Mooney starts moments after we last saw her disappear into the light last week, her dungeon and family behind her. The upper floors, while brighter, are just a macabre, with amputees in varying stages of amputation and "recovery". Despite the clean rooms and sunlight, it's a study in misery, to awake with appendages missing and realize your fate is to slowly be sold off for parts. Mooney almost despairs, but before she can, she's face to face with The Manager, who is all business. He wants Mooney to sit down, as if he's a Principal and she's a Naughty Girl, but Mooney doesn't let other people play the game the way, even on their own turf.
Instead, Mooney demands to know if he's the owner of the "establishment". When The Manager reveals that he is what his title says, and the owner is a man named Dulmacher, Mooney decides to pull rank on him; she talks to the owner or nobody. This isn't the first mention of the owner. Remember the second episode, and the rounding up of kids for someone the frightening nanny-type called "The Dollmaker?" To up the creep factor, he's not just selling parts for profit; his establishment makes the money that supports his other "experiments". Which, at some time, involved kids.
What with Dulmacher's experiments and now consulting in Gotham, The Manager will have to do for now. But Mooney's still claiming that she owns the dungeon until Dulmacher sees her personally. So, The Manager decides to stall, while also bribing Mooney; he sends her away to get a bath and fresh clothes, practically ordering her to. When she arrives back, looking like she's just had a spa day, she's still demanding to talk to the owner.
Get a good look at that eye; we're about to lose it
Instead of making her more cooperative, she's now asking who Dulmacher's customers are- maybe to make her own deal with them? No matter the reason, The Manager decides to move on to using fear, telling Mooney her eyes are so expressive he's sure he'll make some money taking them now. He gives her two options; hand over the dungeon, or hand over your eyes. Mooney tells The Manager that her third option is better, which is to elbow the guard holding her, grab a nearby spoon (was The Manager eating yogurt?), and gouge out one eye, her left one. Once on the floor, The Manager looks in horror at the now-contaminated body part he can't sell. Mooney shows she means business when she stomps on it.
It's so quick, how she just digs out her eye. It must have been unbelievably painful, because she outright rips it out. She's probably still in pain when she looks back to The Manager, wondering if he still loves her eyes now. Sure, she's down an eye. But, she can still see, and if she's sent downstairs, her missing eye will give her quite a bit of cred. And The Manager realizes that he's going to have to call Dulmacher.
Bruce gets a taste of more danger when a dark and stormy night brings Alfred's old Army buddy Reggie Payne to the door, wet and asking for a place to stay. Reggie has a husky voice with a Scottish accent. He also has a sad story: his wife died, he coped by drinking and losing jobs, and his last home was under a bridge. Alfred is telling Reggie that landing a butler gig has been good for him when Bruce comes down, and maybe desperate to know a friend of Alfred's, tells Reggie he's welcome to stay for a few days.
When the sun is back out the next day, Bruce, isn't dressed for school; he's dressed for his training with Alfred. Since Reggie is already in sweats, it seems like a good idea for Reggie and Bruce to spar a bit, as Reggie wants to see if Bruce has any fight. At first, Reggie sends Bruce to the floor, but maybe wanting to see what Bruce has, he decides to switch to simply letting Bruce hit him as hard as he can. Bruce, at Reggie's urging, gets more and more out of control. When Alfred, who's not dressed for training at all, but for being a proper butler, appears, Reggie has just grabbed an antique wooden cane, for who knows what. So, it's kind of a relief that Alfred calls a halt to the whole thing, sends Bruce away, and tells Reggie that Army Alfred is locked down and put away.
Any more speeches from a certain Shonda Rhimes show you'd like to repeat?
Later that evening, Bruce will want to hear a bunch of Reggie's war stories, and Reggie will happily comply, entertaining Bruce and making him give us one of his rare smiles. Reggie, turns out, was a covert reconnaissance scout, and he's very proud of almost never losing any of his men. After sending Bruce to bed, Alfred has to defend his choice of occupation- what is someone with Alfred's skills, which he's not talking about, doing taking care of twelve-year-old? Alfred tells Reggie the job's provided more than a steady paycheck; after a life of war, maybe nurturing a traumatized little boy is just what he needs. And if he has to defend his job with his old friend, he decides his old friend should leave in the morning. Reggie reluctantly agrees to go.
Penguin's club is failing for sure; his comic is totally bombing. The audience can't boo but it can definitely leave, and everyone will be gone forever anyway. The waiters confide in Penguin that they're completely out of alcohol. The colored water in the bottles at the bar doesn't count. It's First Mate that explains it to Penguin: Maroni supplies the booze to Gotham's bars and stores. Play nice with him, which Penguin hasn't done, or be squeezed. Penguin's going to have to come up with some booze, fast.
He decides on a heist. Why grovel to a man who will say no anyway? He's casing the warehouse at the docks, and deciding it will be easy when a pair of cops show up, to the complete disbelief of the guys at the warehouse, to cart this undeclared and untaxed booze off. Penguin can't believe his bad luck until First Mate literally pops his head in Penguin's window, with a creepy smile on his face. Turns out, First Mate has already been helpful by organizing the "raid", which will supply Penguin with his booze without Penguin having been involved.
