Gotham Review S04E03 'They Who Hide Behind Masks'

Welcome back Gothamites!
What is green and red and goes round and round? A frog in a blender.

After the return of Barbara, the prototype suit Bruce gets and with the problems, the Scarecrow caused, you would think that Gordon, Bullock and the GCPD deserve some break after last week. But Gotham wouldn’t be Gotham if one crazy and absurd event wouldn’t fire up the next one. Here is all that happened in this weeks episode of Gotham:

We begin this episode in the year 125 ad. When some guy rides a horse over a field where not long ago a terrible battle took place, he finds someone between the remains of all that lost their lives there. The guy on the horse takes the other one back to his tent and places him in a pool with water. We quickly learn that it is the famous Lazarus Pit when the guy comes back to life. It turns out that the guy on the horse is Ra’s al Ghul and the resurrected one will be the future Ra’s. He is tasked by his master find his future heir, and give him a ceremonial knife.

Back in Gotham, Bruce is working to make the city saver again. While keeping in contact with Alfred in the car, Bruce goes to the docks where a big shipment from Penguin is due to arrive. Bruce spots a thief trying to steal something, and Bruce decided to talk a look, but to the dismay of Alfred. But before Bruce can confront the thief, he is caught by the guards. They fight, but Bruce wins and both he and the thief get away separately. Later it is revealed that the thief was Selina. When they get back to Wayne Manor, Alfred stitches up the would Bruce had got during the fight. Bruce is immediately ready to go back to the docks and find out what was so valuable to try and steal it from Penguin. Alfred reluctantly lets him go.

In last weeks episode, we saw how Gordon had come up with the idea to ask Carmine Falcone to help with freeing the city from Penguin. Falcone currently lives in Miami and Gordon flies out there to ask him in person. First Falcone isn´t happy to see Gordon, but he is willing to listen. But before Gordon can do his story, Falcone´s daughter, Sofia walks in to also hear what Gordon has to say. Immediately Falcone tells Gordon he can´t help him because he is dying. Sofia offers to go in his place instead, but Falcone refuses since he feels that she is not ready for Gotham yet.

Back at Barbara’s fancy mansion, she shoots one of her henchmen with one of her guns as a demonstration for potential buyers. After the demonstration, Selina comes in to tell Barbara that she failed to get the crate from Penguins shipment. But since she failed, Barbara thinks that involving Selina might have been a bad decision and that she is only good for mopping floors. Selina walks out after that comment.

In the Iceberg Lounge, Nygma is still stuck in the ice. Victor and Penguin walk in talking about the shipment. It’s a black market auction for Gotham’s elite. After they have left to go to the docks, one of Penguins employees sneaks in. It is Myrtle Jenkins and with a blowtorch, she starts to melt the ice around Nygma. When Victor and Penguin come back, the latter nearly gets a mental breakdown when he sees the leftovers and orders Victor, to find the one responsible. Nygma is already gone and wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. He is in Myrtle Jenkins’ house covered in blankets and heat lamps to get his muscles going again. Nygma doesn’t know who the woman is, but she introduces herself as an elementary school classmate of Nygma’s who now idolizes him. She spends many months making up a plan to get Nygma out of the ice and to learn Penguins schedule. So long, that he has spent five months in the ice.

Bruce is back at the docks Now he has disguised himself as a young chap Who is trying to find his uncle. With the permission of some people on Penguins ship, he can go below deck to find his ‘uncle’. When he is on the ship, he goes to the captain’s bridge and finds the ship log. It turns out that the crate that Selina wanted contains Embulmer’s knife from the Tomb of Balahsi, the knife Ra’s al Ghul received at his resurrection. Before Bruce has a chance to get out, he is caught by Penguins men but Alfred comes in and rescues him by knocking down the guys. Alfred gives Bruce one piece of important advise: improvisation is an important weapon for any actor.

Barbara goes to the Iceberg Lounge to try and persuade Penguin to let her buy the knife before it is auctioned off. Penguin refuses since he believes that Barbara is sent by Nygma to buy the knife. But little does he know that the client she needs to buy the knife for is Ra’s al Ghul. Something Bruce and Alfred also find out in the library in Wayne Manor.

