I doubt Gordon will ever trust any estranged family member ever again after the trouble of figuring out his Uncle’s alliances. After listening to his uncle tell him the true reason behind his father’s death, he looks at the police reports from the accident. Why didn’t classic brooding Jim Gordon do this before, even for nostalgia purposes? I don’t know. But now that he is looking he sees that the alleged drunk driver had chronic liver inflammation, which prevents you from drinking, so he couldn’t have done it.
That’s enough evidence for Gordon to believe his Uncle now. And in typical Jim Gordon fashion, he is all in. But his Uncle wants to keep his involvement to a minimum for now. So apparently Gordon is going to take his pent up energy into talking to a mourning Lee at her dead husband’s grave. She asks him how he can leave all this destruction in his wake without any consequences, to which I respond he’s a white guy, that’s what they do.
This episode does bring up Mario again. Not only with Lee yelling at Gordon, but also with Falcone senior himself yelling at him. Somehow it has been easy to forgot about all the damage Gordon does, and even though we are reminded of it, it is still brushed under all the other information in this jam- packed episode of the Court of Owls and Penguin’s vengeance. After all, considering that Falcone paid for the lawyer of the drunk driver that killed Gordon’s father, they somehow seem even now, and Gordon can once again not be held accountable for all the questionable choices he has made in the past.
Jim goes to Falcone to find out the name of who ordered the hit on his father, and Falcone confesses that it was uncle Frank. His father wanted to expose the court and became a risk, so Frank had him killed. Yet, he still wants to bring down the Court. Evidently, he just wants to do it quietly. I’m not sure what consequences would come from exposing the Court besides taking them down and preventing them from ever reforming because people would be on the lookout for that, but whatever. Frank will continue to try to convince Gordon to join the Court under the guise that it is what his father would want, even though I’m pretty sure his father would have wanted to live.
Maybe being yelled at twice for killing Mario today did affect Gordon a little because he attempts to arrest his uncle as opposed to killing him. Honestly, it seems a little out of character for Gordon to try to arrest someone after he has done so much killing recently. Despite hitting his nephew, he still requests for Gordon to help him investigate the weapon. What side is his uncle on? Who knows? It was this confusion that probably led Gordon to tell Harvey what is going on. He might as well investigate this lead and arrest his uncle later. Look at you, Jim, taking the high road and not seeking out personal vengeance yourself, proud of you.
However, that comes at a price, because in order to investigate, they need Barbara’s help. And Barbara is THRIVING as ruler of the underworld (Fish Mooney would be proud). Arguably the Gotham underworld was at its best when Mooney was in charge, so perhaps it is time for a woman to be in charge again, since Mooney doesn’t seem to be showing up any time soon. You keep beating up guys with stilettos, my girl. You wear that huge fur coat with an attitude, I’m here for it. And by following Gordon’s requests to find out about the weapon, she is going out asking questions that Falcone never did, she is making a name for herself. Also, she finds out there’s an Indian hill crate to worry about.
At least the Court realizes that Jim won’t stop until the Court is dismantled or dead, so they order Frank to kill him. I guess they think if he was okay with letting Gordon’s father die, he will be okay with killing Gordon. Another family member dying seems to be Frank’s limit. The moment that Frank gets Gordon alone, Frank kills himself, so at least we know he was truly on Jim’s side this entire time.
Now the answer is for Gordon to join the Court so that he can take them down from the inside. Why wouldn’t the Court just kill him on the spot? I don’t know how they still consider him to be worth more than the trouble he is causing.
Meanwhile, Bruce is talking to the old monk-like guy that he is stuck with in the mountains. This man needs Bruce’s help. I don’t know a single old guy that would want a teenager’s help with anything, but here we are. Bruce’s door just opens, and he leaves as if it isn’t a sort of trap, but the place is a maze without a clear exit, so he is stuck with the old guy that wants him to “start his journey.” It’s better than being trapped and tortured there, but I don’t know by how much.
However, Bruce would probably argue that it is actually torture, considering he has to relive his memories with the use of (magic?) needles. He’s reminded of his parent’s death and the awful movie they saw. With how much he probably relives that memory, I’m sure he has distorted in his mind by now, and maybe this needle thing will show us the things he either distorted or forgot.
With the threat of constantly reliving his parent’s death, Bruce is much more willing to listen to this guy. He even tried to fight him within the memory, but Bruce’s fighting skills seem so pathetic now when he can’t beat this guy. His lip is even bleeding in real life once they come back from the memory. After all, this guy believes that Bruce’s internal pain is blocking him from who he needs to become. Gotham needs a protector to stop this cycle of crime, a symbol of hope against fear. Maybe this means that the Court has realized destroying the city hasn’t shown positive results in the past. I’m not sure why they think that Bruce (a teenager!) is the one who can make this work, but that’s what this guy is going to attempt to train Bruce to become. There’s not much else to do in the mountains anyway.
Bruce isn’t the only one feeling trapped in this episode. Ivy is showing off her garden to Penguin, and he thinks she is insane and is in a rush to get back to Gotham to plot his revenge. She is still acting like a child, but that is warranted considering she is a child. And he is pissed, but that is also warranted considering he was shot.
Ivy brings Gabe to help out Penguin, but she doesn’t trust him. I’m not sure how talking to a comatose patient made her believe that they were friends, but she definitely doesn’t want Penguin to leave now. Penguin is fed up with it and calls her a freak, but he should have listened to her because Gabe knocks him out. At least he understands that he wouldn’t be a good villain if he killed him immediately, you gotta have a good speech at least, but he realizes that selling is even better.
Ivy is standing outside of her own house like she doesn’t live there. Yet, that makes sense considering the moment that she gets near her house again, she has a gun to her head and she is stuck with Penguin. This girl is stuck with a bunch of dumb guys now, the poor thing. It’s time for her to shine.
She gets one of the guys to smell her perfume, and gets him to shoot all the guys except for Gabe. Even though Ivy started it all, Penguin quickly takes advantage of the situation, and Ivy is so desperate to be liked that she listens to whatever Penguin says. Turns out the perfume also works as a truth serum. Gabe tells Penguin that everyone still sees him as umbrella holder, as a freak, and despite using the word freak so loosely with Ivy earlier, it seems it triggers Penguin now. Penguin beats Gabe to death, and there’s nothing like a bloody murder to wake you up after nearly dying.
Penguin admits that he may have lost his temper there, but Ivy understands. Words always hurt her more than sticks or stones. Penguin agrees in a brief show of humanity. It was nice to see before he calls for his own army, and Ivy suggests an army of freaks from Indian Hill. They are really just gonna double down on this “freak” thing even though it only came up in this episode for the first time.
I just hope that this means they will find Fish Mooney in the search for the freaks from Indian Hill. I really just want her and Barbara to meet. I also want to see Penguin encounter the Riddler again, but that is going to take some time. Indian Hill will come into the picture must sooner, with Penguin’s army and the crate for the Court of Owls.
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer -- Click to read Nicole's posts
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