Gotham [Season 1, Episode 1]
Pilot
Shown 22/Sep/14
This is the pre-Batman version of the city,
when things look bad for the city but there is still hope.
But it is not
Smallville
it is much darker, more like the new version of Green
Arrow
. Predictably, a few future characters are introduced;
a little red-headed girl named Ivy
and a mysterious cat-burglar girl.
Bruce Wayne’s parents are brutally gunned down,
the pearl necklace from the Dark Knight version of the story playing a prime role.
Detective Gordon and his cynical partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) are on the case.
They suspect that a 1920s Flapper-cum-Gangster named Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) may be involved.
Her slimy sidekick, Oswald Copplepot (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
), is playing both ends against the middle.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 2]
Selina Kyle
Shown 29/Sep/14
The homeless girl with the cat fixation, Selina Kyle, witnesses yet another crime.
This time it is the abduction of some street children by
Lili Taylor
and Frank Whalley (
Broken Arrow
). By incredible coincidence, Detective Gordon gets the case.
Are he and his partner the only detectives in what is presumably the largest precinct in the city?
In another coincidence, the kidnappers are suppliers for Doctor Dollmacher -
who is a major character in Fish Mooney's story arc later in the Season.
Gordon is meant to be the straight arrow in the Gotham Police.
But with regards to torture, he takes the relativistic approach of James Tiberius Kirk;
the greatest good for the greatest number.
Nice to see that Gordon has shades of grey;
after all, the corrupt police are at their worst when mistreating minorities,
which is what Gordon has practically endorsed!
Meanwhile, Oswald Copplepot’s mother (
Carol Kane
) has reported him missing.
Everyone else (other than James Gordon) believes him to be dead.
But he makes a couple of new friends along the way.
The thing is - how long can he go without adding to his body count?
In a miniscule sub-plot, Bruce Wayne is testing himself by holding his hand over a candle.
His masochistic tendencies have yet to find the focus provided by his later bat obsession,
but Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) is still worried about him.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 3]
The Balloonman
Shown 06/Oct/14
As promised last week, Selina tells Jim Gordon what she knows about the Wayne killings.
But she is a claustrophobe who mistrusts authority figures,
so she does not want to hang around and place her faith in the Gotham PD’s version of Witness Protection.
This week’s antagonist is a vigilante who handcuffs crooks to
a weather balloon filled with enough helium to carry them to a lethal altitude.
Detective Montoya is virtually stalking Jim Gordon’s GF.
This is not just a professional grudge
against the detective she wrongly believes to be just another corrupt cop.
No, the two ladies were lovers until quite recently.
Gordon may not be a corrupt cop, but his actions have negative consequences.
Oswald Copplepot (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) returns to Gotham, and adds two more bodies to his list of victims.
The less palatable killings are off-screen,
to make the character seem less unsympathetic.
He takes the next step in his plan to start a gang war,
by taking an entry-level job at a restaurant frequented by Falcone’s main rival.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 4]
Arkham
Shown 13/Oct/14
A freelance hitman starts bumping off City Councilmen,
in order to influence a real-estate deal.
The Wayne plan (now backed by Falcone) was to replace Arkham Asylum with a new mental health facility,
and to rebuild and regenerate the entire area.
The rival plan (backed by Falcone’s rivals, the Moroni family) is to build a waste treatment plant there.
Any compromise will be seen as a sign of weakness on Falcone’s part,
and thus indicate that a gang war is closer than ever.
Barbara (
Erin Richards
) confesses that she has been keeping a secret from Jim - Montoya was her lover.
But in the spirit of openness, she demands he tell her what happened to Oswald Copplepot.
Jim will not lie to her, so he stonewalls her.
Oswald (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is working as a bus-boy in a restaurant run the Moroni family.
Some thugs try to rob the place,
while the cash from Moroni’s criminal enterprises are being laundered there.
Will Oswald get himself a nice promotion?
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) has her own cunning plan.
She recruits a girl singer to seduce her boss, Falcone,
who has been single since his girlfriend was brutally mugged in the previous episode.
Of course, competition is fierce so she needs to pick the most dedicated one.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 5]
Viper
Shown 20/Oct/14
Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) continue their normal police investigations.
For Bullock, that means prioritising food and getting beaten up.
For Gordon, it means seeing cat-girl but not catching her.
Oswald (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) decides that his next step in promotion within Don Moroni’s organisation
is to be honest about who and what he used to be.
This is not a good idea, because the Don is not very trusting.
He calls in Gordon to verify everything Oswald said.
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) keeps on with her plan to have her new protégé seduce her boss.
The key is to remind him of his mother.
In the meantime, she develops a public rivalry with a fellow under-boss.
All part of her plan, of course.
Bruce Wayne realises that the gangsters Falcone and Moroni
could only have gotten shares in the Arkham project through Wayne Enterprises.
And since his parents would never have sanctioned such a project,
it would give someone a big motive for murdering them.
The main plot of the ep is someone giving away free samples of a new drug.
It is not a narcotic, it is a steroid that gives the user superhuman strength
but also gives them a god complex.
Turns out it was manufactured by the military-industrial complex as a super-soldier formula,
but was binned because of the side-effects.
But guess which company made it?
Wayne Enterprises, with their now apparent undercurrent of corruption.
The best line is Bullock’s contribution to the interrogation. Priceless!
And ironically, it helps bring the case to a speedy conclusion.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 6]
Spirit of the Goat
Shown 27/Oct/14
Ten years ago, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) and his partner (Dan Hedaya -
Alien: Resurrection
) cornered a serial killer called the Spirit of the Goat.
The victims were the eldest children of the richest people in Gotham.
The killer wound up dead, but Bullock’s partner did not end well either.
Unfortunately, in the modern day a fresh body turns up.
This is not a mere copycat; whoever killed this victim knew details that only the real killer knows.
Young Master Wayne is impressed by the killer’s use of a mask to terrify his victims.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) points out that as the eldest child of the Wayne family,
and one of the few millionaire offspring still in town, Master Bruce is a prime target.
However, nobody bothers increasing security
so Catgirl just wanders in and steals things.
Despite seeing Batboy’s Wall of Weird she does not bother leaving any clues,
despite telling Gordon she got a good look at the killer’s face.
Could she not put a ring around the appropriate mugshot?
Gordon takes a back seat as Bullock leads the investigation.
Since Montoya from MCU is still after Gordon for killing the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
), Bullock has to do most of the work himself for a change.
However, Gordon finally discovers what Bullock spends his bribe money on.
Ed Nygma, Gotham City CSI,
turns out to have a secret crush on the girl who works in the filing room.
She has spectacles and a ponytail,
the clichéd geek-girl look exemplified by Felicity Smoak in
Arrow
.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 7]
Penguin's Umbrella
Shown 03/Nov/14
Gordon is now a marked man.
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) ramps up the pressure,
sending Butch Gilzean to capture the detective alive.
When Gordon resists, Falcone sends Victor Zsasz round to the police station.
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is justifiably annoyed with his partner.
However, Gordon has a few other allies.
The MCU do not operate out of his precinct,
and since they have acted as Internal Affairs they are the most honest cops in Gotham.
Also, Albert and Bruce Wayne still want to find out who killed Ma and Pa Wayne.
Oswald is doing very well for himself, since he has Don Moroni’s ear.
However, Fish Mooney demands revenge.
The city goes to the brink of a gang war.
Falcone seems to be the man with the plan.
Gordon targets him and the Mayor (Richard Kind), unfairly so,
because there is nothing to link them to the Wayne murders.
In fact, decapitating the city’s infrastructure
would only encourage others like Moroni, Mooney and Penguin to get greedy.
Falcone, on the other hand, is more intelligent and merciful.
And he actually has a reason for keeping Gordon alive.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 8]
The Mask
Shown 10/Nov/14
Gordon is still angry at the Gotham PD for failing to have his back against Szasz and Falcone’s mob.
But he still has Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
), so he continues to investigate crimes.
This week someone is getting office workers to kill each other in order to win a job.
Ed Nygma (overlooked, despised by his incompetent co-workers) is the one who puts it all together.
The Priest from
The Originals
runs a company linked to the victims.
He is obsessed with taking the Business is War maxim literally,
and also sizes Gordon up quite well.
The reason Gordon wants to take on Falcone and the Mayor (Richard Kind)
is that Gordon lives to fight!
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) has a sit-down with Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
). Fish continues with her secret plan,
stealing Falcone’s greatest secret
and lying about her own past to motivate her pawn.
Meanwhile, Penguin discovers that Fish has a secret of her own.
Gordon’s relationship with Barbara (
Erin Richards
) should be sorted out by now.
She no longer believes him to be a murderer,
and her ex-lover is no longer sniffing around.
Elsewhere, Cat-girl is burglarising commercial premises.
Since she works alone, she does not have anyone to act as a lookout or getaway driver.
The thing is, since crime is so rampant in Gotham,
it must be nearly impossible to get insurance there,
and thus impossible to run a business.
Without goods and services, the city will slowly disentigrate.
Those who cannot afford to move to a different city will be trapped.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 9]
Harvey Dent
Shown 17/Nov/14
Gordon stashes Cat the one place he knows she is safe; at Wayne Manor.
Bruce is happy to have a friend his own age.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) does his best, but is very unhappy with having to host a runaway.
The District Attorney, a certain Mr Harvey Dent, is an eager young man.
He tells every villain in town that THEY are personally implicated in the Wayne Family murders.
Sooner or later, there will be a backlash.
A skilled bomb-maker is broken out of Blackgate Prison.
The prison is evidently a reference to racial segregation;
the convict and his guards are just about the first African-American faces we have seen
since the Councilman and his assassin.
Gordon complains that the prison lacks adequate facilities to cope with the mentally ill.
Surely Arkham Asylum would be a better place for them ...
The bomb-maker is used in a plot against Falcone.
But who has a grudge against him?
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) closes in on Fish Mooney’s spy.
Just how ambitious is he?
Barbara (
Erin Richards
) has given up on her relationship with Gordon.
He hung up on her phone call last episode because he had to save Gotham again,
And she evidently decided that being a Cop’s significant other was too much hassle.
Therefore the last thing she would ever do is hook up with her ex, another cop!
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 10]
LoveCraft
Shown 24/Nov/14
Lesley Ann Brandt
visits Wayne Manor. Last seen as a babelicious assassin fighting
The Librarians
, here she is doing more of the same.
Someone hired her team to kill Cat-girl.
Is she this show’s version of the daughter of Ras-Al-Ghul?
After all, that character is played by another
Spartacus
Veteran in the other DC universe shows,
Arrow & Flash
.
Bruce and Selina go on the run together,
back on the girl’s home turf of downtown Gotham.
At least the city is racially and ethnically diverse,
something that the whiter-than-white cities in the other DC universe shows lack.
They bump into a fellow pre-teen character - Ivy, whose father died in the first episode.
She is an orphan now,
because her mother could not bear to live without having a drunken wife-beater around the place.
Alfred Pennywise - oops, Pennywhistle
- teams up with Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) as they go looking for Cat in Fish Mooney’s part of town.
These are two of the more interesting supporting characters,
it is nice to see them work together.
Gordon goes looking for Lovecraft,
the Oligarch whom District Attorney Harvey Dent suspected of being behind the Wayne killings.
He is the main suspect, so he has the most to gain from killing the only witness.
But this being Gotham, he may have been a pawn in the hands of an organised crime figure
- Mooney, Falcone or Moroni.
The chances are he will not live to end up in Arkham.
Gordon tried to arrest the Mayor (Richard Kind)
a couple of weeks ago for being friends with Falcone.
Now he finds out that the Mayor can mess his career up a lot more than Falcone has.
His only friend, Harvey Dent, is a bit two-faced when it comes to the Mayor.
Dent is a political player with ambitions, while Gordon is a straight arrow.
After last week’s abortive heist, Falcone suspects Moroni is the one behind it.
