Mario does get the chance to actually hurt the real Jim when Jim tracks down his location at the lab where they are testing Alice’s blood. Apparently the blood brings out his Falcone crime boss cunning instead of just pure violence because Mario doesn’t kill him. Instead, he wants to make Lee hate him before he kills him. It’s also driving Jim crazy and giving him a lot of cardio as he runs from place to place on the wild goose chase that Mario places him on.
First, he goes to talk to Jervis (we are seeing a lot more of this guy than I thought that we would) who knows exactly what is going on, but is having too much fun teasing him with rhymes to tell him anything. When Jim’s threats don’t work, he tries some rhymes (Tetch gave him an F for effort, but I think he deserved at least a C). Apparently, he’s angry that Jim is stealing his rhyming thunder, and gives it all away that Mario has been turned from healer to killer.
Unfortunately, the word of a crazy man doesn’t really count as enough proof to support Jim’s case. That doesn’t stop him from arresting Mario and requiring that he is tested for Alice’s blood. Just some advice Jim, maybe wait until you have enough proof because arresting Lee’s fiancé on their wedding day does look pretty bad. Harvey is there telling Jim the same thing, but like I said, Jim doesn’t listen to Harvey at any point in this episode ever. It probably would have gone a lot better for him if he did. There’s a reason this guy is acting captain; he’s a smart dude.
When Mario comes back clean for the blood, Harvey goes into professional apology speech, but Jim disregards Harvey as he makes threats that he will prove that Mario is infected and that he will never marry Lee (and really Jim, you didn’t need to bring up Lee in that threat, because you just sound even more like a jealous ex at this point).
It is worth noting that Mario is not just terrifying because he is infected, but also because he is Falcone’s son. He has both the virus and the Falcone name going for him. Jim is very quickly reminded of this as he goes to Mario’s house to threaten him some more, and is faced with Victor holding a gun. And honestly Jim, it really wasn’t worth going there is the first place. “Let’s let Lee decide if she will marry you,” Jim she already has – their wedding is in like an hour. The moment he is released from Victor’s control, he goes to Lee, to say the same kind of stupid things he was saying to Mario, except this time he is saying them to a sane person.
Jim just sounds insane at this point. Lee is convinced that Tetch is implanting ideas in his head just to mess with him, but she is also clearly irritated with Jim’s constant obsession over them (very understandable). The fact that he is doing all of this on their wedding day does seem very suspicious, and Jim realizes that was probably Mario’s plan all along, but that doesn’t stop him from making things even worse and telling Lee that he is still in love with her. She looks shocked at the news, but is it really that shocking Lee? She does not take his love confession well, and slaps him across the face (not the best reaction to a love confession, but there’s been worse on this show, and I’ll get to that soon). She is getting married today, and it is too late for Jim to be saying these things (and as the Queen of Bad Timing, I relate). After the wedding, Mario and Lee are leaving Gotham, so the last time Lee plans to see Jim is when he is being taken out of the building by security guards (who totally beat the crap out of him. I’m surprised that he didn’t have any broken ribs after that).
Meanwhile, Lucius has proof that Mario masked his blood, and it is enough for a search warrant. However, instead of waiting for proper procedure, Jim does what Jim always does, and runs to be the hero himself. Lee and Mario are out of town, and Jim has to find them (not the entire GCPD, but just Jim, because he is an idiot), so he goes to Falcone to figure it out. For a former crime boss, he is very understanding and accommodating of the entire situation. He even offers to have his own men bring Mario in, which honestly would have been so much easier. Mario can’t say no to his father’s men, and doesn’t want to kill them on site like he does with Jim. But no, Jim Gordon doesn’t take the easy way out, instead he demands to know the location so he can go himself; just him against someone with superhuman strength – yeah, sounds like a great idea Jim. Falcone agrees, but only if he promise to bring Mario in alive.
I admit Jim does come in at the perfect moment right before Mario is about to kill Lee for admitting to having a part of her that will always care for Jim, but his promise to Falcone lasts all about two seconds before he shoots Mario. The knife Mario was holding fell into the ocean, so there is no proof that he was about to attack her. All Lee knows is that Jim just barged into their house and shot her husband, so that’s going to take her awhile to get over. However, the fact that the GCPD does have proof that he cheated the test helps Jim’s case a bit (this is why we wait for proof and listen to Harvey, Jim, to prevent messy situations like these). Either way, it will still be awhile before Lee is cool with him again.
Now, Babs is back and ready to start up some drama. Nygma believes that one of Penguin’s enemies did it to ruin him as a fundamental part of the operation, which is what Penguin should have said from the start to cover his tracks, and eventually one of Nygma’s spies (which are probably also Penguin’s spies) will figure it out. Babs is ready to burst his bubble.
