Gotham Season 3 Recap

Hello Gothamites!
And again, another season of Gotham has ended. We will not leave this season before going back to the beginning and relive it for one more time. If you haven’t checked it out, make sure to read Charlie’s article about the finale Easter Eggs that Gotham brought us.

Jim Gordon
We began this season with Gordon working in a monster-ridden Gotham as a bounty hunter, hoping to find answers about the Indian Hill escapees, and why their powers appear to be killing them. Somewhere along the way he is forced to work with Valerie Vale, a reporter for the Gotham Gazette and they have a short fling together. This ends when Gordon has to choose between Lee and Valerie, a choice offered by Jervis Tetch. He chooses Lee, so Valerie gets shot and after that, she breaks off the things between them.

Sometime later, Gordon comes in contact with The Red Queen, a psychedelic substance created by Tetch and he realises what kind of life he could have with Lee. Sadly for him, Lee is already planning to marry Mario. Before the wedding, Mario and Gordon have a massive face off because Gordon knows that Mario is infected with Alice’s blood, but everyone else is denying it. On Lee and Mario’s honeymoon, Gordon barely shoots Mario before he kills Lee. Because the knife Mario was holding gets lost in the sea, everyone believes Gordon shot them out of jealousy. Mario was Don Falcone’s son, so he places a hit on Gordon after learning of the shooting. A vengeful Falcone sends Zsasz to kill Gordon; however, after seeing what the virus has done to Barnes, Lee realises Gordon may have been justified and persuades Falcone to call off the hit.
Meanwhile, Gordon’s uncle Frank pays him a visit, telling him some troubling news about his father’s death. He states that his father was killed by The Court of Owls because he disagreed with everything The Court wanted to do. In order to uncover more information about his father and uncle’s past, he needs to infiltrate into The Court and stop them from the inside out. Cut a few episodes ahead, and The Court now knows of his plan, and his uncle killed himself letting The Court believe it was Gordon who shot him.

Gordon tries his best to stop The Court destroying the city with a powerful weapon, but instead comes across a crystal owl that reveals the most secret hideouts of The Court. He races against the clock to save the city from the Alice Tetch virus, in the meantime getting infected himself to save his life. The virus wants him to get back with Lee and flee the city, but before he can he is cured and Lee leaves Gotham without him.

Harvey Bullock
The most massive change Bullock has had this season is that he became Captain of the GCPD after Barnes was sent to Arkham. Somewhere along the line, he tries to stop Gordon from getting into trouble all the time, while being caught up in Nygma’s mind games. Oh, and I want to give him full credit for all the amazing jokes he made this season.

Bruce Wayne
In the beginning of the season we have not one, but two Bruce’s roaming the streets of Gotham. When Clone realises he looks like one of the richest teens in Gotham he begins to channel him, causing some confusion around town. Bruce and Alfred race to find Bruce’s doppelganger after learning he’s assumed Bruce’s identity. After being taken by The Court Of Owls, Clone replaces Bruce while the latter is being influenced by The Court. He leaves the city as soon as his task was completed.

Meanwhile, Bruce’s investigation of The Court of Owls is compromised and he keeps learning more about them by stealing one of the crystal owls, for example. The Court  reveals their new plan regarding the future of Gotham and they abduct Bruce.
Bruce wakes up in a temple and learns of the Shaman’s wish for him to let go of his past. After some training, in which Bruce lets go of all the emotions connected to his parents’ murder, he turns into some sort of Talon, a brainless slave. When the Shaman is killed by Alfred, Bruce meets Ra’s al Ghul and completes his last task in order to fulfill his destiny. Bruce kills Alfred, but then realizes he can’t let go of his past and gives life to Alfred again with the help of the Lazarus Pit. After Alfred tells him to find his true passion, he becomes a masked vigilante saving a family from the same fate he experienced a few years back.

