Gotham Recap: “Better To Reign In Hell…”
PHOTO: FOX
Gotham’s back for season three and while Oswald Cobblepot, aka Penguin, seems to be back on top as the city’s undisputed king of crime his perch may be threatened by an old enemy. Jim Gordon’s also back in the city after a short, and heart-breaking time away, but he’s taken on more of an independent role. Young Bruce Wayne and his trusty guardian Alfred Pennyworth have returned, after some time hiding out in rather posh surroundings, to find themselves in rather threatening surroundings. And Selina Kyle is still proving to be the ultimate survivor by offering her services to a faded crime legend whose star may, once again, be on the rise. Confused? Well, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
We find Jim Gordon back in the urban landscape after a quick trip to the country where he went to win back the heart of his beloved Leslie Thompkins. He even shows up at her doorstep with roses, but before he can knock, a view through the window shows him that she’s moved on. He sees her kissing some other dude and that puts an end to his idea of a romantic reunion and a fabled happily ever after.
Fast forward six months and Jimbo’s now in business for himself in Gotham as a bounty hunter who specializes in catching mutant creations who escaped from Hugo Strange’s Indian Hill facility. When not doing that he seems to spend his spare time busy in a local bar depleting its whiskey reserves. At least the bounty hunting gig pays well; he gets five grand a head for each of the freaks he turns into the cops. It’s a living, I guess.
Speaking of said freaks. It seems that they’ve been rather interested in hitting up various pharmacies when our story gets underway. They are looking a some specific drugs and we find Gordon at the beginning of this episode chasing down one of the poor bastards, who has stegosaurus spikes sticking out of his back, after an attempt to rob a pharmacy. Following some rough and tumble, which ends with Jimbo getting his ass kicked, the freak goes out into the street and gets himself run over by a fuel truck. Whaddaya gonna do, huh?
Later on Gordon chats it up with his old pal Harvey Bullock back at the old precinct. Lucious Fox, who’s left Wayne Enterprises to work for the cops, informs them that the drugs the freaks are seeking are immunosuppressant drugs only available at the three pharmacies that got robbed. Curious. As the trio is conversing there’s also a press conference going on at the precinct. As the Mayor and Capt. Barnes are being peppered with questions about the Indian Hill escapees, mainly from reporter Valerie Vale (Jamie Chung), Oswald crashes the party and announces that the major threat behind the Indian Hill crowd is his old nemesis Fish Mooney. Oswald calls for her immediate capture and then stomps out, but not before paying his respects to Jimbo. Referring to the fact that Gordon is now a bounty hunter Penguin questions Jimbo as to why he hasn’t caught Fish yet. “You haven’t made it worth my while,” Gordon quips as he exits stage left. To whit Oswald can only reply, “He’s got a point.”
We next see Penguin and his man Friday, Butch, show up at a new club in order to shake down the owners for protection money. However the owners, Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan, are having none of it. After politely toying with Oswald and making Butch look like a blubbering idiot — he and Tabby were an item at one point last season and he apparently isn’t quite over her yet— the ladies tell the dastardly duo to get to stepping. Penguin then tells Tabby that the only reason he hasn’t put her down for the dirt nap (she did kill his mommy last season, after all) is in deference to Butch. Ah the pain of love’s sharp sting. He also tells them to put the word out on Fish. He wants her and he’s offering a cool million for her — dead of alive.
Selina Kyle is passing through the club also and runs into Butch, saying hello and relieving him of his wallet. Once outside, her friend Ivy catches up to her. They head off into the night but not before Selina gives a good deal of the cash she’s lifted from Butch’s billfold to a homeless kid who’s searching through the garbage cans. How nice of her to be so charitable. The kid turns out to be the Bruce Wayne clone that is one of the escapees from Indian Hill. Apparently Selina didn’t pay much attention to who she was being charitable to, but his hair is considerably longer than that of the original. You can bet that’s not the last we’ll see of this kid.
Meanwhile the real Bruce and his faithful butler, Alfred, are retiring to stately Wayne Manor after an extended trip abroad. It seems they were hiding out more than vacationing. They are concerned with the secret cabal that’s in control of Wayne Industries but Bruce has decided that it’s time to come back to Gotham and confront those keeping him from his birthright. He intends to meet with the board, some of whom he knows to be backed by the cabal, and let them know that he will no longer tolerate their presence. Ah yes, you brave lad, Good luck with that!
Valerie Vale walks into Gordon’s favorite bar to pester him with questions about Indian Hill. Before he can get rid of her she pulls his coat to the million dollar bounty Penguin’s put on Fish Mooney’s head. That bit of news gets Jimbo to look up from the bottom of his glass. BTW for those of you who follow the actual mythology of the Batman, this new character, Valerie, is said to be the aunt of Vicky Vale, future reporter and love interest of Bruce Wayne. One would surmise that about this time little Vicky’ is probably in elementary school, or at least day care.
