Jim is broken up about Officer Parks’ funeral. He goes to visit Galavan in prison, looking for answers that aren’t there. It yields nothing, so Jim goes home to drink and complain to Lee. Galavan has a hearing tomorrow, during which Aubrey James will testify, but Jim has a bad feeling about it.
Barnes pulls Jim off the Galavan case, fearing that he is obsessing over it. He instead sends him to investigate a low-level criminal, found killed on the docks. We know that this mugger was abducted by the monks while trying to steal a woman’s purse, and the monks killed him. Bullock gets a tip that the symbol on the cassock in Galavan’s apartment belongs to the Order of St. Dumas. They used to have an order in Gotham, and an abby downtown. Galavan actually tried to buy the abby last week, but was rejected by the current owner, who uses it as a massage parlor.
Jim, naturally, goes with Bullock to investigate the massage parlor. As they arrive, call girls and clients, some covered in blood, run screaming. Jim and Bullock enter and find a dead man. Girls report seeing at least six monks. One of them attacks Jim, and the two struggle. Jim turns the monk’s knife on him, and stabs him. The monk doesn’t flinch, and Jim chases him outside. “The day of reckoning is at hand. The blood of nine will wash away the sin. Gotham shall be cleansed.” Then he steps in front of a truck and is smushed dead.
Barnes is not happy that Jim disobeyed his orders, but Jim points out that the mugging victim he took a statement from yesterday said she was saved by a monk. Barnes relents and lets Jim follow up. He checks with Lee, who is autopsying the dead monk. She finds lots of scars and scar tissue from a lifetime of self-abuse criss-crossing his skin. That is why he didn’t flinch when stabbed. Jim notices the monk’s shoes. He has been in the sewers.
Jim and Bullock head down there, looking for the Order of Dumas. They find a victim on a shrine, an inverted cross drawn on his forehead with blood. He is the eighth victim. A monk jumps out and wrestles Bullock, who knocks him into a wall. This knocks out the monk, and on urging from Jim, he goes outside to call an ambulance. While he is unconscious, Jim ties a cloth over the monk’s eyes then wakes him, convincing him he is one of the other monks, there to care for him. The monk believes this and asks for his blessing. Jim cuts his hand open and bleeds on the monk, who says, “The son of Gotham shall die and the city shall be cleansed.” A cop comes in, alerting them the ambulance is there, and the ruse is over. Jim has them take the monk in while he rushes to Theo’s court hearing.
Jim arrives late, but explains to Barnes why. Suddenly, Aubrey James, on the stand, says something so shocking the entire court gasps, and the judge makes him repeat it. James says that Galavan did not hold him hostage; it was Penguin. Jim yells, and Galavan’s attorney insists he be released. With no other evidence, the judge has no choice but to set Galavan free. He addresses the court, stating he has no ill will against Jim Gordon or the Gotham police department. Jim’s response is to slug him. Cops pull him out of the courtroom but promise they aren’t arresting him. They taser him instead.
Jim wakes to find he is bound in a warehouse on the docks, being beaten by the police goons who are now on Galavan’s payroll. Galavan shows up to deliver the typical villain’s soliloquy. He reveals the monks have worked for him for centuries, protecting his family. He admits his name is Dumas, and his family built Gotham, before they and their legacy were wiped out. He insists, however, that this isn’t about revenge; it is about atonement. He has a few minutes before his next meeting, so he lets his goons cut Jim free and the two fight hand-to-hand. Jim is no competition of Galavan, who lays him out easily. He turns Jim back over to his goons, with instructions to kill him. Suddenly his attackers are shot. Penguin and his goon, Gabe, have arrived. Penguin was staying with Ed when Gabe showed up and told him what happened at Galavan’s trial. Enraged, Penguin came here looking for Galavan. Jim is just lucky that Galavan is a bigger target right now.
Over on the rich side of town, Bruce consults with Selina before he approaches Silver. He isn’t going to sell his company to her uncle, but since his assets are frozen, Bruce offers to pay all of Galavan’s legal fees in exchange for the name of who killed his parents. He makes an impassioned plea and knows that if the information comes from Silver, it will be true. He whispers into her ear then kisses her. A couple of thugs in an unmarked van are watching the kids intently.
