Photo: Courtesy Of FOX.
Warning: Spoiler Alert
Although Gotham City’s the most corrupt metropolis on the planet, it’s run quite efficiently due to alliances, the key to keeping the machine running smoothly. The city’s most powerful crime boss, Carmine Falcone, owns Mayor Aubrey James, a man with the spine of a jellyfish. Almost every police officer in the GCPD, have criminal informants, a relationship that involves the officer to look the other way, when their source does something wrong, as the information they provide is too valuable to have the criminal rotting in a cell. New alliances formed, in the latest episode of the FOX series “Gotham,” with characters quite familiar to longtime fans of the Caped Crusader.
The episode picks up shortly after the previous episode’s conclusion, as Selina Kyle’s sprung from jail by Detective Jim Gordon, who plans to leave her under the care of his fiancée Barbara Kean. However Kean, who nearly left Gordon earlier in the season for not sharing his troubles at the GCPD with her, got overwhelmed by her experience as a prisoner of Falcone and left a note telling Jim she’s left. As he finishes the note his cellphone rings, and the police sketch-artist’s downstairs in the lobby, so Selina can describe the man she saw shoot Martha and Thomas Wayne.
Gordon takes Kyle and the sketch to Wayne Manor and shows the sketch to Bruce, asking if the man looks familiar and Bruce shakes his head. Jim then tells Alfred, that Selina’s the only witness to the crime and needs to be kept safe and asks if she can stay there. Pennyworth, gives him a definitive no, however Bruce vetoes his objection and says that Kyle can stay.
Since the Arkham Asylum closed down, all criminally insane convicts are held in the regular prison and take periodic trips to a mental facility. The GCPD, are on their toes as they’re transferring Ian Hargrove, to the facility, Hargrove’s imprisoned for destroying nine munitions plants, the last one with people inside the facility, that died in the bombing. As Hargrove’s brought outside, he takes a package of matches out of his mouth and palms it, while the guards slip gloves with padlocks over his hands. He’s then put into the truck with three guards, two in the cab and one with the prisoner.
As they’re driving a long, the guard notices Ian’s doing something with his left hand and takes off the glove and it appears that Hargrove made an origami swan out of the matchbook. We never find out however, as a truck on the other side of the road veers into the police vehicles path, causing the vehicle to crash. The three guards are quickly overpowered by four men with automatic weapons, when they’ve killed the last guard, a man with a thick Russian accent, calls for Hargrove. They kidnap him to make bombs for their purposes.re
Detectives Allen and Montoya, take Gordon to meet their ally, ADA Harvey Dent, whose talking with a teen boy when they arrive. If you’ve read the comics or seen the movies, you’re aware of Dent’s long-term fate, however this is decades before he goes to the dark-side. Dent tells the juvenile delinquent, that he’s young and deserves a second chance, so Harvey will bet with him, by flipping a coin. If the boy loses, he goes to jail, if he wins, Dent lets him go and the kid can’t wait to spit out the word deal, but Dent tells him there’s a catch. If he goes free, he has to promise there and now to God, that he’ll go back to school and turn his life around and asks the teen if he’s willing to make the promise and he responds yes sir. The boy calls heads and he wins Dent, tells him to remember his promise and keep it.
Gordon and the two detectives approach Dent and Jim tells the ADA, he likes how he handled the situation, but what if the boy lost? Harvey says most teenage boys always pick heads, so he’s got a two-headed coin. (Shades of things to come.) They head back to Dent’s office and he looks at the picture. Dent tells the three detectives, that he’s convinced Gotham City wealthy businessman Dick Lovecraft’s behind the Wayne’s murder and he’s going to use Jim’s source to shake Lovecraft and some other suspects up. Gordon gets hinky and tells Dent that his and Kyle’s name are never mentioned and the ADA guarantees it.
Alfred’s giving Bruce his first boxing lesson and Selina stands and watches, then asks Bruce why he’s doing this and Wayne replies to protect himself. Kyle laughs and says, this is a dangerous neighborhood, Bruce responds he’s getting ready for Gotham City and the girl says they don’t wear gloves when they fight in Gotham. As she leaves, Alfred realizes that Bruce’s got at least the start of a crush on the girl and teases him about it, but says, this one could prove troublesome.
Penguin breaks into Falcone’s house and heads to Fish Mooney’s mole, Liza’s room, he takes her nightgown from her bed and a bottle of lilac scented perfume and leaves, just before Liza returns home so he scampers up the stairs. She walks into the apartment and she can see from the doorway, her nightgown’s gone, she looks out the door but just misses the snitch.
Harvey’s already working on the Hargrove case when Gordon arrives at the station. Bullock asks if it’s woman problems and Jim tells his partner, that Barbara left him. They get back to the case and interview Ian’s older brother John. The brother says that Ian’s not bad, he’s mentally ill, he accidentally killed those people and he felt so guilty he practically turned himself in. His brother tried destroying munitions factories in order to stop wars.
Meanwhile, Hargrove’s completed a bomb for the Russians and the leader puts it in a gift basket filled with straw and puts all sorts of goodies and delicacies in the basket. He takes it to another munitions factory and four security guards chow down, the Russian and Ian sit in a van a block away and watch the building explode.
Next morning while Bruce reads the paper with the headline being the munitions building explosion, when Kyle walks into the library, acting sullen. She says the house makes noises and the boy explains it’s very old, he then says she’s wearing the only clothes she brought with her, he’ll gladly get Alfred to get her more clothes and she says she’ll pass. He then says he’s heard she lives on the street and she smiles and says yeah, he asks if her parents are still living and she freaks, saying of course they are she’s not an orphan and stomps off.
