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Gotham Recap!
Legion contributor Christina Janke is recapping and reviewing Gotham for us this season. Follow her on Twitter @IntrotoGeek!
Greetings, Gothamites. A new game is afoot! Penguin is closing in on Fish’s secret, another familiar character makes his debut on the show, and Bruce and Selina finally meet at last. As always, spoilers ahead.
Last week, Selina “Cat” Kyle got caught stealing a bunch of fur coats. Gordon takes her back into his custody since she’s still a witness to the Wayne murder. They stop by Gordon’s swanky apartment to find that Barbara has already gone. She left behind a note saying that she can’t stop seeing Zsasz and Falcone in her mind and it makes her nervous and scared all the time. So she’s leaving for a while to “get herself back together,” whatever that means. Gordon and the little cat burglar wait for a sketch artist to get down the details of what the shooter looked like before he killed the Waynes.
At Wayne Manor, Bruce looks over the drawing of the man who killed his parents according to Selina. He doesn’t recognize him as anyone he would know. Gordon has already proposed bringing Selina in as a house guest while his investigation continues. Alfred is not too keen on mixing relations with his ward and a common street rat, but Bruce insists she stay for as long as it takes. This sentiment becomes palpable once he and Selina finally meet. Yup, insta-crush.
Elsewhere, a heavily armed group charges at a prison van which is transferring clinically insane genius bomb maker, Ian Hargove, from Blackgate Prison to St. Mark’s for psychiatric care. All of the guards are shot to death by the masked men, and then capture Ian so they can use his skills.
Montoya, Allen, and Gordon all meet up with a rising star lawyer who also happens to be pretty trustworthy and an important asset to their cause. Harvey Dent. In their meeting, Dent has a new angle for us to look at concerning the Wayne murder. Gordon has already surmised that there was a conspiracy to at least get them out of the way in favor of some unknown goal. His only string, however, ends at Falcone. Dent has someone new entirely (to us). Dick Lovecraft… Yeah, that name sounds weird to me too.
Lovecraft is a billionaire business man who has his hands in property, construction, and chemicals (is HE the Joker? Just stirrin’ the pot here). He also has dealings with Falcone, Maroni, and Wayne Enterprises. Since the Waynes’ deaths, he doubled his profit and even cut a huge deal in the Arkham project. Because of a long-standing feud between Thomas Wayne and Lovecraft, the overly ambitious Dent is willing to bet his career that Lovecraft is somehow involved in the Waynes’ deaths.
Dent wants to use Gordon’s witness in his case against Lovecraft. To leak information to the press that there is a witness running around Gotham who could connect Lovecraft to the Wayne murders. How? Selina can’t truly connect him to anything. But! her presence alone should rattle some cages and make anyone who actually was involved in the murders (Lovecraft included or not) take certain steps that will ultimately reveal themselves. There’s a lot of betting in this plan; totally opposite from Nolan-verse Dent. Come to think of it, would someone who keeps a double-sided coin as a token not be prone to take bets he can’t control? And so far it seems it seems that Dent is counting all of his chickens before they hatch. Just sayin’.
The only uptake in this situation is that they don’t have to file any papers that identifies Selina as the witness. Dent, Montoya, and Allen just want everyone to know they have someone who knows something. Did we mention that this version of Dent is very ambitious?
Back at the precinct, Bullock fills Gordon in on Hargrove’s escape. Their only lead to fining him at the moment is his brother, John Hargrove.
Meanwhile, Alfred is teaching Bruce to fight. This, as well as Bruce’s other practices to better himself, confuses Selina. Her version of surviving out on the streets of Gotham doesn’t involve being able to hold one’s breath underwater or wearing gloves while boxing with an opponent. To her, one needs to be vicious. Meanwhile, Alfred’s like, “Can we pleeeeaaaase get rid of her now?”