Leslie Thompkins
Lee found a new life after all the Indian Hill trouble from season 2. That new life is Mario Falcone: the only son of Don Falcone who chose the light side of the law and works as a doctor in Gotham General. Don Falcone throws Lee and Mario an engagement party, but, both at the party and their rehearsal dinner, terrible things happen. People get murdered, bombs explode. When they finally get married, Lee gets to enjoy her new husband for a short moment until Gordon shoots him on their honeymoon. She develops an unhealthy obsession with showing the world what a cruel man Gordon really is. At some point, she blames herself for Mario getting infected and takes the virus herself. This evil side of her wants only one thing: getting back together. After she gets the cure, she again decides to leave Gotham behind.

Oswald Cobblepot
Penguin rises in popularity after criticising the work of the GCPD and even decides to run for mayor, which he eventually becomes. Things take a wrong turn when he realises he has feelings for his right-hand man, Nygma. He tries everything to destroy Nygma’s new relationship and even spirals out of control before the biggest television interview of his Mayoral career. He is eventually shot and thrown into Gotham Harbor after Nygma finds out that Penguin ordered his new love killed. Penguin isn’t dead though, he is saved by Ivy, who helps him in creating an army of Indian Hill freaks to get his power back, and a showdown between Penguin and Nygma takes place. Eventually, he makes plans to open a new nightclub called “The Iceberg Lounge” after freezing Nygma into ice.

Barbara Keen
Barbara and Tabitha open a new nightclub in Gotham called: Sirens. When she realises Penguin killed Isabella, she plans to use the truth to stage a power grab and starts working with Nygma. Barbara and Tabitha planned on killing him in the beginning, but the more Barbara waits, the more Tabitha gets frustrated. When Tabitha helps Gordon to stop Nygma from killing Aubrey James, their relationship is officially scarred. Barbara is desperate to find out more about The Court Of Owls since she wants to be the one in full control of Gotham. She kidnaps Jervis Tetch in order to force him to help reverse the effects of the virus so she can take over the city. When Butch finally has Tabitha convinced that it would be the best if Barbara was dead, Barbara shoots Butch in the head before being electrocuted by Tabitha.

Selina Kyle
After a nearly failed attempt to steal the crystal owl from the court with Bruce and Alfred, they get help from an unexpected face: Selina’s mum. She has to deal with the sudden return, but it turns out that not all her intentions were good. After Bruce tells Selina that her mum is after his money, she decides that she doesn’t want to see her mum or Bruce again. But Clone doesn’t know that and pays her a visit. When Selina wants to tell Alfred that Clone isn’t the real Bruce, he pushes her out of the window and is hospitalized. Ivy comes to Selina’s aid and patches her up so that Selina can go to Wayne Manor to kill Clone. He escapes, but she has no interest in helping Alfred to find the real Bruce.

When everything is over she goes to Tabitha because she wants to do more than just survive, so Tabitha agrees to help her train with a whip.

Edward Nygma
Nygma starts off as Penguins right hand when he is the mayor. Then a somewhat familiar face comes back into Nygma’s life: Isabella. She has a remarkable resemblance with Ms. Kringle and Nygma falls head over heels for her. He is then, of course, devastated to find out that she was killed in her car by a train. But then, Barbara tells him that she was killed by the hands of Penguin and that he made sure that her brakes were cut, and Nygma seeks revenge. They are forced to confront their issues face-to-face many times, with possibly deadly consequences.

Eventually, Nygma convinces himself that he doesn’t need Penguin to succeed and begins to introduce himself to Gotham as “The Riddler.” This happens after he shoots Penguin and dumps him into the harbour. The Riddler continues his conquest of the city, but when Penguin comes back from the dead they are forced to work together to escape The Court’s prison. Nygma loses for the final time when Penguin lets Mr. Freeze freeze Nygma to place him into The Iceberg Lounge.

Butch Gilzean
This whole season, Butch has been in the background. When he did come out of the shadows, he went on a dark path with the infamous Red Hood Gang and openly challenges Penguins authority. Nygma discovered that Butch is behind the new gang as part of a scheme to make himself Cobblepot’s right-hand man again. At a celebratory party in the mayor’s honour, Nygma manipulates Butch into exposing himself as the mastermind behind the Red Hoods, thus reinforcing his own position as Cobblepot’s most trusted friend and ally. This plan fails and Butch returns to his place back at Tabitha’s side.

