Tonight’s episode may have been my favorite so far. The fact that Barbara wasn’t in it sure helped a lot, but it was also the interactions between Bruce and Selina. I like the two of them together, and they seem far more genuine than any of the other actors in the series.
A woman comes to Wayne Manor, claiming to have been injured in a car accident. Selina and Bruce see the woman when Alfred answers the door, and there is a flicker of recognition that passes through Selina’s eyes. Alfred quickly realizes this is all a ruse, and tells the kids to run while he fights off this woman and a couple of her goons. He catches a bullet in his arm before shooting one of the cohorts dead. When the cops come to the manor, there is a lot of yelling, but Alfred’s shouts win. (Won’t somebody think of the children??) They split up: Jim goes to Harvey Dent to figure out what went wrong with their terrible plan of threatening Lovecraft; Alfred goes with Bullock to check with some of his contacts in Gotham.
Selina takes Bruce to Gotham, telling him that the assassins were after him, not her, so it wasn’t safe to go back home. In the city, Bruce finds a phone and plans to call Alfred, (his “family”) and Selina plans to bounce. She tells him the assassins were after her, that Bruce is safe, and she lied to him so they could hang out a little longer. Awwww. Bruce wants her to stick around so she can testify if and when his parents’ killer is brought to trial, but Selina assures him that was never going to happen. She runs, and Bruce chases. This leads to a daring, impossible jump between roofs. Bruce takes the leap against Selina’s advice, and he makes it – barely. This earns him Selina’s respect and she agrees to take him with her.
They go to the Flea, a “mall for street kids.” She gets Bruce some new threads, and finds Ivy hanging out there. The girls hug, though it seems Ivy is happier to see Selina than vice versa. Ivy was apparently adopted by a nice family upstate, but ran when they told her to dress nice and cut her hair. She doesn’t like being told what to do. She directs them to Clyde, Selina’s new fence, located in the Narrows. Ivy and Bruce get into a little thing, and Ivy blames Bruce for her father’s death and her mother’s subsequent suicide. As they leave, Selina advises Bruce not to look back. “Ivy is scary.”
The kids find Clyde, who greet them warmly. Selina has a sack full of trinkets she stole from Wayne Manor, including Bruce’s father’s watch. She wants $1000 for the lot; Clyde will only pay $50. Selina threatens to take her business elsewhere, and Clyde’s goons grab the kids and lock them in a room upstairs. The assassins are on their way and have apparently paid Clyde for his help in capturing Selina.
Checking in on the adults, Jim has gone to Dent and blames him for the assassins. Dent swears he never said anything “out loud” about Selina, but he admits he did mention Jim’s name, and it didn’t take much for the gangs of the city to put the pieces together. By way of a (weak-ass) apology, Dent has a couple condos that may be Lovecraft’s hiding place. They divide and conquer, and of course, Lovecraft is in the condo Jim checks. He swears he wasn’t involved in the hit on Selina Kyle. “I’m nobody,” he insists, referring to his stature in the city. He begins to tell Jim about how there was a run on Wayne company stock just before the Waynes were killed. He doesn’t finish his explanation because the assassins bust in. The female who is leading the team doesn’t want to kill Jim, so instead they fight and she puts him into a sleeper hold. When he wakes, the assassins are gone, and Lovecraft is dead by a bullet from his own gun.
On Bullock and Alfred’s search, they have been led to Fish Mooney, who runs all the fences in Gotham. Alfred’s impassioned plea for help seems to strike a cord with Fish, and she promises to help. I sense a touch of sexual tension between them. Maybe Fish is calculating how this can help her? Maybe she and Alfred once had a very hush-hush fling? Whatever it is, she sends them to Clyde with the gentle warning that they owe her.
Back to the kids. The room they are in happens to have a huge skylight and the kids set about opening it up. The assassins are there, and barge into the room. The kids haven’t left; they have merely hidden, and slip out of the room behind the assassin’s back. It is around this time that Jim and Bullock and Alfred all show up, and a shootout occurs. The female assassin captures Bruce and asks where his “girlfriend” is. He claims he doesn’t know (she is hiding out deeper in the room). The assassin confirms that she doesn’t want to hurt him – he isn’t on the contract – and leaves him alone. Alfred comes in and, after a long, awkward moment of employer/employee pleasantries, Bruce throws himself into Alfred’s arms, a hug he eagerly returns. These seems to truly be a turning point in their relationship, yet it didn’t seem like there needed to be one. Later that night, with Bruce safely back home, Selina breaks in one final time, to return his stolen tchotchkes. “Let’s keep things honest between us,” she says – then steals that damn kiss she has been taunting him with for what seems like an eternity. She leaves when she hears Alfred coming. Alfred, for his part, commiserates with Master Bruce about how quiet the house seems without Selina.
With the kids safe (well, Bruce is safe at home; Selina seems to have returned to the streets), the mayor can turn his attention to reaming out Jim and, to a lesser extent, Dent. He is furious at their scheme, and furious that Lovecraft is dead. He has already decided to tell the press that it was suicide, that Lovecraft got Jim’s gun during a struggle and shot himself. This seems like a better, more realistic story than the truth, and when he gives his press statement later, he assures the public that the officer involved has been “dealt with.” Jim’s punishment? He has been reassigned to security at Arkham Asylum. It was either that or quit, and Jim is no quitter.
A quick check on the mobsters of Gotham: Oswald promises Falcone that it wasn’t Maroni’s men who hit his vault, and suggests Fish has a mole in his operation. Oswald promises to find him proof of the mole. Meanwhile, Falcone has his capos come to dinner. He shoots one of the capos in the head and threatens the rest that if he finds out one of his men was behind the theft, they will wish they died as quickly. Until their reserves are replenished, each capos tariff will go up 25%. Fish seems a teensy bit nervous, but it could be because they are all brought their entrees while the dead guy was still slumped over in his soup bowl.
So this was the fall finale. No more episodes until January. It didn’t really feel like a fall finale. There was no big cliffhanger, no shocking revelation that will bring viewers back next year. It just felt flat in that sense.
I can’t help but wonder if the female assassin is Selina’s mother. It’s not likely, but there was that look on Selina’s face when the woman enters Wayne Manor. If her mother abandoned her when she was young, Selina may remember her, while her mother might not recognize her grown daughter. Add to that the fact that the assassin dresses and moves like Catwoman… well, it’s enough to make a girl wonder.
