Gotham Recap with Spoilers: The Red Queen

Last week’s Gotham teased a Penguin-Riddler romance, made the Mad Hatter even scarier, and generally felt very much like it was setting up a breaking point for pretty much everyone on the show. Oh yeah, and Jim told Hatter to shoot Lee, so any hope for that relationship is probably gone, and he shot Vale instead, so Jimmy’s probably screwed there. too. Let’s get to Gotham: The Red Queen!

The episode kicked off with Jim at Valerie Vale’s bedside in the hospital. She wakes up, and cracks some wise with Jim. But then she says she thinks he told Tetch to kill Lee because he know he’d do the opposite. “You love Lee, which means we’re done.” Damn, girl, like shooting yourself in the damn stomach! Oh, too soon?

Mad Hatter meets with some weirdo chemist. He is getting an accelerant for the blood virus from Alice, and finds a hefty psychotropic called The Red Queen for his troubles. He kills the guy, because of course he does.

Nygma and his new lady have spent twelve hours straight together, and he asks her to dinner that night. And yeah, she looks exactly like Kringle – his first love and first kill (because it’s the same actress!). Ed goes and tells Penguin that he “met someone” and thinks he’s in love, and Penguin ain’t happy. Hatter and the Tweedles go to the Gotham morgue, to acquire some of Alice’s precious blood. Man, he’s creepy.

Bruce gets things cooking for Selina – literally. He is personally making her dinner. Alfred says he can have privacy “within earshot, and the lights on.”

The cops investigate Alice’s body removable. “Her blood’s frozen but still viable.” Jim tries to come help and Barnes ain’t having it, and kicks him off the crime scene (Bullock follows, and they argue a bit).

Penguin and Ed have a chat about Isabella; Penguin’s not happy, obviously, since he’s in love with Ed and all. Looks like he wants to go kill isabella.

Tetch drains Alice’s blood out of her heated-up dead body. This is just… wow. He drops the accellerant in for good measure. Halloween episode indeed!

Lee and Mario have an argument about ‘ole Jimbo, and he shows up as if on cue. He lies to Lee and says he was trying to save Vale. She pissed.

Penguin goes to meet Isabella at the library. He goes under the pretense of wanting to know about the founding families of Gotham City for the Founder’s Dinner – you know, that should be basically a dinner of the Court of Owls. Hmm. Penguin lets slip that Ed was in Arkham, and she acts like she didn’t know. I don’t, for the record, buy it.

Jim’s watching over Vale as she sleeps, and Tetch waves at him from down the hall. Chasing after him, Tetch tells him he’s going to tear down Gotham, and he can’t stop him. He blows the red queen poweder in Jim’s face, and he’s in some SERIOUS trouble.

Penguin arrives at the Founder’s Dinner smug as a bug. He bumps into Tetch and spills his wine. Yeah, Tetch is gonna try to kill the founders (which again, SHOULD be the Court).

Jim’s trip on Red Queen starts with a kaleidoscope of visions, becoming Barbara Kean dressed in hotel bellhop uniform. She’s his hallucination guide. Funsies! Jim’s trip starts in GCPD, where he sees a faceless Bruce Wayne take off a mask and say “you don’t have much time.” Suddenly he’s behind a fortified position with Penguin in an old timey Army uniform. He finds Bruce again, who shows him a pile of bodies that’s “because of you.” He puts on the creepy face again, and pulls beads out of a bullet hole in Jim’s guts.

Bullock and Barnes interrogate the guard that let Tetch into the morgue. They find out (through some rough tactics) that Tetch is headed to the Founders’ Dinner. We cut to Tetch dosing each wine glass with a drop of blood.

Back to hallucination world, and Barbara is in a cheesy nurse uniform giving him mouth to mouth. He changes her into a nun’s outfit with his mind. Next stop in the elevator of his mind! He’s old timey now, dressed in a classic suit and fedora. His two kids, a boy and a girl, greet Jim at the door. Lee is his 1950s-esque wife. Their kids are Julie and Frankie, for those keeping track. Jim settles into this world nicely, until his kids disappear one by one, then Lee. Suddenly Jim and Sirens club owner Barbara are back in the elevator. She’s a strange part of his psyche actually trying to help him. Trippy.

At Wayne Manor, Bruce sits with dinner prepared, and it seems he got stood up by Selina. He’s quite sad. As Alfred is beginning to put things away, she shows up. “You always bring your butler along on dates?” He’s peeved that she’s late, and she says she was busy. She starts to open up, though and says “this, me and you, it’s weird for me.” “It’s weird for me too.”

CALLED IT! Penguin is at the Founders’ Dinner, and he’s talking with Katherine of the Court of motherfreaking Owls. She tells him she’s “part of a group that oversees everything in Gotham. We’ve had our eye on you for quite some time, Mr. Cobblepot.” Aw diggity damn. She leaves, saying she’ll contact him when they’re ready.

Jervis Tetch comes in guns ablazing. He serves out wine to everyone at the table and says they have to drink. The cops come in just as they’re all about to drink, and stop them from doing so. Barnes tackles Tetch and Hatter instantly recognizes Alice’s blood is in him.

Last stop on Jim’s trip, facing who he really is. “Do you ever wish you were the person you used to be?” She gives him a key to escape the hallucination. How literal! He’s standing in a street and sees an old man emptying red sand out of his pockets by a car. It’s his dad.

In the real world, Dr. Mario (oh crap, just got that) and a nurse find Jim’s unconscious body, and start trying to help him. In Hallucination-Land, Jim gets in the car with his dad.

They have a chat. Jim envies that his dad could leave the worst the city had to offer back at work as the DA. “I’m the opposite, I destroy everything and everyone around me.” He says to just follow the code that the Gordons all live by. “The answer is in my ring.” He says he has to go, and a car crash starts to happen, as Jim wakes up in the real world.

Mario saved him. Huh, Mario has a bandaid on the back of his neck that was poignantly shown to us. Weird.

Ed and Isabella have a frank conversation, and he admits to killing Kringle, who looks exactly like her. She “spent the afternoon reading every article about” him and came anyway. STILL DON’T TRUST HER, FOLKS. She lists off lovers she idolized from books – and they’re all ones who died, often with or because of each other. Lovely. He points it out, they kiss, and Oswald comes barging in about the night he had. He hobbles away dejectedly, and they resume the makeout sesh.

Jim gets home (wow, that hospital processes patients exposed to a highly potent and dangerous psychotic drug quickly!). He takes down a box of his dad’s stuff and takes out the aforementioned ring. “DUM SPIRAMUS TUEBIMUR (While We Breathe, We Shall Defend)” it says (you’re welcome for the translation, you non-Latin speakers), the motto of the 133rd Field Artillery Regiment.

Jim Gordon goes to see Barnes, and congratulates him for capturing Tetch and the Tweeds and putting them in Arkham. He asks to rejoin the GCPD. “I made a promise to someone when I was younger, and I intend to keep that promise.” Barnes welcomes him back with surprisingly open arms.

Katherine of the Court of Owls sits with a man engulfed in shadow. “What did you think of our new mayor?” he asks. She says her gut says he’ll stay a criminal. “We’ll keep an eye on him. Judgement is coming, Katherine. For all of us.” Oh… and he’s WEARING THE SAME RING AS GORDON’S DAD. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN.

That’s all she wrote for this week, folks! What’d you think of the episode? Rate it here, then sound off in the comments!