Just to get them out of the way, Bruce and Cat meet again. Bruce simply refuses to leave Alfred's bedside, after helping him protect old buddy Reggie Payne from Jim's questions. When Alfred tries to get himself out of bed, he's so woozy that Bruce orders him back to bed and Alfred actually complies. While Alfred snoozes, Bruce is reading a selection, probably from Jack London, about Nature's apathy toward any one person's survival, when Cat creeps in. They freely hug, and we find out that Ivy's been in and out of the hospital without Bruce knowing.
Bruce must have examined his study, because he tells Cat that nothing of much value was missing, so he knows that Reggie Payne was more interested in what Bruce has collected about his parents' murders. He vows, refusing all help, to go after the Wayne Enterprises Board. It's crazy coming from a twelve-year-old. Even Bruce. He acts grown up and tough, but he's just as vulnerable as he was when Copperhead was stalking Cat. Alfred better get better fast.
The real drama this week is Jim's pursuit of Commissioner Loeb. Loeb uses Bullock's perjured testimony to get Flask freed. To add insult to injury, he then supports Flask for Union President. This is too much for Jim, especially when Flask lords his new freedom and soon-to-be victory over Jim. This leads Jim to angrily demand an explanation of Bullock, who really isn't the mood to deal with Jim's self-righteousness today. So he erupts at Jim. Loeb has goods on him. From his first dirty act to his latest. It started the day his Sargent ordered him to kill a mob snitch. And half of Gotham's cops are somewhere in Loeb's files, so he can eventually extort them too.
Dirty Cop Flask can't be allowed to gloat all over the precinct. Jim decides he's going to take away Loeb's leverage over Gotham's cops, despite Bullock's whining that Jim's going to get himself killed. Once again, Bullock- Jim's got this far.
Dent is totally in when Jim pitches working together. He's excited to steal Loeb's cache of evidence against dirty cops, and eventually presents Jim with Detective Griggs, Loeb's old partner before he moved on up. Griggs is in the same situation as Bullock, beholden to Loeb for his silence. And no dirt has ever stuck to Loeb, not even when the guy's wife died suspiciously. But he does have a lead for our heroes. Bullock eyes Jim and Dent as they whisk themselves away to see Shi Lu, recommended by Griggs as a guy Loeb trusts.
Shi Lu, stashed in a basement with other money launderers, turns out to be a trap, and Jim and Dent are about to be dismembered by twenty Asian guys with knives when Bullock saves the day with his driving through a fence and driving them all to safety. Jim and Dent fume that Grigg set them up, while Bullock decides that it's time for him to have a little fun. He sends Dent away, and has Jim drive while he holds Grigg outside the car, head inches away from pavement whizzing underneath him. This produces the information that Falcone knows where Loeb's secret stash of blackmail stuff is. Which brings them to Oswald.
At last
The scene between them, negotiating how to get Oswald to help them find Loeb's stash of info on Gotham's cops is understated but thrilling. Jim feels a piece of his soul is leaving. Oswald is calm, but happy to be vindicated- Jim needs him after all! Bullock just wants this to be settled, so he can get some ass-kicking in. They settle on Oswald scoring some alone time with the files, as long as he doesn't even think of extorting a cop. And, an unspecified favor. Later. For Jim to pay back. Jim doesn't agonize. He came knowing he was making a deal with the devil, and he just wants it made. Interesting how he's selling his soul to Oswald to save what's left of Bullock's.
Oswald's only clue is an overheard conversation, sometime in the past, between Loeb and Falcone. Falcone reassured Loeb that a farm was the safest place. For what? Well, tea, of course. Oswald wanted to stay in the car, away from risk and exposure, but Jim and Bullock drag him in for Marge's tea, at the eager behest of Mr. Farmer.
Servin' up caffeine and fake innocence
The three invent a cover story as Marge and Farmer probe them. Loeb is their landlord, and a good one at that. Marge and Farmer are happy to accept the story that the trio is there to conduct a security walk-through, requiring them to tour the house and property. Farmer just has to fetch the keys, which turn out to look awfully a lot like a shot gun. A rousing gun fight ensues, which Oswald survives. Of course. Jim and Bullock knock the Farmer and Marge out, convinced that Loeb's dirty stash is here. They, stupidly, leave Oswald in charge of the remaining shot gun and the prisoners.
Even Oswald knows this is a bad idea
Jim and Bullock's search takes them to the attic. Instead of files, they find something confusing. A disheveled, young-ish blond woman. Dressed in horribly out of date clothes, and dancing by herself, Miriam Loeb seems happy to see visitors. She was expecting Loeb, who turns out to be her father. But she's happy enough with Jim and Bullock, who now realize Loeb was storing his own personal secret here. The key to the mystery of his wife's death. Jim is sure that they can pry Loeb's guilt in killing his wife from the daughter. He succeeds only in coaxing Miriam to produce her prize possession: a necklace made of bird bones.
