Season 3, Episode 16: “These Delicate and Dark Obsessions” (5/1/2017)

Jim is looking at the file on Michael Ness; Harvey tells him  they can’t find Nigma, after all he did.  Jim figures out that the man who killed his father, driving “drunk” wasn’t really drunk after all; he hit them on purpose.  It was a hit.  Jim confronts the Commissioner; he asks him who ordered the hit on his father.  He says, “Frank Gordon. Your uncle.”  Afterward, Jim pulls a gun and holds it to the head of Frank Gordon; he asks if it was true.  Gordon says yes, trying to explain that he “became a risk” to the Court, by threatening to expose it; Jim arrests his uncle for the murder of his father.  As he’s putting the cuffs on him, Jim is caught offguard; Gordon head-butts him.  He has information about where the weapon will be arriving (the one the Court is planning on unleashing on Gotham); he tells Jim that he needs to meet with the Court and “buy some time” and says Jim needs to find out ‘when’ it will be arriving, and make a choice.  Jim and Harvey try to figure out who they can get to help them; he calls Barbara (who is now calling herself “Barbara Queen”).  She goes and tortures a man to get him to tell her what is arriving at pier 9C.

Ivy wheels Penguin into her greenhouse; she is all cherry, and he is being a grump.  She’s trying to baby him, and it’s making him angry; he asks about all the plants… she tells him they are her friends.  She gives him a cup of Willow tea; he throws the cup on the floor and says he needs to get back to Gotham.  She tells him she could help, if he weren’t being such a jerk.  He asks her to deliver a message for him, to Gabe; she demands a “please” then agrees to do it.  When Gabe shows up, he nearly squeezes Penguin to death; Penguin tells him that he needs him to put together an “army.”  Gabe takes a minute to understand what he wants of him; Oswald calls him a “human Labrador” when Ivy ask about him.  Penguin insults her when she tells him that she thought they were friends; she sulks.  Gabe surprises Penguin and backhands him across the face, knocking him out cold; when he comes to, he is tied up in a chair, next to Ivy.  She tells Penguin she expects him to be nice to her from now on; she tells their captor to lean closer to her so she can whisper in his ear; he falls under her spell and she orders him to kill all the other men.  She stops him from killing Gabe, for Penguin; Penguin gets the man’s gun and tells Gabe loyalty must be extended before it can be returned.  Gabe falls to his knees and says he will do anything for Oswalds forgiveness; Penguin asks Ivy to make him smell her purfune.  Gabe calls  Penguin a “tiny freak who used to hold an umbrella” and Penguin goes crazy.  He grabs a garden shovel and stabs Gabe numerous times, screaming “a freak, a freak, a freak, ahhhh.”

The Court of Owls meets; the lady leader talks about a weapon they are going to unleash on Gotham, to cleanse it, so they can “rebuild” it themselves.  They pass judgment by sticking feathers in a stand to show their agreement; Gotham must fall, she says.  Jim meets with his uncle, who tells him that he is supposed to kill him; he tells Jim, as he holds a gun on him, that he needs him to join the Court of Owls.  He tells him to finish what he started and says he his parents would have been so proud of him; then he shoots himself in the head.  Jim screams.

Bruce wakes up in a prison; a man comes in and Bruce asks if the Court of Owls have something to do with this.  The man neither admits or denies this; Bruce says he will be missed, but the man says they’ve taken precautions to make sure no one notices he’s gone.  When the man leaves, Bruce tries to escape, but just keeps running from one hallway to another, that all look the same.  The man seems to be at the end of every hall; Bruce asks him if it is some kid of maze.  He asks Bruce how long he’s been running down the corridors of his life, just to end up in the same place.  Bruce says he’s not scared of him; the man notes that he is scared of something though.  He tells him to sit and see what he has to offer.  He shows Bruce a set of ‘needles’ with an engraved symbol on the end, that seems to hypnotize Bruce; he goes into some sort of other realm.  The man tells him they have returned to Gotham; Bruce sees his parents walking down the street, and himself, and the man pulling the gun.  He comes back to reality; the man tells him he just “relived” a memory.  One is always inside their own mind, he says; he tells Bruce he has never really left that alley and tells him to go rest.

Season 3, Episode 15: “How the Riddler Got His Name” (4/24/2017)

Nigma goes to see a man he calls “Professor” and asks him this riddle: I can fill a room, or just one heart; others can have me, but I cannot be shared. What am I?”  The Professor (a chair of the chemistry department) answers incorrectly; Ed gets mad, then apologizes.  He asks another question:  I can be the member of a group, but I can never blend in. What am I?  The Professor shakes his head; an Individual, … “I feel your every move, I know your every thought, I’ve known you since birth, and I’ll see you when you rot. What am I?” The Professor says he doesn’t know; Nigma says, that’s too bad and sets a bomb to explode as soon as he exits the building.

