Warning: the following recap contains major spoilers from Gotham‘s fall finale, “Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster.” It is a recap, after all! Don’t say we didn’t warn you …
Leave it to a fall finale to really blow things up on Gotham! “Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster” had everything: a wedding, a possible death, a major kiss, a long-lost mother reuniting with her daughter, the start of a bloody civil war… Yeah, it’s safe to say that nothing will be the same when Gotham returns from its mini winter hiatus. Let’s recap it all!
Just like former GCPD Captain Barnes, Mario had completely given in to the Tetch blood virus by the time the fall finale began. But instead of targeting criminals, Mario was focusing his anger on Jim Gordon’s obvious continued love for Lee, truly believing that Lee loved Mario more than Gordon. He didn’t know what the rest of us do: Lee and Gordon will eventually end up back together, and he’s only a minor obstacle delaying the inevitable. Poor guy! First blood poisoning and now hitching his ride to a woman who will never love him the way she loves Gordon? That’s just about the worst luck ever.
When one of Mario’s victims ended up as Gordon’s investigation, he knew immediately from looking at the guy’s crushed skull that it was another case of Tetch blood poisoning – and he confirmed that when he learned the victim worked at Gotham Bio Lab, aka the place testing Alice’s blood. When the victim’s key card was swiped in at work, Gordon raced to find who used it, and ended up getting absolutely pummeled by a super strong Mario… but here’s the catch: he didn’t see who his attacker was. Mario, playing some kind of weird game with Gordon, left one word as a clue on Gordon’s hand: Arkham.
Following the clue, Gordon went straight to Arkham to meet with Jervis Tetch, knowing it was he who infected someone else but kept it quiet this whole time. But Jervis was too excited about his secret plan finally coming to fruition to say anything, so Gordon then flipped the script on Jervis and started rhyming, knowing it would be too much for him to resist. And surprisingly, it worked! Jervis couldn’t help himself and revealed in a rhyme that the one Gordon loved would be murdered by hate and the man Gordon was looking for went from “healer to killer,” tipping him off that the infected man was none other than Mario.
However, the timing of this couldn’t have been worse for all involved. On the day of Lee and Mario’s wedding, Gordon had Mario arrested to test his blood, but it came back clean of the virus. Gordon still knew he was infected and somehow passed the test anyway, so he confronted Mario pretty angrily about it. However, as Carmine Falcone’s son, Mario had access to people like Victor Zsaz for protection. Gordon clearly underestimated his opponent.
After a specific amount of time set by Mario, Victor let Gordon go after holding him at gunpoint, and Gordon went straight to Lee to tell her everything just as she was about to walk down the aisle. He pleaded with her not to marry Mario, but she just saw Gordon’s pleas as the desperate actions of an obsessed, jealous ex. She told him to get over it and get help, and all he could say was the truth: he loved her, always did and always will. He also finally told her that he went to visit her back in the premiere, but she didn’t believe him anymore. She slapped him and had Carmine help her get rid of Gordon before walking down the aisle. As she and Mario said their vows and kissed, Gordon was brutally beat up by Carmine’s men.
Okay, I can admit it: I was officially wrong. The wedding actually happened! I never thought that Lee and Mario would actually go through with their wedding. Sure, Mario had turned evil by the Tetch blood poisoning and Gordon was right about him and Lee had no idea her new husband was a murderer so their marriage is already doomed to fail, but they did get married! Even I can admit when I’m wrong, and I was so wrong about this. Lee and Mario are officially husband and wife. Wow.
But the honeymoon period was over before it began: Lucius Fox figured out how Mario faked his blood test, but they were too late. Mario had already taken Lee to his father’s remote, secret lake house. When Gordon confronted Carmine about it, he revealed that someone (aka the Court of Owls) had been trying to kill Mario, and now he realized it was because they knew he had the Tetch virus. Gordon shot Carmine’s men in the knees so he was the only choice for Carmine to send after Mario. Just as Mario was about to kill Lee after she confessed that a part of her would always care about Gordon despite picking and marrying Mario, Gordon arrived and shot him. However, in the chaos, Mario dropped the knife off the balcony, so Lee never saw the knife in Mario’s hand. All she knows is that Gordon crashed her honeymoon and shot her new husband in the chest, unprovoked. This does not look good.
But the fall finale wasn’t just about the Gordon/Lee/Mario love triangle! After Nygma tortured Tabitha and Butch out of revenge for what he thought they did to Isabella, Babs was ready to spark a civil war in Gotham between Nygma and Penguin. She didn’t waste any time in revealing to Nygma that Penguin was the one who had Isabella murdered. She even helped him realize that Penguin did it out of jealousy, because he loved Nygma as more than a friend. He tried to deny it, but decided to test Penguin to make absolute sure. He confessed fake feelings to Penguin to see how he would react, and when Penguin finally expressed his love for Nygma, relieved that his BFF finally felt the same way, it all crashed down to the ground. Nygma told Penguin he just thought they should be business partners, not romantic partners, and Penguin was mortified. And most importantly, Nygma now knew that Babs was telling the truth and Penguin was the one who killed Isabella.
But Nygma didn’t want to just kill Penguin in revenge – he wanted to absolutely destroy him. He went straight to Babs, Tabitha, and Butch at Sirens to team up with them to take away everything Penguin has. All Babs wanted in return? To be the new female leader of Gotham. She knew that with Nygma’s help, she could convince the five crime families to follow her orders. This is one unholy trinity, y’all. Penguin has no idea what’s coming for him. If he wasn’t such a despicable person who murdered innocent people for his own gain, I might actually feel bad for him.
Meanwhile, after Talon, the Court of Owls assassin, killed the two leaders of the Whisper Gang, Alfred was ready to throw in the towel on their whole revenge plan but Bruce was still as gung-ho as ever to make the people responsible for his parents’ death pay for their crimes. Selina wasn’t a fan of the plan, knowing it was too risky, so she left. But after Talon captured and killed the rest of the Whispers, she came back to help Bruce, knowing he couldn’t pull off the Court of Owls heist without her.
Selina and Bruce broke into the Court’s HQ with Alfred’s assist, and when she opened the safe with the key they found, she discovered a glass figurine of an owl … not such a foreboding object. This is what the Court of Owls was so afraid of? How is that supposed to take down the Court?! But she put it in her bag anyway, just as Talon arrived and ruined their whole plan. They got into a fight, and when a mysterious masked female jumped into the fight, she helped them, and Alfred managed to kill Talon. Who was she? None other than Selina’s estranged mom! Whoa!
What did you think of that midseason finale twist? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!
Gotham airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Images: Fox