Jim's face goes dark and silent as Miriam waxes poetically about killing birds. Miriam loves the pop of a crushed bird skull in the morning. And both detectives realize who Loeb's really been protecting. Miriam's mental illness contains a homicidal mother-jealousy. Bullock and Jim are just about to debate what to do when a ruckus brings them downstairs to find Oswald knocked out, and Marge and Farmer driving off. Jim and Bullock let them go. They have what they came for.
A really big lever
Jim hasn't freed Bullock from Loeb yet. But, he does now have enough leverage over Loeb to negotiate. Loeb is matter-of-fact about the whole thing, when Jim barges into his office and plops the farmhouse keys on Loeb's desk. Loeb whisks them away to a desk drawer, and Jim threatens to get Miriam sent to Arkham. For Bullock's extortion file, Flask back in jail, and one other bon mot.
It's a new day for the GCPD. Jim says so, right after Loeb enthusiastically endorses him for Police Union President in front of the whole precinct.
Mooney starts waking up from surgery. Eye surgery. Her self-mutilation has caught the attention, and admiration, of the Director himself. Dr. Dullmacher personally greets her when she awakes. He's so positive, that Mooney can't help recommending herself for the job of his Vice President in Charge of Dungeon Affairs. Dullmacher isn't sure about this promotion, as Mooney has already crossed him, albeit in a creative way. He tells her he wishes he could have found an eye color to match her original one. He leaves, so Mooney can painstakingly lift off the bandage on her eye socket. It looks like it's still an empty socket at first, but that's only because Mooney's got to pry her eye open. To reveal an electric blue orb. Next to her cat-like hazel one.
Because eye patches are not her style
When Dullmacher returns to her recovery room, she once again pitches herself as the woman who will make sure the organs flow again. Dullmacher hasn't already killed off the dungeon, which Mooney takes to mean that he can't. Either the supply of captives is unpredictable, or the prisoners have such valuable organs that killing them off would hurt business. Dullmacher is almost won over. He just wants to make sure Mooney knows the price of failure. So, he explains to her that he thinks of people as collections of parts. His passion is trying to determine just how many parts can someone lose before becoming someone else. The Manager, now with mismatched arms and legs, is about to find out. To his absolute, screaming horror. And Mooney's dread if she should fail.
She actually succeeds. By picking sacrificial lambs that the others in the dungeon won't miss. Including Suit Guy. Her henchmen are about to mutiny, but Mooney reminds them that she was honest. Some of them would die in their quest. And Mooney is keeping her end of that particular part of the bargain. Some of them are dying. Who's side is she really playing? Her own, of course. But playing one side off the other isn't going to last forever. Does she want to help her fellow captives take the hospital for themselves? Or will she send every last captive to harvest to save herself? We'll know, even if it takes a while. Dullmacher reveals why he has no escapees from his operation as he shows Mooney her new digs. She has a great ocean view. Of the ocean that surrounds the lonely island his hospital is on.
In bittersweet unrequited love news, Nygma thinks he's in with Kris Kringle when she unequivocally swears off a briefly returned Flask. But it's a false hope; Kris has found a sweet, if stupid man. He's not arrogant and mocking like Flask, but his riddle is amateurish. He's also not Nygma, which drives Nygma to trash his bouquet-to-be.
The episode works miles better without Barbara insisting that anything is about her. It also works wonderfully when Bullock and Jim are battling styles of law enforcement. When Jim finds Bullock alone, he presents a file thick with old, corrupt deeds that can no longer hurt Bullock. He doesn't have to thank Jim; we already know Bullock is jaded but still pines for his lost innocence. Instead, he has only some words of wisdom for Jim. He tells them that, like him long ago, he's done one bad thing by telling himself he'll do so much good after it. But the so much good never comes, just more bad things. Like, whatever favor Oswald is going to ask for.
Speaking of helping people, Oswald turns out to have made his own side deal with Farmer and Marge. They need to get out of town now that they've failed to keep Loeb's secret safe, and he needs to get them away so Falcone never knows Oswald's part in all this. Oswald is happy to help, but he could only snag one train ticket to Arizona. Luckily, it will go to whoever kills the other first. Just as Liza had to kill her competition and slowly put some gusto into it, Marge refuses to stop until her dear husband is a bloody mess on Oswald's floor.
Marge is ready for her train, and Oswald is ready with his shotgun. Oswald, unlike Loeb, only trusts dead people with his secrets. Which, considering Gotham, is for the best.
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