After school, Bruce gets a voice mail from Silver, who says her uncle has agreed to everything. They will meet after school. Bruce sees Alfred waiting for him and quickly ducks away, going to the proposed meeting spot. Instead, he is greeted by the two thugs, who have Silver. “Get in or we kill the girl.” Bruce gets in.
The kids end up in a warehouse outside the city, where no one can hear them scream. The thug, Tom, claims that his “employer” wants to know what Galavan told the kids about who killed the Waynes. The implication is, of course, that someone from Wayne Enterprises hired him to make sure that the secret surrounding the Waynes’ deaths is guarded. Tom threatens to start cutting off fingers if he doesn’t get an answer. Bruce remains steadfast that he doesn’t know, and begs Silver to reveal what Galavan told her. She admits she doesn’t know anything; that she was to stall Bruce until tonight, when Theo would be out of prison and try again to convince Bruce to sell his company to him. Unhappy with this answer, Tom drags Bruce into another room. Let the torture begin!
When Tom returns, he is wiping off a bloody knife and assures Silver that he didn’t kill Bruce – yet. She again begs for her life, promising she doesn’t know anything. When Tom approaches, pointing the knife at her, she changes from scared girl to self-assured brat, swearing her uncle will gut him and anyone Tom loves. He still threatens to cut off her finger, and Silver relents: M. Malone is the man who killed the Waynes. Theo didn’t tell her today; he told her earlier. She swears that is all she knows. Selina and Bruce, completely unharmed, come in from the other room, and reveal it was all a trap. Bruce is hurt – he trusted her, even after Galavan was arrested. It was Selina who convinced him Silver was rotten: she found a file on Bruce in Silver’s apartment. Silver insists the name was one she made up, to save herself. Selina points out that she only “made up” that name when it was her fingers on the line, not Bruce’s. Silver tries one more ploy for Bruce’s sympathy, and says her uncle will kill her when he finds out what happened. Bruce has no sympathy for her. She believed what he whispered to her earlier in the day, and says this isn’t him. “That’s what you think. But you’re wrong.” He leaves.
Bruce and Selina return to Wayne manor. Alfred isn’t there; Bruce assumes he is out looking for him. He thanks Selina for her help, and she is just glad Silver got what she deserved. She wants to know what Bruce whispered to Silver, trying to play it off like she is just curious, not super-jealous. Bruce said he trusted her more than he ever trusted anyone, trusted her with his life, and that he felt tied to her in a way that would never change. Bruce admits what he said was true – it just wasn’t about Silver. Selina is flustered and takes one of Bruce’s cars to get back to the city. “It’s good that you are changing. Just don’t change too much.”
Alfred is, indeed, out to find Bruce, and he starts at the Galavan apartment. There he finds Tabitha, who whips his gun away. She wants him to leave; he threatens to “disappear” her if any harm comes to Bruce. The two fight, hand-to-hand, in one of the best fights of the season. Tabitha is surprised that this stodgy old Brit is as good at fighting as he is. She runs him through with a sword, and while he holds out long enough to knock her out, he is hurting. He grabs his gun and leaves. Tabitha isn’t down for long, and follows him outside. He hobbles along and jumps on the back of a passing garbage truck. Tabitha makes one last, desperate attempt at killing Alfred and throws a knife at him. It hits him square in the back.
Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce hears footsteps and thinks it is Alfred. But it’s not; it is Theo. He pulls out a dagger, and says he is “here for Bruce’s life, of course.”
Bruce’s storyline this week was far more compelling to me than Jim’s. You can see how all of this is leading up to him eventually becoming Batman. Plus, I think the relationship between Bruce and Selina is the cutest, sweetest romance ever. It may be because when I see them, I keep seeing Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Keaton, dancing to Siouxsie and the Banshees in Batman Returns.
You can watch a preview for next week’s episode, titled “Worse Than a Crime” and airing on November 30, in the player below:
