Gotham Season 3 Episode 8 Mad City: Blood Rush Recap

If you would like to read a recap of last week’s episode, click here. In a mostly filler episode last week, Gordon rejoined the GCPD. We still have plenty of dangling subplots this season (as most Gotham seasons do) so where will we go next? Barnes started to show signs of mutations after coming into contact with Alice Tetch’s blood. How far will that go? Read below for more.

The episode starts off with a man loading the back of a van. We quickly see that there’s a body wrapped around a rug. Barnes notices the man as he is walking to his car with his groceries. There is something wrong so he follows him to a warehouse. He claims that it isn’t what it looks like. Barnes sees body parts in a bathtub which puts him over the edge. The man claims that he didn’t kill anybody and that he’s just a cleaner. Barnes does not care and gets increasingly angry. Barnes is dead set on not letting him get away with what he did. He wants to punish him and make him suffer. Until now he’s been able to control these impulses but they are getting stronger. As the man pleads to be arrested, the camera cuts away as Barnes inflicts some sort of damage on him.

Lee and Mario are discussing their engagement party. Mario still can’t believe that Lee is okay with it but she thinks it’s okay as she agrees with Falcone that they should be proud. Lee tells him that Gordon is coming back to the GCPD but Mario is upset that Lee didn’t tell him earlier. Mario can’t seem to forget what happened but he trusts her to do the right thing.

It’s Gordon’s first day back at the GCPD and it is just as crazy as he remembered. Bullock pulls him away almost immediately for a case. Ed and Isabella are having breakfast. He’s worried about her since she is going away for a librarian conference. He’s very interested so she picks up a pair of glasses to read her schedule but they look like Kristen’s glasses. The memory causes Ed to start trembling and to hide in the bathroom. He starts to get visions of Kristen in the mirror. She reminds him that he may be putting a face for Isabella but he is still a killer.

Gordon and Bullock arrive at the scene and Gordon feels good to be back. They are at the scene of the incident at the beginning. Barnes visits the Hatter in jail, searching for answers about his current condition. The Hatter agrees to help as long as he gets something in return. He wants to know what darkness has been brought into his life. Barnes claims it to be violent rage towards criminals. The Hatter tells him that voices are coming  and that he will see the world how it really is. Barnes wants to make it right.

Gordon visits Lee at the morgue. He tells her the GCPD is where he belongs. He is not trying to make it awkward seeing that they are working together. Lee thinks he made right decision in coming back. Bullock and Gordon brief barnes on the case. Barnes is now running point in the investigation. Alvarez (JW Cortes) comes in and gets info on other criminal called The Toad (Gerald Bunsen) and then takes his badge and gun before leaving.

Ed shares with Penguin his worries about what happened earlier. Penguin tries to subtly convinces him to break up with Isabella but he can’t do it. Ed asks penguin to do it for him. Barnes is in a bar asking around for Toad. He finds him and starts to press him for information. He gets frustrated by all the same excuses but eventually reveals that he hired someone to get faces for plastic surgeon who gives criminals new faces.

Penguin meets with Isabella and informs her of the breakup, leaving her crushed. He tells her that they’re are not the same type of people. She concedes this but she still doesn’t want to let him go. They love each other. She knows that Penguin loves him too but she’s not jealous. She knows about how the glasses triggered his memories of Kristen and understands. She refuses to let him go.

Barnes visits the plastic surgeon named Dr. Maxwell Symon (William Abadie). He was about to cut off a woman’s face before he was interrupted by Barnes. Symon surrenders but Barnes notices a face in a jar. Barnes asks him how many people he’s killed but Symon asks for a lawyer. Barnes goes crazy on him.

Lucius informs Gordon and Bullock that it would need a lot of strength to remove someone’s head and that the body in the bathtub was drugged. They discuss Lee and Mario’s engagement party. Gordon tells Bullock that he should go but he wants to stay with him. Barnes brings in Symon to the GCPD but begins to feel down. He reflects on what’s happened and places his badge and gun on his desk.

We are at the engagement party and Mario makes a speech about how much he loves Lee. Barbara shows up and asks her if she misses the heat from being with Gordon but she said she doesn’t miss it but Barbara doesn’t believe her. Barnes shows up to give them congratulations but he can’t stay long.

Lucius matched the anesthetic in the body with one from Symon’s office but he was just released. The woman he was attempting to cut isn’t pressing charges. She was probably paid off and he’s also connected to some judges who demanded his immediate release. Barnes and Falcone meet for the first time and of course Barnes doesn’t like him. Falcone tells him that the city was built by people like him.

Barnes calls Alvarez and gets him to tell Gordon that he’ll bring in the person responsible for the earlier murders. Symon miraculously shows up at party and Barnes goes after him. Ed gets a note from Isabella and goes back to her house. She greets him dressed up as Kristen. Ed can’t handle it but she wants him to face his fear. He starts to choke her and stops. They start to kiss and Ed wants her to keep the glasses on.

Gordon and Bullock arrive at the party to arrest Symon and awkwardness ensues since Gordon happens to be interrupting Lee and Mario’s party. Mario pulls Gordon away to talk. He confronts him about Lee and Gordon assures him that there’s nothing going on. As soon as he tells him that he should drop the jealousy, Mario hits him.

Barnes runs into Symon in the restroom and gives him a beatdown. He claims that he is saner than he’s ever been and that he is seeing things clearly. He holds him up against the wall and tells him that he’s the law. He is the judge, jury, and executioner. He throws him through the wall and Symon then lands onto the roof of a car.

Ed tells Penguin what happened with Isabella earlier. Penguin pretends to be supportive. He and a henchman discuss something he did to Isabella which ended up being cutting her fuel line. She drives near a train and gets stuck on the tracks where she is then hot by the oncoming train.

Gordon and Bullock notice that Symon is missing. Barnes tells Gordon that things are going to change. Barnes goes back into the ballroom and the voices in his head keep saying that everybody’s guilty and all their faces begin to change. As Gordon walks out, he notices Symon on the roof of a car. He asks him what happened and he says that Barnes did it.

Overall, this was a better episode than last week despite still being filler. We got a lot more insight on Barnes as the virus brought out what was inside of him. I probably should have cared more but Barnes has never been that interesting of a character anyway. The Ed/Penguin subplot was kind of boring too as the romantic angle is not the best use for the characters as long as it doesn’t lead to anything bigger. I can’t wait for more filler!

Score: 7/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.