Season 3, Episode 14, “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies” (1-30-2017)

Scene opens with the explosion across town; the police station is in chaos.  Jim asks one phycho where Jerome is; he responds “look around, he’s everywhere” and laughs wickedly.  Car alarms are ringing as Penguin is brought to Nigma; he asks where “they” are.  Nigma tells him he’s alone; he asks if he brought anyone else.  Penguin says, no… and Nigma shoots the two men who brought him.  He holds the gun to Oswald’s face and tells him he knows he killed Isabella.  Oswald is tied up now and sitting on the hood of Isabella’s car; Oswald admits that he killed her… but he says, if he didn’t, Ed would have, just like he did “the other one.”  He tells him he did it because he loves him; Ed says love is about sacrifice, putting someone elses needs before your own.  He points out a vat of acid above him, which will fall went an ice cube (that is holding the rope together) melts.  Edward tells Oswald goodbye.

A policeman happens by and finds Penguin tied to the car; he manages to cut him lose just in time, as the ice breaks and the vat of acid falls all over, disintegrating the hood of the car.  Oswald goes home, where he is confronted by Barbara’s girlfriend and henchman; he tells him she is the one who killed his mother and gloats that he never did anything about it.  Penguin tells Barb he underestimated her; she tells him she wants him to help her find Ed.  If he doesn’t she is going to kill him; she asks him what his answer is.  Penguin has a realization; he says she’s right, he should want Edward dead.  But he says Ed was right; he should have been willing to sacrifice his happiness for Ed’s.  He says he will do that now; he refuses to help her find him.  Ed steps out; Barb says he was wrong, Penguin didn’t give him up like he thought he would.  Oswald asks Ed if this means he passed his test; Nigma says he isn’t sure what it means.

Jim tries to distribute units and riot gear; Harvey tells him no one is in charge at City Hall.  Jim tries to figure out what Jerome wants; he decides to go talk to Lee.  She says the last thing Jerome mentioned was the he remembered trying to kill Bruce Wayne; Jim heads to Bruce’s mansion.  There, Jerome has already entered and began rampaging; his crew tear the place apart, while he talks to Bruce.  He tells him he is there to kill him, because it’s the last thing he remembers he wanted to do; Bruce says he remembers him from that night at the benefit.  He says he is quite a showman; he can’t believe he would want to kill him there, with no show.  Bruce tells him he’s important and killing him should mean something; Jerome realizes he is right, he deserves a public death.  Jerome tells the crew to kill the butler; Alfred tells Bruce it will be okay. 

Alfred does a good job of fending off the three men, and Jim arrives just in time to help him.  They kill the men and head out to find Bruce.Jerome takes Bruce to a very strange amusement park, where real people popped their heads up out of holes, as if the gophers in the whack-a-mole game, and standing as targets for shooting and ball throwing games, and Bruce was being forced to watch all of this at gunpoint.  Jerome paints Bruce’s face like a clown, using the blood from another clown he stabs in the stomach to draw a frown on Bruce’s face.  As a man throws darts and a girl, holding a balloon in her mouth, in front of the board with other balloons, Bruce asks Jerome what the point is.  Jerome says these people there are the people who wash your car and take out your trash; luding robbing killing, once the lighs went out they showed their true faces… they want to open your viens and bathe in your blood, he says.  Bruce says that’s not true; there are good people in Gotham.  Jerome drops a man in the dunk tank, which is filled with piranhas; they immediately attack him and the tank turns bloody.  

Jim and Harvey arrive at the amusement park; they have a plan.Circus begins; the first act starts and sucks, Jerome shoots him in the back; he brings Bruce out next, tied to a pole.  He brings out a cannon and faces it at Bruce; it’s loaded with a ball and a bucket of nails.  Jerome mounts it; Jim fires a shot in the air.  Bruce picks his handcuffs with a staple Jerome shot into his arm earlier and gets free just before the cannon fires.  The stump of the pole that remains is littered with nails; Jim see this and heads off to find Bruce.  Jerome follows Bruce in the a house of mirrors.  Bruce jumps him, beats the crap out of his face (literally) and grabs a broken piece of mirror to stab him; he stops when he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror.  He walks out and leaves Jerome laughing, face smashed, on the floor.  He comes out to see Alfred and calls out to him; they hug.  Jerome comes out and Jim confronts him; he punches Jerome and his face goes flying off, landing in a puddle on the ground.  

