This week’s Gotham
seemed like a bridge episode between the craziness of the recent Valeska family drama and the destruction that Joker will bring to Gotham in the
coming weeks. We all needed to catch our collective breathes after what
happened last week so it’s okay that this episode wasn’t as crazy as the last
few (although there was essentially a zombie sighting!). Let’s get to it.
Ra’s had a change of
heart story arc: “…molding you into a Dark Knight of Gotham” –
This week’s episode starts with Barbara staring at the
portrait of herself and Ra’s. A group of inconsiderate ninjas ambush her and
she does manage to hold her own for a bit before they end up being too much for
her to handle. The ninjas were actually members of the league of shadows trying
to see if Barbara has fully accessed the powers of the Demon’s Head. Apparently
the Demon’s Head can see the future and intense emotions are the catalyst to
trigger this power. Barbara buys into this theory and tells them to step up the
intensity next time. Tabitha has asked Selina to bring Bruce and meet her to
discuss the situation with Barbara. Tabitha walks the two of them into a church
where they get ambushed by the members of the league who have remained loyal to
Ra’s. In the middle of the room is Ra’s decomposing body and the men force
Bruce to go to it. They cut Bruce’s hand and pour his blood onto Ra’s body
which reciting an incantation – bringing him back from the dead, in peak
physical zombie form. Needless to say, Ra’s is not pleased about being woken from
his planned slumber. The men beg him to reconsider his appointment of Barbara
as his heir, claiming she will bring an end to the league. It turns out that
Barbara must give the Demon’s Head back to Ra’s, he doesn’t
automatically get it – however Ra’s isn’t too worried about that...he’ll just
kill her and take it back if she refuses.
Ra’s goes to visit Barbara and asks her what she has done in
his absence. Barbara is focused on using the power of the Demon’s Head to rule
Gotham like a queen. Ra’s does not take too kindly to this plan and demands
that Barbara gives the power back, which she refuses. This leads to a fight,
but the members of the league who are loyal to Barbara attack Ra’s as Barbara
escapes the room. Outside Bruce, Tabitha, and Selina pull up in Bruce’s car and
drive Barbara to Wayne Manor. They realize that Ra’s must be killed again,
which will require the dagger. Unfortunately, after killing Ra’s the first
time, Bruce and Alfred had donated the dagger back to the Nanda Parbat embassy.
Alfred and Tabitha go to the embassy to try and get the dagger back. Alfred simply
tries to ask for it back, but his request is promptly denied. That is all part
of the plan and Alfred turns on the theatrics, pretending to have a
heart attack to distract the embassy security and employees. During this diversion
Selina repels down from the ceiling and steals the dagger. Selina, Tabitha,
and Alfred meet up with Bruce and Barbara who both demand that Selina give them
the dagger. It seems like both of them really want to kill Ra’s. Selina is
clearly torn between her mancrush and her loyalty to her crime trio. Barbara
decides to make the decision easier for Selina and points a gun at Alfred.
Selina gives the knife to Barbara and the crime trio drive back to Club Siren.
The female members of the league who are still loyal to Barbara meet them
there. Barbara lays out her plan: use her glowing hand to summon Ra’s and then
stab him. Selina has major doubts about this clearly super sophisticated
approach and refuses to sign up for a suicide mission.
Selina goes back to Wayne Manor and tells Bruce that she
only gave Barbara the knife to try and spare Bruce from having to kill Ra’s
again. While Selina is trying to get back in Bruce’s good graces, Ra’s and his
men go to Club Siren. Barbara agrees to give Ra’s what he wants if he admits that they had a connection. She uses this moment to get close to Ra’s and stab him with the dagger, which does not kill him. Ra’s and Barbara get into a brawl
and Ra’s ends up knocking Barbara down. He grabs her hand and begins stealing
the Demon’s Head power back. At this very opportune moment Bruce runs out of
nowhere and punches Ra’s, which stops him from continuing to recoup the power
from Barbara. Ra’s picks up the dagger and stabs Barbara…or so we think.
Barbara’s hand begins glowing and we see that the stabbing is actually a vision
of the future that Barbara has seen. Barbara now knows Ra’s every move before
he makes it and manages to counter all of his blows, getting the upper hand in
the fight. Ra’s realizes this and in desperation grabs Tabitha and puts a
knife to her throat. Ra’s demands that Barbara gives him the Demon’s Head or he
will kill Tabitha. Barbara can’t bring herself to give up the power and Ra’s
kills Tabitha in front of her. Once again we see that this is a vision of the
future and instead, Barbara allows Ra’s to take the Demon’s Head from her.
Absorbing this power causes Ra’s to become dezombified. Bruce demands the knife
from Ra’s so he can kill him again, but Ra’s refuses and breaks the knife in
half before disappearing.
