Wayne Manor is in full bloom, and one of Bruce's gardeners finds a lost daytripper. She doesn't listen when he tells her she can't be there, because she's too busy killing him, having him sliced open by an assistant, and then smearing his blood on her forehead.
Inside, unaware that Ms. Copperhead is on her way, Bruce and Cat have a balancing lesson. On a rail of Bruce's Grand Staircase. It's good clean fun, until Cat brings up climbing to the top of one of Gotham's bridges for yet another chance to kiss her. Bruce doesn't look enthused about either idea, but Cat says it's better than continuing to obsess over the death of one's parents. Bruce wants to know why Cat is so obsessed with the idea of them kissing. He's convinced Cat has some ulterior motive, pointing out that Cat isn't a nice person. Cat doesn't know what to make of that, but their newest tif is broken by the door bell.
Alfred opens up to Copperhead, this time dressed as an innocent driver, who looks, thanks to the blood on her forehead, like she's been hurt. Alfred invites her in, offering to call anyone for her, but one look at the kids who've come down to satisfy their curiosity, and both Copperhead and Alfred are battling it out in the foyer. Alfred only has time to send the kids running.
So, it's not pizza?
Cat and Bruce evade Copperhead and her assistants by using a secret passage through the house, but Bruce isn't ready to flee his home, not when Alfred is back there and now kicking butt in the study. That changes when Copperhead and an assistant manage to follow them out of the house. Cat and Bruce scram, helped only when Alfred gets his gun and manages to nail one of Copperheads' assistants.
We've seen, since the first episode, that Alfred is as much a bodyguard as a butler. Since his accent isn't from Britain's aristocracy but it's meaner streets, we know that Alfred is just the guy to protect Bruce. This episode finally delivers on the promise of showing just what he can do. Let's just say, he only needs a gun for long distance blows.
Alfred's next step is to call the cops. Jim is pacing around, trying to deflect Alfred's anger at putting Cat in the same house with his young ward. He's also trying to figure out which neck to wring over the obvious leak that led assassins to Wayne Manor. Bullock appears, and he's finally figuring out just how much Jim's kept from him when he finds a picture of Cat, a mug shot, off the assassin that Alfred shot. Alfred and Bullock, furious at how Jim's investigation is going, decide to cut him out of finding Bruce and Cat. Maybe realizing they're the only two not floundering here, they decide to team up and find the kids. Jim will find the mole.
Bruce and Cat are currently making their way through yet more abandoned industrial scrub, long grown over and perfect for a confidential conversation about what to do next. Cat convinces Bruce to keep going. She also convinces him that it was him the assassins were after. She promises him his phone call if he'll just follow her.
Oswald's day starts off pleasantly, kidnapped by Falcone, his secret boss, and accused of helping Maroni try to steal from his armory. Oswald looks scared for about a minute, but his vicious side soon emerges when Liza appears briefly. He begs that Falcone kill Fish Mooney immediately. But, Falcone's not willing to give up on someone who's made him a lot of money. Yet. Oswald promises that the mole who spilled on Falcone's cash at the armory will be found. And it will be a mole of Fish's. He kisses Falcone's ring on it.
Why is it always me?
Being driven away by his own guy, Gabriel, Oswald explains why he didn't give Liza up then and there; she's going to get herself implicated soon enough. Better to let the bomb explode with no warning for Falcone or Mooney.
Jim starts his investigation of his own mole in Dent's own office. Dent still sounds eerily in control as he eventually admits that he did, in fact, tip his hand when he did a background check on Jim. From there, it was probably an easy paperwork search, showing Jim's past interest in Cat. Dent deflects Jim's anger much better than Jim did Alfred's. He's not defensive, he quickly cops to his mistake, and he offers Jim the joy of a long bawling out once the kids have been found. He's 110% sure Lovecraft ordered the hit on the kids, and gives him a condo address that he knows is Lovecraft's. Jim is off.
