Gotham: There Is No Line There’s Only The Law

Warning: Spoiler Alert

Despite everything we’ve soaked in until that very moment, our loftiest goals and heartiest claims of bravado the unvarnished truth is we don’t know how we’ll deal in a crisis until it’s thrust upon us. Which of us will demonstrate bravery or compassion, while others attempt to blend in with the furnishings? Even prior history’s an uncertain indicator, as the right situation could give a coward courage or the final factor that pushes somebody over the edge. This week’s chapter of the FOX series “Gotham,” showed some characters just wetting their feet in unfamiliar waters while others dove in head first embracing the rush.

We watch a news-truck throw a bundle of papers in front of a newsstand blaring the headline “Mayor Galavan Arrested” as Tabitha walks past the stand and into an empty bar. Bartender’s wiping the counter and asks if he can help her and she says she’ll have a Highsmith Royale. The bartender asks isn’t it early in the day then she repeats her order adds no ice and gives the man a bankroll. After counting it, he smiles and opens a hidden door leading to a jumping underground casino.

Tabby makes a beeline to the woman she came to see, a woman who owns the most infamous assassin-for-hire agency in Gotham City. A treat for fans of Doctor Who, the woman’s portrayed by Michelle Gomez whose taken on the role of Missy playing opposite Peter Capaldi. The woman guarantees Galavan that once she provides the name, the victim will  be roadkill before sunrise. Tabitha gives the woman a photo Jim Gordon.

Gordon’s down at Gotham General  asking Barbara Kean’s doctor if she can answer questions. The doctor looks at Gordon as if the detective’s loony and tells him Kean’s in a coma and it’s tough to predict when or if she’ll come out of it. They’re transferring her to Arkham and the doctor asks Gordon if he wants to ride in the ambulance? He declines and heads to the precinct.

Penguin wakes up from being drugged and he sees Ed’s standing over him. Cobblepot tries to get up and Ed tells him he’s badly injured and can’t move. Oswald tries to get up again and this time Nygma sedates him with a hypodermic needle. As Penguin goes back under Ed says rest up we’ve got a big night ahead.

Jim sees Lee at the precinct and she tells him Kean’s being transferred to Arkham and he tells her he knows as he was just there to see her. Lee’s  really ticked off at first then Gordon says she’s a witness in the case against Galavan and he needs her testimony. Thompkins says we all have a dark side, but Jim’s been running towards his over the last few weeks. She says that’s bad for him and them, he agrees and says he needs to meet Barnes at Theo’s penthouse. He promises they’ll discuss it that night.

As we drop in at Wayne Manor we see that Bruce has company as Silver St. Cloud’s sitting in his library. She says she thought he’d refuse to see her and asks if he believes her uncle’s guilty? Bruce says of course not and says he has a question for her but right then Alfred walks in. He says given the circumstances he needs to ask Miss St. Cloud to leave, she gives Bruce her hotel-room key and tells him to join her there later.

Gordon heads up to Galavan’s penthouse by elevator when a guy stops the car at last second by sticking his arm in the door covered by a cloth bag. The guy looks like a homeless person but it’s pretty easy to see he’s the hitman. He asks if Gordon lives there then offers him a caramel then pulls out a piece of piano wire and starts strangling Jim from behind. The two smack the stuffing out of each other in the confined space, but the detective gains the advantage by covering the dude’s face with his bag and pummels his head until he blacks out.

He drags the guy out of the elevator to the penthouse and Captain Barnes asks who he is? Gordon says he doesn’t know but he just tried to kill him. The assassin’s phone rings and Gordon picks it up and just breaths. The woman who owns the agency’s on the other end and hangs up realizing Gordon’s alive. She goes over to the craps table and puts out an all-call to kill Gordon before sunrise.

Penguin’s lucid this time when he wakes up and he’s frightened to see Ed standing by his bed. Penguin says he’s leaving and Nygma tells him he’s badly injured and a wanted criminal and he’d be fortunate to make it three blocks. Penguin glares at Ed but gets into bed, then says he knows Nygma. Ed says they met last year at the GCPD and he laughs when Cobblepot asks if he’s a cop.

He then says he needs Penguin’s advice, he’s just become a murderer and realizes he can’t go back to his old life. He asks Oswald to mold him. Penguin lets out a derisive laugh and looks out the window, he says his empire’s in ruins and he’s friendless and he lost the one person he cared about due to his weakness. He says he’s leaving, then passes out.

Barnes calls for backup, right now they’ve got an unarmed guy from forensics and three armed officers in Barnes, Gordon and a young uniform named Officer Parks and she looks like the only time she’s ever fired her weapon’s at target practice. Suddenly the security camera feeds get cut and the now restrained failed assassin starts laughing. He says that’s his employer’s policy, if the first assassin doesn’t get the job done, they keep sending people until it gets done.

