A financial clerk, Coleman Lawson, dons a mask and fights another
man, Adams, in an abandoned office building. The two men go at each
other with whatever office supplies that they pick up. Adams finally
kills Coleman with the blade from a paper cutter and then salutes a
security camera on the wall.
Jim and Harvey are called to the
docks where Coleman's body has turned up. Edward tells the detectives
that the body was dragged there, meaning it wasn't a mugging, and Harvey
figures that the dead man was in finance judging by his suspenders.
Edward asks if he should run all of the prints, and shows Jim and Harvey
a severed thumb in the dead man's mouth.
Oswald walks up to a
rich woman as she leaves her brown house apartment and orders her to
hand over her broach. He then takes it to Fish's club on behalf of
Maroni and offers Fish the broach. He says that he hopes that they can
be friends. Fish accepts it and says that Falcone plans to keep the
peace with Maroni. She gestures over her assistant, Timothy, and says
that he has what used to Oswald's job. Fish then jabs the broach pin
into Oswald's hand and accuses him of betraying her. When Oswald reminds
her of the peace treaty between their bosses, Fish says that Oswald is
only alive because of the treaty. Angry, Oswald takes the broach and
leaves.
Alfred drives Bruce to school for the first time since
his parents deaths and orders him to go inside. Bruce tries to stall but
Alfred has none of it and tells him to go in.
At the station,
Jim interviews Coleman's mother while Harvey and Essen watch them from
the captain's office. Essen wonders how Jim is doing since his fellow
cops abandoned him to Zsasz, and Harvey figures that they all hate him
because his presence reminds them that they were cowards. The captain
says that Jim will have to get over it, and he's lucky to have Harvey as
his partner.
Oswald gives the broach to his mother Gertrude
and she praises him as a good son. She notices the cut on his hand and
he explains that someone was mean to him in the "restaurant business."
Gertrude knows that it's much more than that, and tells her son that
when a girl was mean to her in school, Gertrude denounced the girl's
mother to the secret police. A rat trap goes off and Gertrude boasts
that she found the secret cheese that the rat would take. Oswald smiles
in agreement and says that everyone has a secret weakness.
Jim
and Harvey visit a crook doctor, Felton, who is operating on a patient
with a bullet wound. Felton claims that no one has come to him looking
for treatment for a missing thumb, but Jim finds a discarded shirt
covered in ink, similar to what they say on Coleman's body. Felton
admits that Coleman's killer came in that morning and left behind a
business card for Sionis Investments. Jim arrests Felton and takes him
to the station, and Alvarez objects to Jim screwing with his snitch. Jim
starts to go after him but Harvey intervenes, and reminds Jim that he
was there for him. He asks his partner to go along to get along, and
release Felton. Jim refuses and walks away.
When Jim returns
that night, he fails to turn on the lights and Barbara aims his spare
gun at him. Once she sees who it is, Barbara apologizes and Jim realizes
that she's been drinking. She says that she can still feel Zsasz
following her everywhere, and wonders how Jim can promise to protect
him. She asks him to tell her that there aren't any monster, and Jim
says that there isn't as he hugs her.
A man wearing a black
Japanese mask goes to the abandoned office building and hands out masks
to the three men locked up in cages. When one of them asks when he'll
release them, the black-masked man says that it's up to them.
The next morning, Barbara asks Jim to leave his spare gun. He apologizes
for the situation he's found himself in and wishes that it wasn't that
way, and Barbara wonders if he really believes that. After a moment,
Barbara apologizes for the comment and Jim leaves.
Edward goes
to the morgue and performs the autopsy on Coleman. Just as he finds
something, the medical examiner comes in and orders Edward out,
reminding him that he's not welcome there.
At the school, a boy
named Tommy Elliot and his friends come over and taunt Bruce, asking if
he saw his parents killed. Rather than get into a fight, Bruce ignores
them and goes to class.
Liza goes to a church and secretly
meets with Fish in a confession booth. Fish wants her to copy the last
two pages of Falcone's secret ledger and gives her a vial with a
sleeping potion to aid her. Liza worries that it might kill Falcone, and
Fish wonders if she's developing feelings for the mobster. Liza assures
her that she isn't and Fish warns her that if anyone catches her
snooping then she's dead.
Jim and Harvey follow up on the
business card and go to Sionis Investments. As they wait for the owner,
Richard Sionis, to meet with them, the detectives notice that several
employees have scars and bruises. When Richard has them ushered in, Jim
notices his collection of swords and masks. Richard boasts that he is a
warrior in the business world but assures the detectives that he hasn't
killed anyone. He realizes that Jim is a former soldier, while Harvey
asks about the injured employees. Richard claims that they were injured
in touch football, and Jim grabs him and calls him a liar. Unperturbed,
Richard dares him to prove it, and then points out Jim's violent
reaction and figures that killing is addictive.
As Jim leaves,
he notices a blood trail on the floor leading to the restroom. He goes
in and Adams takes a punch at him and runs for the door... only for
Harvey to slam it into his face.
At the school, Tommy
confronts Bruce again. Bruce takes it until Tommy mentions Bruce's
mother. Furious, Bruce hits him in the face with his lunchbox, and Tommy
and his friends move in.
