However, I was also intently listening to the background in a desperate attempt to avoid listening to all the chaotic laughter. The crazies all went in to get Jerome, and spray painted their 'HAHAHA' smile™ as if they police didn’t already know who was trying to steal a dead guy. To be fair, the criminals really do need to be obvious with the police in this town, otherwise Harvey will blow it off as just “50 fanatics.” Like, Harvey, dude, you said that with such a condescending tone, but one of them brings people back to life and another killed a security guard; just 2 fanatics sounds terrifying to me with that track record.
Luckily, the GCPD gets super lucky, as one of the fanatics is still in the building nursing his gunshot wound. He is probably close to bleeding to death at this point, so I guess Gordon decides not to waste his time with a hospital and take him directly to the GCPD morgue. Jim Gordon bending the rules, who would have guessed? Lee calls him out on his shit, and requests that Mario be brought back from the dead if Jim wants to get her forgiveness (which really doesn’t sound like that difficult of a request to fulfill). If I were her, I would probably quit and find another job where Jim isn’t around, but oh wait she still loves him. We can’t let that storyline die, of course. We will just continue Lee’s pattern of what can only be described as self-hatred at this point as she continually loves Jim Gordon.
Anyway, there’s this bleeding fanatic. When Gordon goes in to question him, he seems to be just as big a fan of Gordon as he is Jerome. Though, it is hard to tell between all the laughter. Luckily, he is calm enough (calm being used very loosely here) to give a warning that Jerome is just the first step, before he devolves into a useless laughing being.
The warning he gave is accompanied by a bunch of the 'HAHAHA' smile graffiti all over the city. Harvey is still preaching that it’s only like 50 people, but Lucius Fox is on top of his shit. With his knowledge of Wayne Enterprise technology and finding this guy based off of power surges in the city, he was kind of the unsung hero of the episode (maybe he can have more than 5 lines next episode, that would be cool. More black characters in general would be cool too. Just spitballing).
One of the GCPD officers overhear their conversation, and calls the fanatics to warn them to get out of there. The only problem: Jerome isn’t alive yet. In the most relatable moment of the entire show, they are having technical problems. One of the fanatics freaks the hell out, reminds Dwight how much the people want to see Jerome, and reminisces over his old post office job (ah, the American Dream).
Dwight responds to him by electrocuting him to death, and I feel like I could also kill a man when I have technical issues that prevent me from turning in my homework in time.
At least post office guy’s words about the people wanting to see Jerome’s face got to him. Now, I understand that this is a time sensitive situation, but I do not think that my first thought would be to cut off someone’s face and use it as my own. Did he think that no one would notice? Not only that, but also leave the body for the cops, therefore foregoing the idea of ever finding a way to reanimate him in the near future. Safe to say that the other fanatics are pissed, at first, but then again these crazies have proven quite easy to manipulate, so within a few moments they are on Dwight’s side again.
Jerome’s body is taken back to Lee, and while her back is turned we see his fingers move. So not only is he alive, but he is alive without a face, which sounds so much more terrifying to rise from the dead (the employment rate for morticians must have gone way down since this whole Indian Hill situation, not that it’s a popular job in the first place, but you get my point).
Meanwhile, Gordon is bluffing in order to catch the mole. It works incredibly well, but unfortunately his interrogation techniques are not quite at the same level. What starts as good cop bad cop turns into a back alley beating, and Lee calmly administers a truth serum into him to end the brutality (if only the police brutality against black lives could be solved as easily). Lee is following Gordon’s lead and is bending the rules too, and he is a total hypocrite about it. I’m glad that she is around to call Gordon out on his bullshit. Yelling it at the TV has not proven successful yet.
Ignoring how unethical the entire situation is, Harvey finds out that the fanatics plan to broadcast on a news station next. Finally, the GCPD is able to get ahead of a situation before it develops; maybe they will be able to prevent it. Sadly, that’s not the case, as the fanatics infiltrate the station the moment that the idea of evacuating was mentioned. Damn, the GCPD had their chance to shine there, but now they have a hostage situation and Dwight firing off his gun wildly at the lights (why are you ruining the lights? You need those).
Sadly, while they are holding up the news station, they are unaware of the news that Jerome is back, and he is much more terrifying without a face (would have been more terrifying if the makeup was more than just what looked like red paint on his face, but in theory a faceless man would be terrifying to me). Jerome’s first priority after coming back from the dead: asking Lee about her relationship with Gordon. Lee explains the murder of her husband with such ferocity that for a moment I fear that she is about to team up with Jerome to take him down (calm down, she’s not Barbara, she is not going to do that).
So what is it that Jerome is going to do now that he is back? Well, Galavan killed him, so it seems fair that he would want to get revenge. Lee informed him that he was already killed, twice, so really a third time would be excessive. Okay, well, what else was Jerome doing before he died? He was going to kill Bruce before he died (I don’t remember why, and it’s irrelevant to look it up since it seems like he has moved on from that idea). Maybe he should just keep it simple, and look for his face before settling on any mastermind plan yet.