The forensic guy’s killed but Parks, Gordon and Barnes kill three of the guys and one looks like he’s taking a long nap. Barnes says they’re evacuating now and will return with the backup, Gordon begs Barnes to let him stay behind so none of Galavan’s people can take evidence while they’re gone. Just then the fourth guy comes to and slices Barnes thigh deeply with a blade. Gordon takes him out with gunfire, but Barnes’ artery got severed and they can’t move him.

Ed tells Penguin he’s got a gift for him. The man’s named Leonard and he’s bound with a bag over his head and Nygma tells Cobblepot he’s Galavan’s lackey. He says Penguin talks in his sleep and was talking about Theo killing his mother and he thought Penguin would get cheered up by a little vengeance.  He gives Cobblepot a blade and Penguin stands in front of Leonard, then drops the knife and says he’s through. He’s going to get better and leave Gotham City forever. He goes back in the bed and pulls the covers over his head and hums a tune softly to himself.

The agency’s owner’s at her wit’s end and makes a call she hoped to avoid. She gets a guy whose already got a bunch of corpses laying at his feet and he’s torturing his last victim, by slicing off a slice of the guy’s flesh and he’s about to eat it while the guy screams. He laughs at his victim and asks why just smell the fear when you can taste it?

He answers his phone and we find out he’s Eduardo Flamingo, a character out of the Batman comic-books universe. Flamingo’s known as the “Face-Eater” as he devours his victims faces after he kills them and his counterpart on the show’s also a cannibal. He says  to the woman he thought she revoked his membership and she tells him all’s forgiven and she needs him to kill Gordon before sunrise. He shoots his surviving victim and says he’s on his way.

Gordon ties off Barnes’ leg so he doesn’t bleed out before the EMT’s arrive and the Captain asks Jim what’s going on. He tells her that Kean said he’s a monster and Lee seems to believe it as well. He said he nearly crossed the line before the backup arrived at the church as he held that double-barreled shotgun aimed at Barbara and nearly pulled the trigger.

Barnes’ has had a couple of belts of whiskey to kill the pain and he tells Gordon about his second-tour-of-duty in the Middle-East. He and his platoon caught three enemy soldiers and had their hands zip-tied as a sandstorm approached. One tried to escape and Barnes tried to scare the soldier and stuck his gun in the guy’s mouth, then he felt himself pull the trigger. He says it took him years to forgive himself, when he finally admitted he was just a man. He says there is no line, there’s only the law. That’s what separates us from the animals.

Bruce comes into the library wearing his bathrobe and he tells Alfred that he realizes his guardian’s correct and he’ll contact Detective Gordon in the morning about help with Theo. Alfred asks him if he’s heading for bed and Wayne responds he is, Alfred says he already sent the taxi that Bruce called away giving the driver a generous tip. Bruce says he didn’t call a cab and Alfred dangles the hotel-key and says if he has to play prison-guard he will.

The backup arrives downstairs as one of the uniform’s tells Gordon that four officers have arrived and then there’s silence. Flamingo gets on the radio and says after he feasts on Gordon’s friends he’ll have him for dessert. Gordon says he’s heading down there. Barnes’ tries to stop him but has no other solution.

Gordon hits the street and sees the four officers bodies but he doesn’t see his opponent until Flamingo hits Jim in the head with a chain. Flamingo takes the early advantage but Gordon suddenly gets the upper hand and starts beating Flamingo’s face like Ricky Ricardo on the congas. Eduardo starts laughing as his face turns to pulp and the blood spurts, he sees the evil in Gordon and he’s goading the cop on. Jim sticks his gun in Flamingo’s mouth and Eduardo looks at him defiantly daring him to let the dark side win. Gordon finally screams NOOOOO and pulls the gun out of Flamingo’s mouth. Eduardo says you let me down my man. Gordon gives him his rights.

Penguin’s woken to the sound of Ed playing an organ and singing the song Oswald hummed earlier. He asks Nygma how he knows the song and Ed said he heard him humming it. He then says his mother used to sing it to him every night and she’d say the other kids are wrong Oswald. You’re handsome and smart and you’ll be a great man someday.

Ed says Penguin was correct before when he spoke of his weakness, then tells Cobblepot his mother had been his weakness, Penguin grabs the knife and presses it to Nygma’s neck and says his mother was a saint and she was the only person he loved. Ed says a man who lacks love can’t be bargained with or betrayed. He answers to nobody but himself, he’s a free-man, that’s who Nygma sees in front of  him. Penguin gives Ed back the blade.

Bruce tries to sneak out again, this time Cat stops him saying she’s got proof that Silver’s no good.

Tabitha visits Galavan at prison and he berates her for ignoring his orders and hiring a hit-man to try to take out Gordon. He says everything’s in place, the Brotherhood’s arrival’s imminent, soon Bruce Wayne will die and he’ll control Wayne Industries. He tells Tabitha as much as it pains him if he disobeys him again he’ll slice her throat.

Father Creel welcomes about ten hooded men onto the docks late at night, greeting them as brothers. A security guard comes up and says the docks are closed and he needs to see some identification. Creel nods his head and the men encircle the guard and start stabbing him, about a minute later they step away and the guard’s dead body lies where they just stood.