Oswald has his men capture Timothy
and bring them to the warehouse he's using as his personal HQ. He has
his men beat Timothy while he eats some fruit and watches.
In
the interrogation room, Adams finally admits that he killed Coleman but
insists that it was in self-defense. He explains that Richard forces the
applicants fight for the job and sometimes someone dies. They all
signed NDAs, making them accomplices. As Jim and Harvey tell Essen about
Richard's scheme, Edward comes in and says that he found printer toner
on Coleman's shirt and staples in his shoulders. He's checked and found
four similar deaths in the last three years. However, Richard's lawyer
arrives and refuses to let Adams sign a confession. Once the two men
leave, Harvey goes to check for abandoned buildings owned by Richard.
Essen wonders why Gotham has turned so crazy and Jim figures that the
Waynes represented a better Gotham. When they died, that part of Gotham
died as well. The captain apologizes for abandoning Jim to Zsasz, then
orders him to get back to work and convict Richard.
After
school, Alfred comes to pick Bruce up and realizes that he's been in a
fight. Bruce tells his friend that someone spoke disrespectfully about
his mother, and admits that he isn't good at fighting. He asks Alfred
not to tell anyone as he gets in.
As Harvey and Jim split up
the list of properties, Harvey tells his partner that Richard was right
about him and how he loves fighting. Once he leaves, Barbara calls to
check on her fiancé but Jim says that he's in the middle of something
and cuts her off.
As Liza prepares to drug Falcone's tea in the
kitchen, his thug comes in to check on her. Startled, she almost gives
away what she's doing but recovers and hides the vial until he leaves.
Jim checks out one of the abandoned office buildings and finds the
three men locked in cages. Richard tasers him unconscious from behind.
Two patrolmen arrest Selena after finding her hauling fur coats out of a store.
Alfred drives to Tommy's home and gives Bruce his father Thomas' watch.
He tells Bruce that there's no shame if he can't do it, but Bruce says
that there would be. He rings the door and when Tommy comes out, Bruce
says that they have unfinished business. Bruce then beats him with the
watchband around his fingers until Tommy goes down. Alfred finally comes
over and stops him, saying that Bruce has made his point. He then tells
Tommy to remember that Bruce tried to kill him... and he let him do it.
Harvey returns to the station and tries to call Jim, getting his partner's voicemail.
Jim wakes up and the three candidates surrounding him. A group of rich
spectators have gathered to watch by camera, and Richard announce over
the loudspeaker that the last man standing gets the financial job. When
Jim warns them that he's a cop, Richard throws in a million-dollar
signing bonus to the winner.
Harvey asks Alvarez to help him
check Jim's half of the list. Alvarez and the other officers refuse, and
Harvey tells them that Jim may be an asshat but he's still a cop. Essen
steps up and says that she'll help, and the other cops soon step
forward as well.
Jim manages to defeat his three opponents and
Richard comes out, wearing his black mask and carrying a katana. He asks
Jim who will help him, and Jim says that he doesn't need his fellow
officers. The two men fight and Richard manages to slice Jim's arm.
However, Jim disarms him, grabs the sword, and prepares to kill him.
Essen and her men arrive and Essen tells him to stop. After a moment,
Jim tosses the sword down and walks away. Richard grabs the sword and
attacks Jim, who knocks him unconscious. Jim then thanks Essen for help
and leaves.
An elderly singer, Maggie, is performing at the
club and Liza approaches Fish. She say that she wants out but Fish
refuse. Liza wonders why Fish wants more wealth and power, and Fish says
that it isn't about that. She tells Liza that one of Falcone's men
killed her mother, and she was forced to hide and listen. That night
Fish promised to never again be powerless, and she's going to keep her
promise by bringing down Falcone. Liza hands over the copied pages and
asks what they are, and Fish says that she can use them to bring down
Falcone. She promises that she won't let anything happen to Liza and
makes the girl recite "I believe you, Mama."
After his men beat
Timothy, Oswald tells the man that when he had his job, someone asked
him what Fish's secret was but he never told. Timothy finally says that
he heard Fish tell Butch that she has an inside man in Falcon's
organization. Smiling, Oswald thanks him for the information, kisses him
gently on the head, and... tells his men to make sure no one finds
Timothy's body and disrupts the truce.
At the station, Jim is
holding Richard's mask and thanks Harvey when he comes over. He then
tells his partner that he doesn't love fighting, but he's not afraid to,
and says that if they don't fight for Gotham, no one will. Exasperated,
Harvey tells Jim to go home.
Fish calls Maggie over, and the
old woman says that she heard Fish claiming that Maggie was dead. The
owner says that a lie with the heart of the truth is a powerful thing,
and tells Maggie to go home.
Barbara sees Jim's incoming call,
but ignores it, leaves a note on the table, and walks out. Meanwhile,
Jim leaves a voicemail for her that everything will be better soon.
Alvarez tells Jim that the patrolmen brought Selena in and she says that
she knows Jim. Jim goes over to the girl and Selena asks if he missed
her.
At the manor, Bruce admits that he enjoyed hurting Tommy,
and wonders if his anger will ever go away. Alfred doesn't know, and
Bruce asks him to teach him how to fight. The butler nods and says that
he will.
Written by Gadfly on Jun 26, 2019