Jerome is looking for an engineer named Xander, but he is a recluse. He only talks to others through a proxy, a girl named Ecco. Jerome tracks her down, but she turns the tables on him, and captures him for Xander. While in captivity, Jerome talks a lot about how he loves Xander and hints at a long past together. I started to wonder if they were really going to go for a gay love story again.
That is, until Gordon and Harvey track down Xander using Bruce’s information about the guy. They refuse to let Bruce be any more involved than that, and while Bruce is pissed about that, he’s also seen a considerable amount of death in the past few episodes so I think he deserves a break too. When they find Xander, they find out that Xander’s real name is Jeremiah and he is Jerome’s twin brother. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is an “evil twin” plotline, after I had hopes for so much more. His uncle took him away from home and gave him a new life to spare him from Jerome’s sociopathic and dangerous tendencies.
Gordon thinks that this Jeremiah character is just as creepy as I do. Luckily, the whole sewed on face thing would make it difficult for Jerome to masquerade as his twin brother, so I can take that off the table, but he still does give off a creepy vibe. Gordon turns on his security cameras to find out that Jeremiah has Jerome locked up. Shortly afterwards, the entire system turns off, because Jerome’s brunch gang is here. The modern-day Breakfast Club.
Jeremiah tries to lead Gordon and Harvey out of the house, but they get stopped by Ecco. She was hypnotized by Tetch, and she starts kicking their butts. Eventually, Gordon knocks her out, but I want to know so much more about this girl. Where did she learn to fight? Why has she devoted her life to Jeremiah?
In the fight, Jeremiah ditched Gordon and Harvey so that he could hastily get out of there. Unfortunately, he gets cornered by Jerome. Turns out Jeremiah lied about what Jerome did. He never attempted to hurt him, but Jeremiah lied about it out of fear that he eventually would. Those stories convinced the rest of the family that Jerome was evil, and Jerome blames Jeremiah for everything that happened to him. While it’s a sad story, it’s also a predictable one. He also doesn’t want to kill Jeremiah now, but wants to wait to drive him mad first. Another classic villain trope.
Tetch and Crane go off to kill Harvey and Gordon, but Harvey isn’t having that. He starts screaming and running after them because he doesn’t want to be hypnotized by Tetch again. Harvey and Gordon get the upper hand and separate Jerome and Jeremiah from one another, but all the villains escape. Yet, Gordon knows that Jerome’s plan is to make the city mad now, he just has no idea how exactly he is going to do that.
That’s just about as much information as Penguin knows as well. Even though he’s not sure what is about to happen, he is sure of two things: his hair will look great and he will end up on top. You have to admire his ambition. He goes to Butch for an ally to help him take over the city during Jerome’s madness, but Butch has his own problems to worry about. Namely, being a monster. He’s really caught up on Tabitha’s opinion of him.
However, Penguin figures out a solution. The only man that could cure Butch is Hugo Strange. And if they work together, Penguin will help Butch find Strange to turn him back into his own self. Butch agrees, and has the pleasure of meeting the brunch gang, before witnessing Mr. Crane using a laughing gas on a civilian that causes him to laugh until he dies. Once again, it’s incredibly predictable for Jerome.
Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the side story of this episode. While I had wished to see more of Penguin and The Riddler working together, The Riddler stays out of Jerome’s brunch gang and creates his own “The Riddle Factory” gameshow in the Narrows. If a contestant can answer his riddle and stump him with their own riddle, then they win some cash. If they don’t, they must spin the Wheel of Misfortune (which is better than I thought; I assumed death was the penalty for losing the gameshow).
Lee wants to stop the show. After all, it’s in her town and it’s hurting her people. Additionally, she has cut her hair, in the same way one would after a break up, but in this case, it’s after a murder. To take down the show, she must participate in it and win. She tries to appeal to the Inner Ed to let her win, and it works. She answers The Riddler’s riddle about a promise, and asks her own riddle. The answer to the riddle is very clearly “I love you”, but The Riddler refuses to say that out loud to her, so he loses the show.
Lee isn’t done there, however. She still has a proposition for The Riddler. She wants him to rob a bunch of banks for her and her people. And to seal the deal, she starts making out with The Riddler. I can’t wait for Gordon to find out about this. After all, Lee killed his last girl, it might be his turn to do the same with her.
Overall, the Riddler and Lee development was my favorite part of the episode, whereas I lost some interest in Jerome’s entire storyline after the whole cliché “evil twin” gambit. I’m very interested in the fact that they are going to bring back Hugo Strange, and I’m still waiting to see what chaos Barbara is going to bring on!
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer
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