Warning: Spoiler Alert
Season two of the FOX series “Gotham,” introduced a new “BIG BAD” in the season’s premiere Theo Galavan. Although he’s the mastermind behind countless murders and seemingly endless destruction throughout this campaign, Galavan’s perceived by the people and civic leaders of Gotham City as a hero. He captured the city’s admiration and respect by killing his own henchman Jerome Valeska as he terrorized the guests at a charity event for Gotham Children’s Hospital. Although he kidnapped Mayor Aubrey James, Galavan’s the favorite to win the special election to replace the missing Mayor.
We’ve known that Galavan’s avenging his ancestors, whom he told Barbara Kean had helped build Gotham City yet there’s no mention of the family’s name. Episode five gave us the “Big Reveal,” as we found out exactly what’s fueled Galavan’s obsession with vengeance and we found out that he and his sister Tabitha aren’t working alone in their quest.
Our first scene takes place in Galavan’s office as he’s seated at his desk with Tabitha standing by his side. Oswald Cobblepot and his right-hand man Butch Gilzean are also in the office along with a trunk that they’ve acquired for Galavan. Penguin tries to convince Theo to release his mother, the reason that Penguin started doing Galavan’s bidding, Galavan refuses and Penguin tries to hide his anger and fear for his mother’s safety.
When Cobblepot and Gilzean leave Galavan opens the trunk revealing that Wayne Enterprises executive Sid Bunderslaw’s inside it. The executive recognizes Galavan and asks him what’s going on and Theo says he’s aware that Bunderslaw knows all the dirty little secrets of the Wayne family through the generations. He’ll either reveal them to Galavan or get tortured to death, however before Theo asks a question Tabitha pulls out a knife and scoops out one of the executive’s eyeballs.
Back at Penguin’s office Cobblepot starts saying they’ve got to hurt Galavan badly for not releasing his mother. One of Penguin’s lackeys walk in and tell their counting-house just got busted and they lost all the money that was on the premises. Oswald takes out his anger on the guy whacking him twice in the head with a tire iron, before he stops and tells Butch he’s got a plan.
Captain Barnes makes good on his promise to start cracking down on the Penguin, as he Gordon and Bullock lead the Strike-Force in a bust of one of Cobblepot’s money-laundering operations. Almost all the employees hold up their hands to surrender, but one guy tries to hit Barnes with a rocket-launcher and misses badly. He’s soon dead riddled with bullets courtesy of Barnes and Gordon.
Barnes’ wants to know how a Gotham City criminal could possess a rocket-launcher and Gordon tells him there’s a weapons-supply store named Merc’s that’s still operating due to the fact they’ve got half of City Council in their pockets. Barnes’ says he could care less about the City Council and they’re raiding Merc’s the next day.
Tabitha walks into Cobblepot’s office and gives Penguin a list of businesses her brother wants torched. She also gives him a silver-box which she says the arsonists will need for one of their stops. He’s still wired and increasingly paranoid and Galavan tells him to pull himself together and get things done.
Butch meets with Selina Kyle as he needs for her to vouch for him to the Pike brothers, a trio of arsonists that used to work for Fish Mooney. Kyle knows the guys through their sister Bridget who she hung out with when they were younger. Bridget opens the door and Selina says she and her pet-gorilla have some business to discuss with her brothers.
The Pike’s ask Kyle why she’s there with Butch and she tells the brothers that Butch is good people. When they respond that he shot Fish, Selina responds it’s complicated. Butch gives the oldest brother the list of places they’re going to torch and a set of instructions. He says this is going to take a lot of work and Butch says they’re getting well compensated in return. They make a deal and the youngest brother says he’ll take a trip to Merc’s the next day to get the supplies they’ll need.
