Bruce is completely tuned out to the outer world as he puts all his attention on the mysterious room in the basement. He’s determined to open it, and starts to make explosives as a means of opening it – the explosives are the way to go, it turns out, which isn’t exactly the best lesson for a kid to learn.
Barbara is holed up in Arkham Asylum, making friends and getting telephones. She is calling Gordon and threatening Lee, but even without Barbara their relationship is on the rocks. Because just moments before, Gordon went to the bar that Bullock works at now, got a little drunk, beat up some people, got some money, and killed a dude – a classic day in the Gordon lifestyle. He cried about for a little, and Lee talked about how she wants to get out of here, but Gordon has to stay (he has to). The last thing these two need is a psychotic ex-fiancé calling them up, but Gordon has never been the luckiest character. Honestly, at this point I can’t remember a time where there wasn’t any tension in their relationship.
Despite the mishap, Gordon gets reinstated. This one bit of good news lasts about 3 seconds before everything has gone to shit. Prisoners have escaped, and I just thought it was finally Jerome’s (miss him? Me too) chance to take over the show (I think we all did), but then he was killed off by Galavan just a few episodes later, and the mass hysteria taking over the town was essentially forgotten about.
However, Galavan becomes the man in charge, with a nice title of mayor to make it all official. He has even spent time talking to young Bruce Wayne, and introduced Bruce to his beautiful niece Silver. With Bruce’s respect and trust, he’s golden. Everyone thinks that he’s a hero, meanwhile he’s taken Penguin’s mother hostage in order to get the king to do his bidding. Penguin is pissed, Butch is looking for mama Cobblepot, Bruce is hypnotized by a (pretty) evil girl, and Gordon and Bullock don’t know what to do.
So our two policemen do what they do best: rush into a situation and hope for the best. Barbara is trying to kill Gordon (who isn’t?) and he tries to use her to get to Galavan. With Tabitha’s help, Gordon ends up in in the cathedral that he and Barbara were going to be married in, they fight and she falls from the building (he has some dreams every now and then throughout the season to remind us that he feels guilty for her comatose state). Following this adrenaline rush, he goes after Galavan. While Galavan is trying to convince Bruce to give him control of the company in return for information regarding who killed his parents, the Strike Force goes after Tabitha and Gordon goes in to arrest Galavan. Clearly this plan did not work out well, as Galavan is soon released, since he seemingly has everyone in the town under his thumb. Now Gordon is the seen as a criminal for assaulting Galavan, and he needs to find safety and security from Galavan himself as well as the police.
Which brings me to the best part of the season, Nygma freaking out (beginning his start as the star of the season). Turns out killing a man messes with your head even more – who would have guessed? But his romance is blossoming with Miss Kringle, so maybe killing a man does give you the confidence you need to get the girl. Granted, that only lasts a few episodes before she figures it out, and he accidentally strangles her in an attempt to keep her quiet (turns out that killing two people is truly the breaking point, so my advice to everyone out there: maybe try to restrict yourself to one murder). While burying her, he meets Penguin, and they are my dream team for some time (honestly, I could just watch them scheme together for the rest of the show). These two take Gordon into their home for protection, and Penguin is looking for a team up so that he can finally get the revenge he wants so badly.
Meanwhile, Bruce has tricked Silver in to admitting that she is essentially evil, but then she gets her redemption arc right afterwards: she does truly love him. And yes, she does say to him that she “loves” him, which really makes this all seem more middle school than it really is. Bruce doesn’t keep the upper hand for very long though before he is captured by Galavan once again. Silver and him have a sweet heart to heart, but the teenage “I love you” doesn’t carry the weight that it should, even when they are talking about Bruce’s inevitable death. Evidently, she is overcome with this love, as she tries to help him escape, but that falls apart quickly, and now Galavan is pissed. We need our heroes to get them out of this situation, now.
Alfred and Bullock are looking for a fight, but they need Gordon to win. Nygma gets them to him, and then they are holding big guns and ready to finally get him. Lee also finds Gordon (and finding him next to Penguin holding a giant gun probably didn’t help her nerves at all) and tries to convince him to leave and get out of this situation. As always, Gordon doesn’t want to. She finally admits that she is pregnant, and she – as the only sane person in this show apparently – gets the hell out of town.