When she subtly tries to hint that penguin is the one that did it (okay fake coughing “Penguin” was not very subtle at all), she even resorts to using riddles to get him to listen, very clever Babs. He doesn’t believe her, and questions her motive, but even if Nygma doesn’t believe her, she still placed the idea in his head. When talking with Penguin over current Gotham issues that he has to deal with as mayor (waterfront negiotations of saucy photos and approval of a new casino were nice little additions), he also hands Penguin his resignation letter. He declares he wants to be more than employee and employer, more than friends, but never specifically says what he wants to be. Penguin immediately jumps on the opportunity to declare his love, and Nygma shuts him down saying he meant business partners and walks out of the room. It’s okay, Penguin, we have all had some pretty bad rejections.
Granted, I have never had someone imagine killing me after I have declared my unrequited love to them. Gotham is just a really unique place. Nygma wants to kill Penguin, and poor Penguin is just trying to fix things between them – he is his best friend and he doesn’t want to lose him (and that statement hit a little too close to home because I have certainly said that to someone who has rejected me before). Nygma returns his hug, saying that Penguin is his best friend too, with a little “remember that” at the end, which Penguin probably overlooks the threatening tone of. Penguin, honey, you must realize that Nygma is a genius, I’m not sure why you aren’t a little more worried here.
Meanwhile, Tabitha is pissed about her hand and Butch wants revenge – cut to Nygma walking into the room. Babs steps in to make sure they don’t kill him on the spot, and they hear him out instead. He doesn’t want to kill Penguin, he wants to destroy him; he wants to take away everything he loves, and he wants him despised. You know, just best friend things. Overall, it’s a lot like Mario with Jim, except Nygma doesn’t need to be infected by blood to get to this level of crazy.
Now, what is Babs’ motive? Of course, she wants to be the queen of Gotham (is there such a thing as a “queen-pin” like how there is a kingpin? I’ll get back to you on that). Honestly it seems Gotham was at its best when Mooney was in charge, so I think a woman is the way to go. All they need to do is work together to take down Penguin (who is so blind by love that I’m sure that won’t take much time or effort at all). I’m sure that Nygma and Butch are eager to work together again. Come on Babs, do you not remember the last time that Butch and Nygma tried to work together?
Babs isn’t the only one with a possibly disastrous plan. Despite the fact that everyone Bruce just recently spoke to is dead (which I consider to be a huge warning sign), Bruce is determined to still go through with helping the Whisper Gang take down the Court of Owls (who picks these names?). You would think that since the Court of Owls just killed a few members of the gang that they would increase all security measures around the mysterious weapon, but instead it seems there is a total of maybe two security guards around the building. No wonder they want to break in now before the Court of Owls realizes their mistake.
Since the security guards don’t seem to be an issue (Alfred could take out anyone, I’m sure), now their only concern is the alarmed floor. Somehow, they figure the smartest way to get over this floor is with a tightrope (is that really the only option that they had? Who even has a tightrope crossbow handy?). Bruce is mastering his tightrope walking abilities, and Selina is dipping out. She is worried about being watched, and is calling Alfred out on being a bad guardian (and while I don’t like her condescending tone, she does have a point).
Bruce wonders if she is leaving because she is still angry about the whole girlfriend thing, and honestly Bruce this is not the time for this. Breaking in is more important than the labels thing. And you know how you could figure out if she is upset over that? Ask her! It’s literally just that easy! Talk to her! Then maybe there won’t be any awkwardness to distract you from illegally breaking in to a facility owned by the most powerful people in Gotham that already do not like you. Bruce, you have much bigger things to worry about here.
But couples that break in together stay together. Selina comes back to join them in the heist, bringing her fantastic coordination. Alfred leads with his fighting skills, dealing out quite the powerful sucker punch to bring down the guards. What does Bruce bring to the table? Just enough arm muscle to hold the tightrope for Selina to walk across (is that even how tightropes work?). His arms did start to look a little shaky at one point, but at least he can blame Talon for making him drop it (is this guy the only assassin they have?). Luckily, they had enough time to retrieve the great, powerful weapon that can take down the Court of Owls. And what is it? The ugliest thing they could find in the prop room. While I’m sure it will turn out to be something great, at the moment it just looks like they asked for a cheap plastic owl for a stand in prop until they got the real thing.
The only competent assassin in the entire association is hot on their tails, though. While this does mean we get to see more of Alfred’s great fighting techniques, Bruce’s sacrificial nature, and Selina’s ability to pull a knife out of anywhere, none of them are able to defeat the masked man. Instead, an unknown woman comes out of nowhere and smashes the guy with a vase (which is nothing special, either of the kids could have done that), and it is enough for Alfred to get the jump on him and stab him in the throat. The lady reveals her face, and they did a great job picking an actress because before Selina said anything, I immediately thought that she was Selina’s mother. And as much as I hope that she has an interesting storyline and background, I am also very curious what her comments are regarding Selina and Bruce’s relationship (maybe there will finally be someone around to tell Bruce to just talk to her about it).
I really did think that Bruce’s storyline was the most fascinating of the entire episode (maybe because it didn’t include a love triangle), but the ending was a perfect way to complicate Jim’s life even more beyond Mario’s death. Maybe he will digress back into a PI, maybe Fish Mooney will come back and knock some sense into him, or maybe even Jerome could come back just to laugh at his mess of a life.
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer -- Click here to read Nicole's posts
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