered. All we know is her name is Kathryn.

One of the best things about this show is how far Bruce has come as the character. He’s no longer the scared, angry little boy from season one, and is slowly becoming the cool, confident hero we know him to be. David Mazouz plays this role with ease, and this is evidenced by what happens next: Bruce, quite calmly, tells Kathryn that if he dies, he unleashes everything he has on them and exposes the Court to the outside world. Kathryn seems unfazed by this, but agrees to let him live on one condition: Bruce halts his investigation into them, permanently. Bruce agrees, and is taken back by the assassin, Talon.

We then get a smaller scene where Bruce admits to Alfred what he had to do. Alfred, while dismayed by the actions Bruce took, understands why he did. It’s in this small moment we see Alfred and Bruce’s relationship in one scene. Alfred, in this case, is much more fatherly than we’ve ever seen him. He cares for the well-being of Bruce and vice versa.

It won’t be until much later in the episode that we will run into Bruce again. But until then, we got some brief catching up to do with young Ivy (or is it older Ivy?)

DON’T FORGET TO HUG THE TREES

One of the nicer elements of this season so far is we don’t spend too much time dragging out plotlines over the course of X amount of episodes. Bruce’s kidnapping was wrapped up quickly, and now we find out immediately what happened to Ivy. After being touched by Reverse Benjamin Button, Ivy washes up on shore — only to see that she’s aged into a young adult.

This sees the debut of Maggie Geha as the older Ivy. While the character does only appear in a handful of scenes, Geha does a fine job of balancing the sweetness of the younger version with something newer... something darker. In this, we see hints of the Ivy we know come to light.

After washing ashore, Ivy is found by a man named Nick, who takes her to his home in order to help her get back on her feet. Once she arrives at Nick’s home, she discovers that he treats the plants horribly, something she can’t stand for. Off-screen, she murders Nick in brutal fashion and, as a replacement for her rags, takes a rather sultry dress that belonged to Nick’s ex-wife.

It was interesting to see the beginnings of Ivy, though it’s unclear if this version will become evil right away or even at all. We know she hates injustice toward plants — and that’s prevalent here — but it’ll be interesting to see where the season takes her.

Speaking of the other villains and heroes, we take a look at what Jim, Cobblepot, and the rest of the merry band had to deal with this week.

TAKING BACK THE STREETS

Valerie visits Gordon, and suggests a team up in order to track down Mooney. Gordon, albeit reluctantly, agrees and takes her to the only person (even though there are HUNDREDS of other possible people to talk to), who might know where Mooney is: his ex-fiancé, Barbara.

I want to take this time to point out that I have genuinely enjoyed Barbara’s complete 180 degree arc on this show. No longer is she the doting, dedicated fiancé of Gordon, instead fully doing the complete opposite and embracing her maniac side. It’s a transformation that’s been beyond entertaining to watch, and Erin Richards has pulled it off beautifully.

As Vale and Gordon go get information from Barbara, she refuses to give it up with the exception of one thing: Gordon must give her a kiss, for old time’s sake. Gordon immediately refuses, and begins to leave. Barbara then says she had a dream about him losing his legs, and she was pushing him around a giant carriage. Good ol' Barb.

Afterward, Gordon finds Peabody’s body and realizes Mooney’s next target is Hugo Strange. According to Barnes, Hugo Strange is currently being held in a maximum security facility (because, let’s be honest, where else are you going to put a supervillain?) It is also discovered that Harvey has been kidnapped by Mooney’s forces, and that Mooney has hypnotized him (knew that “friendship” would bite him someday).

PENGUIN, PENGUIN, HE’S OUR MAN

This season shows Penguin in a light that is eerily reminiscent of the character’s portrayal in the much-underappreciated Batman Returns: as a politician. Penguin is taking much more of a political role in Gotham, and the catalyst for that begins with this episode. In the wake of superhumans running around Gotham, Penguin criticizes the GCPD for not doing their jobs in a press conference. This soon gains the support of the public, and Penguin begins to find himself popular among Gothamites.

After learning of Mooney and her merry band of freaks’ location, Mooney leads a mob with the intent of destroying the monsters. Gordon, wanting to save Bullock’s life, makes a deal with Penguin: if Penguin can distract the police so that Gordon can get inside, Gordon will let Penguin have his true prize: Fish Mooney.

(Small side note but, if we are going to lead to these characters being the characters we know, then is something going to happen to these two somewhere down the line? I love how the show can make you hypothesize on what may or may not happen).

This leads to what is perhaps the strongest moment of the episode. After cornering Mooney, Cobblepot demands to know why Mooney spared him. Mooney’s response is powerful: it’s because of their history. Cobblepot used to be her umbrella holder, her faithful servant. She claims all of this was to make him the Penguin, and she couldn’t bear to destroy that image.

