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The Red Queen takes Jim on a hard trip into his wants, desires and demons. Penguin is seeing red when Ed finds a new love. The Mad Hatter is going to send Gotham into a red rage with his sister’s blood. Finally we have red hearts over two sets of lovers Ed & Isabella and Bruce & Selina.
Red Queen:
Jim is at the hospital when Valerie wakes up. After some joking, she shoots straight with him and tells him he still loves Lee. He denies it but leaves. He heads to the morgue where Barnes and Bullock are investigating the theft of Alice’s body. With her blood, the Hatter could infect the city. Both Barnes and Bullock block out Jim. He is told no badge no investigation and both say he is afraid. He seeks out Lee for some help, but it’s clear that Mario and Lee don’t want him in their lives.
The Hatter appears in the hall and Jim gives chase. The Mad Hatter has acquired a drug called the Red Queen which sends people on a bad trip and will eventually leave them crazy. He doses Jim and gets away. Jim falls under the Red Queen’s sway and begins to take a bad trip. His guide into the land of his subconscious is, who else but, Stabby Babs herself. Who better to lead him into the land of crazy than her.
First stop is the GCPD smashed up with the battlefield. Bruce, wearing a Jim Gordon mask, shows him what happens because he has isolated himself. GCPD and his military unit alike are all dead. He is cautioned by Penguin, acting as his drive for justice and loyalty, not to leave his unit. He is then shot and his guts pulled out by Bruce. He has to confront his desire for loyalty vs his fear of letting people down. (For anybody wondering, Oswald is saying “Never leave your unit behind” backwards, then he repeats it forwards).
He is brought back to life by sexy nurse Barbara, who he then turns into a nun. She explains she is who he made her to be. The next stop is a future fantasy. Jim comes home from a trip (so he is not a cop) to wife, Lee and a son and daughter (Frankie & Julie). It seems like he has the perfect life. But the lights flicker and each person disappears, leaving him surrounded by dust and cobwebs. He has to confront his desire for family vs fear of sacrificing too much to get it.
Stylish Barbara awaits him. She says he has to decide to be brave and get Lee back or not. They talk about wishing they could be what they were. She hands him a car key for the last stop. He comes upon his father, Peter Gordon (Michael Park), digging in his pockets for the key and only finding red dust. Jim & Peter go for a ride. Jim says Peter was a hero for being a stand up D.A. and fighting for Gotham, but mainly for not bringing that home with him each night. He was a stand up dad. Peter says he can have it all too. Follow the Gordon code on the ring. The ring says in Latin: “While we breath, we shall defend.”
Mario saves Jim. Jim makes the decision to be brave and defend. He has to risk the consequences and live with the expectations. He goes humbly to Barnes and asks for his job back. Barnes happily gives it back.
Red Rage:
The Mad Hatter has sought out an herbalist for what is needed to accelerate the effects of his sister’s blood. While there, he picks us the Red Queen powder to knock out Jim. He and the Terrible Tweeds steal Alice’s body from the morgue. They heat her up and drain her blood. He mixes in the accelerant and they are off to the Founders Day dinner. His goal is to punish Gotham as well as Jim for Alice’s death. He is in a red rage of love and wants revenge. He wants to start at the top with Gotham’s political leaders (Penguin), religious leaders, and social leaders. He is going to force them to drink wine infused with Alice’s blood.
Barnes and Bullock play bad cop bad cop with the morgue security guard and get the info about the catering truck and think of the dinner. Barnes is about to snap before Bullock pulls him off. They head to the dinner and save Gotham’s leaders just in time. The Hatter and Tweeds are send to Arkham. But not before Barnes exposes his madness to the Hatter, who is thrilled.
Barnes gets the bad report from Lucius Fox, that the blood made all the rats crazy within two weeks. The cure is years away. Barnes gets out his will and is preparing for the worst.
Red Hearts:
Ed and Isabella (Chelsea Spack) have talked for 12 hours (all night) on her front steps. They have instantly bonded and love is beating red in their hearts. He heads back to work, but not before inviting her with a riddle to dinner. She heads to the library for her job.
Ed stops Oswald in mid-call to the GCPD. Oswald was trying to file a missing persons report on him. Ed explains the whole situation and how much he loves Isabella. Oswald plays it cool but is scheming. He heads over to the library and finds Isabella. He says he is doing research on Founders Day, but he “lets slip” that Ed was in Arkham for killing Kristen. By the way Kristin looked a lot like you. This gives Isabella pause. Oswald gets ready for the dinner with Ed’s help and happily sends Ed on to his date with Isabella, knowing he has ruined the relationship.
Oswald brags about it to Kathryn (Leslie Hendrix). She tells Oswald that her group (Court of the Owls) is interested in him. They will get in touch later. Later at the Owls court, she talks with a man about Oswald. The man is wearing a ring like Jim’s dad.
Isabella comes to the mayor’s mansion for her date. Ed comes clean and tells her all about Arkham and Kristen. Ed can’t understand it her logic. Isabella says “love isn’t logical.” She says she has spend her life in books and no lover has compared to the ones found there. But Ed has surpassed them all. She knows about his past, she researched him, and still loves him. She is scared, but in love.
Bruce is committed to show his dedication to Selina. He has cooked and baked a supper for them. Alfred agrees to get out of the way for evening. Bruce is alone at the table and Alfred is offering to wrap up the meal for tomorrow. Selina finally shows and Alfred shows himself out. Bruce wants to show that his commitment goes beyond the red hearts in his eyes. He wants honesty in the relationship. She admits that she got held up, but more than that she says “This is weird for me.” He agrees, but they move on together and have their cake and eat it too.
Closing Thoughts:
I absolutely loved this episode! Gotham is a drama and the best dramas focus on the people. In this episode, we saw the plot devices used to grow each of our characters. Jim has been awoken from his selfish, zombie-like state and called to be brave and vulnerable at the same time. Ed has found someone who he can be honest with and who will still love him. Oswald has found that love is deep and not easily shaken, but he can’t force it on anyone. Bruce and Selina have discovered that love is weird at times, but takes work to make it work. Yes, the Red Queen of Hearts can make us crazy at times, but with work and commitment we can move on to love.
News:
Next Week: Next week’s ep is “Blood Rush”
Barnes begins to feel the effects of a recent incident and begins to go mad. Meanwhile, Nygma is out of his depth in his relationship with Isabella (guest star Chelsea Spack) and Carmine Falcone (guest star John Doman) throws Lee and Mario (guest star James Carpinello) an engagement party in the all-new “Mad City: Blood Rush” episode of GOTHAM airing Monday, Nov. 7 (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GTH-308) (TV-14 L, V)
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