This season of Gotham has been ridiculously good, and this episode doesn’t change that fact one bit. We get to delve into the mind of Jim and the beginning of the duo of Nygma and Cobblepot. Oh, and we meet a friendly fellow named Eduardo Flamingo. Don’t let the name fool you, this guy is absolutely brutal.
The show opens with Tabitha who moves quite easily after getting shot by Jim and goes to a bar and orders a “High Smith Royale, No Ice.†Since this is Gotham, her order is apparently a code word for, let me talk to a mysterious women named, “The Lady,†to put a hit out on Jim Gordon. This is probably not the smartest of moves, per se. Later, we find out that Galavan agrees and says that if she ruins his plan then he will slit her throat. What a loving family.
While the action in this episode is immense, it’s actually the inaction which causes the dramatic last few scenes. The Captain is starting to get evidence against Galavan. Jim is on his way to Galavan’s place, but he runs into some trouble on the elevator ride up. One of The Lady’s henchmen tries to creepily hand Jim some candy and then proceeds to attempt to slice his throat with some piano wire. The scene takes place in a cramped elevator which makes it all the more exciting. Jim does a number on the assassin and drags his unconscious body to Galavan’s apartment where The Captain stands, shocked. But, there’s so much more. A bunch of goons come along, and Jim, Captain Barnes, and a rookie cop somehow take care of them all. The best is when Jim shoots a perp right in the eye, moments after he wonders, “You know what I love about those glasses? They look like bullseyes.†The shot was just inches away from the rookie cop’s face, and they live to fight another day.
After the battle, Barnes tries to convince Jim to leave, but he’s having none of it and won’t leave until they find some evidence to put Galavan away for good. After seeing a hole in a picture frame and finding some evidence, Jim peers in to see what it is as one of the goons lunges at him with a knife.  Barnes is stabbed directly in the leg as he saves Jim. But, as one of the perps said, when one goes down more will just follow.
Enter Eduard Flamingo. He may not have been given the best of names, but his “appetite†surely makes up for that. “The Lady†seems hesitant to even ask Eduardo about the hit on Jim. Considering in his first scene we see him chopping someone up and getting ready to eat them, I can’t blame her. The fight between Eduardo and Jim is pretty good, but I feel the fight between him and the man in the elevator was a bit better, at least until the end of the fight. Jim has the gun in Flamingo’s mouth and… Jim reads (the first line) of his Miranda Rights and off to jail he goes. Jim Gordon is a man who’s turning into his Altruistic self, something Lee is definitely happy about.
But, his Altruism is dealt with a side of sorrow as the rookie cop from earlier gets killed by the Flamingo. Him being a cannibal and all, he takes a chomp out of her throat and essentially chews it off. I’m not entirely sure why the other offices didn’t just kill him right there, but it is Gotham after all. This scene was so powerful because Lee was that one who answered the phone and delivered the news. In a sense, she feels bad that Jim did the right thing because it turned into a poor outcome. It will be interesting to see how Jim will act in a similar situation later in the season.
Now, onto the dynamic duo. In the last episode, we see the Nygma and Penguin meet and Cobblepot is looking awful. Nygma is creepily nursing him back to health, but Cobblepot is having none of it. He is both mentally and physically broken after everything Galavan has done to him. So, how do you cheer someone up? Apparently Nygma thought it was a great idea to kidnap someone that worked for Galavan so that Cobblepot could kill him. I guess this is par for the course for the raging psycho that he is so quickly becoming. Surprisingly, Cobblepot doesn’t want anything of it and just wants to rest before leaving Gotham forever. He then proceeds to hum himself to sleep. Of course, Nygma knows the song and is belting it out as Penguin awakes. Nygma then explains that he feels gratitude when he thinks of Ms. Kringle. He explains to Cobblepot that for some men, love is great, but for people like them it is crippling. Penguin’s mother was holding him back, but now he is free. Cobblepot puts a knife to his throat and yells that he loves her and so on. However, he tend to agree with Nygma. They are soon merrily singing the lullaby together and pull Galavan’s lackey form the closet to have some entertainment.
Wow, I can only imagine where these two are going to take Gotham in the coming episodes. The duo is so mismatched that it’s perfect. I really hope we get plenty of episodes with the duo, and it’ll actually be fun to watch them take back Gotham.
The final plotline in this episode is Bruce still believing that he and Silver St. Cloud are a thing. The heart wants what the heart wants, I suppose. I love the fact that Alfred can see through the scheme a mile away and just about forces Silver to leave. It’s quite comical that he is always one step-ahead of Bruce when he tries to leave to go talk to Silver. I am also convinced that Alfred called for Selina to provide some interference. Selina stops Bruce from leaving and says that she finally has proof that Silver St. Cloud has ulterior motives.
