Gotham Recap: S4E13 “A Beautiful Darkness”

This week’s episode of Gotham
is centered around Ivy’s continued rise to power and the bloody (well
technically) flowery trail she leaves in her way. We also get to see some of
the typical prison fun one has come to expect from the Gotham prison system.
Well without further ado, lets jump right in!

Ivy story arc – “First
I was a seed, then a sprout, now I’ve bloomed.”:

Ivy and Selina target a wealthy family’s house with vastly
different intentions – Selina being under the impression that they were going
to rob the family, while Ivy had a much more sinister motive. Ivy now has a
perfume in her arsenal that causes people to REALLY like her and follow her
commands. As Selina is combing through the house, Ivy shifts her focus to the
patriarch of the family. His work experimenting on plants for Wayne enterprises
under some kind of secret project known as ‘project M’ has peaked her
interests. Ivy takes the man’s briefcase before she scratches him, poisoning
him and causing plants to grow inside of him. Selina walks in on this and is
disgusted by what she sees and it seems like there are already cracks in the
foundation of this new partnership. Selina tells Ivy that this was not what she
had in mind and working with Ivy is not nearly as fun as she had expected – so
she’s out. Ivy shakes that off and goes to visit Bruce where she uses her
perfume to find out that Lucius knows about Project M. Before leaving, Ivy scratches
Bruce ever so slightly so she poisons him – sending him into some deep
hallucinations – but his death will be a slow burn.   

Jim and Lucius investigate Ivy’s crime scene and see that
the man is in a similar state as the junkie was in last week’s episode. The
family lets the GCPD know that a woman with red hair and another woman with a
black whip did this. Jim realizes that one of those matches Selina perfectly
and goes to club Siren to track her down while Lucius goes back to the lab to
investigate the body. Jim gets Selina to spill the beans about Ivy and the fact
that she is interested in a secret Wayne Enterpirses project. Jim and
Selina go to visit Lucius, but find out that Ivy beat them to it – forcing
Lucius to take her to where Project M is – but not before Lucius records
himself telling Ivy the location so Jim can find him.

Jim confronts Ivy at the project M greenhouse. It turns out
that Project M is the codename for Lazarus water taken from the Lazarus pit. Ivy
takes the Lazarus water and lets Jim know that she poisoned Bruce. She tells
Jim that if he lets her go, she’ll give Jim the antidote with enough time to go
save Bruce. Ivy gets away with the Lazarus water and mixes it with her own
blood. Trust me, it’s a deadly combination that I’m sure we’ll see more of as
this season continues.  

My thoughts:

Ivy is coo-coo for cocoa puffs. She is crazy and it is great.
She is reminding me more and more of the Poison Ivy from the comics and I
couldn’t be happier. The tricks she already has up her sleeve are fantastic,
but adding this new potion will only make her an even more formidable opponent
for Jim & co as the season continues.

Bruce story arc – “This
is where I was born”:

As I mentioned, Ivy poisons Bruce causing him to experience
severe hallucinations. During one of the hallucinations Alfred takes Bruce to
the alley where his parents were killed. Up on the fire escape Bruce sees a man
draped in shadows with a billowing black cape and raspy voice. Ladies and
gentleman…it’s the bat! Next Bruce wakes up in the batcave. And Batman is there
again – that’s when Bruce realizes that he is the bat. Right then Bruce wakes
up out of his hallucination to Jim and Lucius giving him the antidote. Bruce
realizes that these hallucinations showed him who he really was, and he didn’t
like what he saw. Bruce immediately reaches out to Alfred for help. 

My thoughts:

Batman!!! – Enough said.

Penguin and Joker
story arc – “I told you Pengy, I’m gonna cure you of this sad sack mopey act”:

Penguin is sitting down for a nice meal when Joker throws
his signature playing card at him. He takes a seat with Penguin and lets him
know how disappointed he has been at Penguin’s moping and lack of devious
behavior in the prison. Penguin lets Joker know that he has to behave or Martin’s life is in jeopardy, but Joker doesn’t take kindly to this boring explanation. Joker pledges to cure
Penguin of this attitude and get the true madman out. Later that day Penguin
gets jumped and brought in front of Joker and his men. Joker demands that
Penguin makes him laugh by doing a clown dance and Joker’s men force a costume
onto Penguin. Eventually Penguin breaks and lunges at Joker which, needless to
say, doesn’t go over so well. 

Ed comes to visit Penguin to gloat about him being locked up
while Ed is free. He leaves Penguin a riddle, showing him that Riddler is still
inside Ed’s mind somewhere. Later that night Joker kidnaps Penguin again
leading to a ridiculous game of mime between two lunatics – and it is pretty much
everything you could have dreamed of. At the end of the episode, Joker goes to
visit Penguin in his cell. Penguin wonders why Joker hasn’t escaped when he so
easily could have by now. Joker tells him he is planning something spectacular
and he wants to recruit penguin for the job – but Penguin holds his ground and
refuses.

My thoughts:

The dynamic between Penguin and Joker has been a blast to
watch and I’m looking forward to it continuing. I have my suspicions that Joker
will end up breaking Penguin, causing him to hop on board with whatever
craziness he is planning. I am also glad to see that the Penguin and Riddler
rivalry is heating up again. It’s always a joy when those two are at each other’s
throats fighting like maniacal children.  

Next week on Gotham:

It’s looking like a lot will be
going down next week. Ivy’s path of destruction continues, the Riddler is noticeably
upset, Selina and Ivy have a showdown, Alfred turns down Bruce’s cry for help,
and is Bruce back to his vigilante ways? We’ll see next week on Gotham!