Everyone goes in guns blazing, but they are only trying to arrest him (finally Gordon has found his morality and ethics again). Then again, that idea doesn’t last very long as Penguin says a few words and suddenly they have Galavan down by the river and Penguin is beating him to death. Gordon takes the final shot, and in the end, Gordon is the one who killed Galavan. Yeah, it’s hard to talk his way out of that, and a jury sees through his bullshit as they send him to jail. Of course, he doesn’t stay there for long before he makes his escape (because Gordon is here to enforce the law, not to follow it himself).
Now we move from the political villains to straight up monsters. There’s a guy freezing people in the streets, a woman that’s been burned alive by the police, and a place called Indian Hill where all these people go after they die. Conveniently, Indian Hill is right underneath the Arkham asylum, so we can follow our fave Penguin as he goes through his treatment. It actually is surprisingly useful, and Penguin leaves the asylum as a completely nonviolent person. And, in a way that only TV shows can pull off, he finds his long lost father completely by coincidence. His father coddles him, while the rest of his family despises him and his criminal background. Penguin is too kindhearted to do anything about it, but when his father is poisoned by his wife (it’s difficult to get the poison to go to the right person, okay), the regular Penguin is back. There were only a few episodes where Penguin was incredibly kind, but believe me I spent every episode waiting for him to come back.
Also in Arkham asylum, Barbara wakes up from her coma, and she is also released from the asylum (Professor Strange is really just looking out for the show’s plot devices here). She is looking for Gordon, but he’s a little busy these days. After escaping from prison, he is running from the law trying to find a way to clear his own name. He even goes to Nygma for help, but funny enough that’s the worst person he could have gone to, and Gordon realizes that Nygma was the person that set him up. After arresting Nygma, the police are back on Gordon’s side and my favorite villain of the season is sent to Arkham with all the other drama.
With all these other crazies around, Bruce follows his own obsession for a little bit, as he goes to underground fights clubs and gets himself a gun. He eventually gets to the point where he confronts his parent’s killer (Alfred, I know you are trying your best to watch over him, but really this boy needs military school at this point). They have a conversation that doesn’t really go anywhere, and Bruce is no closer to finding out who put the hit on his parents. On the plus side, Bruce didn’t kill him! On the down side, the he killed himself! At least now Bruce can switch his obsession to the computer in the basement, instead of people with guns and knives.
Gordon is actually having more luck than Bruce is, as he finds out that the killer was known as “the Philosopher.” With some research, it has all led back to Doctor Strange (Editor note: Not Marvel's Dr. Stephen Strange, duh.). Doctor Strange doesn’t really need the attention on him right now, considering that he is reanimating people in the basement. And of all the people he could bring back (JEROME? IS ANYBODY ELSE THINKING ABOUT JEROME? JUST CHECKING), he brings back Galavan. However, this time he is reborn as Azrael, and talks a lot about a higher power and just makes Gordon’s life more difficult for a few episodes. Penguin and Butch pick him off quite easily, but that doesn’t stop the fact that Doctor Strange is reanimating even more people, including Penguin’s favorite: Fish Mooney. Not only is she aware of who she is, but she also has new persuasive abilities (which she really didn’t need). She wants to get out of there.
Bruce and Gordon are determined to take Doctor Strange down, so they attempt to infiltrate the facility, but, unsurprisingly, two impulsive wannabe heroes don’t successfully invade the lab. Everybody is getting drugged, and the question everybody is asking: “Who runs Wayne enterprises?” It is revealed that there is a “secret council,” which is bound to be the main plot point of this upcoming season. Meanwhile, the secret council wants the place blown up. Gordon and Lucius are trying to stop the bomb, Doctor Strange is crying, and the monsters are on the loose being led by Fish Mooney. The bomb is deactivated, but the monster bus crashes, and all the monsters are now roaming the streets (WAS THAT JEROME’S LAUGH I HEARD? PLEASE TELL ME IT WAS). The monster we definitely did see was Bruce, or at least what looked like Bruce with nice long hair. But there are plenty of other monsters that could be introduced – possibly Bane, Mad Hatter, and Talons.
The other monsters don’t really matter as much as Fish Mooney, who is probably going to try to rise to the top again (poor Penguin barely had any time to enjoy himself up there). With the monsters following her control, she is essentially unstoppable, and Gordon won’t be able to resist coming back to save Gotham (as fond as he is of saying that “it’s over,” it’s never really over with him).
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer
GOTHAM Season 3 premieres on Fox on September 19 at 8 p.m. Eastern.