It’s a powerful reminder to how far Mooney and Penguin have both come. While Penguin hates that Mooney is alive (which means competition), he knows that he can’t kill her, and neither can she. Eventually, one of them is going to face their destiny. Both Jada Pinkett Smith and Robin Lord Taylor do an excellent job at conveying that realization, and later, sadness at their history.

ALL ABOARD THE AWKWARD TRAIN

Two major things happen at the end of the episode. The first revelation is that Bruce and Alfred find an intruder within the house, only to discover it’s the other Bruce doppelgänger. This only further hints that the other Bruce might be this version of Hush, as we’ve had a couple of hints leading up to this point.

The OTHER big moment that happened is that Lee returned to Gotham at THE WORST possible time! She returns right as Gordon decides to sleep with Vale for... reasons? Because he’s lonely? It’s never explained fully, nor will it probably have anything to do with the season as a whole.

But regardless, a whole lot of awkwardness happened this week on Gotham. It will be interesting to see how the show handles that in the next episode.

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Gotham 3x03 Recap: “Look into My Eyes” (#PenguinforMayor2k16) [Contributor: Jon]

“Look into My Eyes” 

Original Airdate: October 3, 2016

The Mad Hatter was always one of the more fascinating Batman villains to me. Rather than make him straight from the pages of Carroll’s novel, they instead created a villain that was driven insane, and was only inspired by the character. And yet, it’s that kind of nuttiness that fits into the world of Gotham. This episode introduced us to their version of the Hatter, as he’s nothing more than a simple con man who’s got a sister with... unusual abilities.

We also got some hints toward Nega-Bruce becoming the comic book villain Hush, as he definitely took the first steps. Oh, and Penguin went full Batman Returns on us viewers this week, in absolute glorious fashion.

AS MAD AS A HATTER

We are immediately introduced to Jervis Tetch, here played by The Walking Dead’s Benedict Samuel, as a hypnotist performing in Barbara’s club. The scene serves as nothing much more than an introduction to the character, but it’s certainly an effective one. Samuel — who looks strikingly similar to Adam Driver physically and in dialect — plays Tetch as an amusing con man, who might have something deeper than just that within him.

Tetch invades the house of a man he had hypnotized earlier, causing the man to violently kill his wife and then himself, while Tetch takes over the home. Tetch uses the home to find his missing sister, named — are you ready for this? — Alice. Cue the sitcom laugh track.

Alice, as it turns out, has a bit of a secret of her own: she has a virus in her mouth that can kill people (I guess brushing twice a day won’t keep the dentist away from this one). This is shown when her landlord tries to kiss her on the mouth. Tetch realizes he’ll need some assistance in locating Alice and so turns to the only man who’s dealt with unusual cases in Gotham.

A man who is just about to run into his ex-girlfriend...

AWKWARD

Speaking of which, Gordon, having just slept with Valerie (keep the awkwardness coming), goes to the GCPD to collect his bounty from the last episode when he happens to run into Lee. Lee is back in town to work at her old job, while living with her new fiancé, Mario, a doctor (and no he does not work in the Mushroom Kingdom).

After that awkward encounter, Gordon runs into Tetch, who asks for his assistance in tracking down Alice. Tetch explains that he took care of her when they were younger after they lost their parents. Alice began to experience her rare disease, and to help her, Tetch took her to the one man who may be able to help: Dr. Hugo Strange.

However, Tetch never saw Alice again after that, due to the poison in her blood and Strange’s need for “supervision.” Gordon then agrees to help with Tetch.

Gordon later finds Selina and asks her for any whereabouts regarding Alice. Selina shows him the location of where she was last, in exchange for Gordon’s word to keep an eye out for Ivy. After Gordon enters the house and gets attacked by some thugs. Gordon wins, but has to go into the hospital for stitches, where he runs into Dr. Mario.

Mario tells Gordon that he will never hurt Lee, but Gordon threatens him by saying if he ever did, Gordon would come after him.

“SOMETIMES YOUR WORDS JUST HYPNOTIZE ME”

Later on, Gordon locates Alice but is attacked by the landlord, who has gone mad. Alice then kills the landlord and burns his corpse, claiming the body is infected. Alice also states that she wants nothing to do with Tetch. This is rather interesting, and we begin to wonder if Tetch is telling the truth. In the comics, he was obsessed with kidnapping victims and forcing them to be characters from Alice in Wonderland. So this could mean that maybe this is the show’s way of showing Tetch’s obsession?