A “clue” is sent to the police station; Harvey looks at it.  It’s a drawing of geometrical shapes; the commissioner says it’s a drawing of the Knight’s Tour.  This commissioner, Luscious Fox, “tomorrow, when the pawn’s on queens, you’ll find my next target in the belly of the beast.”  Ed tells him to solve this clue and says he’ll be one step closer to passing his test; he hangs up and says to himself that he will also be one step closer to introducing himself to Gotham once and for all.  Harvey and Lucious pick up a guy who owns a pawn shop on Queens Avenue; the man is not cooperative.  They discuss the last half of the clue; Harvey asks Fox if he wants to cut the guy open to see what’s in his belly – the man gets nervous and tells them that he wasn’t supposed to work today, but he was covering for “Teddy Therio” - Lucious says Therio is the Greek word for beast.  They go to find this guy.  A wet penguin sits on Edward’s couch as Ed takes a pill; he turns and asks how many times he has to talk to him about dripping on the couch.  Penguin makes fun of him for worrying about his drug induced hallucinations making a mess.  Ed frets about needing a teacher; Penguin tells him the best villains make themselves – Edward determines then that the best villains are actually defined by the man who try to stop them, and he says Jim Gordon is the one he wants to battle.  Penguin isn’t happy about that; he tries to convince Ed that his attempts are failing and asks him to admit that he is lost without him.  Penguin suddenly appears in a tuxedo, performing a dance and song, about which Edward is not impressed.  Ed leaves the apartment; Penguin calls out to him.  Nigma shows up at the police cadet graduation and meets with Harvey behind the curtains; Harvey tells him to get lost.  

When Harvey gets a call from Lucious Fox, Edward grabs him, saying, “it must be about me.”  He steps out on stage and asks the crowed a riddle: “Light as a feather, yet no man can hold it long. What am I?”  Answer, “Your breath.”  He releases a deadly toxin into the room; he calls Lucious and tells him that the cadets and Bullock will die if he doesn’t come meet with him.  He asks Lucious the same question he first asked the Professor; Lucious answers “Love.”  Nigma says no, it’s Lonliness.  He cuts a rope on the chair holding Harvey over the railings.  He asks the second question he asked the Professor, the Individual one; Lucas answers with Snowflake and argues that it is also befitting of the riddle.  Edward cuts another rope.  Final riddle, he asks the third question.  Lucious asks him if he killed Penguin; he repeats the riddle and insists that Lucious answer it.  He does; he says a “Reflection.”  Ed smiles and says that is correct; the last rope holding Harvey’s chair breaks.  Ed says, “oops” and walks away; Fox reaches over the railing and grabs Harvey just in time.

Bruce practices throwing at a target; Alfred says he seems distracted.  He supposes it is because of Salina, but Bruce denies that.  Alfred tells Bruce about a girl named Silvia that he used to be in love with, broke up with and found closure over.  Alfred says Ms. Kyle has offered him the same opportunity and he suggests he take it; he lays a note on the counter.  Bruce says fine and takes the note.  He finds Salina on the streets, as he is getting harrased by Sonny and she saves him; she then tells him to get lost.  He asks why she asked him to meet her there if she was going to be that way; she denies putting any note in his mailbox.  She leaves and Sonny (and his three men) try to beat Bruce up.  Bruce wins the fight and begins walking back home; he runs into his double, who injects him in the throat with a “powerful knock-out drug.”  He says this is what he was made for; to be Bruce Wayne.  He goes to the mansion; Alfred asks him if he wants some Shepard’s Pie.  The imposter says that sounds great; Alfred seems surprised, but says okay then and goes to get it.James goes shooting with his Uncle; his Uncle asks if he has ever heard of “The Court of Owls” – he says it was a secret society, of which he is still a member.  He tells Jim that his father was also a member, and the Court wants him to become a member.  He asks how they could be a part of it; he says they thought they were doing good, but the Court lied to them.  He says he despises them now, but remains a member, one which they believe to be loyal.  He says the Court killed Jim’s father; Jim doesn’t believe it, believing his dad simply died in a car wreck.  He tells Jim now that he has been asked to join, they could destroy it from within.  He asks him to believe in him.  Jim leaves.

Harvey and the police to Penguin’s masion, looking for Nigma; he’s not there.  But there is a painting, with a green question mark painted on it.  Edward is waiting for Lucious in his car; Fox asks him why the deadly toxin turned out just to be a knock-out drug.  Edward says he wasn’t out to kill people, just to make a point.  He thanks Fox for helping him figure out how to become himself; Lucious reminds him that he has already killed six people, seven counting Penguin.  He suggests Ed turn himself in; Nigma asks if his actions seem mad to him, defends his actions and tells him he is “The Riddler.”  He knocks him out, using his gun and laughs out loud; he is standing on the docks next, saying how he loves the view.  Penguin, now in his wet suit again, says he is not a fan.  He assumes Edward will understand why; he comments the he doesn’t think anyone is going to be afraid of “The Riddler.”  Edward takes out his pill tin and dumps his medication in the water; he turns around and Penguin is gone.  He says, “goodbye Oswald.”Harvey’s uncle meets with the old woman who heads The Court of Owls; he tells her to give him a little more time.  He believes Jim will “come around.”  She says he better.

Ivy sprays her plants; she hears a sound.  She says, “well, look who’s alive.”  Penguin jumps up out from under the covers; he asks who she is.  She introduces herself and says she’s been nursing him for weeks; she says he sleeps a lot.  He smiles, and says he just remembered that he has someone he needs to kill.