Bullock and Alfred investigate their first lead, a street kid who knows Cat. Bullock is sure he can intimidate the name of Cat's new fence, who she might flee to, from the kid. But Alfred, probably seeing the kid isn't a hardened criminal yet, just offers him money. The street kid doesn't have a name for the fence, but sends them to Fish Mooney for it.
Somebody has to go down for the robbery at Falcone's armory. It turns out to be a lieutenant named Banyon, who Falcone solemnly shoots in the head at the next company lunch. Fish and the other lieutenants are freaked at the table, and desperate to conceal it. Does Mooney feel any guilt for someone else taking her fall? Probably not, as she recovers her poise pretty quick. Falcone says he doesn't even know if Banyon was a traitor or just incompetent. He just was in the position to pay for Falcone's loss. And so are Mooney and the other lieutenants, who will have to cough up the money to replenish Falcone's reserves. The other lieutenants balk, but Mooney needs to keep up the facade of loyal lieutenant, and insists that Falcone has spoken and they will comply. Because.. family! And what's better family time than enjoying lunch with a dead body at the table? Nothing!
Finally in Gotham, Bruce leaps on the first pay phone they find, until he realizes he has no coins. Cat gives him one, but asks why he's got to call his butler. When Bruce insists that Alfred is his family, Cat feels the need to tell Bruce that she lied earlier. She told Bruce he was the target, yet knowing she was, because she's not nice. And they might have some fun in the city together. Bruce is maybe the first character in the history of television to openly point out that another character just used convoluted reasoning. TV history, everyone! Cat wanted this last fun day, as she informs Bruce that there's no way she'll ever testify in court about his parents' murders, and tries to vanish on him.
Bruce isn't having it, and he manages to keep up with her among Gotham's roofs, until Cat leaps over an alley. Bruce resists jumping at first, and Cat thinks she's gotten away, when Bruce backs up and makes a mad dash for the jump. Cat looks like she can't believe what idiot thing he's doing now, but she's also there to catch him when he lands on the ledge and needs to be pulled to safety. Bruce, out of breath, admits he can't chase her anymore. She relents, but only on the grounds that Bruce is going to have live like a proper Gotham street kid. She nixes the idea of a phone call, telling Bruce that they're going to disappear. They do that by trying to blend in at an abandoned building (just how many of these does Gotham have?) now being used by street kids as a mall. They've got shopping to do.
Fish Mooney and First Mate fret over the thickening plot. Mooney instructs First Mate to reach out to Falcone's other lieutenants, see how unhappy they are about the hiked Falcone tax. He'd love to proceed, but Bullock and Alfred are there to follow up on their one lead. First Mate tries to send them away, bringing Mooney's attention to the matter. For someone who's not involved, she sure knows a lot about Cat being a guest at Wayne Manor and having a new fence. She doesn't want to help Bullock, but Alfred blows some smoke up her ass. Maybe she likes being flattered for a change. Maybe she realizes that letting a billionaire kid get murdered in her neighborhood will go badly for her. Maybe she loves Alfred. I don't know. All I know is that they leave with the name of Cat's fence.
I'm a sucker for a man who thinks I'm a good person...
Cat would love to meet them there, but they're holed up in Street Kid Mall getting Bruce some old clothes. He now looks like a normal kid, which relieves Cat. We finally see Ivy Pepper again, missing since the first episode. With dad dead and mom who knows where, Ivy was sent to a new family that she's quickly run away from, and Bruce is face to face with the daughter of the man framed for his parents' murder. They both share a common obsession for knowing who set up Mario Pepper, but Cat gets nervous about lingering around Ivy, and yanks Bruce with her to find Clyde the Fence.
Jim gets to Lovecraft's condo and quickly finds him. Lovecraft isn't so much the cocky rich guy from last episode. He's now a scared little man, who admits to just being a cog in someone else's wheel. All Jim gets from him is that there were some questionable trades around Wayne Enterprises stock right before the Wayne murders. Like someone knew change was coming. Lovecraft says he, too, is a target, just like Jim's witness. He turns out to be right when Copperhead enters. Lovecraft tries to flee, and Jim tries to fight. And both fail. Jim is knocked out, and wakes up later to find his gun in Lovecraft's bathroom. After being used to shoot Lovecraft in the head. Jim can be placed all over the condo, and his gun will have his prints only on it, and be identified as the murder weapon. One lost fight will undo all the work he's done to date.