Jim and Harvey talk to their Captain Sarah Essen about the bombing and they inform her, they stole a compound called HMS, after killed the guards, which Gordon says is ten times more powerful than C-4. At that point Mayor James walks into her office and starts ripping the GCPD, Gordon cuts him off and says, the fault doesn’t lie with them, inferring James’ dropped the ball. When the Mayor asks why he’s at fault, Gordon says because the prison system’s so antiquated they need to conduct these transfers. James says they better catch the guy by that night and storms out.
The two detectives are ready to hit the streets, when Alfred calls Gordon, saying things aren’t working out with Selina. Jim plays on Alfred’s sympathy and sense of right and wrong, says he’s up to his neck in alligators, but he’ll get there as soon as he can. Pennyworth, replies they’ll patiently await his arrival.
Fish Mooney and her number one aide Butch are talking about an upcoming job and Butch asks her if she’s sure about things? Mooney says she hopes Mooney’s not losing his nerve and he assures her all’s fine. Right then the Penguin enters and Fish says she thinks that Oswald enjoys getting hurt, which is the reason he keeps returning. No, he responds he just wanted to say hello in an effort to repair their friendship, he then leans towards her and sniffs and says she smells of lilacs and she smells great. She replies he doesn’t and he says he’s off, it’s a pleasure to see her. Butch says Cobblepot’s creepy and Mooney says he’s a nothing and ignore him.
Back at the station, Gordon and Bullock are digging through Hargrove’s file, trying to find any evidence he’s worked with others in the past, but he’s always been a loner. Old friend GCPD forensic scientist Ed Nygma, sneaks up on Harvey and nearly gives the detective a coronary, as usual his opening topic’s got nothing to do with the reason he sought them out, this week its video games. However when Ed went through the shrapnel he found a plate of another abandoned munitions plant and the two detectives thank Nygma for his good work then head to the building.
When they arrive Hargrove’s the only one there and says you found the plate, he then tells him that four Russians, broke him out of jail and kidnapped him. They threatened to kill his brother John and his family, so he did what they asked. Right then the four Russians show up, engage in a firefight and recapture Hargrove, then drive off.
Back at the Wayne mansion, Kyle tries to escape the house by going out one of the library windows, but Bruce walks in and says if she wants to leave they’ll get her a taxi. She sheepishly closes the window and walks over and picks up a picture of Martha and says that’s your mother. The boy responds that Selina watched her get shot and Kyle sadly nods her head, then he says you saw what I did or didn’t do. She asks him what he could have accomplished and he just blurts out he should have done something. She tells him he’s dreaming, a gun’s a gun.
She then makes up an obviously fantasy story about her mother, that she’s in show business, sings and dances and makes millions. However, that’s only a cover as her mother’s in reality a secret agent on a mission for the President, and as soon as she’s done her duty, they’ll be reunited. Bruce smiles, but he realizes it’s a fantasy. She then asks him if he’s ever kissed a girl and he shyly says no and she asks him if he wants to, at that point Alfred walks in and tells Bruce it’s time for his studies.
Dent brings in Dick Lovecraft and the businessman, tells the ADA he’s been trying to bust him on fraud for years and he’s wasting his time, but Harvey says he’s there for a different reason, that a witness identified him as setting up the murders of Martha and Thomas Wayne, and this time Lovecraft won’t escape justice. The businessman stares the ADA in the eyes and says he doesn’t know who or what he’s dealing with. We then see a trace of the monster he eventually becomes, as his face almost erupts and he screams he’ll rip Lovecraft apart, then regains his composure and says it’s always good to see him.
Bullock identifies the leader of the Russians as Gregory Kasyanov, who had worked for Nikolai until the Penguin killed him. Now they work for Fish Mooney and she’s got them stealing Falcone’s money as revenge for Nikolai.
Nygma runs some tests on the explosive material they recovered and he finds that it’s indeed very powerful, but can only blast through iron and everything’s been made from steel for 100-years. But Gordon realizes the old Gotham Armory’s vaults are iron and he believes Falcone owns the property. They get there just after they have burst the door of the vault open and start loading packages of sheets of money into their truck, and the Russians see they’re surrounded, as cruisers are also there. Gordon tells Ian, that his brother and the family are in protective custody and he starts walking towards Jim and Harvey. Kasyanov yells at him to stop, but suddenly they here a cellphone ring and Gordon realizes a bombs triggered and yells for all to get down. All four Russians died, Fish’s aide Butch triggered the bomb then drove away.
When he gets back to the club, Fish tells him that’s exactly what she wanted to happen, she didn’t want the money, just to hurt Falcone. And she had the Russians killed to tie up any unfinished business. Meanwhile Penguin’s waiting for Liza when she arrives at Falcone’s and he threatens to call the Don and tell him she’s working for Fish and she dares him to do it. He dials the number, but she begs him to hang up. He said her secrets safe with him.
The next morning Selina and Bruce are in the library having breakfast, when she throws a bagel at him and strikes him in the forehead, he asks her why she did it and she says she bets he can’t hit her. He says he could if he wanted to, she says if he hits her, she’ll let him kiss her and an all-out food fight begins. Bruce’s laughing and having fun and Alfred doesn’t even mind the sound of broken glass. Just then Jim calls and apologizes for not getting there. Alfred says, no hurry, she’s a breath of fresh air.
The last scene’s Gordon leaving a message for Barbara, telling her he loves her and needs her back, they keep cutting to her lying in bed on her side looking sad as Jim leaves the message. When, it’s over, we see an arm from the other side of the bed, it’s Renee Montoya.
The Story Continues Next Week on Monday Night at 8:00pm on FOX.
