Episode 19: "Beasts of Prey"
Synopsis: Gordon and Bullock investigate a cold case involving the Ogre, a serial killer who targets young women in Gotham City. Meanwhile, Fish plots her escape from the Dollmaker, and Bruce and Selina confront Reggie in the all-new “Beasts of Prey” episode of Gotham.
The GCPD: After Commissioner Loeb puts his support behind Jim Gordon for President of the Policemen's Union, Gordon has become a figurehead for those who want to clean up their city. One such uniformed officer brings Gordon a case involving a murdered young woman. Through some leads courtesy of Thompkins and Edward Nygma, Gordon and Bullock find their way to a speakeasy and learn the victim was their with her date. In a flashback, we see she had gone home with him to his apartment replete with a sex dungeon. Nygma soon finds a missing piece of evidence, a broken heart, which indicates to Bullock this is a serial killer known as The Ogre. In another flashback, we see The Ogre take the same girl captive and forces her to pretend to be his true love. When she fails to cook his meal properly, he murders her. Bullock explains The Ogre is the GCPD's dirty secret because he kills the loved ones of any cop who investigates his crimes. Gordon soon realizes he was set up to investigate the impossible case. They find the cop who says Commissioner Loeb put him up to it. As Loeb enters the station, Gordon confronts him and vows to catch The Ogre and then he will go after the Commissioner.
At Wayne Manor: Gordon visits Bruce to check in on Alfred's recovery. Young Bruce brings a sloppily assembled lunch when the cop confronts him about lying about the identity of who stabbed his butler, but Bruce plays dumb. Gordon senses Alfred is investigating on his own, unknowing that it is actually Bruce who is doing the detective work. Later, Bruce stumbles across Alfred who is trying to go to Gotham to find Reggie. Bruce implores Alfred that he is not well when the elder man splits his stitches and begins bleeding profusely. While Alfred rests, Bruce sneaks out and heads to a local gun range, just passing by Oswald Cobblepot. Bruce eventually finds Selina Kule and enlists her help in finding Reggie. They track Alfred's friend to a drug den. Reggie says no one was supposed to get hurt and asks after Alfred. They threaten to throw out his drugs when Reggie reveals the name of his employer was Bunderslaw to learn about Bruce's investigation. Selina throws the drugs out the window and Reggie threatens to tell on the children. As he leans out the window for his bag, Bruce wrestles with whether to push him. When he hesitates, Selina does it for him, killing him.
Fish Mooney: Fish plays her new role well as Dr. Dulmacher's assistant and finds her way outside where she sees both a helicopter and a large boat. She is quickly intercepted by some guards who threaten to kill her if she goes outside again. Back in the basement, Fish rallies two groups of prisoners: thugs and the weak, telling them both she needs their help to escape via the boat docked outside. Sneaking into Dulmacher's office, the Doctor finds Fish and threatens to shoot her when she plays weak and tells him the horrible mismatched Frankenstein monsters he creates have been giving her nightmares. Dulmacher believes her and threatens her with that fate if she lies to him again. Fish initiates her plan, sending the thugs to the ship but they soon learn the gate is locked and Fish set them up. Escaping, Dr. Dulmacher catches Fish and threatens to kill her when the other prisoners attack him. Fish escapes to the helicopter with her fellow prisoners and as they take off, the head guard shoots the copter, hitting Fish in the gut.
The Penguin: At a local dive bar, Oswald Cobblepot pleads with the bar owner, an elderly Italian woman, for a percentage of her bar. The woman refuses but then suggests if The Penguin can convince her niece to stop seeing her boyfriend, a guitar player, she would reconsider his offer. Penguin takes the boyfriend captive and when he refuses to stop seeing Antonia, he begins to cut off his fingers. After Antonia returns to her Aunt, Penguin gets what he wanted and reveals the motivation in buying the bar was never financial but rather where he plans to kill Don Maroni.
Other Characters: None this week.
Review: With only three episodes left after this week, Gotham is entering final down territory which would typically mean this episode should begin the wrap up phase of the season. Instead, this feels like a mid-season episode. Oddly, the episode clearly feels like part one of a longer story which will wrap up next week. This was actually one of the strongest episodes of the season with the acting not over the top and the plot elements balanced well across the hour. In fact, if the entire season could have been like this episode, Gotham would not be so maligned in the eyes of viewers. Gordon's story was strong, especially since the villain feels like he fits the tone and mood of the series rather than a forced Batman homage. Actually, this version of The Ogre is so distinct from the comics version that it feels like an original creation. Fish's story feels like it is about to end and not in a good way. Penguin's end game is setting up as well and this was definitely the most intriguing Bruce-centric story this season so far. A solid hour that hopefully is a precursor of a final trio of episodes.
Final Verdict:
Next Episode: "Under the Knife airs on April 20th – Gordon and Bullock continue to investigate the Ogre (guest star Milo Ventimiglia), who begins to make his move on someone close to Gordon. Meanwhile, Bruce and Selina team up to expose a corrupt Wayne Enterprises employee and Nygma comes to Kristin Kringle’s defense.
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