Gotham recap season 4 episode 15: ‘The Sinking Ship The Grand Applause’

Hello and welcome back Gothamites to this weeks episode recap!

We start the episode with Martin. He is forced to stay at a house guarded by two armed men, who are, save to assume hired by Sofia. When Martin is writing on his little notepad he discovers that there is already something written on. The writing in the notepad guides him through a couple of steps, like going to the kitchen and turn on the gas and then to sit again and cover his ears. The two men start to smell the gas and decide to take a look in the kitchen. Before they can react, a bomb is flying into the kitchen. Then Nygma steps out of the kitchen, saying he has been send by uncle Oswald and takes Martin with him to go and get some ice cream. In the Narrows, Samson is taking back power after Sofia kicked Lee out in the last episode. He makes an example by torturing and killing a guy, right in front of his family, who owed him money. What he doesn’t see is that Lee has sneaked in and sees it all happening.

At Gordon’s office, Bullock agrees to return to the GCPD only to help Gordon take Sofia down. But he makes an agreement with Gordon that the latter has to pay for what he has done and that he needs to come clean with everything he did for Sofia. Gordon agrees and Bullock leaves to pay a visit to the Scandinavian Skinner, an ex-assassin who used to work for Carmine Falcone. They hope that the assassin can tell them more about Sofia and her plans for Gotham. In Arkham, Penguin gets a message from Nygma. It’s in the form of a riddle, but when Penguin guesses the right answer (a knuckle sandwich), he gets punched in the face.

Meanwhile, Bullock arrives at the Skinner. Turns out that the skinner is retired a long time ago and that she is now a loving grandmother with a candy shop. At first, she doesn’t want to give Bullock any information, but Bullock threatens to tell her grandchildren what kind of person she used to be. Finally, she tells Bullock that the only person Falcone ever trusted well enough, was Mr Penn. In the Falcone manor, Sofia is pissed that Martin has escaped. So pissed even, that she starts throwing stuff. She orders Victor Zsasz to go to Arkham and kill Penguin by making him choke on his own blood. At the same time, he has to find Mr Penn. Headhunter is just out of the hospital and is allowed to tag along.

Penguin is in the infirmary at Arkham from being hit in the face by the guard. Bullock arrives to ask Penguin about Mr Penn and where he might be hiding. Before he can get a clear answer, Zsasz walks in and panic breaks loose. Bullock tries to keep the peace but when he, Headhunter and Zsasz hold each other at gunpoint, Nygma helps Oswald escape Arkham. Both of them go from Arkham straight to Lee to ask for her help. Firstly they think that she doesn’t want to help get Sofia down, but she does want to help. After all, Sofia is the one who took away Lee’s control of The Narrows and smashed her hand. Lee gives them the location of Butch to gain some muscle. Nygma goes there alone but doesn’t know that Butch is ‘smart’ again and Nygma talks disrespectfully about him. Butch his reaction is to corner Nygma and knocks him out.

While that is all going down, back at Lee’s place both her and Penguin wait for Nygma, that is until Penguin cannot wait any longer and storms out. When he walks on the street he runs into Gordon and Bullock who still want to know more about Mr Penn. Penguin tries to get away, but Gordon catches him. Eventually, Penguin agrees to tell them the current location of Mr Penn in exchange for his freedom. Gordon agrees, but Bullock doesn’t and arrests him. When the three of them want to get out of The Narrows, Zsasz and the Headhunter show up who now want both the location of Mr Penn and to kill Penguin. Then they end up in a shootout, which is a great opportunity for Lee to steal Gordon’s car with Penguin in it.

Butch drags Nygma to the Sirens club to give him to Tabitha and Barbara. While Barbara is suffering severe migraine pains, they come up with a plan. They will take Nygma to Sofia to quiet the rebellion against her and come out as heroes themselves. Lee and Penguin go to Mr Freeze, who lives in his basement which he turned into a giant freezer, to ask for help. First, he is reluctant but Lee convinces him to bring Penguin to Sofia like he caught him and then ask for money in return to reverse his condition.

