Warning: This article contains major spoilers for this week’s episode of The CW‘s Gotham Knights, “Of Butchers and Betrayals”. Read beyond this point at your own risk.
The episode opens with a man having some sort of breakdown in the park. He appears to be hallucinating and when a police officer approaches, he takes his gun and fires it into the air, then says it’s too late, “they” are already there before shooting and killing himself. He also has unusual marks on his body. At the school, the fugitives are researching the death of Alan Wayne and pilfering snacks from the teacher’s lounge. Cullen goes to use the Talon’s knife to cut a cake. Harper notices in the police report that there were unusual cut marks on Alan’s body, but Turner thinks it’s a dead end. But when the knife is accidentally knocked off the table and cuts into the floor, it makes the same marks and now they have a lead.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The funeral for the mayor takes place, but it’s announced that Lincoln March is now running for mayor against Harvey Dent. Harvey wakes up at the police station. He’s late for a briefing, but a key falls out of his jacket. He says it’s not his key. At the school, Stephanie thinks the knife connects the death of Alan Wayne to the Court of Owls while Carrie suggests it was used on other murders as well. They decide to hack the GCPD autopsy records to see if anyone else has matching wounds. Cullen must go back to the police department so he can facilitate the hack. He runs into Harvey but isn’t discovered. Using the hack, they find that there are decades of deaths with those wounds — including the death in the park. Turns out it was a lawyer connected to Bruce Wayne.
Turner wants to break into the lawyer’s house for clues. Harper decides to go with him. Cullen helps Stephanie research the knife. Duela introduces the pair to the story of Felix, the Butcher of Gotham — a killer who used the exact same knife that the Talon uses. He was executed in the town square a century ago but his daughter, Eunice Monroe, is still alive and lives in a local nursing home. At the lawyer’s house, Turner and Harper encounter his son — the son also doesn’t believe his dad killed himself and reveals that his dad scrawled some things about the Court of Owls on the walls while trashing his house.
Harvey meets with the police commissioner as part of the investigation into the mayor’s murder. She shows Harvey the Court of Owls coin that was found in his car. Harvey asks what she knows about the court, but she says it’s just an old timey fairy tale. Meanwhile, Turner talks to the lawyer’s son, and he reveals that Bruce Wayne came to the lawyer two days before his murder to change his will. The will was really and truly changed, which the lawyer told Detective Ford. Bruce was never cutting Turner out of the will, but he doesn’t know what changes were made, just that whatever changes were being made was going to change everything. Turner thinks it’s the will that got both men killed.
Back at the hideout, Turner says they need to get the one copy of the will and they think Cressida has the will, so they need to speak with her. Turner trusts Cressida so he is going alone to talk to her. Meanwhile, Carrie and an in-disguise Duela are going to visit Eunice in the nursing home. Lincoln confronts Harvey, asking him for help and tells him that he has also received one of the mysterious coins. He wants to know if he’s in danger.
At the nursing home, Carrie and Duela visit Eunice and ask her what it was like growing up in old Gotham. Eunice isn’t exactly forthcoming, but Duela tells her that she knows about the Butcher of Gotham and bonds with Eunice to get her to open up. She tells them about the circus and the spectacle and the music. She says that her father still watches over her and still sends her music boxes — including the one she has on her lap. Duela asks if he ever gave away knives and says someone is using them now. Eunice doesn’t like the Butcher of Gotham name for her father because he was more precise in his work. She also says that her father cut their tongues out to keep his victims to stop pleading for their lives and that the victims got what they deserve — and so will they. She tells them that the Court of Owls watches all the time and starts quoting the Court of Owls rhyme, threatening the girls.
At the hideout, Stephanie and Cullen try to figure out why people go mad when the Talon attacks and she suspects there is a toxin that makes people lose their minds. They bond as it’s revealed that Stephanie’s mom is an addict. They go to the autopsy reports and discover that they have some sort of unknown compound but nothing specific. At home, Turner finds Cressida and she hugs him. She tells him that she doesn’t believe he killed his father and that there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for him. At the police station, Harvey goes to check out the coin from Bruce’s case, but the coin is gone — Harvey previously checked it out but has no memory of doing so.
Everyone (sans Turner) meets back at the hideout and debriefs the others, and they realize that Cressida has been visiting Eunice. At Wayne Manor, Turner has Cressida go check for the will and the others call him to warn him about Cressida, but she shows up with a gun. He scuffles with her and gets the gun and confronts her about the Court and his father’s death. She says she did not kill Bruce, but one doesn’t defy the Court and she helped to make his death possible. She put the toxin in his food and then they sent the Talon. Bruce was a threat to them, and Turner was just collateral damage. Before he can kill Cressida, the Court shows up in masks and says they have misjudged him. If he swears his loyalty, they will spare him and get the charges dismissed. They say the Court will get away with it no matter what he does. He must betray the others to save his own life, however, and he refuses. The Talon shows up then to kill him. Before he can, Carrie shows up and gets Turner out through the Batcave.
Back at the hideout, Turner deals with the emotional fallout of Cressida’s betrayal and talks to Stephanie. Harper and Cullen talk about Stephanie and Harper reveals that she’s jealous of Stephanie for all her perceived privilege. Cullen tells her that Stephanie’s life isn’t perfect and that it has no bearing on Harper’s life will be — and she shouldn’t judge her the way they themselves are judged. Elsewhere, it’s revealed that the mayor’s limo is missing a key — it’s the key that Harvey found in his coat earlier that day. At the hideout, it’s revealed that Duela stole Eunice’s music box. Carrie is going to check it for fingerprints. At Wayne Manor, the broken body of the Talon is laid out on a table and unexpectedly starts to heal itself while the fugitives run the prints — and they match the Butcher of Gotham. He’s the Talon.