Luckily, it is fairly easy to find out where his face is, considering that it is being broadcast. Dwight doesn’t really have the charisma to pull it off (finally, when it really matters, he is not using the laugh). The entire news station is surrounded by cops, and they infiltrate inside in order to shut the whole thing down. However, it still gives Jerome enough time to dress up like a cop (the cop hat doesn’t hide the faceless-ness but whatever) and head over there himself. He leaves Lee totally unharmed, and gives her the opportunity to call Gordon about the entire situation. But, in typical Gotham fashion, the cops are still a step behind, as Dwight is taken by Jerome in a hijacked news van.
Jerome staples his face back on, which must have been painful, but anything is better than being faceless. Anyway, it adds a whole new Frankenstein element to his reanimation. Jerome convinces Dwight that he isn’t angry about the whole face-stealing situation, yet somehow also convinces him to dress like a cop next to a bunch of explosives. The next thing we know, Jerome is sending out footage of himself now, muttering his usual ideas of doing whatever you want, and ending his broadcast with an incredible explosion at Dwight’s feet that leads to a power outage in the entire city.
A darkened city that was just told to “do whatever they want, kill whoever they want” sounds like the last place anybody should be. Maybe Selina’s mother should have left town when she had the chance. However, Cole asking for money is preventing her from doing that. He needs the money from “lost income due to a broken contract,” which is fantastically vague wording, he should become a politician if this whole criminal thing doesn’t work out. After all, it doesn’t seem like there is anything a white guy can do in his past that can prevent him from becoming a successful politician.
If Bruce doesn’t pay up the money, then Cole will give up information that will lead to Maria’s arrest. Bruce is very willing to give up the money, after all, Maria did save their lives, and there’s no harm in sucking up to his girlfriend’s mother either. Bruce doesn’t phrase his reasoning that way, but that is what I take it to mean.
Maria takes the money to Cole, and Cole celebrates the success of their plan; they both did it together to get the money. But Selina knows what’s up. She walks into the room to call her mom out on only coming back to use her to get to Bruce, and leaves in tears. It’s been a very emotional few days for this girl.
She questions Bruce if he knew what her mother’s motives were. He shrugs it off and says that it was obvious that she was only after the money, as if that was no big deal at all. Selina seems to have lost all faith in humanity, as she yells about how both Bruce and her mother lied to her (“but for very different reasons,” Bruce that isn’t the best argument here, just saying). She gets feisty, she wants to fight, but Bruce isn’t going to let her. While Bruce is right that getting all fight-y isn’t the best way to deal with one’s emotions, he also really doesn’t have room to talk about how to properly deal with one’s emotions after all the shit he has done since his parent’s death.
Granted, both those kids are dealing with their emotions better than Penguin is. I think all that he does in his free time anymore is mope on the couch. Penguin is getting backlash for his remarks at the interview (you see, this is unrealistic, because Trump never gets backlash for his comments). The papers are writing him as “Mayor Crumblepot” (I’m surprised that they hadn’t used that joke yet), and asking for his resignation. If that wasn’t enough, Barbara reminds him of the consequences of his actions in the criminal underworld. There are whispers going around that “the King is dead,” and Penguin needs to do something in order to stay on top. Penguin is at least still cognitive enough to question why Barbara is even helping him, and she says she is doing it for her own protection, but I bet that being able to demand Penguin do the “disco vampire” thing with his hair was also a compelling reason.
Barbara organizes a meeting with the important families of Gotham while Penguin fixes his hair, and Barbara looks gorgeous herself. Clearly, she is getting ready for her role as Queen-pin of Gotham (is that a thing? Is that the feminine version of Kingpin? Is there a precedent for this?). When Penguin arrives, no one is there. His subordinates have started rebelling. Luckily, Penguin is not totally blind, and questions Barbara’s motives and actions, but is silenced when Tommy Bones calls (Tommy, Cole, Dwight, these criminal names are pathetic). Not only does he tell Penguin that they are rebelling, but he also implies that they have Nygma held hostage. Well, that is a sure-fire way to make sure that Penguin loses all sanity he had left. Penguin panics, and runs out to gather his men (what men do you have left?) in a witch hunt to find Nygma.
We cut back to Tommy Bones to see that he said all that at gunpoint, and then Tabitha killed him anyway. Now, it is ensured that Penguin will never find the man he is desperate to hunt down. Tabitha continues her killing streak by killing a few more important criminals (all of them men, which I’m glad that they pointed out).
With all of this chaos going on, Penguin is stuck in his own world of finding Nygma, which is only enhanced when he gets a call from Nygma himself. He calls him to tell him where he is – Kane Chemicals (I don’t have any idea where they are going with that, so that will be interesting to find out). We never actually see this guy for the entire episode. Penguin loses it, even more so than before, to the point where he demands that someone stays by the phone in case he calls again before running off with his men (like 3 guys) to Kane Chemicals.
I would assume that the next episode is going to lead to the peak of Nygma’s plan to take down Penguin, and as much as I would love to see Barbara take over the criminal underworld, a small part of me wants Mooney to steal that position from her (she is still around, somewhere, don’t forget about that). And what better timing than during a city wide power outage with Jerome fanatics roaming the streets. Overall, Bruce and Selina seem quite separated from all the other dealings of Gotham recently. Maybe that will change and Jerome will come again to kill Bruce (why? Because someone always wants to kill Bruce. I don’t even think that they need reasons anymore).
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer -- Click to read Nicole's posts
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