Back at Falcone manor, Sofia lets The Dentist torture Nygma to get info out of him where Penguin is hiding. But whatever The Dentist tries, Nygma won’t say a word about Penguins whereabouts. Then Mr Freeze walks in with a Penguin inside a giant block of ice and that he is willing to trade him for 100.000 dollars, which he gets. At around the same time, Zsasz walks in and tells Sofia that he has found the location where Mr Penn is hiding. She comes along to confront him while she orders the rest of her henchmen take Nygma to the docks and shoot him. Mr Penn is hiding in a resort where adults are being treated like babies, with the inclusion of giant toys and baby bottles. When Gordon and Bullock arrive at the resort, he tries to run away but they catch him in no time.

With the help of a little device Mr Freeze gave Penguin before freezing him, Penguin gets out of the ice with ease. He knocks down The Dentist to get Sofia’s location, pissed that he missed Sofia. When he finds out that Sofia is going to pick up Mr Penn he calls Lee to meet him there, but then he spots Nygma’s hat. The Dentist tells him that Sofia made him torture Nymga, but that he didn’t give Penguin up. This touches Penguin that he now has to make the decision between killing Sofia or saving Nygma.

In the resort, Mr Penn tells Gordon and Bullock that he first worked for Carmine Falcone and when he left Gotham, Penguin started to employ him. When Sofia came to Gotham Falcone asked Mr Penn to keep an eye on her, but it wasn’t long until she discovered that Penn was also working for Penguin. Mr Penn was forced to make a deal, his life for inside information about Penguins activities. Then Sofia, Zsasz and Headhunter come in and crash the party. They start shooting and Gordon gets shot. Although he is hurt, he still orders Bullock to take Penn and get out of there. Gordon says the shooting will alarm the cops and he’ll just wait for them. Gordon flees to the kitchen and is able to shoot two of Sofia’s henchmen. But he doesn’t pay too much attention and Sofia shoots him in the shoulder. When he discovers that he has no more bullets left, he starts to hide.

Meanwhile, Bullock takes Mr Penn out of there. As if it was talked trough beforehand, Lee arrives when the two men walk out of the door. Lee lets Bullock take the car and walks inside. Zsasz and Headhunter arrive too late to catch Bullock and Penn. The cops arrive and the both of them decide to get lunch with a milkshake before running off. Inside, Sofia shoots Gordon two more times. She says he disappointed her like her father did. The only way for him to get out of there alive is for him to beg for his life and ask for her forgiveness. His answer is clear: go to hell. Before Sofia can kill him, Lee appears and shoots Sofia twice; once in her stomach and once in between her eyes.

At the docks, Sofia’s henchmen are ready to kill Nygma and drop him into the river. But before that can happen, Penguin saves him by killing the henchmen. Nymga finds it strange that Penguin gave up his chance to get revenge on Sofia to save him. Penguin replies that he trusts Nygma, something that is hard to find in Gotham. They both agree that they never want to see that pier again. Gordon wakes up in the hospital, where Bullock tells him that Penn is safe and that, surprisingly, Sofia is not dead and in a coma. Gordon lets Bullock know that he wants to come clean after he gets out of the hospital. Tell everything that has happened with Sofia and the Pyg and accept the consequences. But Bullock stops him and will not let him come clean, he says that Gordon needs to live with it just like he has to.

Gordon’s saviour, Lee is in the process of taking control of The Narrows yet again. She lets her men beat up Samson, before grabbing a hammer to crush his hand. In the Sirens club, Barbara’s headaches get heavier and heavier until her hand starts to glow. Then she spots Raz al Ghul walking towards her in the club, although she most likely sees it only in her head.

A completely different storyline in this episode was the one with Bruce and Selina. Early in the morning Bruces catches an intruder, but it is only Selina who is looking for food and help in the form of money. She has sold the jewellery she stole from the scientists family but she feels bad so she wants to give the jewellery back. Bruce gives her the money and they go to the pawn shop together. The owner doesn’t want to give her back the jewellery because she tried to steal it the night before. The owner feels like he deserves to take the money and keep the jewellery and orders his two henchmen to assist him. With no effort at all, Selina and Bruce take out the two henchmen and the owner, after which Selina grabs the jewellery. Because Bruce can’t help himself, he leaves the money behind. Back at Wayne Manor Bruce tries to convince Selina to take back the jewellery herself and to just say sorry. We don’t see Selina actually go there and apologise, but just assume that she did.