Back in Miami, Gordon decides to take a drink at the beach. Unsurprisingly, Sofia ‘coincidentally’ is there too and they share a drink. Later on, they take a stroll along the beach where Sofia tells Gordon that she’d never really know her father and that it took him getting sick to have a real relationship. She has been living in Miami with Mario ever since she was 13 years old. After hearing that, Gordon apologises for what happened to Mario and expects her to be angry at him. She, however, is not. She knows that Mario was infected with the Tetch virus and Gordon had to do what he did. And then they, make out while standing in the sea.

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Back at Myrtle Jenkins’ house, Nygma wakes up with needles in his arms and legs to help his muscles going again. Myrtle has changed outfits and is now wearing a question mark covered dress (not gonna lie, I want that dress). She calls herself The Riddlet and imagines herself and Nygma causing mayhem in Gotham. You can tell by Nygma’s face that it is not something he particularly likes. They argue a bit and Myrtle challenges Nygma to make a plan of his own, how he would have escaped out of the ice. To his great horror, Nygma can’t seem to think of a plan of any sorts. After the needles are removed, he still can’t move so Myrtle start focusing on the main muscle: the brain. As long as that one is working, the rest should follow suit. But even the riddles are too hard for Nygma to answer. It is not that he doesn’t answer them, but he gets the answers all wrong. He gets even more frustrated and possibly furious when Myrtle shows him that the riddles were children ones. Nygma picks up the book and smacks her into the face. Turns out that Nygma could move all along, he just didn’t do it. He escapes out of the house in the same clothes he was wearing in the ice and sees Penguin’s face all over billboards in Gotham. Back at Myrtle Jenkins’ house, Penguin and Victor found out that Myrtle was the one that broke out Nygma. She informs them that the ice broke Nygma’s brain and that he can’t solve riddles anymore. Penguin, however, is merciless and leaves Victor to shoot Myrtle, who really likes her dress. What a thoughtful guy he is.

Bruce and Alfred are both nicely dressed up to go to Penguin’s auction. Their plan is to get the knife by bidding on it. That would be rather easy since Bruce is a millionaire. In order to blend in, Alfred wants Bruce to go to the auction as the role he was born to play, a.k.a. a ‘spoiled brat’. Although it goes against everything his parents wanted him to be, but as Alfred told him before: there are different masks Bruce can wear. They go to the auction and Bruce starts bidding like a maniac and buys everything he can. When Alfred wants him to slow down a bit, Bruce tells him that him trying to buy everything is less suspicious than when he would only bid on the knife that everyone tries to steal. Alfred is surprised by so much wisdom, but improvisation is an important weapon for any actor. Penguin makes small talk to all the visitors of the auction, but when he is talking to Bruce, Barbara shows up. Both Bruce and Barbara start bidding on the knife. To mess with her, Bruce only raises with a single dollar, later on, it is even only one cent. But as soon as Bruce bids two million dollars, Penguin hits the hammer and declares Bruce as the winner.

Later that night, Selina sneaks into Wayne Manor to steal the knife. But her little plan fails as soon as she sees Bruce sitting in the dark and waiting for whoever tries to steal the knife first. Selina tells Bruce that she has to steal it for Barbara’s client and that she must succeed so that Barbara will keep seeing her as an equal rather than just an errand girl. Bruce refuses, he did pay two million for that knife and Selina leaves empty-handed.

The following day, Gordon is back in town at the GCPD where Bullock informs him that they have a new colleague: detective Harper. When they are talking, someone informs Gordon that someone is here to see him. It is Sofia who came to Gotham to help Gordon take down Penguin and his stupid licenses. When Gordon wants to protest, she reminds him that she doesn’t need his or her father’s permission and that Gotham is her birthright. She walks out with the mysterious statement that they can do great things together and that she’ll be in touch.

Barbara gets a visit from Ra’s al Ghul. He sneaks up on her so she tries to knock him down. They fight before Barbara has to surrender, nevertheless, he compliments her on her fighting to which she responds that she had a great teacher. Ra’s came to Barbara to collect his knife, but Barbara has to disappoint him and tells that Bruce has it. To Barbara’s surprise, Ra’s isn’t mad or anything he just finds it rather fascinating. He says that the knife is the key to everything. We also learn that Barbara was in the Lazarus pit, hence the reason she is still alive rather than being dead from her electrocution. We end this episode with a heavy make-out session between Barbara and Ra’s al Ghul. Don’t forget to check in next Thursday to find out what happens next in the always interesting city of Gotham.