At the precinct, Gordon and Bullock are questioning John Hargrove about his brother. He explains that Ian is not a bad man at all, but simply someone who wanted to take out all the bad from Gotham. His way of doing things, however, was a bit more destructive than most would have liked. He only turned himself in as soon as soon as he heard that his last bombing killed two janitors caught in the blast. Due to his delicate mental state, Ian was not allowed to interact with the other inmates at Blackgate. That definitely leaves out potential accomplices. So who the heck broke him out?
Somewhere in Gotham, Ian is being made to build another bomb. While he’s adding the final touches he sneaks in a nameplate inside the device, hoping that the cops will find it and lead them to where he and the bad guys are hiding out. His captors then take the bomb, now disguised as a food basket, and gives it to a bunch of guards. The bomb goes off, blowing the entire complex to smithereens. But apparently not before the bad guys manage to steal a bunch of other bombs more powerful than C4.
After the incident, Nygma finds the clue and gives the location to Bullock and Gordon. The duo find Hargrove who tells them that he’s been captured by Russians and they supposedly have his family held hostage. They need him to blow open a vault owned by Falcone. Before Hargrove could disclose any more information, they are interrupted by the Russians. A shootout begins and lasts long enough to separate Hargrove from the detectives and escape.
Meanwhile, Harvey Dent, only the guy this episode is named after, shows back up again. Finally. Here he’s trying to intimidate Dick Lovecraft with the semi-bluff he talked about earlier. Lovecraft maintains his smugness; he’s cool as a sinful cucumber. Dent loses his cool and reveals that mercurial temper we know so well. And…that’s the last we see of him.
Penguin and Fish’s storyline don’t pick up until last half of the episode. Penguin, already suspicious of Liza, breaks in and snoops around her room. This guy continues to be an uber creepazoid when he starts inhaling Liza’s delicates, which smell of lilacs. He then stops by at Mooney’s club. They have a “pleasant” conversation and Penguin sniffs Mooney before he leaves. She too smells like lilacs. Again, what a creeper. But a clever creeper. Also, Mooney has something up her sleeve. When does she not? I mean, for this episode, she’s up to something. Just look at that glare…
Bullock and Gordon figure out that the Russians were once associated with Nikolai, the Russian gang leader working under Falcone. The one that Penguin had killed. Figuring they’re their own group now, whoever hired them has serious beef with Falcone. Great! That just narrows it down to every rich person in Gotham. Lucky for us, we the viewer don’t have to look too far. Of course it’s Fish Mooney! She hired the Russians to mess with Falcone, to hit him hard.
Their next target is the vault where the don keeps his money. The vault of money is safely hidden away in a hundred-year-old armory. The best kind of explosives to bust it open its thick iron doors are whatever the Russians stole in the previous bombing. The GCPD catch up to them just as they’ve finished loading the truck (given by Mooney) with all the dirty money. Before anyone could do anything else, a ringtone goes off, and then! the truck explodes. Fish’s second in command, Butch, set off the bomb they had planted under the van before giving it to Nikolai’s men. All of the Russians are now dead, no more loose ends that could uncover Mooney’s betrayal to Falcone prematurely.
Elsewhere, Penguin confronts Liza about being a little mole for Mooney. He doesn’t really say, but Liza may turn into a double agent for Penguin if she wants to continue living.
At the GCPD, we find out through Bullock that Hargrove and a bunch of other criminally insane inmates at Blackgate are being transported to an adequately renovated Arkham Asylum, as ordered by the mayor whom Gordon scolded earlier about stuffing a bunch of mentally ill patients with violent criminals in one place.
Now that things have settled down (for now), Gordon finds a chance to call Barbara and pleads for her to come back. She doesn’t answer. Why? Because she’s back in bed with Montoya!!! [flips a table] Ok, seriously. We need to make Barbara less of an infuriating person who’s seen floating around causing trouble for everyone. I don’t know…leave the house for something other than meeting your lover. Show us how you’re able to afford that freaking penthouse! Ugh. She’s worse than The Walking Dead’s Carl from season two!
