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GOTHAM Recap: The Mad Hatter Arrives in ‘Mad City: Look Into My Eyes’

GOTHAM Recap: The Mad Hatter Arrives in ‘Mad City: Look Into My Eyes’

Warning: this recap contains spoilers from Monday’s episode of Gotham, “Mad City: Look Into My Eyes,” because it’s, well, a recap! Don’t say you weren’t warned …

Gotham has officially gone mad.

Iconic DC Comics villain Mad Hatter has finally arrived to wreak havoc on the city of Gotham, and this week’s episode, “Mad City: Look Into My Eyes,” was all about his introduction, having just moved to the city from “up north.” And if the mysterious, calm, psychotic Jervis Tetch didn’t give you the total heebie jeebies, then you must be as mad as he is.

The first place we saw him was at Sirens, Barbara and Tabitha’s glam new club. The Mad Hatter, aka Jervis Tetch, put on a show to entertain the crowd, hypnotizing the patrons into making fools of themselves by acting as animals. But it was all just a warm up for his grand finale: making an unsuspecting, rich doctor balance on the back of a chair. But unseen by everyone, Jervis also whispered a few words into his ear that made him open up his home to Jervis later that night. He forced the husband to kill his wife and bury her in the garden before killing himself, leaving their home and things all for him. Turns out he’s come to Gotham searching for his lost sister Alice, who’s down on her luck and has some kind of destructive powers of her own.

The next day, Jervis sought out Jim Gordon at his apartment for help in finding Alice. He told Gordon he was her guardian after their parents died, but when her “condition” of a rare poison in her blood proved to be too much for him to handle, he got help from none other than Professor Strange. Strange locked Alice away in Indian Hill, claiming she needed supervision 24/7, and Jervis never saw her again, but after the break out he had renewed hope of finding her. He doubled the GCPD’s payout and offered the money-hungry Gordon $10,000 if he found Alice, and Gordon, of course, agreed.

At Wayne Manor, Bruce and Alfred helped Bruce’s Indian Hill doppelgänger settle in and got him some food while they could only stare at him in shock. Once he was fed, he told them that the situation was weird for him too. He told them his name was Five, short for 514A, since that’s what he called in Indian Hill. He couldn’t remember anything of his life before he woke up in Indian Hill a year ago. Alfred didn’t want to trust him, but Bruce offered him a place to stay while they figured out more about where he came from or if he was even human at all. Curiouser and curiouser: it seems as if Five can’t feel pain, since he was burned by a candle while eating and didn’t even flinch.

Gotham

When sparring with each other the next morning, Alfred and Bruce realized that not only could Five not feel pain, he also had some serious boxing skills. They also noticed his rather large scar on the back of his neck. But when Selina came to confide in Bruce about Ivy’s disappearance, Bruce made Five hide, and he seemed to be jealous at Bruce and Selina’s connection and started to imitate Bruce’s way of talking. Then he cut his hair, stole Alfred’s car and pretended to be Bruce while hanging out with Selina. What is his end game here?

And now, let’s check in on Gotham‘s new love triangle! After sleeping together, Valerie Vale made it clear that Gordon’s new crash pad isn’t exactly a palace in her eyes, and he seemed more than ready to make it nicer for her. But Lee just made her big return to the city of Gotham, and Barnes wanted her to rejoin the GCPD in her old job. He was making the case to her just as Gordon showed up to collect his bounty money. It made for one seriously awkward reunion as Lee told Gordon she was moving back to Gotham permanently with her fiancé, who was just offered a job at Gotham General Hospital.

As luck would have it, that’s the very same doctor who had to stitch Gordon up after a fight with Alice’s old boss went south. After getting Selina’s help, Gordon had found the bar where Alice worked burned to ashes, and her old boss told him she was the one who set it on fire after she had cut herself and her blood got on the counter. He wanted revenge, so he went after Gordon, and Gordon took him out but suffered a nasty cut to his head, hence the stitches. Lee’s fiancé Mario seemed like a good guy, and even tried to make sure there was no bad blood between them. Gordon promised him he’d get no trouble from him and that he and Lee were old news. That sounds like a bunch of crap if you ask me. But Gordon’s still in denial, so we’ll let that one slide for now.

But Mario did have an address for Alice since she also came to the hospital to treat her cut, and Gordon found her just as she killed her skeezy landlord who she had accidentally infected with her blood. He went crazy, and so she shot him and burned his body. She also freaked out when Gordon told her that her brother was looking for her and bolted.

Back at Sirens, Jervis showed Babs just how talented he was and hypnotized her into thinking he was irresistible. We’ve all seen how that plays out before, so thankfully Tabitha intervened before things got bloody. Then Gordon showed up to confront Jervis over how Alice acted, and he ended up hypnotizing Gordon and tried to make him commit suicide on the roof. But Alice showed up in the nick of time and tried to shoot Jervis with Gordon’s gun. She saved Gordon’s life, and he repaid her by cuffing her. Nice!

Gotham

And here’s the shocker of the night: when Lee and Mario had dinner later that night, season one mob boss villain Carmine Falcone showed up … because he’s Mario’s father. Say what?! Something tells me that when Gordon learns about Mario’s family tree, he’s not going to be so amicable about Lee’s plans to marry him. But according to Falcone, he and his wife raised him to be a good man and he doesn’t even use the Falcone name. Is that really true, or is Lee dooming herself to a life of being married into the wrong family?

Meanwhile, when the corrupt former Mayor James announced he would be returning to the position he was forced out of, Penguin arrived to hijack the press conference and challenge him as a candidate. Mayor Penguin? Is that seriously a possibility?! If so, the citizens of Gotham are seriously screwed.

But Penguin is more than committed to his plans and claims, as he already had turned his mansion into campaign headquarters. In his eyes, there’s no one better than a criminal to clean up the crime of Gotham. And he knows the people of Gotham are desperate and upset, meaning he could actually have a shot at winning against ex-Mayor James. He even bribed and blackmailed the new head of Arkham Asylum into letting an old colleague of his go free so he can get help for his campaign – aka the Riddler is back out on the streets of Gotham, declared “sane” by the city. That’s not going to end well!

What did you think of the Mad Hatter’s introduction on Gotham? Tweet me your thoughts at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Fox

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