At home, Bruce tells Alfred that he almost killed Jerome; he says the idea felt right, like justice.  Alfred says there is a fine line between Justice and Vengeance.  He says he knew where the line was tonight; he didn’t cross it.  Bruce makes his first rule:  he will not kill.  Alfred tells him they need to get back to work.  Bruce goes to meet “the Court.”  He tells them he is ready.  Jim gets a visit from his Uncle Frank.  Penguin begs for his life, while Ed holds him at gunpoint, on the edge of the docks; he tells Ed thos would be cold-blooded murder of someone he loves.  Nigma says he doesn’t love him; he is still angry that he killed Isabella.  Penguin cries and tells him he can’t do this; Ed tells him he loved her and he killed her… he shoots him and pushes him off the dock into the water.  Penguin sinks; blood rises.

Season 3, Episode 13, “Smile Like You Mean It" (1-23-2017)

Bruce has a visitor at the mansion; he’s an ass, demanding money from Bruce for Salina’s mother’s freedom.  Salina’s mom asks Bruce if he is sure he wants to pay the money the man wants; he says, he owes her for saving their lives.  Salina says they should call the police and have him arrested, saying if they pay him, he will just come back for more; she suggests Bruce start keeping a lot of cash around if he pays it.  Her mom says another option is for her to just leave again – Salina gets mad and tells Bruce to pay it if he wants.  He pays it and her mother takes it to deliver it to the ‘blackmailer’ (and they laugh about a great ruse it was).  When Salina discovers her mother was pulling a scam all along, working with the man who was demanding the money and only came back to town to work a con after finding out Salina and Bruce were “a thing,” she is angry and tells her mother – right up in her face – not to ever come back to this town again.  Salina goes back and hits Bruce after he admits that he suspected her mother was just after the money; she’s pissed that he gave it to her anyway.  Then she gets more pissed about the fact that he lied to her – although he says he just didn’t tell her… same thing, she says.  She hits him again and again, then demands that he fight her.  She kicks at him; he catches her leg and says he won’t fight her.  She leaves angry. 

Two security guards sit, playing cards in a restricted area; they see a man round the corner, with an entourage behind him… they tell him to stop or they will fire; he laughs.  One guard fires, hitting one of the bunch behind this man; then he tells the other guard to call for backup – that guard pulls out a knife and stabs him.  The man laughs again.  The group of them walks to the cryogenic storage containers, and find the one with Jerome “the joker” in it, still grinning.  The man says, “it’s really you” and he laughs once more.  The scene changes; it’s obviously later… Jim Gordon, Harvey and some other detectives – they look at the containers, trying to determine how they got there and what is being done with them.  Jerome’s container has the word “HA” written in spray paint with all over it, and big eyes over the window.  They hear a noise; it’s the goon who was shot.

Jim has an idea.  He takes him back to the station; this weirdo says he is impressed to be meeting Jim Gordon.  He tells Jim they are a “large band” and they “are everywhere” adding, “Jerome is just the first step.”  Gordon orders a citywide call to look for the symbol painted on the container.  Harvey and Jim look at dozens of pictures of areas around town that have been painted with the same “joker” symbol; they wonder how they’ve missed this until now.  Abandoned buildings and warehouses indicate that there’s probably more than one group, with different chapters all over town.  Harvey thinks there’s only fifty “wackadoos” at most out there; Jim says maybe, maybe not. A detective brings in plans of the electric grid in to Jim and Harvey; they locate exactly where the surge occurred when that girl, Melanie Blake, was electrocuted.  He says there were multiple surges as recently as fifteen minutes ago; Jim and Harvey take off for that address.  When they get there, they find Jerome with his face missing; they find a phone, but it provides no information.  Jim announces that the precinct has a mole; he shows them the phone and says there is only one number on it – he acts like he is dialing it, as he says, “let’s find out who the traitor is, shall we?”  One of the officers jumps out of his chair and takes off; they get him.  

Jim and Harvey interrogate the imposter – but he gives no answers; Jim slams him up against a wall and smacks him in the mouth, but he just laughs at Jim.  Harvey grabs him and punches him HARD a couple of times, then smashes him up against the wall again.  Lee walks in and injects the man in the neck and tells them to give him a few minutes and he’ll talk.  Jim wants to know why she did that; he tells her it was against the rules (haha) and she points out his hypocrisy.  He tells her she’s better than that; she responds with sarcasm.  He tells her that he thinks she came back to work too soon; she threatens to tell the commissioner he was punching a suspect in the face, if he says anything about her and walks off.  She goes back to the examination room to find an empty table and security guard dead on the floor; Jerome jumps out from the door behind her and holds a gun to her head and sits her down.  He asks her where his face is.

