When we left Gotham in the Fall Finale, Jim Gordon had just shot and killed Mario Falcone, Nygma was out for revenge against Penguin (with Babs pulling the strings), and Bruce and company successfully stole a mysterious crystal owl – that may hold the key to bringing down the Court of Owls completely. If that’s not enough for you? Yeah, Jerome’s back. Let’s get started.
Videos by ComicBook.com
——————————————————-
The episode kicks off with a funeral – Mario’s. Lee is distraught, as she definitely doesn’t know that he had a knife and was about to carve her up when Jim shot him. Jim watches from a hill above, and Harvey comes to him to pull him away – but Carmine Falcone sees him ever so briefly first.
Penguin arrives at a press conference – his approval numbers are through the roof (and he has a new right-hand man, Tarquin. Ed’s not around, and Penguin can’t reach him. Tarquin wants to push him to a national scale.
Jim arrives home, and Zsasz is there waiting for him. He comes with a message that Jim messed up. “If we don’t get a chance to talk before then, it’s been nice knowing you.”
Selina and her mom sit for a chat elsewhere. It’s been 11 years since they’ve seen each other. Momma says she had to leave because she was in trouble with the law, but Selina’s not good with it, and tells her to leave.
Cobblepot meets with this national journalist, Miss Hearst, who wants an exclusive interview that week. As Cobblepot screams after for her to “dig deep! I have nothing to hide!” he sees a ghastly vision of his father.
A dead girl at the GCPD was heavily electrocuted and found dead – but she was also stabbed and died three days before. “Does anyone just stay dead in Gotham?” Harvey asks. When they leave the ME’s office, Lee is in the GCPD and screaming for Jim’s arrest. “You didn’t have to kill him!” Lucius tries to come to Jim’s defense, noting that Mario was infected with Alice’s blood and going to kill her but she doesn’t care. That’s right, she knows but doesn’t care. Huh.
Penguin (seemingly) wakes up in his lonely mansion, and his certificate of sanity has crashed to the ground. The apparition of his father appears, saying “help me! He’s not to be trusted.” But he doesn’t say who. Two police knock on his door – his father’s been grave robbed.
At the morgue, Jim and Harvey head to check things out. Yup, Melanie Blake, the stabbing victim, is missing. – The guy at the Morgue, Dwight, has a “Joker” patch on his bag.
Bruce and Alfred are trying to figure out why the crystal owl is so important, and agree to hide it in the cave. When Bruce puts it down where sun shines through it – we see – some kind of map shimmers on the wall behind it. Selina’s mom shows up, and Alfred gets tongue-tied. man, this ‘ole butler is thirsty. She’s there to deliver a box for Selina, to leave before she ditches town. Bruce says he’ll try to talk to Selina before she leaves town.
Yup, Dwight used to work at Indian Hill.
Lee and Carmine talk openly about murdering Jim Gordon – she says she hates him and everything bad in her life is because of him. Jeez. This is quite the character turn for Lee – is she infected too? They literally talk about how Mario was infected like it doesn’t matter. Jim should’ve let him stab Lee first I guess.
Selina and Bruce have a chat about mommy dearest, and he goes to bat for her a bit. Selina opens the box, and it’s full of baby stuff – shoes, toys. Her mom walks in, and Selina gives her a hug while she starts to cry.
Dwight is nervously wandering while Jim and Harvey follow. They track him to an abandoned theater, where a bunch of people are gathered. Dwight turns on a light and they all cheer for him. They’re all in straight jackets and such. Dwight talks about the way Gothamites are “in shackles,” and how Jerome is their savior. He plays a video of Jerome and all the people – many of whom have Joker makeup on – watch along and say it with him. That’s a whole lot of crazy. Jim and Harvey tell them to disperse, and some run while others try to attack the cops. When they leave into an alley, Victor Zsasz is standing with a rifle ready to open fire on Gordon.
Yeah, Falcone’s got a hit out for Jim now. Zsasz and his goons miss, though, and Jim escapes. After the break, they follow him into a kitchen, guns blazing. Jim takes one out, making Zsasz shoot her himself. Zsasz seems genuinely upset about having to kill Jim. “You’ve had a good run. You should know that.” Jim jumps him from behind after flanking him, and goes to shoot him – but he’s out of bullets. He leaves Zsasz unconcious on the floor. Woo, fun sequence.
Penguin gets another visit from Ghost Dad, who warns him of plots against him, and says he can’t rest until his remains are returned. “Don’t trust him. The Birthday Boy.”
Lee goes to Barnes to big info about the virus. “There’s no cure,” he says to her. “It’s not a disease.” Yeah, he’s totally nucking futs, and she’s seeing it a bit more here. He literally calls himself an executioner.
Selina, Bruce, Alfred, and Maria have a dinner and it’s fun, light-hearted. Knowing Gotham, it means something terrible is going to happen.
Penguin gets to City Hall and sees that it’s Tarquin’s birthday. Indeed, in Tarquin’s office, there’s daddy dearest’s withered corpse. Tarquin comes in, and acts like he has no idea what’s going on. Penguin loses it, and beats him to death. Soooo Nygma put the body there, yeah? Oh, it’s time for the Mayor’s big interview and he has dead assistant blood on him.
Lee goes back to Carmine, and tells him to call off the hit, because Barnes is totally insane. Carmine accuses her of still being in love with Jim, and she doesn’t deny it.
Mayor Cobblepot arrives for his interview, a little shaken, since, you know, he just BEAT A MAN TO DEATH seconds before.
Jim gets home to arm back up, and Harvey arrives to back him up (with a couple shotguns). Zsasz arrives shortly thereafter and shoots up Jim’s place. He gets the jump on Harvey, and Jim’s behind him, a nice Mexican standoff. Carmine walks in, and tells Zsasz the job’s canceled and to go home, and he just… leaves. I love this damn character so much. Jim tells Carmine he’s sorry, and he says, “If it was up to me, you’d be dead.”
The mayor’s interview isn’t going well. The fact that his Ghost Dad comes walking in with the statue he just beat someone to death with doesn’t help. He says “to hell with the people” when she says they want the truth, and stumbles to the office – instead of two dead bodies, there’s nothing, it’s completely clean.
Cut to Nygma standing by a trunk, with both dead bodies – and the real identity of Ghost Dad is… CLAYFACE! Babs and Tabs come to applaud Nygma’s work. We get a nice montage of Nygma’s plan. “I want this to be a slow, painful death, one of a thousand cuts.” Their plan is to take his mind, take his Empire, then put him out of his misery. Yowza.
Alfred drops Maria off at her hotel, still thirsty. She kisses his cheek, Selina sighs. When they get up to her room, though, the door is busted open. A man is waiting for her, looking for $100,000. He tells Selina her mom’s a “lying cheat,” and Maria says they need to warn Bruce and Alfred, “Cole is not someone they should mess with.”
Dwight heads to a lab, full of electricity, and says it didn’t work well enough. “It’s time to get him.” A series of cryogenic chambers is in a warehouse, six in all. We fall upon the third from the right, and it’s Jerome, still smiling, frozen, and dead.