He blames Penguin for not warning him, but Penguin points out it was an inside job.
Only Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) has the know-how and ambition to take on Falcone.
But since Penguin is well known to hate Fish, he will need proof to back up his assertions.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 11]
Rogues' Gallery
Shown 5th January 2015
Gordon is now a guard in Arkham Asylum.
Unfortunately, the craziness there gets worse than ever.
Someone starts giving the staff unauthorised electro-shock therapy.
Gordon is ordered to investigate.
Is it an inmate like rent-a-villain Christopher Hyderdahl (
Supernatural
), or a member of staff - either the
Lilly Tomlin
lookalike nurse, or the suspiciously beautiful lady doctor (
Morena Baccarin
).
The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) runs into trouble on the waterfront.
Catgirl and Ivy crash at Gordon's apartment.
Gordon's ex remembers why she split up with her ex.
After all, it makes no sense to go from one cop to another (and back!)
because their job is too stressful and time-consuming!
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 12]
What the Little Bird Told Him
Shown 19/Jan/15
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) finally makes her move against Falcone.
Will the old man retire gracefully?
Fish's grounds for extortion are incredibly weak.
Is Falcone still the murderous psychopath he must have been to become Don?
And will Butch's gang stand a chance against Victor Szazs and his dominatrix enforcers?
The Electrocutioner is after the Penguin's boss, Don Moroni.
Can Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) out-maneuvre Moroni, the Electrocutioner and the cops in time to help Falcone?
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 13]
Welcome Back, Jim Gordon
Shown 26/Jan/15
Bruce Wayne and Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) go looking for Catgirl again.
But she does not like being penned in.
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) and Butch are in the hands of the Don’s hitmen.
But Victor and his Dominatrices must be off celebrating,
because the B-Team have been put in charge.
Naturally, the victims’ survival chances go up quite a bit.
Hopefully the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) will not count his birds before they have hatched.
And how will he explain to Don Moroni that
Don Falcone has given him Fish Mooney’s club to run?
Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) investigate a drug-related homicide
that involves a target of the narcotics squad.
Things soon spiral out of control, as a witness gets taken out.
Gordon takes this personally,
and makes it his mission to take down the corrupt cops involved.
His popularity with the rest of the Precinct has never been lower.
Ed Nygma is likewise victimised by the leader of the Narco squad.
The tough-guy detective loves to mock the weakling lab tech,
to impress his buddies (and the pretty filing girl).
Will Gordon make an unlikely ally?
Gordon knows that Don Moroni controls the local drug trade,
so he asks a favour of the Penguin.
Oswald is in a very good mood and is more than happy enough to comply.
He sees Gordon as being an actual friend,
and hopefully Gordon will realise how much he owes to this friendship.
It turns out that the Penguin and his enforcer are
much better at police work than Gordon and Bullock are.
Yes, in a city where the cops are crooked ... it takes the crooks to watch the watchmen!
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 14]
The Fearsome Dr. Crane
Shown 02/Feb/15
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) gloats over his victories.
But he has made a couple of mistakes.
Firstly, Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) is still alive.
Secondly, Don Moroni will not be forgiving
when he realises that Penguin is friendly with Falcone.
So when Moroni gets a mysterious phone call,
then invites Penguin for a weekend in the country ...
Fish is on a cargo ship heading as far from Gotham as possible.
However, it sails into unknown waters.
Gordon drops off his keys at Barbara’s apartment, where Cat is still hanging out.
This seems to be the end of his relationship with Barbara (
Erin Richards
).
However, he has a replacement - the lady Doctor from Arkham (
Morena Baccarin
). Not only is she GF material, she could also replace the Medical Examiner.
Not only is the ME either corrupt or incompetent
(Gordon refers to a previous episode where he mistook a stabbing for a suicide)
but he also hates CSI Ed Nygma.
Poor Nygma gets suspended from duty,
and the office girl he likes is strangely ambivalent about this development.
Could the Riddler-to-be get a GF too?
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 15]
The Scarecrow
Shown 09/Feb/15
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) wakes up in an underground prison compound.
Yes, her well-planned escape from Gotham got her into even more trouble.
What are the chances of that happening?
The showrunner has written out Barbara (
Erin Richards
), the other much-hated character,
but rather than kill Fish off or put her aside for a few episodes she gets her own story arc!
How long before she is running the prison?
I give her one episode ...
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) now runs Fish’s club, paying tribute to Don Falcone of course.
But he is otherwise in the same position as always -
only now instead of Falcone keeping Fish off Penguin’s back, he has to keep Moroni off too!
Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) are still after the fear-killer.
They have identified him as Doctor Crane (Julian Sands -
), who goes on the run with his teenage son Jonathan.
Yes, another super-villain gets an early introduction.
Bruce Wayne goes off on a hike in the mansion grounds.
He insists on going alone, and shirks off Alfred’s offer of company.
Will young Master Bruce fall into a cave, see some bats
and be inspired to become a vigilante dressed as a flying mammal?
Or will he just learn an all-important life-lesson?
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 16]
The Blind Fortune Teller
Shown 16/Feb/15
After the events of the previous episode, young Master Bruce has decided
to stop feeling sorry for himself and to take a pro-active approach.
If he cannot find the trigger-man, he will lure out the paymaster.
Gordon takes the Lady Doctor (
Morena Baccarin
) out on a date - to the Circus!
They see some acrobats - the future parents of Dick Grayson.
The carnies have a brawl - Dick’s parents were a Romeo and Juliet couple, it seems.
Then a dead body is discovered ...
The lady Doctor is the Police Medical Examiner,
and a witness to the discover of the body,
but she now fills Bullock’s role as Gordon’s partner in the investigation.
They interview witnesses (including the victim’s son Jerome -
a pale-faced red-headed type with a frightening grin)
and search for evidence together. A
Medium
gives them a riddle to solve, but they do not bother to ask for Ed Nygma’s help.
Back at Oswald’s (the new name for Fish Mooney’s),
the business is not running smoothly.
Both Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and his mother get time on stage, but there are few other acts booked.
Customers seem few and far between.
Falcone sends Victor Zsasz round to give Penguin some help.
Specifically, a brainwashed individual who used to run the club for Fish.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 17]
Red Hood
Shown 23/Feb/15
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) gets to meet the administrator (Jeffrey Coombs -
Reanimator
). She coerces him into a discussion,
but she forgets that he will do whatever it takes to maintain the upper hand.
However, she will make incredible sacrifices - we get hands-down the best,
most gruesome act shown on mainstream television since - probably forever!
Yes, this is definitely not a kids show, more like something out of
Kill Bill
.
Back in Gotham, Penguin’s club has run out of booze.
Don Moroni controls all liquor distribution in the district,
and everyone fears him more than they love the Penguin.
Luckily, Butch Gilzean is still around and he knows the system.
There are other crooks in town.
A gang of robbers are doing bank heists - they carry guns, but do not shoot anyone.
Better, one of them decides to wear a red hood
and to use some of the stolen cash as a distraction.
This sets them up in the public imagination as a Robin Hood gang.
Gordon scoffs at the idea and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) says that when the public prefer crooks to cops then you have anarchy.
However, neither of them behaves in an overly honourable manner.
Gordon knows that the gang is turning on itself,
so he releases the only suspect (from a dodgy line-up) in the hope of stirring it up.
Bullock is happy to coerce statements from a wounded suspect
by denying him life-saving medical attention.
And yet they both wonder why the citizens prefer crooks and anarchy?
Alfred the butler (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) maintains his honour.
He meets an old colleague from his SAS (Special Forces) days,
and invites him home.
The old friend has a bit of an edge,
and starts training Bruce Wayne in street-fighting.
Alfred prefers the Marquis of Queensbury rules,
which is great for sport but not practical for a life-or-death struggle.
That said, Alfred is the one who taught Master Wayne to use knuckle-dusters
as an equaliser when sucker-punching a bigger and heavier opponent.
Barbara (
Erin Richards
) offers to give Cat and Ivy a make-over.
Cat feels cornered, and (metaphorically) bites the hand that feeds her.
This is a deliberate attempt by the showrunner to desexualise the teenage catwoman,
but it also makes Barbara look like a weak character.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 18]
Everyone Has a Cobblepot
Shown 02/Mar/15
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) is in hospital, but he and Master Wayne swear blind to Gordon
that they did not see the attacker’s face.
However, Bruce has noticed that his files are missing
- the attacker was a spy, not a burglar.
Cat-girl offers to help out, although her primary reason for being in the hospital
is because that is where Poison Ivy steals food from.
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) wakes up in a hospital bed. The Doctor (Colm Feore -
Chronicles of Riddick
) has operated on her face, but she does not seem to be pumped full of painkillers.
She asks for a promotion - and since the office manager (Jeffery Coombs -
Reanimator
) is out of favour, she gets a chance to earn it.
Gordon investigates police corruption.
The Commissioner has not only gotten the murderous Narco Detective
freed from prison, he even got him a promotion!
Gordon teams up with ADA Harvey Dent,
the only man he can trust to be incorruptible.
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is vulnerable to the Commissioner’s blackmail files,
so he cannot be entirely trusted any more.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 19]
Beasts of Prey
Shown 13/Apr/15
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) wants to track down his old comrade in arms.
Unfortunately, since the butler is walking wounded
(until his stitches reopen, and he can no longer stand)
Young Master Bruce takes it upon himself to do the necessary.
With aid from cat-girl he tracks down the traitor,
who is now a helpless junkie shooting up ...
On Doctor Dollmaker’s island, Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) tests security .
She has a plan, involving a boat and the six toughest goons in the basement.
After all, it seems nobody there knows how to fly a helicopter.
Unfortunately the Doctor still does not entirely trust her.
And he has only just met her, so he must be a very good judge of character!
Gordon gets involved in another detective’s case.
The Ogre (Milo Ventriglia -
Heroes
) abducts beautiful women and makes them act like 1950s housewives.
Unlike a similar character in
Dead Zone
, he kills them when he is done with them.
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 20]
Under the Knife
Shown 20/Apr/15
It is the evening of the Wayne Foundation’s Annual Charity Ball.
Bruce Wayne picks Selina Kyle as his date,
sending her a selection of dresses and whatnot.
Luckily, Barbara (
Erin Richards
) is going to the event too.
Her date (Milo Ventriglia –
Heroes
) senses she is a kindred spirit.
Will she enjoy his perverse take on Fifty Shades of Grey?
Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) start to close in on the uncatchable killer.
Yes, this show is actually a good police procedural as well.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) recruits a hitman for the Moroni job.
But Moroni has plans of his own.
The gangster pays a social call to Penguin’s nightclub,
and makes friends with Penguin’s mother (
Carol Kane
). The poor lady has no idea that her little Oswald has killed so many people.
Will she believe Moroni when he spills the beans about her little boy?
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 21]
The Anvil or the Hammer
Shown 27/Apr/15
Gordon has a new lead on the Ogre.
He must send Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) undercover at a high-class brothel.
But first, they must get Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) to arrange an invite.
This will be the SECOND favour that Gordon owes Copplepot.
The Ogre (Milo Ventriglia -
Heroes
) has Barbara (
Erin Richards
), and he thinks they have a lot in common.
She has to do as he says or else …
Bruce Wayne makes his play for the board member’s office safe.
He discovers something about his father that he had not expected -
and he meets Lucius Fox, a junior executive with great prospects.
Penguin’s assassination attempt on Don Moroni goes ahead.
But Oswald has a new plan, one far more ambitious than before.
Will he get out of his depth again?
Gotham [Season 1, Episode 22]
All Happy Families Are Alike
Shown 04/May/15
Gordon has Barbara (
Erin Richards
) checked out by the Police Doctor,
Morena Baccarin
. He also suggests they meet for a therapy session.
Remember what Micky said in the
Dr Who (2005)
Episode set in the school:
Welcome to every man’s nightmare – when the missus meets the ex!
Will we get an amazing cat-fight?
