‘Gotham’ Recap: Freaks and Geeks!

Mister Freeze and Firefly are the first two freaks that The Penguin recruits for his new army, and I’m guessing that they won’t be the last. The Riddler, the new geek godfather of crime, has completely gone off the rails. And Bruce Wayne’s doomed clone just pushed Selina Kyle out of a window, and she fell several stories to her death. You heard me right, she’s a goner! But remember what I told you a few weeks back; ‘Nobody really dies in Gotham.’ And if you saw Michelle Pfiefer’s transformation in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, you know that the cat swarm breaths life back into Selina’s lifeless husk, and truly make her a Catwoman. But we’ll have to wait until next week to see if Selina Kyle becomes ‘more than human’, and joins the Gotham Freak Elite.

NEWS FLASH: GOTHAM RENEWED FOR 4th SEASON…

Here’s what happened: Everybody is interested in The Court Of Owls. Jim Gordon wants to infiltrate the organization so that he can take it down. Barbara wants to be top dog in Gotham and realizes that she needs to take down the Court, or just take it over, to achieve her goal. And The Riddler sees the Court as an unanswered riddle that Ed Nygma needs to figure out, before the unanswered questions drive him insane. But lets face facts, Nygma’s version of The Riddler is already pretty crazy. He’s almost as wacky as Frank Gorshin’s Riddler from the 60’s TV Show. He’s just not wearing the green unitard…yet.

The Riddler kidnaps interim mayor Aubrey James. If you recall, he was the dough-headed mayor before the Penguin took over. And this isn’t his first kidnapping. This mayor was kidnapped before, and they locked a box around his head. Why he stepped back into the job I’ll never know. And this time Nygma locks a bomb around the mayor’s neck, like an explosive necklace. And Nygma threatens to kill the mayor and expose The Court of Owls, if they don’t come clean about who they really are and what they’re doing. It seems like an empty threat, because Nygma doesn’t know very much about the Court. But if the mayor dies protecting the Court, people will suspect that the organization really exists, which is more publicity than the Court wants. So they ask Jim to prove his loyalty by shutting The Riddler up, and delivering him to the Court, no questions asked. I guess killing your own Uncle only gets your foot in the door. It doesn’t get you an Owl mask or a seat at the table.

Barbara wants The Riddler dead. But she wants info on the Court Of Owls more, so she’s willing to work with Nygma, which upsets Tabitha. Nygma cut off her hand after all. And though doctors were able to reattach the severed hand, I can see why she’s still ‘holding’ a grudge. (Pun intended.) Tabitha gives Jim Gordon some info that helps him save the mayor’s life. The Riddler fully intended to blow his head off. Then Jim talks the Riddler into giving himself over to the Court Of Owls. That’s the only way all Nygma’s questions would be answered, and he couldn’t leave that riddle unsolved. And while we don’t know what the Court plans to do with Ed Nygma, I’m pretty sure we’ll see him again.

Barbara is pretty upset with Tabitha. By conspiring with Jim Gordon, Tabitha insured that Barbra was left out of the information loop. And now Barbara’s obsessed with the Court with no way in. So she and Tabitha are on the outs, and that makes Butch happy. Butch likes Tabitha, even though Tabitha likes Barbara, and Barbara still likes Jim, and Jim still likes Lee. But sometimes Tabitha and Barbara are together, and Butch and Tabitha are together, but Jim and Barbara are never together. Though recently Jim and Barbara have been uneasy allies, while Lee still vehemently hates Jim. I guess you can say relationships in Gotham are complicated. But now that Jim has delivered The Riddler to The Court Of Owls, they trust him. So Jim gets his very own Owl mask, and a place at the table… STAY TUNED!!!

LAST WORDS: I thought Alfred was smarter, but he still hasn’t figured out that the clone has replaced Bruce. And though things are going well for the clone, he gets a nosebleed. And that indicates that he’s dying. But he’s still loyal to the Court. That’s why when Selina threatens to expose him, clone Bruce pushes her out the window, even though he likes her.  What now, will Selina become Catwoman ala Batman Returns? And if she does, will Penguin follow suit and start commanding an army of penguins? Yeah, that really happened in that movie. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.