In this week’s Gotham
we get an interesting family reunion and maybe the blossoming of a new love
story that had seeds planted a few episodes ago.
Jerome’s Family Reunion
story arc: “I’m an artist, I just want to paint the town crazy” –
This episode picks up right where we left off – Bruce goes
to visit the headmaster of St. Ignatius and find out if Jerome is there. Turns
out Bruce is a little late and Tetch has already paid the school a visit and hypnotized the
headmaster. Tetch was asking for the name of a particular student – Xander Wilde.
Before leaving, Tetch had strapped a bomb to the headmaster and commanded him
to blow himself up when someone comes asking questions. Jim and Harvey join Bruce in the office and they try to convince the headmaster to put the detonator down,
but wind up being unsuccessful and he blows himself up. Outside of the school,
Bruce tells Jim that Tetch was looking for someone named Xander Wilde. Jim tells Bruce to stop meddling in the GCPD’s investigation and warns Bruce and Alfred that
if Bruce gets involved again, Jim will press charges. It turns out that Xander was
a child prodigy who is now an engineer at a company called Meyer & Hayes.


While Jim and Harvey are visiting Bruce, Jerome goes to
Xander’s proxy (whose name is Ecco). He demands to know where Xander is and
threatens her with a knife. She has a plan of her own and knocks Jerome out and
transports him to a concrete cell at Xander’s house. The cell has a camera in
it that allows Xander to watch Jerome. Jim and Harvey go to Xander’s house
which looks like a fortified bunker. It is entirely concrete and there are
cameras everywhere. Jim and Harvey question Xander – who is actually Jerome’s
twin brother named Jeremiah. Jeremiah tells Jim and Harvey that Jerome made his
childhood a living hell – he used to threaten his life and even went as far as
to set his bed on fire. Their mother and uncle realized this and took him to
St. Ignatius to give him a new name and a new life. Jim and Harvey want to take
Jeremiah into protective custody, but he disagrees saying that he will be
safest at his own house and Jerome won’t be able to find him. Jim feels like Jeremiah
is being dishonest with them and realizes that all of the monitors in the room
are now turned off, even though Jeremish was able to see Harvey and him through a
camera at the entrance to the house. Jim turns on the monitors and sees that
Jeremiah is holding Jerome in a cell, and also sees that Jerome’s fellow Gotham
villains have followed him there and are now in the house as well.
As Jerome, Jim, and Harvey were out on the hunt for Xander –
Penguin was creating a plan of his own. He thinks that when Jerome flames out,
the Gotham underworld will be his for the taking. Penguin goes to visit Butch
at a bar to recruit him in his efforts. Butch does not take too kindly to
Penguin visiting him and tells him to leave him alone. Butch is only focused on
trying to get his life back and not be the monster that Grundy is. Penguin
doesn’t take no for an answer and comes back later that evening. Penguin brings
some of the swamp water that transformed Butch into Grundy and tells him he can
help get Tabitha back and reverse his condition. Penguin promises that together
they will find Hugo Strange and he can fix Butch. Butch agrees and joins
Penguin. Penguin takes Butch to the villain’s new ‘hideout.’ Everyone is
assembled there and eagerly awaiting the test of Crane’s newest gas. The poor
victim is a businessman and Crane sprays a cloud of the gas in his face. The
man begins hysterically laughing with a huge grin and laughs until he begins
bleeding out of his eyes.
My thoughts:

Lee & Riddler’s
Star Crossed Lovers story arc: “It’s riddle time at the riddle factory” –
In the narrows Riddler has developed another stage
spectacle. His new gameshow is clearly a crowd favorite. The basic premise of
the gameshow is that he asks a contestant a riddle. If the contestant gets it right,
he asks Riddler a riddle. If Riddler cannot solve it, the contestant wins cold
hard cash. However, if the contestant gets the initial riddle wrong, he must
spin the wheel of misfortune. Trust me – the wheel of misfortune is aptly
named. We see the game being played and sure enough, Riddler’s contestant doesn’t get the question right and the wheel lands
on “Rabid Sack of Rats". Luckily for the contestant, Lee comes to shut down the
show.
Riddler and the crowd disagree with Lee’s position and want
the show to keep going. Lee extends a challenge to the Riddler that he accepts –
if she wins the contest then Riddler must shut down the show, if he wins then
she will spin the wheel. Lee is able to solve the riddle that he presents, but
she manages to trick him into not being able to provide the answer to her
riddle. The answer was ‘I love you’ – but Riddler is worried about Ed’s persona
taking over if he says ‘I love you’ to Lee. So Lee wins and the gameshow is
shut down. Lee goes to visit the Riddler after the show and wonders aloud why
he opened up his club in the narrows. She thinks that it is because he wanted
to get Lee’s attention and that both the Riddler and Ed love her. She wants
Riddler’s help in robbing banks and seals the deal with a kiss.
My thoughts:
Riddler’s gameshow is fantastic and was a great scene to
watch unfold. The wheel of misfortune is perfect for the narrows and for Gotham as a whole. The punishments on
the wheel are absolutely absurd, but I would expect nothing less. I mean what
is more befitting for Gotham, the
Riddler, and the narrows than stapling a barracuda to someone’s forehead as a
punishment!? I am certainly curious about this new dark and scary Lee. Lee has
changed over the last few episodes – first smashing Samson’s hand, now trying
to set up bank robberies and kissing the Riddler. I am interested to see how
her character continues to progress.
Next week on Gotham:
Jerome and co. interrupt the Gotham music festival. Armed
with Crane’s new laughing gas, they are even more of a threat than before.
Jerome demands that Bruce and Jeremiah become their hostages or they are going
to unleash hell onto the city. Bruce immediately accepts, but we’ll see if
Jerome really gets his wish or not.