Will we discover why Barbara’s dress was drenched in blood
while the Ogre’s suit had not a drop on it?
Keep watching!
Falcone gets hospitalised, but without him Gotham will tear itself apart.
Who will get to him first – Gordon, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) or Moroni?
Since Falcone is the only one protecting Penguin from Moroni,
surely Penguin should want to keep the old man alive until Moroni is dead.
And Gordon owes Penguin two favours -
how much is Gordon’s word of honour worth?
Commissioner Loeb pops up, on the winner's payroll.
Despite Gordon's accusation,
Loeb is merely a peacemaker who wants to save Gordon's life.
Is this different from Gordon,
who is willing to save Falcone's life in order to keep order in the city?
They are both willing to make alliances with gangsters for the greater good.
The only difference is that Loeb would save Gordon (his rival),
while Gordon is willing to sacrifice Pengiun (his friend).
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) has not been seen in several episodes.
Suddenly, as the gang war heats up, a mysterious boat sails up Gotham river.
The female captain has healed up from being shot in the torso, gotten a new haircut,
and now has even more cleavage than usual - a sure sign of evil intent.
She recruits an army of homeless people, handing out shotguns.
Cat-Girl joins up, declaring it the coolest thing she has ever been a part of.
This means forsaking all loyalties and being party to pre-meditated murder.
Back in Wayne Manor,
young Master Bruce has Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) help him take all the books off the shelves.
There may be a secret something hidden in the room.
In the previous episode, Lucius Fox said Mister Wayne was a true stoic.
It seems that Lucius knows more than anyone expected.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 1]
Rise of the Villains: Damned If You Do (45 min)
Shown 21 Sep 15
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is now the undisputed King of the Gotham Underworld.
His underbosses now include:
Victor Zsasz (formerly loyal to Falcone)
Butch Gilzean (formerly loyal to Mooney)
Fat Tony the hit-man (formerly loyal to Moroni)
Cat-girl (formerly loyal to Mooney)
In comparison, the cops are no better off than before.
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) has retired and is now a bartender.
A pity that he did not get a job as Falcone's bodyguard on a tropical island,
but at least he is still in the show.
His interaction as Gordon's partner made him vital to the show,
and he may not be as interesting as a mere barman.
Gordon has been busted down to patrolman,
but he has earned the wrath of the Police Commissioner so he gets himself fired.
It was only a matter of time - the Commissioner was a reasonable man,
but Gordon is an obsessive who lacks the brains to keep his mouth shut and his fists to himself.
And the next logical step is for Gordon to ask a favour of the one person who might help.
Penguin is a forgiving person, but he requests Gordon actually repay a favour.
Will Jim do a simple one-off debt collection job?
After all, Penguin has inherited the marker from Falcone's money-sharking,
so the money is morally his - even if the loan was technically illegal.
And the gangster who owes Penguin the debt is a drug-dealing scumbag.
Gordon also fails to note that if Penguin has to collect the debt himself
the result will be a bloodbath, a case of having Victor Zsasz conduct a
Termination with Extreme Prejudice to avoid a new civil war.
With the corrupt Commissioner on his way out
and the corrupt Mayor (Richard Kind) keeping a low profile,
there is a new power in town.
Rent-a-villain Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) is a powerful businessman with political connections,
just like Frain's character in
The Cape
. Well, if Vinny Jones would play a Scales type character in
Arrow
then there is no reason that other villains from that show could not pop up in the DC universe.
Speaking of villains, Barbara (
Erin Richards
) is now in Arkham Asylum.
The wards are not gender-segregated,
so she is put in with male inmates like Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) - one of the Joker suspects.
She is obsessed with revenge on Gordon - but the truth is,
she is now an interesting character!
And she is not behind bars for long,
because the Season villain is recruiting a team of hench-people.
Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne has discovered a secret door.
He does not bother trying to guess the password,
instead he gets Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) to help him construct a massive ANFO bomb.
Will this damage the foundations of Wayne Manor, leading to subsidence
and the eventual collapse of the massive building into the nascent bat-cave?
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 2]
Rise of the Villains: Knock Knock
Shown 28 Sep 15
Bruce and Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) go exploring in the batcave.
Alfred has his doubts about the idea of a teenage boy taking up the mantle of a vigilante
After all, Bruce has not even kept up his attendance at school!
Worse, young Master Wayne thinks he can fire his Butler
- who is also his legal guardian, and the only adult in the whole Mansion.
Rather than leave his charge in a Home Alone situation,
Alfred calls upon the services of Lucius Fox.
Yes, finally there may be a Black Man as a regular cast member.
Well, realistically semi-regular at best but it is a start.
Rent-a-villain James Frain (
The Cape
) unleashes Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) and his henchmen,
the gang of Arkham Asylum escapees now called the Maniax.
Barbara (
Erin Richards
) has a special mission - targeting James Gordon himself.
What the Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) feels about this is never explained,
because he and the mainstream Organised Crime types do not appear on-screen this episode.
Back in the GCPD precinct house,
the new Commissioner is getting used to her old office.
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is still absent, since he is enjoying his premature retirement as a bartender.
Ed Nygma is under so much stress from being on speaking terms with his now-single love interest that,
as of the previous episode, he has manifested a new split personality.
The alternate Ed stands up straight, does not stutter and does not need spectacles.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 3]
Rise of the Villains: The Last Laugh
Shown 05 Oct 15
We get further insight into Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
), the mysterious millionaire plotting to attack Gotham from the inside.
His motivation makes him seem like the same character he played in
The Cape
, but without the cool alternate identity.
Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) is the front-man.
Where will the villains attack next?
Gordon is clueless, and Bruce Wayne is too busy preparing for a charity banquet.
A pity Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is not around to ask
What's altruism?
Is Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) the Joker?
What about the stand-up comedian at Fish Mooney's place, or the kid who stole the Red Hood?
They say Laughter is contagious - is Jerome the original, and the Joker a copycat?
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 4]
Rise of the Villains: Strike Force
Shown 12 Oct 15
Theo Galavan (James Frain -
The Cape
) needs a new footsoldier now that Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) is out of the way.
He chooses Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
). Luckily for Theo, our Oswald has one major flaw.
While Penguin loves his mother, he did not bother to move her into the Godfather's mansion with him.
And now she is Theo's bargaining chip.
Alfred the Butler (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) confronts Cat-girl.
He brutally registers his displeasure with her for killing his old mate Reggie
(the man who stabbed him and left him for dead).
He also orders her not see master Bruce again, because she is a bad influence.
Poor Bruce will be lonely without his only friend, but not for long.
Theo Galavan has a blonde niece named Silver St Cloud,
who is of the same age as Bruce and is now attending his school.
Gordon meets his new boss - the charismatic and enthusiastic Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
). Chiklis played a nice-guy Commissioner in The Commish
and a violent corrupt detective in The Shield.
This new character is a cross between the two - both incorruptible and violent.
His first step is to fire every cop with a history of corruption
- although Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is never mentioned on the list.
Step two is to form a new Strike Force, recruited straight from the Academy -
yes, just like in The Untouchables.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 5]
Rise of the Villains: Scarification
Shown 19 Oct 15
Theo Galavan (James Frain -
The Cape
) tortures info out of the corrupt Wayne Enterprises Executive who outsmarted Bruce and Cat last year.
Next stage, Theo gets Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) to send Butch to hire some arsonists for a snatch-and-burn job.
The best arsonists in the city are loyal to Fish Mooney,
despite being repulsively blue-collar misogynists.
This is an excuse for Butch to take Cat-girl along,
because despite being all friendly with Penguin a few episodes ago
she is still homeless and famous for being Fish Mooney's favourite hench-person.
Also, Cat-Girl is friends with the arsonists' step-sister.
The Arsonists need to stock up on supplies for their arson around.
Luckily, there is a local warehouse that sells weapons to anyone with cash.
Unluckily, it is the next target of the GCPD Strike Force.
Even worse, something labelled as C4 plastic explosive is actually more like sweaty dynamite,
because it explodes violently when hit with bullets.
The step-sister is being established as one of the next generation of super-villains.
The Arsonists treat her as a skivvy,
and are evil because they do not say please when they ask her to fetch a beer.
However, they give her a choice of two kinds of better life.
She can leave them and go live with homeless Cat-Girl.
Or she can become one of the gang, a full-fledged arsonist.
As a supervillain-in-the-making, her choice is clear.
Ed Nygma and his GF, Ms Kringle, are getting along quite well.
Ed invites Jim Gordon and his GF on a double date.
Gordon tries to talk his way out of the awkward situation,
but the lady Doctor invites them all over for a fondue party at her place.
Wow, there certainly is a lot going on these days.
But with such a large number of characters who all have to make an appearance every single episode,
this is more like a soap opera than a police procedural.
A very watchable soap with lots of murderous super-villains, so what is not to like?
Penguin gets his first clue as to what Galavan's aim is.
He also takes his next step in a strategy to free his mother from Galavan's control.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 6]
Rise of the Villains: By Fire
Shown 26 Oct 15
Theo Galavan (James Frain -
The Cape
) continues his plan against Bruce Wayne.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) continues to plot, but he is impatient and the show is only six episodes into the Season.
He is also too preoccupied to care when a couple of teenage girls
stage an armed robbery at the local skank-ho auction.
Gordon starts beating statements out of suspects
in a hope of finding out who the accidental cop-killing arsonist is.
It turns out that she is upgrading herself to being a full-fledged sadistic murderer.
Also, she uses her flamethrower to burn two people to death in a room
while completely avoiding to even singe the furniture.
Ed Nygma and his girlfriend take things to the next level.
But she is a cliched character, someone who warmed to him far too quickly.
It is inevitable that sooner or later she will revert to her Season One personality.
And the better things look, the worse the twist will be for poor Ed.
Cat-girl's relationship with Gordon also runs hot and cold.
She helps him when it suits her,
but she is more than happy to pull a shotgun on him like when she was Mooney's goon.
And she accuses Gordon of not caring about other people,
just after she herself held his girlfriend (
Morena Baccarin
) hostage at gunpoint! She also disparages Penguin,
despite being in his trusted inner circle at the start of the Season.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 7]
Rise of the Villains: Mommy's Little Monster
Shown 02 Nov 15
Butch takes Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) to meet his mother.
However, Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) has plans of his own.
Ed Nygma's alter-ego is back.
All Ed remembers is that he choked his lover until she passed out.
He assumed she was dead, he did not check her pulse or attempt CPR.
Instead he wakes up and finds her body missing.
The alter-ego claims that he hid the body in the police station during the night.
Ed has to follow a set of clues set by his subconscious.
Butch tries to get his own crew sorted.
He could look for Fish Mooney's supporters like Cat,
but she is busy paying a visit to Wayne Manor.
She uses the side entry, so Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) cannot stop her.
Unfortunately Bruce has a guest - Galavan's niece, Silver St Cloud.
Last week we discovered that Galavan's family had hidden strengths.
The niece is certainly not a weak link or an innocent dupe.
Her looks conceal the fact that she is an impressive piece of work.
Penguin goes gunning for Galavan.
His plan involves dressing all his crew like himself,
so the enemy will have no idea which one to shoot first.
Unfortunately since Galavan is now the new Mayor,
the GCPD are taking no chances with his security.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 8]
Rise of the Villains: Tonight's the Night
Shown 09 Nov 15
Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) know who the Season villain is.
However, their only witnesses are Butch and Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) - both crooks, both on the run.
Luckily, Barbara (
Erin Richards
) walks into the station and offers to help Jim.
It is obviously a trap, but they are desperate.
Barbara's insanity seems to come from her jealousy of Gordon and his new girlfriend.
But has Jim actually been honest with the new girl?
Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) unveils his next step.
He offers to buy Bruce Wayne's 51% controlling interest in Wayne Enterprises.
After all, it is still corrupt -
although none of the regulars knows about the secret Supervillain lab revealed in
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 6] Rise of the Villains: By Fire.