Merc’s turns out to be the Home Depot of weapons clerks are helping customers, the aisles categorized and signs tell the customers where they can find anything from brass-knuckles to automatic weapons. The youngest Pike brother starts doing his shopping and sees an explosive device and promptly steals it by sticking it down the front of his pants. Right then the Strike-Force arrives and tells everybody they’re busted.
Pike tries to run away but Gordon and Barnes chase him down and corner him. Both officers have their weapons aimed at Pike and tell him to surrender, but he goes out in a blaze as he tries shooting first and Barnes and Gordon unload their weapons into him. Jim hits the explosive in Pike’s pants and both officers stand there shocked when he explodes.
Ed Nygma and girlfriend Kristin Kringle are dinner guests of Lee Thompkins and Gordon and he walks in as everybody’s already eating. Jim tells Lee he’s sorry he’s late and Lee tells Gordon that Ed’s actually pretty cool and charming with Kringle. Nygma proposes a toast and says the less you have the more valuable they are, friends and everybody smiles and clink glasses.
The two remaining Pike brothers are trying to figure out a way to torch the places without having their entry guy and the older brother tells Bridget she’s been promoted. She tries begging off saying she doesn’t want to have anything to do with fire. But the brothers tell her she either joins the gang or they’re kicking herb out of the house and she agrees to help.
The trio have five stops that night and they coach Bridget through her first installation of a bomb. When she lights the fuse the oldest brother tells her to run to the wall safe and take the thing out of the silver-box and hold it up to the scanner. It’s Bunderslaw’s eyeball which the scanner recognizes and opens the safe. She’s told to grab the knife within it and get out. She’s a second to late and her pants’ leg catches on fire burning her leg, but they still do the other four hits.
Barnes and Gordon discuss the five cases of arson that took place in the city the night before, when one of the members of the Strike-Force Garrett tells them the lab just called and all of the fires got started by using Thermite and high-end accelerants. They realize they’re dealing with pros and Barnes asks why they’d hit five locations in one night.
Bridget finds some fireproof cloth and starts sewing herself a suit so she doesn’t get burned on their next round. Selina walks in and realizes Bridget’s now part of the gang and tells the girl she doesn’t need to do this, she can leave and be free as Kyle is. Bridget says what’s good about freedom if you’re always alone and Selina counters with what’s good about family if you’re a slave. She then shakes her head and leaves the place.
Penguin gets the knife from the Pike’s and asks Butch why Galavan wants a knife with the Wayne family crest on it? He says he thinks there’s a connection between the two families but he can’t find one. Butch says that if Cobblepot has questions about the history of Gotham, there’s just one person to talk to. Edwidge who runs the antique shop in Butch’s old neighborhood.
Butch brings the older woman to Penguin’s office and Oswald shows her the blade and she loses all the color in her face and stammers that she’s never seen that knife before. Cobblepot says he knows a liar when he sees one and tells her that her choice’s to tell him about the knife or he’ll use it on her. Naturally she agrees to tell him the history.
She says the knife’s cursed it was involved in a heinous act that took place nearly 200-years earlier. Back then Gotham society was ruled by five families, the Kane’s, the Elliot’s, the Crowns, the Dumas family and the most powerful by far the Wayne’s. Celestine Wayne was known as the Crown Jewel of Gotham and she’d been promised to marry the oldest Elliot son.
At a party at the Wayne mansion celebrating Easter, Caleb Dumas and Celestine went missing. Her brothers searched the house for her and found her in the arms of Dumas and both got dragged to the library. Caleb swore the two were very much in love and had been for some time, but Celestine swore on her mother’s grave that he attacked her. Oldest brother Jonathan Wayne took the blade and cut off Caleb’s arm.
The Wayne’s destroyed the Dumas family and seized all their assets. They forbade the newspapers from mentioning their names and the city was purged of any street or building with the name Dumas on it, after they fled Gotham. Caleb moved to Europe and lived out the rest of his days with a religious sect in a monastery. Celestine never married and died an old maid and the remaining members of the Dumas’ clan changed their names.
