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“Gotham” recap (1.19): Get to Da Chopper!

Welcome back to Gotham recaps! The show has been on hiatus for a month, presumably to track down its missing lesbian characters. Unfortunately, Renee Montoya is still stuck in a well/on a yearlong Olivia cruise/did too much MDMA at Dinah Shore and is tripping balls somewhere in the California desert.

We open on the Island of Misfit Body Parts, where Fish Mooney, looking fierce in all white and a white turban, walks through the hospital. She checks on patients, answers requests, and basically acts like a concierge. She looks out the window and sees a helicopter-and possibly an escape. She breaks open the window and an alarm immediately sounds. A jeep full of guards pulls up, and the head guard tells her that nobody gets off the island, not nobody, not no how!

At Wayne Manor, Gordon visits Bruce, who is stuck making his own sandwiches because Alfred is still recovering. This kid may be a lot of things, but he is no Subway sandwich artist. Gordon knows that Bruce is lying about the stabbing and urges him to tell the truth, but Bruce refuses.

Back at the GCPD, a plucky young cop brings a cold case to Gordon. His name is Moore, and he admires what Gordon is doing to clean up the precinct. He wants him to take over the case of a murdered woman named Grace, and Gordon agrees to look into it. Gordon goes to see Lee in forensics, and Lee looks over the case. They know that Grace went to some bar in the South Village, where Lee lives. She tells Gordon that the neighborhood is full of speakeasies. To the mixologist!

Fish visits the dungeon, where her suited-friend Kelly is somehow still alive after being harvested. Fish tells the prisoners that she has a plan to get everyone out. They are gonna escape or die trying!

Alfred goes after Reggie, and Bruce wants to go with him. Alfred tell him it’s no place for a child, but it’s also no place for a man with a stab wound. Alfred starts bleeding out and needs to rest. I hope Bruce is better with bandages than he is with sandwiches.

The Penguin is back, and this time he’s trying to buy a local Italian dive bar from Lidia, played by Barbara Rosenblat (aka Miss Rosa from Orange is the New Black). Lidia threatens him with a rolling pin, and Penguin asks her what he can do to make the deal. She tells him that her granddaughter has run off with a no-good guitar player (is there any other kind?) and she wants him out of the picture. Penguin assures her she’ll be home for Sunday mass.

Gordon tries to convince Bullock to take the murder case, but Bullock is in no mood for extra work. Nigma shows up with a list of speakeasies, and tells them that a piece of evidence is missing. Bullock warns Gordon about flying too close to the sun, but reluctantly agree to help with the case.

Back on the Island, Fish plans her escape with the prisoners. She recruits the badass thugs of the dungeon as her muscle, and tells them that they are going to steal the boat on the docks. One thug wonders why they don’t steal the chopper, but nobody knows how to fly it. Fish promises to steal the boat keys from Dulmacher.

Gordon and Bullock stumble into the speakeasy where Grace was last seen. The punky bartender remembers her because her date was good-looking. FLASHBACK TIME!

We see Grace and her date Jason (Milo Ventimiglia of Gilmore Girls/Heroes) drinking at the bar. Grace asks why he is single, and he tells her that he is looking for an intense, all-consuming, unconditional love. Grace is charmed and goes home with him. Like most TV serial killers, he is crazy rich and lives in a swanky loft. She has another drink as he closes the door to his creepy torture room. Yoinks.

Back in present day, Bruce is looking up gun ranges in the Yellow Pages. WTF kid, don’t you have an iPad or something? Why does no one on Gotham have an internet connection? Or are they all on Charter? Bruce visits gun ranges and passes by Penguin, who is limping down the street to an abandoned warehouse. His henchman Gabe is torturing the guitar player, who refuses to break up with the granddaughter. Gabe takes a moment to admire true love, before cutting the guy’s finger off. Gross.

Gordon and Bullock visit Lee and get the results of the autopsy. Grace was abducted four months ago, but there are no signs of abuse or torture on her body. She was locked up by someone, but why?

We flashback to the morning after at Jason’s loft. Grace has to go to work, but promises to see him later that night. He refuses to let her go. Ugh.

Back on the island, Fish sneaks into Dulmacher’s office. She finds a set of keys in his drawer, but is quickly busted when the doctor returns. He accuses her of lying and trying to escape, while she grabs a letter opener to defend herself. He threatens to shoot her, and Fish starts crying, claiming that she only wanted the letter opener to kill herself. She says that she’s been haunted by nightmares of the monstrosity that Dulmacher created with his previous assistant, and is terrified that she’ll mee the same fate. He lets her go, but assures her that if she lies again, he’ll turn her into a monster.

Back in Gotham, Bruce is wandering through the ghetto when he comes across Selina Kyle. Selina explains to him that a “shooting gallery” is not a gun range, but a drug house. CLASSIC mistake.

Lidia’s granddaughter returns, crying on her shoulder. Lidia gives her a nice big slap across the face and tells her to get it together. Now that Penguin has delivered, we find out why he wants the bar so badly. He tells Gabe it’s where he is going to kill Maroni, and to camera pulls back to reveal a wall full of photos of the Don.

Nigma has dug up the missing piece of evidence, and it’s a painted broken heart at the scene. Bullock immediately recognizes it as a the signature of a notorious serial killer, the Don Juan Killer aka the Ogre.

FLASHBACK! Grace is chained to the dining room table, terrified that she’s overcooked the lamb for dinner. We see she’s been held prisoner for months, forced to act as Jason’s doting girlfriend. After tasting the lamb, he gives Grace the old, “It’s not you, it’s me” speech, before tying her up in his torture dungeon and murdering her. We see a trunk full of Polaroids of other victims. The whole thing is creepy and upsetting.

It’s time for Fish Mooney’s jail break. She sends the thugs to an unlocked gate to get the boat started, while she stays behind to help Kelly and the others. She tells the thugs that they better not leave without her. The alarm goes off and she comes face to face with a cattle prod-wielding Dulmacher. Luckily, the prison doors are open and the prisoners bum-rush Dulmacher and attack him. He is beaten, but not dead.

The thugs reach the gate, but it’s locked up. They realize it’s a set-up as the guards drive up and shoot them all down. Fish, Kelly, and some other survivors run for the chopper. Turns out that Fish can fly, because she can do all of the things, apparently. The head guard aims for the chopper and shoots Fish in the gut, but the chopper takes off. If they kill off Fish I’m gonna be so annoyed with this show.

Bullock tells Gordon that the Ogre is a serial killer known for keeping girls for weeks or months before killing them. Only a handful of cops know about him, because anyone who investigates the Ogre loses the ones they love. The guys go to track down Officer Moore because they’ve been set up.

Bruce and Selina go to the drug den, where they find Reggie all strung out on heroin. Selina takes his drugs and threatens to toss them out a window unless Reggie tells them who he’s working for. Reggie reveals that it’s a woman named Mathis and a man named Bunderslaw. He makes fun of the kids for being out of their depth, and calls them “wee little children.” Selina tosses his drugs out the window, and when Reggie leans out the open window to grab them, Bruce almost shoves him out. Bruce restrains himself, so Selina does it for him and Reggie tumbles to his death. Further proof that Selina is a straight-up sociopath.

Bullock and Gordon slam Moore into the lockers, and he reveals that Commissioner Loeb ordered him to give them the case. Gordon is terrified that the Ogre will go after Lee, and leaves a message to warn her. He sees Loeb in the bullpen and grabs him by the neck. The time for negotiating is over, and Gordon promises Loeb that he’s going down.

What did you think of this week’s Gotham? Hit me up @chelseaprocrast and let me know!

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