Later that night the women from the league go to Barbara and
tell her that she is worthy to lead them and they reaffirm their allegiance to her.
Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce is with Selina trying to plan how he can kill Ra’s.
Selina tells him he needs to take a night off and they lean in to kiss. Ra’s
appears and rudely interrupts the moment. He tells Bruce that he respects who he will become. Ra’s came to give Bruce an
explanation as to why he chose to live. Ra’s tells Bruce that he saw a vision
of a cataclysmic event that will plague Gotham. It will be a cleansing fire
that will be used by Ra’s to forge Bruce into the Dark Knight of Gotham. We see
Ra’s turn away from Bruce with visions of Gotham in flames in his eyes.
My thoughts:
Well…Ra’s is back. I knew that Barbara being the head of the
League of Shadows wasn’t sustainable. The power to see the future is a neat
little trick and it was pretty cool to see the power of the Demon’s Head in
action. Ra’s vision of Gotham’s future was interesting and matches up with
Jerome’s words to Jeremiah – to make them all burn. Anything to speed up the
process of Bruce becoming the Dark Knight is good for me, so if this storyline
will help move that along – all the power to it!
The narrows story arc:
“Ed Nygma, you are a riddle” –
While all of the craziness is going on with Ra’s and the
league, Lee and Riddler are moving their plan along. When we last saw Lee and Riddler,
she challenged him to break his record of robbing 3 banks in one evening. At
the GCPD, Jim and Harvey are discussing robbers who robbed 5 banks in one night
- turns out Riddler and Lee crushed that record. Jim and Harvey feel like the
person who robbed all of the banks did it to prove how smart they were – which leads Riddler
to becoming their primary suspect.
In the narrows everyone is buzzing about all of the money
that Lee and Riddler have brought in. Lee distributes the money to the people of
the narrows – sort of like a dark and twisted Robin Hood. Riddler questions
what their relationship is, but Lee manages to avoid answering the question.
Riddler and Lee are planning to continue the bank robbing fun the next night.
Penguin and Butch happen to have chosen this moment to visit the two of them
and overhear the plans. Lee is not jumping for joy at the idea of splitting the
money with Penguin and Butch. Penguin can see that Lee is using Riddler’s
feelings for her to her advantage and warns Riddler to be careful.
Jim goes to visit Lee and asks about Riddler. He tries to
convince Lee to give him up, but as the conversation progresses he begins to
suspect that Lee may have had a larger role in the robberies than he initially
thought. We see Riddler in the back room being tormented by visions of Ed
mocking him, just like he did to Ed. Riddler goes to visit Penguin and tell him
that he knows that Lee is using him. He wants Penguin to help him get rid of
Ed’s personality. In exchange, he will split the score from that night’s
robberies with Penguin – which should be about 100 million each.
Jim and Harvey are desperately trying to find out where Lee
and Riddler’s next robbery will take place. They question an executive from the
Gotham bank branch that has been targeted by the robbers. She lets them know
that the money from all the branches has been transported to one secure
location. Riddler and Lee are already at this location and quickly take care of
the guards. Riddler however has ulterior plans with Penguin and Grundy and he
betrays Lee. In the vault, the Riddler accuses Lee of taking advantage of him
which she denies. Riddler tells Penguin to take the money but leave the
property deeds to the narrows because they are worthless. Butch and Penguin go
into the vault to take care of his request. While the two of them are
preoccupied, Riddler makes a Molotov cocktail and throws it in the vault with them
– causing them to be trapped in the vault. Riddler warns Penguin to not come
after Lee again and the two of them head upstairs. Lee asks Riddler why he did
what he did and Riddler lets Lee know that the virus she had has awoken
something within her that he loves. He forecasts that one day she will love him
back the way he loves her. Jim arrives and Lee tells Ed to take the money to
the narrows while she takes care of Jim. Lee walks outside and Jim immediately
arrests her.
My thoughts:
It is still unclear about the relationship that Lee and
Riddler have. I believe Lee is internally conflicted which is not helping
provide any clarity for her in her other relationships. Jim is clearly going
through a hard time dealing with the criminal version of Lee. He’ll have to get
used to it sooner rather than later, because it doesn’t look like she is going
to become a law abiding citizen any time soon.
In two weeks on Gotham:
There are only 3 episodes left of
this crazy season of Gotham. I know
these next few episodes are going to be crazy, but I am sure as hell sad to
know that the season is winding down. Next episode it is looking like Bruce and
Jeremiah will have a reunion, of course Jeremiah is now a victim of Jerome’s
special batch of laughing gas. At the very end of the preview for next week it
looks like Jim is being held at gunpoint by…Harley Quinn!!! This is getting
real folks!
