Episode 3 of Gotham starts just as one would expect, in Arabia
in the year 125 AD. A masked horseman walks across a battlefield and finds what
he was looking for, a soldier who had died. We see that it is the body of Ra’s
al Ghul. The unknown man carries him to the Lazarus Pits and drops Ra’s
in where he is reborn. This man tells Ra’s that he must find his heir as this
man has found him. He hands Ra’s quite the vicious looking dagger and off we
go.
We next see Bruce watching Penguin’s men loading some truck
from a rooftop. He notices a thief walking into a trap, trying to rob Penguin’s
men. Ignoring Alfred’s warnings, Bruce intervenes and thwarts the attempt. Bruce
does end up getting cut by a knife, a stark reminder that his suit may be
bulletproof, but there are other dangers out there.
Adding to the theme of ignoring warnings, we now switch to
Jim who is ignoring Harvey’s warnings about going to see Falcone (“Jim, if you
go to see Falcone, he’ll kill you”). Jim of course does go to see Falcone. He
pulls up to a luscious villa straight from Scarface and immediately shares some
intriguing looks with Falcone’s daughter. In Jim’s defense he did not know she
was Falcone’s daughter at the time, although that probably wouldn’t have
stopped him.
Jim approaches Falcone and has the balls to reach out for a
handshake. Obviously that is not met with a warm reception. Falcone shares with
Jim that he is dying from a mysterious illness. His doctors suggested getting
out of Gotham and the fresh air down south would prolong his life, so he denies
Jim’s request to return to Gotham to help him take down Penguin. Falcone
introduces Jim to his only daughter, Sophia, who volunteers to go to Gotham and
help Jim. Falcone immediately dismisses this idea and says that Sophia is not
ready for Gotham.
Bruce, ignoring Alfred’s warnings (you’re sensing a pattern
here, right?), heads back to the docks to find a manifest. He feels that the
items the thief was trying to steal from Penguin must be important. Alfred realizes
that he won’t be able to change Bruce’s mind, gives him some advice revolving
around the idea that he can wear different masks to accomplish goals. Bruce
takes this advice and decides to pretend that his uncle is a member of the ship
and that his aunt sent him there to find her. The workers let him on the ship
and Bruce goes straight for the cockpit and finds the manifest. He sees that
the shipment that was targeted by the thief contains an embalmers knife from
the tomb of Belahsi. Seems like Ra’s has lost his knife and Penguin now owns
it.
Nigma wakes up to see pictures of himself all around him in
some creepy shrine. His old classmate Myrtle Jenkins has become obsessed with
him and planned his rescue. She lets him know that he had been frozen for 5
months and needless to say, Nigma is NOT happy that he was placed on display at
penguin’s lounge. Much to his dismay, all his muscles have atrophy and he can’t
move – so he must spend more time with the insufferable Myrtle. Myrtle has
gotten it in her head that she will be Nigma’s sidekick, self-named a
riddlette. She Dresses up in a green outfit with question marks all over it
while calling Nigma ‘my love.’ Myrtle realizes that Nigma’s mind is not working
correctly and that might lead to his muscular atrophy. This leads to a very
enjoyable scene where she is trying to get Nigma to answer some riddles. Nigma
eventually regains muscle control, knocks Myrtle out, and is on the loose.
Barbara goes to penguin to try to get the knife before it
hits auction. She says she has a client that wants it. Penguin is not playing
ball, and tell her to come to the auction and win it herself. It shouldn’t be a
problem, unless a spoiled billionaire is to get in the way. In the meantime, Bruce
does some research on the knife and sees a 2000 year old drawing depicting a
man being healed by water. Bruce and
Alfred stare incredulously at the drawing of Ra’s al Ghul... because it is 2000
years old. Bruce decides to go to Cobblepot’s auction and just buy the
knife. Before bidding on the knife he tries to dissuade suspicion by buying
everything. This leads to one of my favorite scenes of the season thus far,
watching David Mazouz play the role of ridiculous, over-the-top, spoiled party
boy Bruce Wayne. After a bidding war, Bruce wins the dagger, and Barbara is not
happy to lose. Cobblepot warns Bruce that Barbara doesn’t give up easily. Later
on that night Bruce gets a visit from Selina. She asks for a solid and for Bruce
to give her the knife so Barbara sees her as a partner. Bruce declines and asks
her to leave, further hurting Bruce and Selina’s relationship.
As the episode winds down, Sophia shows up in Gotham to help
Jim with his Penguin issues. She claims the city is her birth right and that
she has spent the past ten years getting ready for this moment. The last scene
of episode 3 features Barbara getting a visit from Ra’s al Ghul. We find out
that she has been bathed in the Lazarus pit, saving her life. She assures Ra’s
that they will get the knife and then they lock lips. From Jim to Ra’s al Ghul,
it seems like Barbara has a thing for powerful men.
All-in-all, it was another solid episode of Gotham. This one was a little slower than
the past few, but that was to be expected – there was no way every episode
could keep up that level of action. We got a new story arc evolving featuring
Ra’s dagger, and Nigma is out and about to make Cobblepot’s life a living hell.
Should be an exciting few weeks coming up! It looks like next week will explore
more about the mysterious dagger as well as Jim confronting Bruce about Ra’s al
Ghul.