All this noise about Fish and we have to wait until almost half way through the episode to actually lay eyes on the broad herself. When we do see her she’s traveling with a group of henchmen and accompanied by Selina. It seems the young Catwoman has decided to throw in her lot with the once and possibly future crime queen as a way to further her, Cat’s, chances of survival. We find them breaking into a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in search of the immunosuppressants. Selina makes herself useful by gaining entrance to the plant for the gang. Apparently they couldn’t wait until after hours for this because the break in occurs during broad daylight and they encounter some of the plant’s employees. The poor souls run afoul of the intruders and this allows some of the gang to display their ‘talents’. One of the merry band’s members, name of Marvin, has the ability to age a person quickly and kill them if he doesn’t let go. This is aptly demonstrated on the first person who tries to stop them. And when Fish runs into a guard we see that she has lost none of her powers of persuasion. Upon touching him she not only gets him to drop his gun, she also has him knock himself out. Jeez, what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that. but then I’d have to touch people. That effort seems to weaken her though. Again curious.
Obviously not by coincidence Gordon happens upon the break in and tries to foil it. Not so fast, Jimbo. When he tries to apprehend Fish she sicks another member of the gang on him and they tussle. It almost looks evenly matched until the freak makes a getaway by surviving a jump from an insane height. This leaves Gordon standing on a balcony and pulling a stupid face. Alas the foiler now becomes the foiled. Fish and the rest seem to make off with the much-needed pharmaceuticals.
The next day Bruce confronts the board of Wayne Enterprises and lets them know that he has discovered information about the secret cabal that is controlling the company. He tells them he knows that the cabal is responsible for Hugo Strange and all the dirt he did at Indian Hill. He also says that he knows many of its members are right there in the room with him. He’s not standing for this and he lets them know that as well. He wants to meet with each member of the board face to face in order to give them the chance to come clean with what they know. If not he will release the information that he has to as many members of the media as possible. Wonder how long that would keep donald chump off the tube? The meeting adjourns and young Bruce heads off for pancakes. As he does, we see that someone has placed a call to the madam wearing the mask (this is the same woman who was seen pulling Strange’s strings last season). Apparently she is told the results of the meeting Bruce had with the board and she’s not pleased. Ominous orders are issued to a man in a mask.
Let’s see. Next some thugs try to muscle in on Babs and Tabby but apparently nobody told them that the club deals not only in top shelf booze but also in top shelf crazy. Babs just starts laughing at the four thugs and while they stand there gaping at her Tabby quickly dispenses with three of them by slashing their throats. This inspires Babs to pistol whip the leader into oblivion. As it turns out the whole thing was a plot by Butch to get Tabby to run back to his big protective arms. It doesn’t work out like Butch wanted. When he and Penguin show up to sort things out Penguin kills the thug leader, gets annoyed with Butch and then gives the ladies the OK to run their club.
Then — and pay attention cause it gets a bit complicated– Valerie Vale gets Gordon to agree to get some much needed police info for her in return for her giving up Fish Mooney’s location. Valerie got the location info from Selina who was looking for some quick cash. Then Bruce comes to warn Selina about the possible threat from the cabal, being that they are friends, but she just gives the young billionaire the cold shoulder.
Jimbo follows up on Valerie’s lead and finds not Fish but Hugo’s old accomplice Miss Peabody. It seems she’s who he was looking for all along. He wants to use her as bait to flush Fish out because she is looking for Miss Peabody too. It works, but not quite the way Jimbo planned. Fish’s goons show up and snatch Miss Perkins leaving Jimbo to deal with one of the freaks who appears to be an early version of the Man-Bat character from the mythology. This guy tries to escape by diving out the window and sprouting huge bat wings but Gordon manages to hold on and subdue him. This only leads to Both Gordon and Bullock getting a big chunk of their asses handed to them by Barnes. It seems that Miss Peabody was a protected police witness. Oops!
Now that Fish has Miss Peabody in her clutches some questions can be answered. It seems that every time a freak uses his or her ability it weakens him or her. This is a result of the tampering that Strange did with their DNA. The only way that they can survive is to stop using the abilities. The only person who can fix them is Hugo and Miss Peabody doesn’t know his current whereabouts. Fish then announces that she not only wants Hugo to fix her and her gang she also wants him to create an army of freaks. Miss Peabody again says that she doesn’t know where Hugo is. Fed up with her captive Fish turns Marvin loose on Miss Peabody. “You remember Marv,” Fish tells her. “He’s one of yours!” With Marvin clutching on to her Miss Peabody literally dies of old age. Afterwards a protesting Ivy is brought before Fish. One of the goons guarding the joint found her lurking around. Fish takes her for a spy and tries to set Marv on her as Selina pleads for Ivy’s life. Ivy wrestles free of the goon and runs off with the goon hot on her heels. Selina chases after them in an attempt to save Ivy. Ivy stops at a hole in the floor that leads down to a cracked water pipe with an exposed strong current flowing through it. Just then Marv grabs Ivy, but she slips out of his grasp after a second and is lost in the current, possibly drowning.
Back at stately Wayne Manor there are evil doings afoot. As Bruce goes up to bed, the masked man appears and deals out a severe ass-whipping to Alfred. He then makes off into the night with young Bruce. Oh the terror!
Looks like it’s gonna be yet another twist and turn filled season on Gotham. Stay tuned.