The truth is, Galavan probably still has the one-eyed Corporate Exec in a cell somewhere.
But instead of Galavan telling Bruce the terrible truth,
he instead offers him his heart's desire - the identity of his parents' killer.
Will Bruce take the decade necessary to train as a vigilante and then become CEO,
or will he just sell out to Galavan and hope the man is as honest as he seems?
Out in the woods, Ed Nygma tries to bury his problem.
Unfortunately, as Ed himself says,
for a remote wooded area there is an awful lot of foot-traffic.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 9]
Rise of the Villains: A Bitter Pill to Swallow
Shown 16 Nov 15
Galavan's sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
) wants revenge on Gordon.
She visits an Assassination Club run by The Lady (
Michelle Gomes
), AKA Missy from
Doctor Who (2005)
, and puts a price on Gordon's head.
Her minions corner him in Galavan's office,
which is being processed by GCPD Forensics for clues.
Unfortunately the place does not appear to be fortified,
although Gordon has some other cops to help him.
A rookie, an unarmed CSI, and the Captain (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
). Gordon's usual partner, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
), is nowhere in sight this week.
The Captain repeatedly urges Gordon to abandon the office.
Is he trying to distract him from potential clues?
Or is he sincere when he tries to bond with him?
And as for Gordon - fill he show his own dark side?
Ed Nygma has a house-guest - Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
)! They both have so much in common,
such as mutual friends and interests,
but now Penguin is in a state of serious depression.
Even the knowledge that Gordon has arrested Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) is not enough to bring him round.
Bruce Wayne wants to know what Galavan's research
uncovered about his parents' killer.
He arranges secret meetings with the blonde, Silver St Cloud (
Natalie Alyn Lind
), even though Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) strenuously objects.
Even Cat-girl, who Alfred also objects to,
knows that Silver is toxic (so to speak).
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 10]
Rise of the Villains: The Son of Gotham
Shown 23 Nov 15
Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) is about to face trial.
However, he seems strangely confident that he will not be convicted.
Gordon wants to investigate further, just to keep costs down.
Bruce Wayne still wants to know the info Galavan claimed to have.
He goes to Silver (
Natalie Alyn Lind
) again, with Cat-girl waiting nearby as backup.
However, Bruce and Silver get kidnapped by Chibbs from Sons of Anarchy.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) goes looking for Young Master Bruce.
He runs into Galavan's sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
), so we get a show-down of ex-SAS soldier versus whip-cracking dominatrix assassin.
Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) are busy elsewhere.
Ron Rifkin (
Alias
) and his mad monks are on a killing spree across the city.
The GCPD must work out who their next victim will be.
Ed Nygma gets used to his new house-guest - Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
). However, Penguin has other friends as well.
His criminal empire might not be completely gone after all.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 11]
Rise of the Villains: Worse Than a Crime
Shown 30 Nov 15
The bad news is, Bruce Wayne is in the hands of Theo Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
). The good news is, Gordon has no shortage of allies.
Some of them hate Galavan - like Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and his few remaining goons.
The others are the Wayne faction - Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
), cat-girl, even Lucius Fox turns up.
Meanwhile, Galavan gives his young niece Silver (
Natalie Alyn Lind
) a chance to recover her status.
She must seduce Bruce Wayne, and convince him she is on his side.
But Galavan is a brutal task-master.
He is also harsh with his sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
), and her loyalty to him seems to be inexplicably fading.
The fight itself is a bit one-sided.
The mad monks have big knives and superhuman strength.
Gordon's team have guns.
Not much of a contest.
At the end of the day, Gordon must make a choice.
Will he hand Galavan over to Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
), and let the law take its course?
Or will he hand him over to Penguin, and the law of the jungle?
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 12]
Rise of the Villains: Cold, Dark Night AKA Mr. Freeze
Shown 29 Feb 16
Someone is freezing people with a gun that fires liquid helium.
Yes, yet another crime spree so weird (brutal and high-tech)
that it could only happen in Gotham.
Luckily Gordon is cleared for duty after Galavan's brutal death,
so he and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) can investigate the case.
It turns out that Viktor Freeze,
former scientist at a Wayne Enterprises subsiduary,
has rebelled against the excessive costs of American health-care
and decided to develop a cure for his ill wife (
Kristen Hager
) all by himself.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) gets caught, claims insanity, and is thrown in Arkham Asylum.
No trial, no jury, just instant pickup and incarceration.
It seems that Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
), the man running Arkham, is a lot more powerful than anyone realises.
He is BD Wong - the Prison Priest in Oz, and the FBI shrink in SVU.
Now he is so much more than just a Prison Shrink.
After all, he is conducting secret experiments on fresh corpses.
With Penguin out of the way, Butch Gilzean is the biggest gangster in Gotham.
Galavan's sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
) offers him a partnership.
What side will Cat-girl take?
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 13]
Rise of the Villains: A Dead Man Feels No Cold
Shown 07 Mar 16
Mr Freeze has decided to give the cure to his ill wife (
Kristen Hager
). Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
) orders Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) to take the wife to Arkham Asylum,
a secure area with medical facilities that will also function as a trap.
The GCPD's beautiful lady doctor (
Morena Baccarin
) accompanies Mrs Freeze, and is dismayed to see that her arch-enemy Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) is still comatose in the same ward.
As a side-note, the doctor used to work in Arkham and is not happy to be back there.
Presumably she was not in Hugo Strange's circle of trust,
because she has high moral standards.
She and Mrs Freeze share a sense of responsibility towards their menfolk,
who have taken immoral choices.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is still in the Asylum, being tortured by Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). Gordon has decided to turn his back on his old friend,
even though Penguin lied and took the fall for him.
This is the lowest that Gordon has fallen,
because even the murder he committed was completely provoked.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) has identified a suspect in the Wayne murders.
Bruce Wayne gets talked down to by the adults, but tells Cat the truth.
He wants to murder the man who shot his parents,
and he wants to borrow one of her leftover guns from her time as Fish Mooney's assassin.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 14]
Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness
Shown 14 Mar 16
The GCPD's beautiful lady doctor (
Morena Baccarin
) is worried about Ms Kringle's absence.
Unfortunately Ed Nygma is now dangerously insane.
This is not a time to get on his bad side.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) goes looking for a suspect in the Wayne murders.
Bruce Wayne tags along, but cannot keep his mouth shut.
The lad is intent on murdering the suspect.
En route they interview a woman (
Lori Petty
) who is made up to look like Harley Quinn.
The weird look may become fashionable in Gotham.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is being given Scarecrow's serum in Arkham.
The doctor's plan is to brainwash him into being a
Clockwork Orange
.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 15]
Wrath of the Villains: Mad Grey Dawn
Shown 21 Mar 16
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) has been released from Arkham - he is cured!
He goes to pay his respects to the new Boss of Gotham - his old buddy Butch Gilzean.
The good news is, Butch is in a good mood because things turned out well for him.
The bad news is, Butch is now shacked up with Theo Galavan's sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
). Miss Galavan is unhappy about what Penguin did to her brother,
while forgetting that she is the one who beat Theo unconscious,
stole his parachute and left him to die.
Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) investigate a series of crazy crimes committed
by a madman who leaves a question mark as his tag.
No, it is not Slyvester McCoy from
Doctor Who
- it is Ed Nygma, finally beginning to emerge as a super-villain.
His motives are complicated, his endgame is explained at the end.
However, it must be painfully obvious to anyone who pays attention
that the crimes are being committed by someone inside the Police Precinct.
But then, subtlety was never Ed's strong suit.
Bruce Wayne is still hanging around with Cat-Girl.
They decide to steal from the Magic Mushroom farm owned by Butch's nephew.
Poison Ivy is their inside woman, since she is now a professional mushroom farmer.
However, the gang cannot be so stupid that they would not blame Ivy.
Luckily, Bruce decides to pick a fight with Gilzean Junior.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 16]
Wrath of the Villains: Prisoners
Shown 28 Mar 16
Gordon gets moved to Gen-pop.
The Prison Warden is an old friend of Commissioner Loeb,
so Gordon will soon regret his own unwillingness to form alliances.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) settles into life in the Big House again.
Not the one he took from Falcone, but his own ancestoral pile.
Yes, he has been reunited with his father (Paul Reubens -
Peewee Herman
). The good news is, Reubens also played Copplepot Senior in
Batman Returns
. The bad news is, Penguin now finds himself with a wicked stepmother (
Melinda Clarke
) and some shallow step-siblings.
Luckily, Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is still on good terms with Falcone.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 17]
Wrath of the Villains: Into the Woods
Shown 11 Apr 16
Gordon is out, and he tries to piece together the clues.
There is only one logical suspect,
but how long will it take him to work this out?
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) agrees to work as an unpaid servant for his wicked stepmother (
Melinda Clarke
) and some shallow step-siblings.
After all, the will was never updated so he legally gets nothing.
Bruce Wayne is still hanging around with Cat-Girl.
However, they get roped into helping Gordon on his quest for justice.
It seems like Young Master Wayne's time in the underworld is at an end.
But will he let Cat stay with him in the big house
and join him on his own quest for justice?
Or will he pretend that he is protecting her by throwing her out?
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 18]
Wrath of the Villains: Pinewood
Shown 18 Apr 16
Gordon has cleared his name, but he has still quit his job as a cop.
For some reason he is living with Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
), which makes him look like a serial monogamist.
After all, when he was with Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) he lived in her apartment,
and presumably it was the same arrangement when he was engaged to the GCPD's beautiful lady doctor (
Morena Baccarin
).
Ironically, Barbara has been let out of Arkham.
Gordon may be newly single, but he does not want to get back with his crazy ex-lover.
Instead he is probably holding out for a forgettable regretable rebound relationship.
This is a pity, because Barbara is the only one with the skills and inclination to help him.
After all, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is off the grid and does not even appear in this episode.
Gordon's self-chosen mission is to find the person who hired the hitman who featured in
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 14] Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness.
It turns out he was a former associate of The Lady (
Michelle Gomes
), AKA Missy from
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 9] Rise of the Villains: A Bitter Pill to Swallow.
But Gordon needs Barbara's help to get close to her.
He lacks the subtlety to play along and gain her trust,
but is she actually worthy of HIS trust?
Back in the bat-cave, Bruce Wayne has uncovered a secret project at Wayne Enterprises.
His father has records of something called Pinewood, including an address.
This may be the motive behind the deaths of the Waynes.
Sooner or later Bruce and Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) will cross paths with Gordon.
Will they manage to find out who was behind the killings?
The obvious answer would be the African-American businessman
who fell foul of Theo Galavan many episodes ago.
But it turns out that there were other villains in high ranks at Wayne Enterprises.
Back in Arkham, Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
) is working on a new project.
With the aid of the formula that Viktor Freeze created,
they might actually bring someone back from the dead.
And just like the Baron's assistant Igor (Marty Feldman) in
Young Frankenstein
they use the most abnormal brain they can find.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 19]
Wrath of the Villains: Azrael
Shown 02 May 16
Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
) sends his new creation, Azrael, after Gordon.
Armed only with a sword, bulletproof armour and superhuman strength and speed,
this dark angel of vengeance takes on the cops.
What Strange does not know is that two of his previous so-called successes have started to unravel.
Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) has shacked up with Butch and Ms Galavan in a weird menage a trois. Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) has spent the last few episodes in self-imposed exile,
locked in his mansion with the rotting corpse of his latest victim.
Ed Nygma is making lots of new friends in Arkham Asylum.
His trick is to treat everything like a puzzle.
Soon he has escaped from gen-pop and started to investigate Dr Strange's secrets.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 20]
Wrath of the Villains: Unleashed
Shown 09 May 16
Galavan (James Frain -
Invasion
) starts to pick off his old enemies.
Among them is his sister Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
), who decides to cooperate with Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) to save herself.
She also tries to talk some sense into Galavan,
although she overlooks the fact that if he remembers who she is
then he will remember how she betrayed him and left him for dead.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is out for blood, and Butch Gilzean has no love for Galavan either.
