Gotham Recap: “Anything For You”
Things got rather hectic in Gotham this week, well a bit more hectic than usual, actually. The beginning of Oswald’s term as mayor isn’t exactly smooth; Butch and Ed Nygma find that they don’t play well together. Gordon gets a new client and Bruce and Selina come to an understanding about their relationship. That kind of sums it up rather quickly but the actual goings-on are a bit more intricate.
As things open up, we find Mayor Cobblepot memorializing his late mother by dedicating a statue to her memory. The ceremony, on the steps of city hall, suffers a bit of an interruption when the Red Hood gang shows up and starts raining lead all over. They even manage to shoot the head off the statue. Alas poor Gertrude, stabbed in real life and now decapitated in memoriam. She just can’t escape the violence now can she. All of this, of course, leaves our man Oswald in a right state. He wastes no time ordering justice to be served upon the heathens that represent the newest threat to his regime of law and order. After all he did run on a platform to ‘Make Gotham Safe Again’. Such pipe dreams. Oswald’s desire for revenge knows no bounds as he meets with the city’s crime lords and delivers their marching orders concerning the Red Hood gang. “I want them found and their leader’s head brought to me on a spike before night,” he demands.
As the cops put their efforts into finding the mayor’s new enemies as well, Capt. Barnes and his bunch find they have a new liaison from the mayor’s office to answer to, Ed Nygma, Oswald’s chief of staff. He’ll be personally overseeing the investigation. Barnes and Bullock try to carry on with their jobs despite this annoying presence. They aren’t the only ones who are not pleased to find Nygma skulking around the precinct. Lucious Fox, who’s taken over Ed’s old forensics job, is also not too pleased to see his predecessor. But working together they come up with some definitive clues, from evidence, concerning the gang and their whereabouts. Ed also crosses paths with another of his old co-workers, Lee Thompkins. And while Barnes, Bullock and fox can only voice their displeasure at Ed being back, Lee displays hers in a more physical manner. She cold cocks Nygma with a nice right to the jaw. She hasn’t forgotten that he murdered Kristin Kringle. She also lets him know that she’s engaged to the son of retired crime kingpin Carmine Falcone. “I so much as whisper to him and you disappear,” she tells Ed, who she can see has revenge on his mind. Guess he’s gonna have to think twice about getting payback for that right cross, huh?
Answering a knock at his door Jimbo finds Bruce Wayne on the other side and he’s not there for a social visit. Bruce wants to hire Gordon to find the missing Ivy Pepper. It’s kind of a favor to Selina. Telling Gordon to keep this on the down-low because he doesn’t want to get Selina’s hopes up, the two head to the precinct to find out what Bullock knows. Bullock doesn’t have anything concrete on her but he does have the story about a construction worker who was robbed by someone wearing Ivy’s sweater. The problem is that the woman in the sweater appeared to be in her 20’s according to the construction worker. Later, over lunch, Gordon gives Bruce some advice on dealing with the ladies that Bruce seems to consider.
Meanwhile the Red Hood gang isn’t sitting idle on their asses playing cards. Well, they are but they’re also managing to carry out quite a little crime wave when not sitting around dealing from the bottom of the deck. We also find out who the real brains behind this outfit is – Butch. It seems he still hasn’t gotten over being passed over for the job of Penguin’s chief of staff and he’s got a plan for some comeuppance. He’s going to have the gang show up at Penguin’s inaugural celebration to create a bit of chaos. He’s even bought them suits for the occasion. Butch has things well planned. Almost. See Penguin is holding his shindig at the club owned by Barbara Keane and Tabitha Galavan and they’ve managed to find out who’s running the Red Hood gang. They show up and confront Butch with this, throwing cold water on his grand master plan. Butch reveals that he planned to take down the gang at the party in order to get his position with Penguin back. Butch makes a pact with Tabby that he’ll protect her from Penguin if she and Babs keep quiet about his plans. (Tabby did kill Oswald’s mommy after all.) She agrees, telling Butch that he’ll owe her — big time.
Penguin and Ed throw in a monkey wrench by discovering the gang’s hideout. Penguin, still not knowing Butch’s part in all this, calls his henchman to let him know they’re heading to the hide out. Butch, of course, gets there first and dispatches with the gang members just before Penguin’s arrival. Can’t get the truth from the mouths of the dead now, can you? The mayor arrives, with Ed and Victor Zsasz in tow, just as Butch fires the last shot. It seems Butch’s standing just went up a few notches. Penguin holds a press conference to announce the gang’s demise and to praise Butch’s efforts. Nygma, however, is not so easily dissuaded. He studies the crime scene and finds the suits Butch gave the gang. You can see the wheels turning.
Penguin’s party goes off at the club and it’s anything but uneventful. Bruce and Alfred show up to put in appearances and are greeted by the Mayor Cobblepot himself. While in conversation with the mayor, Bruce notices another guest and excuses himself. Seeing as how there are quite a number of rich pockets and purses to be picked it’s only natural to find Selina Kyle, appropriately dressed, expertly plying her trade. She’s momentarily interrupted by an elegantly dressed redhead who appears to be in her early 20’s. Selina doesn’t recognize the attractive young woman dressed in green but she certainly recognizes Selina. The two exchange a few words and then Selina moves on. Bruce finds her and asks to speak privately with her. The two exit stage left. On the roof the two have a heart to heart where Bruce tells Selina that he really likes her. He convinces her that his feelings are real and she believes him. They kiss and she leaves him in a bit of a confused state.
Behind the scenes Ed confronts Butch with the evidence he has connecting Butch to the gang. Before Butch can permanently damage him, Ed reveals that he wants to work with Butch to take Oswald down. “How would you like to run Gotham with me?” Ed asks. Butch refuses, at first, until he finds out that Ed has Zsasz working for him and they have Tabby captive. Now things have taken a sudden turn. Butch doesn’t really have a choice. He’s got to kill Penguin. Wearing a red hood, Butch makes his move and shoots as Oswald is on stage giving his speech. The gun, though, fires only blanks. Zsasz comes up from behind and shoots Butch. His gun, however, is firing real bullets and Ed goes to unmask the wounded Butch in front of the crowd. Oh dear, now Penguin’s in a right state all over again. It’s really been a trying time for him lately, hasn’t it? Meanwhile Tabitha is not quite the helpless captive that she appears to be. “Ya know if you’re gonna take a girl hostage in her own place you might wanna search it first,” she tells the goons watching her. She then proceeds to handily perish them with a knife she has stashed away. She effects her escape but not before a bit more chaos ensues. During said chaos Butch manages to attack Ed and almost chokes him to death before Penguin knocks Butch out with a champagne bottle. Later Penguin helps Ed recover from the attack and it appears that the two cement their friendship. As this ‘bromance’ buds Tabby goes off and frees Butch from police custody. The pieces on the board are being set up again. Soon it will be time to play.
BTW – last week we saw Barnes get hit with a drop of the late Alice Tetch’s toxic blood. Crippled from his encounter last season with the reanimated Theo Galavan, Barnes has been getting around with the help of a crutch. Informed about Butch’s escape Barnes rises from his chair and storms out of his office – without the use of the crutch. He begins to feel a new power course through his body.
And Jervis does put in an appearance this episode just to show that he’s far from out of the picture. But then who wouldn’t be able to figure that out.