Clyde the Fence turns out to be in yet another shadowy Gotham building. Doesn't it seem like most of Gotham's crime problem could be solved with better zoning, or even just demolishing the abandoned buildings? Anyway, Clyde's offer for stuff Bruce recognizes as his own insults both Cat and Bruce, who can describe how valuable the loot is in detail. Cat realizes she's got an expert to help plead for more money, but it turns out Clyde's already accepted a ton of money from someone else. He has Cat and Bruce locked in a large storeroom, complete with its own skylight.
Wow. Locked in a room full of stuff we can use to escape
The two waste no time, immediately stacking furniture for climbing up to freedom. Cat manages to get the crank that opens the window functioning, but Copperhead and Co. are already on their way up, after paying off Clyde. What no one knows is that Bullock and Alfred have chosen this moment to arrive, and Alfred immediately enters shooting. Bullock says something useless, but funny, about backup before joining in.
Bruce and Cat realize they're not getting out before the killers will find them. But they leave the window open anyway, hoping to run away while everyone is obsessed with getting up to follow them. From there, it's only a matter of time before Alfred and Bruce get into their own version of Marco Polo, shouting to each other in the darkness. Cat tries to get Bruce up to the roof, but he sees Copperhead on the floor below, and makes the mistake of stopping to try to hit her with whatever debris he can scoop up at his feet. Cat manages to get out. Bruce has better aim than he did at the food fight, but Copperhead manages to grab a leg, point a gun at Bruce, and demand to know where Cat is.
Kid, she's not even your girlfriend, get out of the way
Bruce won't give her up, and Copperhead tells him to be sensible, not brave. It's Alfred who saves the day, shooting Copperhead and getting to Bruce for the hug. Jim shows up to look relieved.
It's the only good thing to happen all day, because Mayor James has both Dent and Jim in his office. He's furious at both, but Dent manages to get less blame, mostly because Jim has been a pain in his ass for months now. James is now convinced that Jim is coming for him, one day, and demands that one of them is getting blamed as an overzealous law official who drove Lovecraft to suicide. Since, as James claimes, Dent knows where to draw the line, it will be Jim who gets the worst demotion ever to....
Getting detention from the principal
Security guard at Arkham Asylum. Whether James actually has the authority isn't mentioned, although he probably just pulled a few strings. Bullock is indignant. Despite all Jim's annoying tendencies, they did solve some cases together. Nygma says he'll complain, but Jim only leaves the precinct alone, Bullock staring long and hard after him.
Bruce is back to staring at his Wall of Dead Parents and Their Empire when Cat once again breezes in. She's gotten his stuff back from Clyde the Fence, hopefully teaching him an expensive lesson in loyalty that he'll learn as soon as he's out of jail. Cat declares that she'll be honest with him from now on, and even admits she has even more loot from his place, when she shows him the silver case she lifted from his study a few episodes back. It's pretty small, but the engraving of a bat is startling enough that Bruce doesn't speak as she leaves. Alfred, who no doubt is well aware they just had a visitor, comes out to once again console Bruce on his lonely state. Bruce is still busy thinking about the bat.
We leave the mid-season finale on Jim, entering Arkham for the second time. Sure, it's a crazy worse job than homicide detective. But, Jim's known since the fourth episode that Arkham is wrapped in the mob war that involves Wayne Enterprises. Mayor James was intimately connected with solving the mob war over the Asylum and surrounding land. Did he put Jim there on purpose? So, how many inexplicable deaths will Jim investigate, and find tied to a deeper, darker, plot? How soon until he realizes that he is just where he needs to be, just like Copperhead said of herself at Wayne Manor?
No comments:
Post a Comment