Will they get the band back together again?
Ed Nygma decides he does not want to be in Dr Strange's Asylum of Insanity any more.
Just as he is breaking out, Cat-girl (with a new hairstyle) breaks in
as a favour to Bruce Wayne.
It is ironic that he drove her out if his home to protect her,
but now he is sending her into harm's way again.
Galavan tries to fulfill his original mission - kill Bruce Wayne.
Unfortunately Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) has STILL failed to upgrade the security of Wayne Manor.
Admittedly he realises they can use the batcave as a safe room,
but his first idea is let's split up and make certain the windows are all closed.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 21]
Wrath of the Villains: A Legion of Horribles
Shown 16 May 16
Bruce Wayne sent Selina Kyle to infiltrate Arkham Asylum.
However, he does not know that she has run into her old buddy Firefly.
Worried when she does not return, he goes to Gordon for help.
Bruce and Lucius bluff their way into Arkham under the pretext of an inspection.
Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
) has a face-to-face with Bruce,
who finally gets to understand a bit more about his father's death.
Meanwhile, Gordon sneaks in disguised as a guard.
After all, he used to be a guard there so no wonder that he still has his old spare uniform.
Hugo Strange has an unexpected success with one of his test subjects.
It is a woman who was found floating dead in the polluted waters of the bay.
Now she is back from the dead, with her memories intact and a superpower as well.
Gotham [Season 2, Episode 22]
Wrath of the Villains: Transference
Shown 23 May 16
Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
) has his orders - take the monsters upstate and then blow up Arkham.
However, he has a few loose ends to tie up - Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox.
Also, one of the monsters has the power of brainwashing.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is back working with Butch, and Butch has teamed up with Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) again. Penguin gives them a tour of his family mansion,
and they team up to help defeat Professor Strange.
Firefly and Freeze have a face-off.
This is so much better-done than the scenes of the fire and ice characters in
Legends of Tomorrow
, another show based in the DC Universe.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 1]
Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell...
Shown 19 Sep 16
This starts a few months after the events of the previous Season.
However, a lot seems to have taken place in the intervening time.
Gordon has resigned from the police,
and works as a freelance bounty-hunter
single-handedly rounding up the escapees from Indian Heights.
Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
) is back in charge, under the oversight of the Mayor (Richard Kind).
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is senior detective,
and Lucius Fox has quit Wayne Enterprises to take Ed Nygma's CSI job.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is back working with Butch.
Unfortunately his crime empire is not as powerful
as it was at the start of Season Two.
His only friend is Ed Nygma, currently in Arkham.
Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
) has come out of her coma,
and rather than get back together with Butch
she has teamed up with Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
). Together they run the Sirens club,
which seemingly caters for a lipstick lesbian clientele.
Despite their former alliance with Penguin
they turn down the chance to be part of his crime family.
Cat-Girl is still hanging around, picking pockets.
However, as a Fish Mooney supporter she has chosen a side.
Unfortunately she has to choose between Fish and her pal Ivy.
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) has plans of her own.
She wants to take over Gotham.
Instead of just using her already-impressive band of meta-humans,
she wants to create an army of them!
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 2]
Mad City: Burn the Witch
Shown 26 Sep 16
Bruce Wayne finally gets to confront the Court of Owls.
They have all the power, he has nothing to threaten them with.
However, they agree to accept the status quo.
Gordon, freelance bounty-hunter,
is recruited to help the journalist Valerie Vale (
Jamie Chung
). They cannot find Fish's assistant Cat-Girl, so they ask Barbara (
Erin Richards
).
Fish Mooney (
Jada Pinkett Smith
) needs to locate Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). He is the only one who can possibly extend her limited life-span.
Unfortunately he is in Federal custody,
because the US Government wants him to share his findings.
Luckily, they have placed him a short drive away from Gotham.
Also, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) has been given the location.
He will not willingly betray this secret to his old buddy Fish,
but she will not hesitate to use her superpower to manipulate him.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) stirs up a lynch-mob against Fish and her crew of mutants.
It is actually quite disturbing to see how easily a sadistic mobster
can gain mass popular support on the streets of Gotham.
One of Fish's minions is a speedster - maybe not as fast as
The Flash
, but pretty much unstoppable.
How long will she last when the story requires that she gets written out?
Elsewhere, Ivy drags herself out of Gotham Bay.
Presumably the pollution has had an effect on her,
because she is now played by a more grown-up, womanly-looking actress.
A passing stranger invites her into his home for a drink of water.
How could this not end badly?
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 3]
Mad City: Look Into My Eyes
Shown 03 Oct 16
Jim Gordon, freelance bounty-hunter,
has hooked up with journalist Valerie Vale (
Jamie Chung
). She is the second actress from this show who ended up on
The Gifted
.
Jim's ex-girlfriend Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) and her new lover Tabitha (
Jessica Lucas
) audition a stage-hypnotist for their night club's cabaret.
Well, someone has to fill Fish Mooney's job from Season One.
Unfortunately the magician is a murderer with his own agenda.
Jim's other ex-girlfriend, Leslie, is back in town.
She gets her old job back from Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
). Her new fiance is also a doctor,
although he works in the hospital's emergency room.
He also has another link to the plot,
because his father was a recurring character in
Season One
.
Bruce Wayne lets his clone make himself at home.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) is cautious about allowing the stranger in.
However, it is the best way to uncover Professor Strange's plan.
Unfortunately it means Bruce cannot help Cat-girl look for Ivy.
However, the clone does not have Bruce's inhibitions.
Mayor James (Richard Kind) holds a press conference
to declare that his minions have made him Mayor again.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) gate-crashes, and states that he will oppose James in an election.
The stage-hypnotist is the Mad Hatter, and he is in town to find his sister - Alice.
She is one of the Indian Hills escapees,
although she has split off from Fish Mooney's gang.
Her body fluids are toxic, and people end up dead.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 4]
Mad City: New Day Rising
Shown 10 Oct 16
Gordon hands Alice over to the police, and gets his reward.
After all, he is a professional bounty hunter.
Unfortunately, Alice is not safe.
Her brother, the Mad Hatter, has a plan to steal her back.
This involves a family of hillbilly wrestlers,
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is running for Mayor of Gotham.
He gets Butch to bribe the election officials.
After all, this is the long-term accepted practice in the city of endemic corruption.
However, Ed Nygma wants to run a clean race.
He actually believes Penguin can win on his own merits.
Well, he cannot be worse than the current or previous Mayors.
Cat is still looking for Ivy.
She is happy to have Bruce Wayne along to help look.
How long will it take for her to realise that it is actually Bruce's clone?
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 5]
Mad City: Anything for You
Shown 17 Oct 16
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is now the Mayor, and he puts his power to good use.
His slogan is Make Gotham Safe Again.
However, a gang of Red Hood copy-cats is out to destroy all his good work.
Penguin has all his gangster minions meet up to discuss the Red Hood problem.
It seems the underworld is a lot smaller than it used to be -
natural shrinkage due to the Mob wars in the last few years.
Butch is still his right-hand man,
but he has Victor Zsaz and Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) among the under-bosses.
Unfortunately, it is like a medieval court
where everyone is plotting eagainst everyone else.
Penguin sends Ed Nygma to help the Police investigation.
They are all quite abrasive towards him,
even though he was their cow-orker
and helped them solve numerous murders.
Dr Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) even gets violent, then hides behind her father-in-law-to-be.
Jim Gordon, freelance bounty-hunter,
has a good thing going for him.
Not only has he hooked up with journalist Valerie Vale (
Jamie Chung
), he also gets hired by Bruce Wayne to locate Selina's missing friend Ivy.
They begin to put the clues together,
but nobody realises that the mysterious sexy redhead is actually Cat's old friend.
Things come to a head at Penguin's party, held at Barbara's club.
Everyone seems to have an agenda, except for Barbara
who is willing to sacrifice everyone (including her girlfriend)
in order to give herself a cheap laugh.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 6]
Mad City: Follow the White Rabbit
Shown 24 Oct 16
The Mad Hatter is still on the rampage.
He is after Gordon, who he blames for the death of his sister.
To do this he targets Gordon's love interests - journalist Valerie Vale (
Jamie Chung
) and Dr Lee (
Morena Baccarin
). Gordon musty make his choice between them.
And despite not having a movie budget,
so the hero must choose which ferry-boat or cable-car to save,
this turns out to be quite suspenseful.
Meanwhile, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) settles into his new duties as the Mayor.
Luckily he has Ed Nygma as his Chief of Staff,
so he can double-hat as Boss of the Underworld as well.
This might be for the best,
if the police can be ordered to ignore victimless crimes
and the Underworld can be convinced to cease using violence.
However, Penguin has other things on his mind.
He has never had a female love interest,
and now he has an unusual attachment to Nygma.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 7]
Mad City: Red Queen
Shown 31 Oct 16
The Mad Hatter is still on the loose.
He arms himself with a powerful hallucinogen named Red Queen,
and then infects Gordon with it.
Nygma tries to court his new love interest.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is jealous, and tries to interfere.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 8]
Mad City: Blood Rush
Shown 07 Nov 16
Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
) stumbles across Paulie Pennies,
a gangster who specialises in cleaning up other peoples' killings.
Unfortunately Barnes is mentally ill,
a result of the bio-toxin that has infected his bloodstream.
Barnes is not the only one with mental illness.
Nygma is overwhelmed by how much his new girlfriend
looks like his dead lover, Miss Kringle.
As a result he begins to halucinate.
Luckily he can turn to his old friend, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
).
Jim Gordon is back at the GCPD.
He and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) end up investigating Paulie Pennies.
Unfortunately, Barnes manages to do a much better job.
It turns out that there is a corrupt plastic surgeon
whose work rivals Dr Dollmacher's.
Ironic that he is a face-change specialist
and it seems that Nygma's girlfriend is too good to be true.
Dr Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) and her fiance have their engagement party at a fancy apartment
that has an interior as big as the Don's mansion.
Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) gatecrashes, just to mess with her.
Barnes has a face-to-face with Don Falcone.
There is no sign of Butch or his girlfriend this week,
even though they are both listed in the main title credits.
However, it seems that Penguin has found a replacement as his chief henchman.
Gabe, who he recruited when he was working for Falcone's rival,
is back in the big seat again!
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 9]
Mad City: The Executioner
Shown 14 Nov 16
Poison Ivy has been seducing rich men and then stealing their trinkets.
This is a bit creepy,
because she may have the body of a grown woman
but she still has the maturity of a young teenager.
Things go wrong for her, so she runs to Cat-girl and Bruce Wayne for help.
They end up on the run from crossbow-wielding henchmen.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) is nowhere to be seen.
Gordon investigates the mysterious and brutal murder of a suspect.
Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is elsewhere,
so Gordon reluctantly teams up with Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
). After all, Barnes is the main suspect.
Ed Nygma is distraught at the death of yet another girlfriend.
Nothing his best friend, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
), does can cheer him up.
Of course, Ed was once the best CSI in the GCPD.
He takes it upon himself to investigate the death.
It seems that Lucius Fox, his replacement,
must have been slacking off when he looked at the evidence.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 10]
Mad City: Time Bomb
Shown 21 Nov 16
Butch was meant to be on the run.
He did not even leave town,
just shacked up with his ex and stopped shaving.
Ed Nygma tracks them down and starts torturing them.
Barbara Kean (
Erin Richards
) realises Penguin is up to no good.
She soon gets to the heart of his nasty little secrets.
Poison Ivy ignores Alfred's advice, and sneaks out of Wayne Manor.
The bad news is, she gets held hostage by the crossbow men.
The good news is, Bruce discovers the nature of the mens' relationship to the Court of Owls.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 11]
Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster
Shown 28 Nov 16
Gordon knows that Falcone Junior has been infected with the psycho virus.
Unfortunately, nobody will believe him.