As soon as Edwidge finished her tale, Penguin asked what the Dumas family changed their names to and she congratulated him for being so quick. Of course they changed the family name to Galavan and she became worried when Theo and Tabitha came to Gotham City. She tells Penguin he’s swimming in deep waters and Cobblepot breaks out into a grin and says that’s where Penguins thrive.
Harvey’s on the phone with a C.I. and tells the guy if he hears anything about the arsonists to call him immediately. Jim walks over to Harvey’s desk and Bullock knows that Gordon’s got some sort of lead. Jim tells him that all the buildings are property of Wayne Enterprises and says the next building they’ll hit will be the Gotham Book Depository. Harvey says he’ll bring the donuts for the stakeout.
The Strike-Force waits for the arsonists to arrive the following night at the building and Gordon spots their vehicle and alerts all the team to be ready. Bridget gets out of the van looking like a giant fly, her body covered in the gray material and her face covered by a mask that looks like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. She’s carrying a flame-thrower as she exits the van and the Strike-Force tell them not to move, the two brothers hit the gas and drive off leaving Bridget on her own. Trying to escape she turns on the flame-thrower and starts burning the debris around them, but the machine jams and Garrett tries to take her out.
They struggle for a bit when the machine starts working again and she lets off a burst of flame that accidentally catches Garrett’s pants on fire and soon he’s a walking ball of flame. Gordon gets him down on the street and smothers the fire with a blanket and calls for an ambulance. Selina’s watching from a fire-escape and helps Bridget flee the scene.
Back at Penguin’s office, Butch walks into find Cobblepot’s got a brand of Gilzean’s favorite whiskey on his desk. Penguin tells Butch to have a glass and Gilzean says he’s not up for it, but Penguin tells him to have a drink. Butch winces then pours himself a glass and Oswald’s gleeful as the conditioning that Victor Zsasz used on him last season still works and he’s got to do whatever Penguin tells him to do. He then says Butch’s the only person he can trust and Gilzean asks him if he’s alright.
Penguin starts laughing and says perhaps he’s gone crazy because of his fear for his mother’s safety, but maybe he’s got the perfect plan to take out Galavan. He then says that Theo’s locked in a blood-feud and that’s clouding his judgement and Cobblepot intends to exploit that.
He tells Butch that Gilzean will go to Galavan’s and tell him that Penguin thinks Butch betrayed him. Gilzean says Galavan won’t buy that as he realizes how loyal Butch is to Penguin. Penguin says but he’d believe I thought you betrayed me, we only have to sell it the right way. He says Tabitha saw him acting paranoid before and now they just have to give Galavan a reason to feel sorry for Gilzean. He then picks up a meat-cleaver and cuts off Butch’s hand, as Gilzean screams in pain and shock.
Back at the precinct, the Strike-Force awaits word on Garrett’s condition when Barnes walks in looking ashen. He tells them that Garrett passed earlier that morning and one of the other recruits says he was going to be a great cop. Barnes’ says he already was a great cop and they’ll mourn him but that needs to wait. Right now there’s a cop-killer on the streets and they have to bring her to justice.
Theo walks into his home and sees a man wearing a monk’s robe in front of Galavan’s fireplace. The man turns around to Theo and says it’s been a long time, Theo smiles and calls the man Father Creel and the two embrace. Creel says that Theo’s surrounded himself with luxury and Galavan says it’s necessary to play the part. However it’s already paying off as he’s got the knife. Creel asks if Galavan’s captured Bruce Wayne yet and Theo tells him not yet but he will soon.
Creel smiles and says we’ve waited almost 200-years for this moment of redemption and we’re not in a rush at this point. He tells Theo that their cousins are coming over from Europe at that moment, a group of warriors like this city’s never witnessed. He says Gotham will be redeemed in blood and Bruce Wayne will die.
The Story Continues Next Monday Night at 8:00 pm on FOX.
