There’s a new bad guy in town, and, in true Gotham fashion, he has a weird schtick. He creates toys that can kill people. Now, he is using those toys to target Lee. Luckily, Butch saved her from initial toy plane bomb, but Ed is pissed that someone is trying to kill the women he loves. He assumes someone must be targeting her for trying to encourage the people of the Narrows to steal from the rich instead of from each other. But no worries, Jim Gordon is on the case to find out who is trying to kill “The Doc”! Oh boy, we can all guess how this is going to end.
First, Gordon needs to figure out who “The Doc” is. He goes to Barbara to see if she knows anything, and she has a great time speaking in vague terms about the whole situation. But honestly, if I were her, I would have done the same thing. However, she does give direct instructions on how to find them, and lets Gordon figure it out on his own.
Of course, Gordon finds out that Lee is The Doc. He hears her speech about a United Narrows, and finds Ed Nygma as her partner. He’s clearly a little hurt that she came back without telling him, but he still wants to protect her from whoever is trying to kill her. All around, Ed is hilarious in this conversation: “oh, that’s so Gotham.”
Ed quickly goes from comedic relief to hero as he spots the Toy Maker and attempts to take him down himself. For a moment, I worried that his imagination is simply what caused him to spot him and nobody else, but it turns out that Gordon must have been too distracted by Lee to notice. Instead, Ed corners the Toy Maker, just to find out that the Toy Maker was looking for him. While Ed doesn’t remember it, his alter ego The Riddler paid the Toy Maker to kill Lee. I love this idea, and think that it was a great twist. The biggest danger to Ed’s love is himself, as per usual.
However, Gordon spots the Toy Maker speaking to Ed and interprets it as a threat, so he shoots him. The Toy Maker dies, and it’s up to Ed to fabricate a story about how the Toy Maker was a lone wolf, that nobody paid him to do it, that he was calling people on the phone for back up, that he… Ed ends up rambling a lot about this man. I’m surprised he doesn’t end up creating a whole backstory for him at that rate. But Gordon accepts it at face value and doesn’t ask any questions (of a known criminal). Once again, subpar detective work from the captain on this case.
Meanwhile, Barbara is doing other things that giving out vague advice to Gordon. She has his own nightclub to focus on. She has all the best customers there, including Bruce Wayne, with girls hanging over him and a dismissive attitude. Barbara is going all out on the nightclub, even shooting a commercial for it. Yet, I bet none of them expected Ivy to see it.
Ivy was reborn from the plants (“oh, that’s so Gotham”) and she looks and acts differently now. Not to mention, she also can plant-ify people with a scratch. The only thing that remains similar is the scene where she elects to eat ice cream for dinner (we have all been there). Hopefully they’ve figured out what to do with her character now, so that she doesn’t need to transform into a different girl in another month.
Ivy spots the girls in a commercial for their nightclub and knows that she doesn’t like them, so she goes to the club to investigate. Tabitha and she get into a small argument, and Barbara questions who she is. Even though Selina was busy scolding Bruce for being a douche, somehow, she knows that girl is Ivy.
Selina followed Ivy. After plant-ifying Selina, she goes from purely intimidating to intimidating but also a little kind. She gives her the antidote, and promises to help Selina the same way that Selina used to help her. She refuses for them to be underestimated anymore. I liked it better when all the girls teamed up together, but I suppose there aren’t even any other male bad guys at the moment to go against, so let’s see what Ivy and Selina can do against Barbara and Tabitha.
Speaking of which, Tabitha may be a little distracted. Butch goes to Tabitha to tell her that he remembers her and still loves her. Yet, she doesn’t say anything back. What was the point of banging him on the head so much then? And what is Butch going to do now? Go back to Ed and Lee and pretend he is still clueless about his past?
I supposed the Narrows is the hot spot of Gotham right now. Even Alfred is living there for the time being. Luckily, they treat him with respect down there for helping with the aftermath of the Toy Maker explosion. That doesn’t stop Alfred from getting involved in trouble though.
Alfred takes a fancy to the lady who works at the diner, only to find out that she is being beaten by her boyfriend. This sets Alfred off, so much so that he punches the boyfriend so hard that his ring falls off. At the end, the lady still goes with her boyfriend, and it is unsurprising to find out that they next morning she was found dead. Not only dead, but beaten to death using Alfred’s ring.
Alfred starts losing his temper all over again, and leaves Gordon’s police investigation, to track down the boyfriend and beat him up again. He probably would have killed him too, if Harvey wasn’t there to stop him. Turns out, Harvey is a bartender now. With his help, they put away this guy and Alfred is off the hook. Gordon comes in to say he misses Harvey, but Harvey doesn’t buy it. Harvey thinks that Gordon just came here to talk to him about whatever is bothering him now (probably the whole Lee revelation), and he refuses to act as his confessional. It’s always great to see people calling out Gordon on his behavior.
This episode was a great set-up for the rest of season. Even the side story of the Toy Maker helped develop The Riddler’s role in this season even further. Though, I am the most curious about what they are going to do with Ivy for the rest of the season. That is, until the Penguin AND JEROME come back!
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer
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