After all, Gordon's ex-girlfriend Dr Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) is about to marry the guy.
The crossbow men turn out to be Ukrainian smugglers, the Whisper Gang.
They have a grudge against the Court of Owls.
Unfortunately, the Owls have an assassin who can take them out with ease.
Bruce Wayne plans to take on the Court of Owls.
He wants to break into their HQ.
Luckily he has cat-girl on his side.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 12]
Mad City: Ghosts (42 min)
Shown 16 Jan 17
This was written by
Danny Cannon
, best known as a director of more straightforward crime dramas.
He seems a bit out of his depth here,
in a more surreal setting and in an episode themed on the supernatural.
Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) investigate the case of a woman who apparently came back from the dead.
They discover a cult that wants to resurrect Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
), the psychopathic killer who was murdered a year ago.
Gordon has other things to worry about.
Falcone puts a hit on him, to get vengeance for the death of Junior.
Victor Zsasz drops by to let Gordon know it is nothing personal.
Since Penguin has gone legit,
it almost seems that Falcone is the Godfather again.
Penguin has to adjust to life without Nygma.
The replacement books him a live TV interview.
Unfortunately, Penguin is haunted by the ghost of his father (
Peewee's Big Adventure
). Worse, the old man's body has been stolen.
Has it been reanimated?
Well, it is basically just a skeleton,
even though he has been buried for less time than Jerome.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 13]
Mad City: Smile Like You Mean It
Shown 23 Jan 17
It turns out that the body of Jerome (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) was preserved among the Indian Hills evidence.
Now Dwight, the mad scientist, steals it.
He has appointed himself leader of Jerome's Cult.
Barbara blames Tommy Bones (James Andrew O'Connor -
), who has taken over Moroni's Mob.
The result?
Penguin orders a massive gang war.
Meanwhile, even though the city has TWO civil wars starting up,
Bruce Wayne has a domestic drama to worry about.
Cat-girl's mother Maria Kyle (
Ivana Milicevic
) is in town.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 14]
Mad City: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Shown 30 Jan 17
Jerome (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) is back from the dead, and on a rampage.
It seems that Nygma's undermining of Penguin's Mayorship
has reduced the city's population to leaderless fools.
Jim Gordon takes command of the Police, despite Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) being the actual Captain.
This might make sense if Gordon was still Commissioner,
but that storyline has been long forgotten about.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) does not care about Jerome or the Mayorship.
Instead he obsesses about his role as leader of the Underworld.
Unfortunately, he has to worry about his old buddy Ed Nygma.
Butch and Tabitha finally meet up with Penguin again.
They are very ungrateful,
despite how well he treated them in the past.
Instead they give Penguin a choice.
Will he continue to profess his love for Nygma,
despite the latter's intention of killing him?
Bruce Wayne has problems of his own.
Wayne Manor's gates have been repaired after the climax of the previous Season,
but there is no sign of any actual security.
Yes, even though they have a perimeter wall and a safe-room (the bat-cave)
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) the ex-soldier has not bothered to use his Special Forces skills to lock the place down..
Jerome kidnaps Bruce Wayne, and takes him to a Circus.
Yes, this has all the hallmarks of a classic Joker story.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 15]
Heroes Rise: How The Riddler Got His Name
Shown 24 Apr 17
Ed Nygma is losing his sanity after losing Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
). Instead of taking over the Underworld,
he sets out in search of a life-coach.
Presumably Barbara has now taken over the Underworld,
because there is no mention of her (or Butch and Tabitha).
Gordon is off on vacation,
bonding with his long-lost Uncle Frank (James Remar -
). As a result, Harvey is back in charge as Police Captain.
He relies on Lucius Fox to solve Nygma's riddles.
Bruce Wayne has not gotten over Selina Kyle.
He gets a message that is apparently from her,
so he goes to the bad part of town to find her.
Well, the town's good part is not the big part.
What happened to Penguin? Also, what has Poison Ivy been doing lately?
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 16]
Heroes Rise: How the Penguin Lost His Power AKA These Delicate And Dark Concessions
Shown 01 May 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) wants to build an army, so he has Ivy call Gabe the gangster.
Ivy does not trust Gabe, but Oswald learns the loyalty of his minions.
Jim realises someone had his father killed.
He pays a house-call to Don Falcone,
who is still living in the Gotham area for some reason.
Then he closes in on long-lost Uncle Frank (James Remar -
).
It turns out that the Court of Owls is planning to destroy Gotham.
Gordon cannot investigate using police assets,
and he believes his old buddy Oswald to be dead.
As a result he turns to the new ruler of the underworld - Barbara!
A Shaman tries to help Bruce overcome the pain of his parents' deaths.
Even though they are in somewhere that looks like the Himalayas,
the Shaman is the old white man from
The 100: Season 2
.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 17]
Heroes Rise: The Outsiders AKA The Primal Riddle
Shown 08 May 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Ivy set out to create an army of freaks.
They try to recruit Dr Freeze and Firefly,
two of the heavy hitters from the Indian Hills freak factory.
This is oddly similar to what Fish Mooney tried,
before Penguin whipped up anti-freak prejudice in order to get himself elected.
Barbara wants to find out the truth about the mission Gordon sent her on last week.
She sends Nygma out to solve the riddle - who really controls Gotham city?
He goes on a massive crime-spree, including kidnapping Mayor James (Richard Kind).
This does not make Butch and Tabitha happy,
since they care more about revenge on Nygma than about making Barbara happy.
The Bruce Wayne clone is fitting into his new role.
Unfortunately his nosebleeds are getting worse,
so he is nearing his sell-by date.
Selina Kyle is still hanging out in the slums.
Her own origin story as Cat-Woman takes another step
in a pair of scenes that mirror the first time she committed murder
and an iconic scene from
Batman Returns
.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 18]
Heroes Rise: Meant to Be AKA Light The Wick
Shown 15 May 17
The Court of Owls' plan is to unleash the rage virus on Gotham.
Of course, the only scientist willing and able to extract it from Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
) and weaponise it is Dr Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). This will literally result in a
28 Days Later
scenario, so how they intend to contain it is not explained.
However, they have a list of friends and family who will be protected from the outbreak.
Ivy visits the lesbian bar in search of Cat-Girl.
She bumps into Tabitha,
and they have a conversation that ensures this episode passes the Bechdel test.
Luckily someone must have found Cat-Girl before she died,
because she is now in Gotham General Hospital.
The attending physician is also a woman,
so this leads to a second Bechdel-positive conversation.
Of course, since Ivy was able to save Penguin she is the best healer in town.
Except for Dr Strange, who literally raised the dead.
Oswald and his new minions are back in town.
Since Nygma is missing, Oswald goes after the most powerful player in sight.
Yes, he ignores Barbara and Butch, and goes straight after the Court of owls.
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
), the Medical Examiner, declares Uncle Gordon's death to be a homicide.
We the audience know the true facts, but all she has to go on is conjecture.
After all, she prefers to assume the worst of Jim Gordon.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 19]
Heroes Rise: Scarred Absence AKA All Will Be Judged!
Shown 22 May 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Riddler are in adjoining cages, courtesy of the Court of Owls.
Why they have been kept alive is not explained.
However, they must work together in order to escape.
Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) follow their only lead on the Court of Owls.
Unfortunately the Court has deployed the now-insane Captain Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis -
Fantastic Four
) as their executioner.
Dr Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) is still torn by the loss of her love interest.
She visits Arkham, to get the truth out of the Mad Hatter.
Bruce Wayne is back in Gotham.
His mentor is not a servant of the Court, he is the power behind the throne.
It turns out that just as the Court intends to cleanse Gotham,
so do the powers-that-be intend to cleanse the Court.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 20]
Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine
Shown 29 May 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Ivy are reduced to hanging out in a safe-house.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) interrogates Dr Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
).
Bruce Wayne's mentor plans to unleash the virus on Gotham.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 21]
Heroes Rise: Destiny Calling
Shown 05 Jun 17
The virus has been unleashed on Gotham.
The only one who can make a cure is Dr Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
), who has gone on the run.
Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) go after him.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) interrogates Dr Strange.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) interrogates Bruce Wayne.
Gotham [Season 3, Episode 22]
Heroes Rise: HeavyDirtySoul
Shown 12 Jun 17
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) has taken the virus and turned evil.
The signs are all there - she has dark eye make-up and great cleavage.
Her evil plan is to bury Gordon alive
so he must fall to the Dark Side in order to save himself.
There are lots of double crosses.
Seriously, this is almost nothing but.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 1]
A Dark Knight: Pax Penguina
Shown 21 Sep 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is once again the undisputed King of Gotham.
He introduces a form of licensing for criminals,
reminiscent of the Guild-based system of Ankh-Morpork in the
Discworld
series.
Everyone in Gotham seems to accept the new system.
The exception is Gordon, who wants to get rid of Penguin.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 2]
A Dark Knight: The Fear Reaper
Shown 28 Sep 17
Ever since Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) took over the Sirens night-club
and turned it into the Iceberg lounge,
Selina and Tabitha have been at a loose end.
They get invited to join a new criminal enterprise.
An old frenemy has been revived and bankrolled by an unknown person.
Gordon discovers the Scarecrow has started a riot at Arkham Asylum and is now running the place.
As always, Gordon has to go in and sort it out single-handed.
Ivy feels underappreciated as Penguin's henchwoman.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 3]
A Dark Knight: They Who Hide Behind Masks
Shown 05 Oct 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) smuggles some antiquities into town for an auction.
The prize item is the dagger of Ras Al Ghul.
Barbara sends cat-girl out to steal it,
but ends up having to bid for it at the auction.
Bruce Wayne goes along to bid on it as well.
Gordon goes south and pays an unexpected visit to Don Falcone (John Doman),
in the hope of starting a gang-war that will tear Gotham apart.
The Don refuses, but his daughter Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
) decides to go along with Gordon.
Penguin has other things to worry about.
Ed Nygma has a die-hard fan who defrosts him.
But the former Riddler has lost his mojo.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 4]
A Dark Knight: The Demon's Head
Shown 12 Oct 17
Ras Al Ghul (Alexander Siddig -
Star Trek: DS9
) makes his appearance.
He wants the dagger back,
and will kill anyone who gets in the way.
Ed Nygma tries to become the Riddler again.
However, without his mojo he cannot make any good riddles.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 5]
A Dark Knight: The Blade's Path
Shown 19 Oct 17
Ras Al Ghul (Alexander Siddig -
Star Trek: DS9
) has diplomatic immunity.
However, before the paperwork gets processed he is taken to Blackgate Prison
and locked in the kind of massive perspex box
normally reserved for Hannibal Lector.
Bruce Wayne tries to break in,
to kill him as an act of revenge.
Butch Gilzean, left for dead,
is dumped in a swamp full of chemicals from the Indian Hills site.
He gets reanimated as Solomon Grundy, a lumbering semi-zombie,
and befriends the brain-damaged Ed Nygma.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 6]
A Dark Knight: Hog Day Afternoon
Shown 26 Oct 17
Grundy and Nygma team up with Lee (
Morena Baccarin
), who is paying penance for her sins last Season
by providing medical care to the unfortunates
in the worst neighbourhood of the city.
Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
) is still gaslighting Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
). She uses the same classic methods that Fish Mooney used against Don Falcone in
Season One
. Penguin will be equally unforgiving.
With Ras Al Ghul out of the way,
Gordon has a new villain to chase after.
This one calls himself Professor Pyg,
and he is a vigilante serial-killer who kills corrupt cops.
Specifically, anyone who works as a bag-man for Penguin.
The storyline is reminiscent of
Se7en
, and is the darkest thing we've seen in the show so far.
Normally violence on TV is depicted against supernatural creatures such as vampires,
but this time the victims are mere humans
and the manner of their deaths is quite gruesome.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 7]
A Dark Knight: A Day in the Narrows
Shown 02 Nov 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) always does the opposite of what Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
) says.