Barbara reads from the newspaper, as Penguin wakes from a nap on the couch; it’s a slam article written about Mayor “Crumblepot” – she mocks him and basically tells him he needs to get his shit together, clean up and be his old self again; she is calling a meeting with the heads of the families, at 1:00 and instructs him to be there… she says the gangs are rising, saying the king is dead and he needs to get things in order.  He asks why she is helping him and she replies, “because people think you like me” adding, as long as they are scared of him, she gets to keep breathing.  Oswald is dressed and properly groomed; Barbara stands behind the bar.  The room is empty; she claims she called everyone, and sent his invitation, but no one showed.  Penguin doesn’t believe her now; he accuses her of not even calling them.  He says maybe he should call any of the families and ask if they were really invited to this meeting… the phone rings.  It’s Tommy Bones; he tells Penguin he is done, saying they don’t work for him anymore.  They have Ed and are holding him hostage; they tell Penguin to step down from the business and they will let him keep being mayor. 

Nigma manages to sneak a phone call to his friend; Penguin vows to find him. Barbara and her girlfriend talking about the con they have pulled off, Penguin thinks one crew kidnapped Nigma and is still looking for Tommy Bones, who Barb mentions her girlfriend already killed.  They laugh about the “nimrods” that are there terrified for their lives, with their guard down.  Barb’s girl reminds her that she gets to kill Nigma when this is all over; Barb seals it with a kiss.  Then Barb says they are going to go with option “b” and her girlfriend jumps up with an automatic rifle and shoots all the men who are waiting there.

In a warehouse somewhere, the man who was laughing endlessly when the security guard was killed, is now hooking up a bunch of equipment to a bluish-Jerome, laying on an operating table, connected to wires, now hooked up to the machines.  He pulls a lever and Jerome’s eye twitches; he gets frustrated though when he doesn’t immediately reanimate.  The ‘laughing man’ gets frustrated because Jerome is still dead; his assistant yells at him, which pisses him off and he electrocutes the man by sticking a huge ‘hot’ cable right into his chest.  Jerome’s followers are getting impatient; this man promised them Jerome would return.  He panics, thinking all they want is to see his face – and he CUTS OFF Jerome’s face (and not very well, I might add).  He puts it on a string and wears it like a mask, descending the stairs and everyone cheers; he announces himself, as Jerome, but when they all get a good look at him, they are like, “what the hell?”  

The smile is gone from Jerome’s now amputated face and it is torn at the corner of the mouth; the man seems surprised when the people don’t fall for it – they all start shouting that they want Jerome; where is Jerome?!  He thinks quickly and tells them all Jerome is right there; he says, “he never really left us” and tells each one of them that Jerome is in them.  They are Jerome.  Harvey comes running out and tells Jim it worked; he talked… they have to go to the Channel 9 newsstation to make an announcement on the 6:00 news.   The laughing man wheels an automatic rifle and plods down the steps into the studio where news crews are filming, live; he shoots the newscaster and as people start to scatter, tells them that no one is going anywhere.  Sirens blare as police cars pull up to the station; a man stands in the window with a gun to the head of a hostage, sitting in a chair.  

Jim gets the now-not-so-laughing man on the phone; he makes his threats, claiming to ‘be’ Jerome and Jim calls him a fraud, saying he’s just the understudy, and tells him he’s boring him.  This makes the man very angry.  The man wearing Jerome’s face without the smile, is on the stage speaking to the camera as Jim and his officers storm in and arrest him.Outside of the news station, Jim gets a call; it’s Lee.  She says somehow, Jerome is alive, and he’s coming after Dwight (the former laughing man)… he takes him, drives back to his warehouse, takes his face back and STAPLES it on.  He then hands Dwight what looks like a car battery with cables hooked up to it; he asks what they are doing, and Jerome says, “you’ll see.”  He somehow gets a broadcast out; he has Dwight, dressed up like an officer tied up to a chair, with dynamite sticks strapped to him; he lights the end of a wick and leaves laughing.  

Jim runs out onto a balcony in time to see an explosion that knocks the lights out, grid by grid, all over the city.