The two toast their new partnership back at the club, now well-stocked with liquor and looking for a little manly confiding of things. First Mate doesn't want the club to fail- he poured his own life into the place after he and Mooney took it from a cockfighting ring. It's his baby as much as Mooney's, and Penguin admits that despite her homicidal tendencies, he misses her. Would they be impressed with how she's taken over a dungeon, and disappointed her current captors? Is she coming back to the club? Or, will First Mate's loyalties permanently shift? First Mate was willing to kill his childhood best friend for Mooney- I don't ever see him doing that for Penguin. I don't even see him killing Mooney for Penguin.
But, hey, I'd kill anyone else for you. That's something.
But in the meantime, he's willing to help Penguin keep his baby alive and kicking. And he's willing to admit that Mooney deserved Falcone's wrath. After all, she used Falcone's memories of his mother against him. Maybe now First Mate can devote some attention to the entertainment. Because Mrs. K. just can't come back.
Barbara is having a downward spiral, still with Cat and Ivy floating around the place. Cat seems a little disillusioned with their host, despite her generosity. No wonder; Barb's drinking again, and seems totally depressed. And to make it worse, she wants to give Cat a makeover. Ivy marvels over the pretty dresses Barb offers them; Cat isn't interested, not even when Barbara drags her to a mirror and tells her that a woman's looks are a weapon. That's not going to tempt someone who's as independent as Cat; she's already got claws to fight with. Instead of going along with Barbara, she points out that Barb's beauty didn't save her relationship with Jim. And it won't get rid of the booze. Maybe Barb could give her booze to Penguin.
Make my own life or spend it manipulating men?
Jim and Bullock have the second-most boring arc (first, as always, is Barbara and the totally mis-used Cat) of the week. The criminals are pretty typical bank robbers, except for two things; the wearer of the Red Hood is always the snappy spokesman and tosses the public some of the stolen cash as the robbers leave. The first time, the Red Hood is more of a mistake than anything else, with it's young wearer Floyd insisting that he just wanted something special.
Bank-robbing as personal expression!
When an aging Rent-a-Cop fails to hit Floyd despite emptying his gun at him, Floyd is convinced the Red Hood is special. When the cops come a little sooner than expected, Floyd in his Red Hood covers their exit by tossing cash at the onlookers on the street. The chaos covers their getaway and makes them heroes n the press.
Floyd's boss, Destro, is a lot more old school, wanting to just stick to their plans and stop the showing off. But Floyd is on a roll, and when he insists that whoever has the Red Hood should be the leader, Destro decides that Floyd is right. He takes the hood for himself after shooting Floyd in the chest right then and there. The Hood does him no good, and he has no real flair for the role, so when Destro is himself killed by another gang member, it's magic is long since done for the gang.
By the time they arrive at their last heist, they're down to three, and Jim and Bullock have managed to deduce the target, meeting them there before the Red Hood Gang can even go inside. Two go down easy and quick; but the last man to wear the Red Hood actually rekindles the magic, avoiding getting hit by ten cops firing on him. At first. The second round is more productive, and the Red Hood gets officially retired when Jim yanks it from its dead wearer. The two detectives exchange glances in the hope that class warfare is over. Bullock's post-case Danish is more interesting.
It was red, must've been commies
Alfred wanders Wayne Manor at night, fully dressed, and finds Reggie in Bruce's study, facing the Wall of Murder, and rooting around at the desk. Alfred can't believe his old friend is stealing from a kid. Reggie isn't just unrepentant, he actually stabs Alfred before leaving. It's Bruce who finds Alfred on the floor, blood spreading all around him. Bruce reacts like a kid who's just watched his parents die and has to worry about his one remaining guardian. He calls someone. He calls Jim, who runs to the hospital straight from nabbing the Red Hood Gang.
Alfred is dwarfed by everything required to keep him alive in his hospital bed. Bruce holds his own vigil, and when Jim arrives, he confesses he can't lose Alfred, which Jim knows is true. He puts his own hand on Jim's shoulder, one guy to another, but Bruce isn't too old to need a hug. He's been pretending to be a grown-up for so long. But he's not. Is he finally admitting this?
He may have to. Despite his grown-up threats to his board last week, the Wayne Enterprise Board now knows that Bruce has nothing by conjecture. They know, thanks to Reggie Payne, who wasn't stealing from Bruce at that Wall of Murder. He was carrying out yet another reconnaissance mission for Wayne Enterprises. The Board is pleased to know (or think) Bruce's threats have nothing behind them. When Reggie notes that Bruce is weak right now with Alfred in the hospital, it sounds like Wayne Enterprises has some ominous plan for Bruce's demise. That they'll carry out sooner rather than later, no matter what weak protest Reggie raises against it.
Despite Jim and Bullock's work, the Red Hood isn't done. Some teenager finds it lying, ignored in the street, and can't resist putting it on and taking the famous stance of the bank robber. Besides the stupidity of pretending to shoot cops in public, this kid has a pretty overactive imagination.
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