The most interesting part about Butch this season happens after he is shot by Barbara. A comatose Butch is placed in the hospital, where we learn that his birth name is Cyrus Gold.

Ivy Pepper
After being touched by one of the freaks from Indian Hill, Ivy disappears for a while. She is reintroduced into Gotham City as an entirely new person since she has aged a few years. As time passes, Ivy reveals her identity to Selina and Bruce, but quickly leads them to trouble because she has a habit of seducing rich men and then stealing their belongings. She joins Penguin’s side and helps him gather his army of freaks. She also proves to be a loyal friend to Selina when she saves her life.

Jervis Tetch
Hypnotist Jervis Tetch hires Gordon to find his sister Alice, an Indian Hill escapee whose blood contains a virus. When Gordon meets Alice, she makes it clear that she does not want to go back to Indian Hill or her brother. When she tries to escape, she trips and gets impaled by an iron pin. Jervis Tetch mourns his sister’s death and plots revenge against Gordon because in his eyes he is the guilty one. Jervis sets his eyes on his next victims, forcing Jim Gordon to make some tough decisions between Valerie and Lee. He breaks into the morgue and drains the blood from Alice’s corpse, planning on releasing the virus at the city Founders’ Party, but is arrested in time. He then has to spend the rest of his days locked up in Arkham Asylum.

Nathaniel Barnes
After visiting the place where Alice Tetch gets impaled, he is infected by the virus. At first, he doesn’t feel the effects, but they get stronger and stronger the longer he is infected. Barnes begins hearing voices that urge him to kill more criminals. He eventually gets mad and calls himself The Judge, Jury, and Executioner. He tries to hand himself over at Lee and Mario’s engagement party, but fails. His psychosis overpowers him when he learns Dr. Symon, a killer he arrested, has been released thanks to his powerful connections. Losing faith in Gotham’s justice system, Barnes kills Symon and plans to murder criminals on a larger scale. After a showdown, Barnes is arrested and locked up in Arkham Asylum. He is broken out by The Court Of Owls to do their dirty work before being sent back to Arkham. However, he escapes.

Fish Mooney
Fish Mooney takes matters into her own hands to locate Hugo Strange, forcing Gordon to reluctantly team up with journalist Valerie Vale to find her. Fish captures Bullock and uses her powers to make him lead her to the secret facility holding Strange. Gordon makes a deal with Fish to help her escape with Strange if she hands over Bullock, and informs Cobblepot of her escape route. Cobblepot prepares to kill her but instead lets her go when she reveals that she let him live because he was her greatest creation. Both her and Strange disappear from Gotham only to show up again at the end of the season. Fish comes to claim Penguin so Nygma has no chance to kill him. Apparently, Fish and Strange have parted ways somewhere along the line because Fish kidnaps Strange again. She manages to find the antidote to the virus, but she is murdered by the infected Gordon. The antidote is destroyed, but with the help of some spare, the virus is defeated.

Jerome Valeska
Gordon and Bullock pursue ex-Indian Hill employee Dwight Pollard as he prepares to resurrect another corpse: Jerome Valeska. When the reanimation seemingly fails, Dwight cuts off Jerome’s face and wears it as a mask while he leads a cult of fanatics to take over a news station. The GCPD stops the cult, but Jerome awakens belatedly at GCPD Headquarters, freaks Lee out, and abducts Dwight. After reattaching his face, Jerome ignites explosives that kill Dwight and knock out Gotham’s power, causing a citywide blackout.

During the blackout, the GCPD struggles to contain the riots committed by both Jerome’s followers and random citizens gone corrupt. Jerome kidnaps Bruce and drags him to a circus, planning a theatrical execution in front of his followers. Accompanied by Alfred, Gordon and Bullock lead the GCPD Strike Force to the circus. Bruce escapes and fights Jerome in a house of mirrors, but resists the urge to kill him. Jerome is then subdued and sent back to Arkham Asylum by Gordon, restoring order to the city.

These were all the (major) events that happened during season 3 of Gotham. Keep an eye on The Game Of Nerds for more news regarding season 4 or tune in on September 28, 2017, for a brand new episode!