After Gordon goes to confront Tetch, Tetch begins to hypnotize Gordon, telling him to jump to his death. Just as Gordon is about to take the plunge, Alice arrives, shoots Tetch in the shoulder, and saves Gordon from falling to his death. Gordon, in classic Gordon fashion, immediately handcuffs Alice.

So where does this leave Tetch? We know he’ll have a bigger part to play in this first half, but the only question is what? Clearly something will happen with Barbara too, after Tetch hypnotizes her to kiss her, surprising Tabitha.

But let’s check on our other characters, starting with our favorite child billionaire and future superhero.

SEEING DOUBLE

If this episode didn’t fully confirm “WE HAVE HUSH ON THIS SHOW,” then I don’t know what will.

After the arrival of Nega-Bruce, the clone reveals himself to be a product of Indian Hill, simply going by the number “5.” He doesn’t remember much, only knowing that tests were performed on him. Bruce allows him to stay at the Manor, though Alfred is strongly against this.

Nega-Bruce the Fifth begins to display some unusual prowess, such as quick agility and reflexes in a fight, as well as the ability to not feel pain.

Selena later visits Bruce for help in locating Ivy, but Bruce refuses. Selina states he’s selfish and leaves. Nega-Bruce the Fifth overhears this and begins to imitate Bruce’s voice. Later, Nega cuts his hair in the style of Bruce and leaves, taking clothes and a car. He then approaches Selina, offering her to take her for food. Even though Selina notes he seems different, she still goes with him anyway. A+ deduction there, Selina. A+.

And finally, we get to hands down my favorite subplot of the episode:

MAKE GOTHAM GREAT AGAIN

One of my favorite movies growing up was 1992’s Batman Returns. Danny DeVito did a phenomenal job as the Penguin. One of the best aspects of Penguin in the film was how involved he got in Gotham politics, going so far as to run for mayor. It was an aspect that was at times darkly funny and bittersweet.

The writers of Gotham decide to revisit that plot point to almost hilarious fashion. Penguin’s rise to mayoral candidate is so humorous in its delivery, as Penguin’s methods are rather... unconventional. After announcing his candidacy, he immediately goes to see Mayor James. After a tense exchange, both parties’ guards train guns on the other, and Penguin leaves a small pin behind for James.

We then get to my favorite part of the episode: Penguin, realizing he needs help. He heads to Arkham Asylum to bribe/threaten the warden to claim a certain prisoner is declared sane and released in Penguin’s custody. Who is this mystery patient?

Why, it’s our old pal Nygma of course! After Nygma is released, this leads to one of the greatest GIF moments in history.

ONE FINAL THING

Before we leave for this episode, one final bombshell was dropped. Lee and Mario got meet to have dinner with Mario’s father, who just so happens to be notorious crime boss Carmine Falcone. Whether this is going to cause some tension between Lee and Jim down the line remains to be seen, but this certainly is an interesting wrinkle.

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Gotham 3x01 Recap: "Better to Reign in Hell..." (A Different Vigilante) [Contributor: Jon]

“Better to Reign in Hell…” 

Original Airdate: September 19, 2016

Gotham has had an interesting transition over the past three seasons. While the show first began as a standard cop procedural, it has wonderfully embraced its pulpy comic roots and is now one of the wackiest and most entertaining shows on TV. Out of all the comic shows on right now, this might be one of the most underrated ones.

The show has not been afraid to embrace a weird, madcap world. Since the introduction of Hugo Strange and his experiments at Indian Hill, Gotham has since made a transition into the more fantastical, which has made it much more interesting to watch.

The show picks up six months after the Indian Hill breakout, where things are not going well for our main protagonist.

FOR THE MONEY

After a brief interlude with Gordon, we discover that Lee has already moved on, and currently has found love with someone else. This comes across as surprising, as I was a bit worried that the season would spend time prolonging the romance (as charming as it is) between the two. Cutting this subplot within the first minute was an excellent move and gave rise to by far the most intriguing aspect of this season.

Six months later, Gordon is no longer a cop in the GCPD and acts as a bounty hunter, collecting criminals for cash. He spends his nights alone, drinking in bars. He also utilizes his skills hunting down the monsters that have broken free from Indian Hill, which leads to some rather amusing one-liners during the fight.

This character change might be the best aspect of the episode of the premiere, hands down. For the past three seasons, we’ve seen Jim become more and more cynical as things have progressively gotten worse around him. The only thing Jim’s ever held onto is his morals, and how he has to stay the good path.

This season finds him at the complete opposite end of that spectrum. Jim now takes the law into his own hands, instead of waiting for the bureaucracy. Jim has essentially become a vigilante, and that has the possibility of making him dangerous. We know that Jim doesn’t become the BIG vigilante in Gotham City, but seeing him in a different light is an intriguing prospect.

