‘Gotham’ Recap With Spoilers – “The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause”

The episode begins with Martin, the young boy that Penguin was thought to have killed. He sits in an old house surrounded by a couple of guards, when the notebook on his neck is surprisingly filled with notes that help him escape. The kid follows instructions and a rocket comes through the window, killing the guards. Riddler shows up and extends his hand.

“Uncle Penguin sent me to get you.”

In the Narrows, Sampson is bullying the people who haven’t paid rent to him, showing that Lee is gone and he’s in charge now. He kills a father in front of his child to prove a point.

Jim plots with Harvey about how to take down Sofia. He wants to figure out a way to get her out of power. Jim needs Harvey’s help and he gives him his badge back. Harvey accepts but says that Jim will have to pay what he’s done when it’s all over. He leaves Jim to track down an assassin who can help them.

Selina is going through the kitchen at Wayne manor, surprising Bruce. She asks him for help. She wants to give back the things that she stole from the Charles family before Ivy killed their father. Bruce agrees to give her some money so she can buy back what she stole and return it to the family.

At Arkham, one of the guards tells Oswald he has a message for him from “Some guy.” A riddle results in Oswald getting punched in the face.

Bullock meets and old woman who used to go by the name “The Skinner.” She says she’s retired but Harvey wants info on Falcone’s spies down in the city. She points him to Mr. Penn.

Sofia throws a fit in her study because Martin has been taken by Penguin and Riddler. She orders Zsasz to go to Arkham and kill Oswald.

Harvey gets to the Asylum to find Oswald in the infirmary after being punched. People scream and Harvey goes into the hallway. Zsasz and his partner Wendell, have arrived to get Penguin. Harvey is at the wrong end of two heavily armed hitman.

Commercial Break

Zsasz and Wendell are backing down Harvey when the alarm starts ringing. They run off and someone yells “He’s gone! Oswald Cobblepot has escaped!” Outside, Nygma drives away in a van.

Bruce and Selina arrive at the pawn shop to get the stolen jewels back. She notes that he’s acting different, better than he was at the club. The owner calls her out for trying to steal the jewels back the night before. The owner’s thugs come out of the woodwork but Bruce and Selina fight them off with Bruce knocking out the owner to end things. He tosses money on the man as he walks out.

Riddler and Penguin are walking down the street talking about Martin. The two approach Lee and she realizes that Nygma has changed back to the Riddler again. She wants to take down Sofia but Oswald isn’t a fan. Riddler’s idea is to get Freeze to put Penguin in a block of ice and deliver him like a Trojan Horse. The trio decides to go find Grundy to get help.

Nygma goes into the sewer to find Grundy, thinking he’s still dumb. Now that Grundy remembers who he is, he grabs Riddler and slams his head against a wall.

Commercial Break

Penguin is panicking that Riddler isn’t back yet. He thinks he’s been abandoned again and he leaves Lee’s side to go out on his own. Out in the alley, Penguin runs into Jim and Harvey, who tell him that they want to take Sofia together. Penguin eventually agrees and tells Jim where to find Mr. Penn. Harvey breaks Jim’s trust and arrests Penguin.

When Jim and Harvey are putting Penguin in the car, Zsasz and Wendell appear across the street and say that they’re going to “dig up” Penn themselves. A shootout ensues. Lee jumps in the driver’s seat of Jim’s car while he’s occupied, taking Penguin with her.

Barbara is sitting at her club with a migraine that she can’t shake. Grundy appears through the door, pulling a tied up Nygma behind him. He offers the Riddler a gesture of peace, giving Tabitha the chance to kill him. He promises her he’s going to “find a way to get back to the old me.” As he walks out, the piercing migraine nearly causes Barbara to fall over. When she recovers, she suggests sending Nygma to Sofia to be tortured for information on Penguin’s whereabouts. 

Zsasz tells Sofia that Jim is looking for Mr. Penn also. She tells him to go find both Penn and Penguin, right away.

Lee and Penguin are paying a visit to Mr. Freeze. He’s still bitter about Oswald’s broken promises from last time they worked together. Lee suggests freezing Penguin and delivering him to Sofia, allowing Mr. Freeze to get a hefty paycheck. He hands Oswald a heater on a timer, that should unfreeze him at a certain time. Without agreeing to anything, Penguin is frozen into a block of ice, just as Nygma was last season.

Commercial Break

At Wayne Manor, Selina is looking at the stolen jewellery and asks Bruce to return it for her. She doesn’t want to face the family after Ivy killed their father.

Sofia is having a deranged dentist torture Riddler. Through a bloody face, he laughs and gives her Penguin’s location in the form of a riddle. She’s interrupted when Penguin arrives in a block of ice. Mr. Freeze wants $100,000 for delivering Oswald. She pays the man and Zsasz arrives to tell her he knows where Penn is. Before leaving, Sofia asks the dentist to take Nygma to the docks and shoot him.

Harvey and Jim arrive at a “resort” outside of town where old people are dressed like babies and acting like children. A man in a bonnet tries to sneak away but he’s caught by Jim and escorted outside.

Penguin’s timer works and his ice block begins to crack. After busting through the ice, Penguin hits the dentist, who tells him that Riddler was tortured but he wouldn’t give Penguin up. He says that the thugs have taken him to the docks to kill him. Penguin also speaks to Lee on the phone, telling her about the resort so she can track down Sofia.

Mr. Penn tells Harvey and Jim all about how he acted as a spy for Sofia. He told them about how he got Sofia in touch with Professor Pyg and ratted Penguin out. He also said he informed Don Falcone of everything his daughter was doing. Sofia and her thugs arrive, shooting down the hallway at Jim, Penn, and Harvey. They escape, but a bullet grazes Jim’s side on the way out.

Commercial Break

Jim tells Harvey to get Penn out and he will hold off the attack until backup arrives. He takes out a couple of Sofia’s men before running away. The chase moves into the kitchen where Jim gets two more men before Sofia shoots him again, knocking him down. 

Outside, Harvey and Penn escape just as Lee pulls up in the car. She gives it to Harvey and goes inside after Sofia.

Jim stumbles through the kitchen with an empty clip. He reloads his gun and turns just as Sofia shoots him again. And then again. She’s saying she wanted them to work and all she wanted was to take over and be who her father was. She says she killed him because he disappointed her. Sofia approaches Jim with her gun drawn, asking him to beg for his life so they can start over. He tells her to go to hell.

Sofia stands up, aims the gun and says “James Gordon, this is where our story ends.”

A gun fires but not at Jim. Lee shoots Sofia once in the back, and once between the eyes, killing her instantly. Jim is alive but fading.

Commercial Break

Two of Sofia’s thugs take Riddler to the docks and put him on his knees, ready to execute them. Penguin appears and kills them both. He tells Riddler that he gave up his revenge against Sofia to save Riddler.

“Trust is so very hard to find in Gotham. But I trust you.”

Partners again, the two men look out over the water. Riddler says, “I have a strong desire to never see this pier again.”

Jim wakes up in the hospital, hooked up to a couple of machines. Harvey is waiting in the chair beside the bed. He tells Jim that Lee kept him alive until the medics arrived. He says that Sofia is in a coma and convinces Jim not to go public about his story.

Back in The Narrows, Lee arrives and breaks the hand of Sampson, just like Sofia broke hers.

Barbara is in the club, experiencing another migraine. She has a vision and, in front of her, R’as al Ghul approaches. Her hand where he touched her earlier this season begins to glow.

The End.