Since Professor Pyg is targeting Penguin's corrupt cops,
our favourite ex-Mayor decides to help Gordon.
Since Victor Szazs is out of town on a family emergency,
and Viktor Freeze has not been seen for a few weeks,
he sends in a two-gun bounty-hunter.
With Ras Al Ghul gone,
the Sirens do not have a financier any more.
Cat-girl comes up with a new scheme.
She wants to rob the paying customers.
Bruce Wayne starts to hang out with kids his own age.
Other than Cat-girl, that is.
Unfortunately one is the boy who Bruce gave a beating to in
Season One
, so these kids might be a bad influence on him.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 8]
A Dark Knight: Stop Hitting Yourself
Shown 09 Nov 17
Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) has to take the blame for the fiasco in the previous episode.
Gordon gets offered the Captaincy,
but is reluctant to accept.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) decides to kill two birds with one stone.
He sends the Sirens into the Narrows district
with orders to capture Ed Nygma alive
and hand him over for torture and execution.
While his henchwomen are off doing his dirty work,
Penguin hangs out in Sofia's orphanage.
He befriends a small boy named Martine,
who is afflicted with a speech disability.
Is Penguin being suckered into Sofia's plot?
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 9]
A Dark Knight: Let Them Eat Pie
Shown 16 Nov 17
Professor Pyg has dropped the Professor from his name,
and just gets called The Pig this week.
Well, that is what happens to supervillains who choose their own name.
The Pig murders a bunch of homeless people,
then bakes their organs into pies.
He has managed to get himself the catering contract for a charity gala dinner at Sofia's orphanage.
Gordon is the newly appointed Captain.
Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) sulks, and takes a couple of weeks leave.
Instead of getting his whole department sorted out,
Gordon refuses to risk any more police lives.
After all, #BlueLivesMatter.
Gordon basically wants to take the Pig in singlehandedly.
And if any nameless henchmen get in the way,
he is more than happy to gun them down without mercy.
Bruce Wayne is still suffering from post-murder tension.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) tries to bond with him by taking him on a camping trip.
However, young Master Wayne wants to go on a party spree.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 10]
A Dark Knight: Things That Go Boom
Shown 30 Nov 17
Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
), would-be Queen of Gotham's underworld,
is caught out by Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
). It was bound to happen sooner or later.
However, she is more cunning than she appears.
The Sirens want to get leverage on Penguin too.
How many female gangsters are there in Gotham these days?
Especially ones who have slept with Jim Gordon.
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) is now the new Queen of the Narrows.
The locals all love her,
because she gives free medical care to them
and is not a violent gangster like her predecessor.
Unfortunately another gangster, Samson,
wants to muscle in on her territory.
Luckily she has Nygma and Grundy to help her out.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 11]
A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight
Shown 07 Dec 17
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) has declared war on Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
). Her father Don Falcone returns to Gotham.
He agrees to make a deal with Penguin -
the same one that Gordon made.
However, an unknown shooter intervenes to end the deal.
Thanks to Gordon's actions,
the GCPD will no longer do Penguin's bidding.
However, all Sofia's actions have been intended to get Gordon to kill Penguin himself.
Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) offers a new suggestion -
attack all Penguin's businesses, kill his gangsters,
and then arrest him when he fights back.
With the arms business destroyed,
the Sirens want to get their old bar back.
Yes, Oswald's Iceberg Lounge will be no more.
Tabitha would rather have Butch back,
so she kidnaps Grundy and tries to torture him into remembering her.
Bruce Wayne is still on a party spree.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) tries to sober him up.
Nygma is physically cured, but still mentally damaged.
Can he resist the Riddler personality from taking him over again?
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 12]
A Dark Knight: Pieces of a Broken Mirror
Shown 01 Mar 18
Out of the whole of the city of Gotham,
everything this week kicks off in a tiny neighbourhood called The Narrows.
Gordon goes there looking for Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
), and instead bumps into another recently unemployed former ally
- Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
).
Ivy (
Peyton List
) wakes up and hatches out of her coccoon.
Just like
The Terminator
, she murders someone and steals his clothes.
Luckily he is dressed in clothes identical to the ones she climbed out of the river in.
She is now ten years older and three inches shorter
than she was when she accidentally coccooned herself.
There is good news, and there is bad news.
On the one hand,
she is the living embodiment of poison ivy
and can literally kill with a touch.
On the other hand,
she has forgotten everything except her first name
and that she had a troubled relationship with Cat-Girl.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 13]
A Dark Knight: A Beautiful Darkness
Shown 08 Mar 18
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) has spent the last six weeks as an inmate at Arkham.
Yes, instead of giving him a trial for murder and sending him to Blackgate Prison,
they just threw him into his old cell in the asylum.
With Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
) gone, Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) is now in charge.
And he is obsessed with Penguin as his new project.
Penguin's only friend, or the nearest thing, is Ed Nygma
who pays him a visit in order to boast.
Ivy (
Peyton List
) goes on a murder spree.
She goes after top-level scientists who work at Wayne Enterprises.
They are running a secret project,
and it turns out that Lucius Fox was moonlighting for them.
Also, he managed to fit in time for night-classes
so he could become a black-belt in Ju-Jitsu.
Ivy targets Bruce Wayne, and puts him in a halucinogenic coma.
He has become a wastrel, like a character in The Great Gatsby,
and wishes Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) was still around to look after him.
Not that it would have done any good,
because Wayne Manor never had security even when the ex-SAS butler was in charge.
At least Bruce had the brains to give some of the Lazarus Pit's water to Lucius,
and start a proper scientific investigation into it.
And the old Bruce might be on his way back,
because his coma vision allows him to see his true self.
Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
) is still pulling the strings behind the Gotham Underworld.
She is the boss of the two underbosses - Jim's other two ex-lovers.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 14]
A Dark Knight: Reunion
Shown 15 Mar 18
The Doc pays a visit to her sister-in-law, Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
). They have a lot in common, since they are both ex-lovers of James Gordon.
Ivy (
Peyton List
) is still on the loose.
She is after Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) for killing her father,
even if daddy was an alcoholic thug and Bullock only did it to save Gordon.
Naturally, the villains target the Wayne Foundation's charity ball.
Bruce Wayne takes the stage,
and announces that his charity successfully distributed four million dollars.
This is a drop in the ocean when it comes to running Gotham.
Can he actually make a difference, and convince Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) to return?
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 15]
A Dark Knight: The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause
Shown 22 Mar 18
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) begins his fight back.
After all, he has gotten his first real ally. Well, sort-of-ally.
Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) also want to take down Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
). They go after the book-keeper,
the one man who knows everything about organised crime in the city.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 16]
A Dark Knight: One of My Three Soups
Shown 29 Mar 18
Sofia Falcone (
Crystal Reed
) is in a coma, and her story arc is over.
The big bad of the Season's story arc now Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
).
Mad Hatter overcomes the guards.
This is stage one of Jerome's plan.
The inmates take over Arkham, and then stage a mass breakout.
Mad Hatter hypnotises a bunch of people,
and arranges them to jump off roof-tops at a pre-arranged time.
Gordon must find a way to stop them.
To increase the tension, someone we care about
- in this case Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) - is among the hypnosis victims.
Jerome has a plan of his own.
While the others distract the police,
he goes after his uncle.
Unfortunately the uncle is a bigger thug than Jerome.
Bruce Wayne feels guilty for sparing Jerome's life.
He takes responsibility, and goes out to catch him.
Selena is with him - in spirit.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 17]
A Dark Knight: Mandatory Brunch Meeting
Shown 05 Apr 18
Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) holds a meeting for all the major supervillains in town.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) comes along to bend the knee, although the Riddler is absent.
The Riddler has stayed out of Jerome's insane takeover of Gotham.
Instead he runs a club in the Narrows.
This is not just a simple fight-to-the-death club,
it is more of a battle-of-wits club.
Challengers must engage him in a game of riddles.
Doctor Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) pays him a visit, to make him bend the knee to her.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) goes along with Jerome's plan.
However, he realises he cannot control Gotham if Jerome destroys it.
As a result, he plays both sides against each other
and he makes a secret deal with Butch.
Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) discover that Jerome is after someone called Xander Wilde.
It now becomes a race against time to find this person.
They discover he is a reclusive billionaire with a female bodyguard, Ecco (
Francesca Root-Dodson
).
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 18]
A Dark Knight: That's Entertainment
Shown 12 Apr 18
Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) has his team kidnap the city council,
hijack the Gotham Music festival,
and fill a blimp with Scarecrow's crazy gas.
Yes, he is the Joker in all but name.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) goes along with Jerome's plan.
However, he realises he cannot control Gotham if Jerome destroys it.
As a result, he plays both sides against each other
and he makes a secret deal with Gordon.
Strangely, Butch is nowhere to be seen.
Barbara has become obsessed with her new role as head of the League of Assassins.
Tabitha, once the senior assassin of a similar cult, is less than happy about this.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 19]
A Dark Knight: To Our Deaths and Beyond
Shown 19 Apr 18
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) has teamed up with Riddler.
He robs banks for her, and she donates the money to charitable causes.
Well, if Gotham's government worked then she wold not have to.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) involves himself in the conspiracy, with intent of ripping them off.
After all, he needs money to pay for Butch's medical treatment.
It is not cheap, arranging for de-zombification.
But who will double-cross who?
Tabitha has teamed up with the faction of the League
which is still loyal to the old leader, Ras Al Ghul.
They need Bruce Wayne's blood so they can raise Ras from the dead.
The good news is that Ras is disappointed that Barbara has squandered the gift he gave her,
and wants to reclaim his magic from her.
The bad news is that she refuses to give it up.
The regular characters seem to side with Barbara,
even though she has become the insane leader of a murderous cult.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 20]
A Dark Knight: That Old Corpse
Shown 03 May 18
Jerome Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) sends a message to his followers,
ordering them to invade the GCPD station.
Gordon knows this is a distraction,
but he has to work out what the real target is.
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) turned herself in to Gordon.
Now her rejects Bullock's suggestion that they let her walk away,
even though Gordon has done worse things himself.
In fact, Gordon is willing to torture one of Jerome's followers
in order to get info as to Jerome's real target.
In comparison, Riddler is the most altruistic person
because he wants to save Lee.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Butch have been hiding out in Moroni's mansion.
Now they have the opportunity to get back in the game.
Bruce Wayne meets with Jeremiah,
who was exposed to Jerome's insanity gas.
They are developing a next-generation power supply,
ignoring the fact they can be weaponised as in
Dark Knight Rises
.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 21]
A Dark Knight: One Bad Day
Shown 10 May 18
Gordon is MIA, so Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) is the Acting Captain.
This is unpopular with the rank-and-file,
because of the losses they took under his previous tenure.
Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) distracts the police with his bombs,
giving them six hours to evacuate the entire city.
The poorest people, the citizens of the Narrows,
will be the ones worst affected.
Luckily they have Lee and Riddler to protect them.
Jeremiah has his men torture Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) in order to hurt Bruce.
As the episode's title indicates, this has shades of
The Killing Joke
. To push things to the next level,
the Scarecrow has been recruited to drug Bruce and Alfred.
Luckily Selina is still Bruce's friend.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) takes Butch to Barbara with the offer of an alliance.
He is the man with the plan, she is the woman with the muscle.
Tabitha agrees, because she wants to hire Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
), the only one who can help Butch.
Riddler, Lee, Barbara and Penguin are all willing
to save Gotham in exchange for a Pardon.
The best Gordon is willing to do is to order Lee to leave town.
That is, after he double-crosses her and undermines her relationship with Riddler.
Gotham [Season 4, Episode 22]
A Dark Knight: No Man's Land
Shown 17 May 18
Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) is in police custody.
However, he still has bombs hidden around the city.
He will only reveal their locations if he gets to speak with Bruce Wayne.
Gordon refuses, since it is obviously a trap.
Then the military take over the city.
Ed Nygma is still in town.