Later on, we see Jim get intel from plucky and nosy reporter Valerie Vale (relation to Vicki?) that leads him to approach Ethel Peabody, who was released from jail after testifying against Strange. Mooney’s monsters find them and one of them attacks Jim in broad daylight, revealing massive bat wings (possibly our first look at this world’s take on Man Bat).

The next part comes as a bit of a surprise, as Peabody is later captured and murdered by Mooney and her merry band of monsters (though the way that Peabody went, aging rapidly, is a bit of inspired creativity). The death was surprising as I knew she wouldn’t be in the season too much, but I wasn’t expecting her to... well, die.

ALL ABOARD THE TRAIN TO CRAZYTOWN

One of the strongest aspects of Gotham is its villains. While the show originally focused a lot on going, “HEY LOOK, VILLAINS FROM THE BATMAN UNIVERSE! WE’RE SETTING UP BATMAN’S WORLD. WE LOVE THE BATMAN UNIVERSE!... BATMAN,” it has since allowed the villains to have taken on a life of its own, allowing for some truly fascinating character arcs.

One villain who has been consistently engaging since the first season has been Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin. When we last saw him, he had been perhaps the slightest bit shocked that his former boss was alive and kicking. Cobblepot makes a surprise appearance at the GCPD with his partner, Butch, and announces the return of Fish Mooney as the leader of the monsters.

Part of what makes Cobblepot and Butch so much fun to watch is the camaraderie between the main actors. Both Robin Lord Taylor and Drew Powell have such an enjoyable chemistry together that it brings a smile to your face. The two come across as an incredibly psychotic Laurel and Hardy.

This kind of comic timing is demonstrated when both of them show up at the latest nightclub owned by Barbara and Tabitha. While Oswald offers them protection under his business, Butch starts blabbering like an idiot until Oswald tells him to go wait in the corner. This comes off as a silly, yet kind of darkly funny moment for the two. It balances the contrast for the characters.

Afterwards, we get an interaction between the Penguin and another wonderfully developed character: Edward Nygma, a.k.a., the Riddler. Nygma has also had a wonderful character arc for the past three years, as he’s grown from meek forensic scientist to complete madman. Cory Michael Smith and Robin Lord Taylor also have great chemistry, as they bond through their madness when Penguin seeks helps on how to deal with Mooney (this also gives way to the show’s best line: “Penguin. Eat. Fish”).

However, they’re not the only ones with the best moments in the premiere. Bruce Wayne also gets his own chance to shine.

THE KIDS ARE (KIND OF?) ALRIGHT

Bruce Wayne and Alfred’s arc has slowly become one of the more interesting parts of this show. As mentioned before, Gotham really never focuses on the rise of Batman, which means less time seems to be spent with Bruce Wayne. This actually works better than one would think, as having Bruce appear in doses every now and then works well.

It works even better for David Mazouz as he gets to play two different versions of the character: billionaire child Bruce Wayne, and long-haired emo Bruce Wayne, a clone released from Indian Hill. It’ll be interesting to see Mazouz play two different characters this season.

After going into hiding following the events of last season, Bruce, along with Alfred, heads back to Wayne Enterprises for a meeting with the board members. Wayne issues an ultimatum: if the board does not contact him within 24 hours, he will reveal everything about the company’s connection to the Court of Owls. This displeases the court, and they send an assassin known as a Talon to capture Bruce.

In an excellent and well-choreographed fight sequence, we see Alfred valiantly fight off the Talon, but get knocked out by the assassin. The assassin then proceeds to take Bruce to an unknown location.

Elsewhere, Selina — who’s been working for Mooney — secretly passes on information about Mooney’s next move to Vale, who in turn relays it to Gordon. After Selina meets with Bruce (who warns her to be careful), Selina’s friend Ivy has an encounter with Emo Bruce and runs, thinking it’s the real Wayne (I genuinely can’t wait to see where this doppelgänger story goes and if it’ll be something like the character Hush).

Finally, Mooney catches Ivy following Selina, thinking Ivy may be a spy. In reality, Ivy simply wanted to see where Selina kept disappearing to.

After an elongated chase, Ivy is backed up against a hole in the floor that leads to the sewer. As she falls, the aging power monster that killed Peabody briefly touches Ivy’s arm before she disappears over the side.

We will see what happens to Ivy later in the season, since actress Maggie Geha will be playing an older version of the character and was promoted to series regular. It’s more than likely that Ivy’s transformation from the monster will be shown VERY soon, and that we’ll begin to see Ivy’s path to becoming Poison Ivy begin.

Gotham continues to be one of the most pulpy and delightfully macabre shows on TV. With this season immediately hitting the ground running, it’s going to be one crazy ride.

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