Note: There are some spoilers in the recap and review
Recap
On this week's episode of Gotham, Fish is still being held in captivity. She rounds up the troops for some water. Barbara heads back to her place, drunk, to find Ivy and Selina hanging out there. She finds out that Jim left his keys there.
Meanwhile, Jim and Leslie enjoy a trapeze act at the local circus. It's the Flying Graysons. A clown gets out of a clown car and beats one of them. Jim gets up and using his power of the law to stop it.
Penguin's mother is the new singing talent at the club and no one seems to be enjoying it. One man boos loudly and Penguin makes him regret it. Back at the circus, Gordon confronts the man who attacked the Graysons. Apparently, the Graysons and Lloyds don't get along.
Gordon looks for the snake dancer and the son, Jerome talks to Gordon. Jerome thinks something is wrong since she didn't take anything with her. Gordon wants to let her snake go to help find Layla, his mother. The snake leads him to a dead body, Jerome's mother. Apparently, the ringmaster knew.
Fish rallies the troops and says they need to stand up because they're being used as spare parts for transplants.
Gordon brings in a bunch of performers into the station to find out who killed Layla. He talks to Jerome about who Layla was and if she had enemies. He finds that one Grayson and one Lloyd both shared a bed with her. Jerome speaks incredibly maturely about his mother. Bullock and Gordon learn that the Lloyds and Graysons are feuding over a stolen horse from the early 1900s.
Fish has everyone prepared. Some men enter with guns and asks someone to raise their hand and step forward. Fish takes control and says they need to talk. Fish says things need to change. She says she won't give up the man they need unless they get food and water and if she doesn't get it, she'll kill the man. The other inmates start pummeling the guy until he is dead. Fish demands the manager to come down.
Nymga comes in and talks to Essen, Gordon, and Thompkins and they come to the conclusion that one of the two families involved were off doing other things. A psychic comes in and says Layla sent him a message from the other side.
James and Leslie head to under a bridge and find a bloody ax from the Hellfire Club. Back at the GCPD, Gordon is mad their date turned into a crime investigation. They make up and bring in Mr Cicero, the psychic. Gordon explains they found a hatchet and Cicero is now an accessory to murder. Gordon says he's protecting someone. Gordon brings in Jerome, and he sits next to Jerome. Gordon says Jerome killed his mother. Cicero admits he is Jerome's father. Jerome has a turn and gets all creepy and admits he killed his mother then has a laugh.
Thompkins and Gordon share a kiss and Barbara walks in on them at GCPD.
Victor walks into the club and Butch follows, Penguin is all freaked out. Butch works for Zsasz now and Victor says Butch now works for Penguin.
At the Wayne Manor, Bruce is all dressed up and heads to Wayne Enterprises to sit at the head of the table. Bruce has questions for the board. He asks some serious questions and the board seems to brush him off.
Thoughts
I really thought the Ringmaster was played by Jordan Peele in the first shot of him. It wasn't and I was a little disappointed. In addition, the psychic, Cicero, played Felix Faust on Constantine. That was pretty awesome to see. The purple hat was a bit hitting the audience over the head though.
We have a completely different Fish Mooney here. She's like a real character now not in this weird overacting world. Again, I actually like the over-the-top version, but this version of Fish is insanely different, but in a good way. Her new role and story are both frustrating and interesting. I don't like the idea she was just randomly kidnapped. It seems too convenient and like they needed to do something with the character but didn't want her to leave Gotham.
How is Barbara fine with these two girls staying at her place? Much like last week with Gordon fine with them being there, apparently, people living at your place is a totally normal thing in Gotham that results with characters being completely cool with it.
Leslie Thompkins is a scientist who not only entertains the idea of psychics but seems to believe in it. She says there are things outside of science we don't understand pretty much saying "supernatural things exist because science can't explain everything." Look, I know we're in Gotham and all, but that really bugs me.
As much as I despise the idea of Gotham flatout over-promoting the idea that Joker is in this episode, it was handled decently. Cameron Mondaghan was simply brilliant in the role as Jerome and easily had the performance of the episode. You could even say it was chilling at moments, when he showed his true nature. Who would have thought that what I was looking forward to the least was the best part of the episode.
"If we have a son, we'll name him Gordon." Nope, you're going to name him "Dick." Enough Gotham, stop doing these not so subtle nods at the audience. We get it, the parents of Dick Grayson are getting married. We're not idiots and frankly, we don't even need to see that. It adds nothing to show.
Setting aside the idea that this show loves shoehorning in as much comic book stuff as possible to please fans, which tends to boggle the show up, this was a better episode than the last few, but it was a tad boring. It's a step up in the fact that it wasn't bad, and most of the characters had some sort of purpose here, for the most part, even though Barbara is one of the worst written characters not only on this show but in all of comic book television. Hopefully, the show can get some direction back in the next week or so, since this season is coming to a close.
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