Gotham Recap: “Follow The White Rabbit”
PHOTO: FOX
Ah choices, choices. This week in Gotham it’s all about choices: Both Jim Gordon and Oswald Cobblepot are confronted with choices of the heart. Gordon’s options, however, are set before him by Jervis Tetch so they may be more ruinous than Oswald’s. Meanwhile Edward Nygma encounters a face from the past.
Yes campers, as I alluded to earlier Jervis Tetch (The Mad Hatter) is back with vengeance on his mind, and our man Jim Gordon is the object of this vengeance. If you’ll remember, Tetch hired Jimbo to find his sister Alice a few episodes back but it didn’t go so well and Alice ended up going for the long dirt nap. That, of course, was not an outcome that pleased Jervis and he blames Gordon for the misfortune. So Tetch, being the imaginative psychopath that he is, manages to devise ways to commit a couple of creative murders that require Jimbo’s unwilling participation.
The first incident, which opens this episode, involves a newlywed couple and a small boy. Tetch manages to summon Gordon to the scene where he makes clear his intentions. All three victims have been hypnotized. The newlyweds will jump from an overpass to certain death and the boy will walk in front of a speeding truck. Gordon can’t save all three he must choose between the boy or the newlyweds. Naturally he chooses the boy and has to watch as the formerly happy couple take the fatal plunge. Upon exiting the scene Tetch promises there will be more. Barnes, Bullock and the GCPD arrive and Jimbo kicks the ballistics for them. At the scene they also arrest an albino gentleman in a white suit after Gordon leaves. Obviously under Jervis’ spell this guy just keeps repeating that he has a message for Jimbo.
Incidentally, it seems that things between Gordon and Valerie Vale are continuing to heat up. Though it still seems like her main interest in him is as a source for news stories, Valerie does appear to be developing quite the fondness for the troubled detective. Desire, in some cases, can prove perilous.
The Hatter wastes no time in striking again. This time he’s abducted two pediatricians and threatens to kill them. When Gordon hears this his first move is to visit his ex Barbara Kean to see if she can give him any leads as to Tetch’s whereabouts. It was Babs who hired Jervis to headline at the club that she and gal-pal Tabitha run. Alas Babs turns out to be not much help at all other than to let Gordon know that she told Tetch about Jimbo’s life story. Jervis does lures Gordon to the scene of the crime, the Gotham Power Plant, where he has set up a ‘shocking’ demise for one of the victims. Again it’s Tetch’s desire to have Jimbo choose who lives and who dies. Gordon refuses to play this time and, just as the cops arrive, Tetch throws the switch killing both unfortunate souls. Gordon, Barnes, Bullock and the cops can’t apprehend Jervis for this little mishap because Jervis pulled off the entire stunt while broadcasting his image from a remote location. Again Jimbo’s left standing there broke, busted and disgusted.
Finally Tetch executes the ‘killing stroke’ in his plan. He snatches up the two most important ladies in Jimbo’s world, Vale and Lee Thompkins. Back at the precinct Gordon finally gets the clue he’s looking for. Seeing the detective, the white-suited albino gent is finally able to deliver his message – the whereabouts of Tetch and his captives. It seems Jervis is having the two ladies to tea at Lee’s place. Oh, the irony! Barnes orders Jimbo to let the cops deal with the situation but Gordon’s not having it. Gordon runs into Lee’s fiancee’ Mario on his way out the door and enlists him in the rescue effort. It’s Mario’s house too, after all.
Once Gordon arrives Tetch invites him to sit down to tea with the two ladies. After a bit of a long-winded back and forth between him and Gordon Tetch finally gets down to brass tacks. He wants Gordon to chose which of the ladies he’s most fond of so that Jervis can then kill the spare. This definitely presents a bit of a tense situation, but in the meantime Mario sneaks into the basement and collects a pistol. When he shows up in the room in time to play the hero things go rather badly for him. Apparently Jervis knew the gun was there and removed the bullets just in case. He has his goons cart Mario off to another room and the events continue. Finally Gordon can delay no longer. If he doesn’t choose, Tetch will kill both women. “Kill Lee,” Gordon utters. In a move worthy of the Joker Tetch turns around and shoots Valerie in the abdomen. He then beats a quick retreat as Lee dials 911. At the hospital Mario, one of Gotham’s premier surgeons, rushes Valerie into the operating room as Jimbo and Lee sit down to await the outcome.
While The drama with Gordon is playing out, Oswald is concerning himself with a difficult decision of a more personal nature. It seems that the new mayor has developed feelings for his chief of staff that go a bit beyond friendship. Oswald spends his day pondering when, where and how to tell his intended, Ed Nygma, of his true feelings. At last he decides to do it over dinner at the Cobblepot mansion. Upon agreeing to the invite a clueless Ed says that he’ll bring the wine. While in the store deciding upon the right vintage Ed thinks he sees a ghost. It’s not. It is a platinum blond with the face of Kristin Kringle, Ed’s late true love. She introduces herself as Isabella and Ed is left thunderstruck.
Well, these are certainly some developments that leave you on the edge of your seat waiting to see where events go next.