Instead of helping Gordon to save the city,
he wants to remove Gordon so he can have Lee Tompkins (
Morena Baccarin
) to himself.
Ras Al Ghul (Alexander Siddig -
Star Trek: DS9
) is manipulating things.
He had a vision of Gotham in flames,
which must come to pass so that Bruce can become the Dark Knight.
Since Gordon and the others prevented it from happening,
he must now directly interfere in order to make his prophecy self-fulfilling.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 1]
Year Zero
Shown 3rd January 2019
The story starts on day 371 of No Man's Land.
Yes, it has been over a year since the events of the previous Season.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
), Riddler and Jim Gordon arm up for battle.
Strangely, they are all on the same side -
protecting Gotham from an invading force of outsiders.
The main story is on day 89.
Three months after the bridges were destroyed,
the city has been taken over by the different gangs.
Penguin has City Hall, and has declared himself Mayor again.
In all fairness, he was elected Mayor a few years ago
so he has about as much right to it as anyone.
He also has a factory that can make pistol ammunition.
Barbara and the Sirens control the food supply.
She is willing to trade food for ammo,
which is good news for Penguin because his workers are starving to death.
Unfortunately Tabitha is still angry about the revenge Penguin took on her.
She is unwilling to say that they are even,
and Barbara is obsessed with Tabby even though Tabby chose Butch over her.
Selina is in hospital with a severed spine.
The nurses are dressed in World War One era uniforms.
This could be a reference to the Depression-era storyline of food queues,
or just another example of the production designer's retro chic.
When Scarecrow's gang raids the hospital for supplies,
Bruce Wayne arranges replacement supplies brought in.
Nobody has seen Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) in months.
But someone is out there with enough firepower to shoot down a helicopter.
There is a blonde girl hanging around - is she meant to be Harley Quinn?
She is Jeremiah's female bodyguard, Ecco (
Francesca Root-Dodson
).
Storylines get tied up, and old characters get written out so new ones can be introduced.
This is the origin story for
Batman
, after all, so it must begin to conform to the existing storylines.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 2]
Trespassers
Shown 10th January 2019
Jim takes Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) and some tough cops across town to save some kids from slavery.
It is basically
Escape from New York (1981)
, but since this and the previous episode were directed by
Danny Cannon
we can expect a more movie-esque feel to things.
Ironically he is returning to his comic-book roots,
since his first Hollywood movie was
Judge Dredd (1996)
.
Bruce Wayne gives up on goes looking for The Witch.
He discovers Ivy (
Peyton List
), who has been imprisoned by some vigilantes.
They say she has gone on a murderous rampage,
but Bruce wants to see the good in her.
He ignores the murders she committed in the previous Season,
and trusts her - if only because it is the only way to help Selina.
The bad news is that the cure may turn Selina into a super-villain.
This is sort of a trope in SciFi shows.
Ed Nygma has been sleep-walking, and now discovers why.
He has been possessed by the Riddler,
who wants to start a war with Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
).
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 3]
Penguin, Our Hero
Shown 17th January 2019
A number of plotlines start to pay off.
Selina finally embraces her feline nature, brought out by Ivy's medicine.
She teams up with Bruce Wayne to go after Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
). They head to the Dark Zone, a formerly posh area
where the Arkham inmates have gone care-in-the-community.
The locals dress like the mutant gang in Dark Knight Returns.
Selina has not had much to do lately,
but this episode she gets a couple of fight scenes.
Her stunt double gets a serious work-out:
first against the mutant and then against Jeremiah's female bodyguard, Ecco (
Francesca Root-Dodson
).
Riddler's plan to set the other gangs against Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) backfires.
They team up against the mutual enemy - Jim Gordon!
Yes, GCPD's willingness to give a safe haven to refugees
means that people defect from all across the city.
Penguin and the gangs want the civilians to work in exchange for food,
while Gordon and GCPD just ration the food and give it out for free.
This may make Gordon a nice guy, but it hardly makes Panguin a villain.
Penguin's problem has always been his failure to command personal loyalty.
As such, he has been repeatedly betrayed and double-crossed.
Luckily, he always manages to team up with someone else.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 4]
Ruin
Shown 24th January 2019
In the aftermath of the Haven bombing, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) offers to team up with Gordon and the GCPD.
Yes, ever since Gordon was proven incapable of protecting people
they defected back to Penguin again.
Penguin does not even bother to ask for Gordon to publicly recognise his status as Mayor.
Ed Nygma needs a folder from the GCPD archives.
Unfortunately he is persona non grata there
on account of him being a crazy serial killer.
He reluctantly agrees to help Lucius Fox solve the bombing.
It turns out that the bomber was the rocket-man who shot down the chopper.
This means that Zasz might actually have the perfect alibi.
Gordon's chief suspect in the bombing is victor Zasz.
Penguin is unwilling to let due process take place.
He holds a trial for Zasz at the City Hall,
where he even has a gillotine installed.
The citizens are on Penguin's side again.
If Gordon put it to a vote, Oswald Copplepot would be the legitimate Mayor.
Selina goes after Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) on her own.
Bruce Wayne and Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) go after her
in the hope of saving her from herself.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 5]
Pena Dura
Shown 31 Jan 19
Gordon and Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) team up with a Delta Force unit
led by Gordon's old army buddy, Eduardo (Shane West - Nikita).
These soldiers usually shoot to kill,
so they are not really the best people for a police action.
Their arrival is the first sign of support from the Federal Government in three months.
Instead of working for FEMA, they are on a Special Ops mission
under command of someone called Walker (
Jaime Murray
). This apparent abandonment by the Feds is not unexpected.
In fact, Gotham city is an example of America's laisse faire capitalist system in action.
It could only exist if the Mayor was a corrupt villain like Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) who lowered taxes on the rich and destroyed the police from within.
Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) has been left for dead, and Selina has gone missing.
Bruce Wayne thinks that she only became a murderer because of Jeremiah,
but she killed Alfred's friend back in Season Two.
He goes looking for her, and finds her at Sirens.
She has gone off the rails, as Bruce did after he killed Ras Al Ghul the first time.
Nygma goes on the run, with a lynch mob after him,
and falls foul of some hillbillies with a home-made electric chair.
He blames Penguin for his difficulties,
but then learns that he received medical treatment from Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). Maybe someone paid Strange to mess with Nygma's mind.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 6]
The Air is Getting Slippery AKA 13 Stitches
Shown 14 Feb 19
Eduardo (Shane West - Nikita) has Lee (
Morena Baccarin
). Well, she was last seen with Nygma undergoing the same treatment from Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). This leads up to a confrontation with Gordon.
Luckily for him, Walker (
Jaime Murray
) is around and has a backup plan.
Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) and the cops are held hostage by Delta Force.
Nygma gets recruited to save the day.
Unfortunately Bullock hates Nygma more than he hates the guys holding him hostage,
and actually attempts to do everything he can to prevent his own rescue.
Bruce Wayne and Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) are taken into custody by Delta Force.
Can an old man and a boy take on a couple of Tier One Special Forces operators?
Well, they can if the plot demands it.
Similarly, if the plot demands that Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) survived the stabbing
and then manages to defeat ex-SAS soldier Alfred,
it will somehow happen to turn out exactly that way.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) may be the Mayor again, but he spends his time hoarding jewels from burglaries.
Yes, he ignores true power and focuses on petty crime.
Unfortunately another petty crook - a burglar girl who calls herself Magpie -
decides to steal some of his stash.
Luckily his favourite cat-burglar, Selina Kyle,
is sick of having to constantly defend her title as the biggest hard-ass in Gotham.
She agrees to partner up with him.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 7]
Ace Chemicals
Shown 21 Feb 19
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) is still missing.
Bruce Wayne goes looking for him,
and gets led into a trap set by Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
). It turns out that the tunnel under the river comes out inside Wayne Manor.
Yes, somehow the Joker manages to NOT tunnel into the bat-cave by mistake.
Talk about jump-the-shark moments!
Selina Kyle has agreed to help Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) get out of town.
However, since she was Tabitha's friend she plans to help Barbara stage a double-cross.
Lee (
Morena Baccarin
) agrees to help Gordon investigate a crime in the Narrows.
Despite the fact that she was recently the Queen of that district,
she decides to keep out of sight from her former minions.
There seems to be a lot of re-writing.
Gordon also hooked up with Barbara, who now claims to be pregnant.
Yes, Gordon has a lop of soap opera going on.
Rather than have the Joker obsess about Batman,
this episode has Jeremiah obsess about Bruce Wayne.
Somehow, young Bruce's admiration for Zorro is now public knowledge.
Almost as if Jeremiah senses Bruce's destiny
long before Batman has become a solid idea in anyone's head.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 8]
Nothing's Shocking
Shown 28 Feb 19
This is like a gothic horror story more than anything.
There are three storylines,
each shot with a level of suspense and gore
far beyond anything this show has had previously.
Alfred feels guilty about showing perceived weakness in the previous episode.
He finds a new hobby for himself and Bruce Wayne - helping the hopeless.
They venture into some creepy underground tunnels
in search of a missing man who was abducted by some kind of monster.
Riddler and Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) get held prisoner by a familiar face
who is now yet another insane supervillain - the Ventriloquist.
There are a couple of violent on-screen deaths,
and while they are shootings they are of the excessively violent blood-squib type as per
Django Unchained
.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 9]
The Trial of Jim Gordon
Shown 07 Mar 19
Someone takes a shot at Gordon.
While he is in a coma,
he has a nightmare that he is on trial for failing the city.
Bullock (Donal Logue -
Vikings
) tries to solve the crime.
He blames Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Barbara, even though they were helping Gordon.
It turns out that a couple of other villains have gone back to their old ways,
even though they were most recently seen on relatively good terms with the heroes.
Lucius Fox has managed to fix the city's water filtration system.
Unfortunately, Poison Ivy wants to kill all humans.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 10]
I Am Bane
Shown 21 Mar 19
Eduardo (Shane West - Nikita) is back from the dead, courtesy of Hugo Strange (BD Wong -
Jurassic Park
). While the previous undead meta-humans had random powers,
this time Hugo has a more specific goal.
He turns Eduardo into a super-soldier ... Bane!
Barbara is about to give birth.
Yes, it is nine months since her hook-up with Gordon a couple of episodes ago.
Lee agrees to help with the medical procedure.
Bane turns up to capture Barbara and the child.
Luckily, she has taken the precaution of getting leverage on Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Riddler.
They must keep her alive, or their plan to escape Gotham is over.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 11]
They Did What?
Shown 18 Apr 19
This episode starts up where the first episode of the Season teased us.
Eduardo (Shane West - Nikita) and his army have the city under siege.
They are armed with M-16 rifles rather than more modern M-4 carbines -
typical of the show's somewhat retro production design.
Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) and Riddler join forces with Gordon and the GCPD.
Bruce Wayne has a plan.
He and Selina can do what Ras Al Gul tried to do in the previous Season -
destroy Wayne Tower in order to seal off the city from the outsiders.
Gotham [Season 5, Episode 12]
The Beginning...
Shown 25 Apr 19
Ten years after the events of the previous episode,
everything seems to have settled down in Gotham.
Gordon and Lee are together again,
while Barbara has gone legit and shared custody of her daughter.
Bruce Wayne abandoned everyone so he could walk the Earth.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee -
Event Horizon
) and Lucius seem to have done an okay job in the meantime,
as if Wayne Enterprises and its main buildings are running again.
Unfortunately they seem to have neglected Selina -
although all her friends have gone straight, she is now a cat-burglar.
Despite now looking like the actress from
Bone Tomahawk
, she is still recognisable from her unchanged hairstyle.
Riddler has spent the last ten years in Arkham,
along with Jeremiah Velaska (Cameron Monaghan -
Paradise Highway
) - who is in a permanent vegetative state.
Someone breaks Riddler out,
and sets him up with enough explosives to destroy a small building.
It looks like Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor -
Walking Dead
) is responsible,
but Penguin gets paroled and only wants revenge on Gordon.
