- Gordon and Bullock investigate a Gothamite who runs a deadly fight club for candidates applying for a job at his financial firm. Meanwhile, Bruce returns to school and gets a visit from a new friend.
- While Oswald enjoys his new status as mob lieutenant, turning the violent tables on his former tormentors, James and Harvey work out that a series of murders committed by a masked man tie to warriors-obsessed financial tycoon Richard Sionis's fight club, a recruitment program, which he drops kidnapped Gordon into. Alfred convinces Bruce Wayne to return to private school, but he's bullied and beaten by Tommy Elliot. Alfred preps him to pay the brute back in kind.—KGF Vissers
- Bruce returns to school, where he has some trouble with bully Tommy Elliot; and Alfred agrees to teach the former how to fight. Gordon and Bullock investigate Richard Sionis, who is hosting an illegal and deadly fight club where the champions are accepted for Sionis Investments. Liza's loyalty to Mooney begins to falter when she learns of the latter's plan to eventually kill Falcone, but Mooney presses her to steal a ledger from Falcone's office that may be used to incriminate him. When Gordon is caught at the site of the fight club, Bullock persuades other officers, who collectively despise Gordon due to blaming them for leaving him during Zsasz's attack, to help find Gordon. Mooney fakes a story about her past to convince Liza to stay on the mission. After Sionis and those involved are arrested, Gordon learns that Selina was apprehended after skillfully robbing a dress store. Barbara leaves Gordon. Cobblepot learns from Mooney's henchman of a spy close to Falcone.
- "Gotham" - "The Mask" - Nov. 10, 2014
For reasons that will become clear later, a man is roaming an abandoned and trashed office space. He encounters another man and the pair fight, ultimately to the death, using various office supplies as weapons. The victor raises his hands towards a camera in the ceiling where someone is watching on a screen.
The next morning the dead man is found far from the scene. They notice ink and paint on the man's clothes, which peg the guy as probably working in finance. They decide to canvas the area and Nygma asks if he should run prints. He asks if he wants to run them all, including the thumb he finds in the dead man's mouth.
The Penguin encounters a wealthy woman on the street and steals her brooch, saying a friend he has would love it.
The Penguin presents the brooch to Fish when they have a sitdown. He hopes they can be friends. Maroni wants to clarify terms and he sent Penguin which burns Fish up. She says he has his businesses- drugs, the unions-- will continue to pay tariffs on the ports, Arkham is still split 50/50 and if he needs favors from the mayor or the cops he has to ask Falcone. Penguin says there is to be no blood spilled, not a drop. Fish says, maybe a drop. She tells her right hand man Timothy that Penguin used to have his job. Penguin says things change. She opens his gift, extracts the letter opener from the brooch and promptly stabs Penguin in the hand with it. She tells him he betrayed her and when she orders people dead, she wants them to stay dead. She tells him to watch his back, since things do in fact change, and that he should pray for Falcone's good health. Penguin says he does.
At the precinct Jim speaks to the victim's mother, who said he worked in a coffee shop but was trying to break into finance.
While Gordon talks to her, Harvey and the captain talk about how angry Gordon is since all the cops ran out on him, and how they treat him like crap now because seeing him makes them know what cowards they are. The Captain says Gordon is lucky to have Harvey.
Penguin re-gifts the brooch to his bat-guano crazy mother, who notices his hurt hand. He says his enemies are jealous. She tells a story of a mean girl in school who she ratted out to the secret police. She notes that everyone has secrets. This gives the Penguin an idea.
Gordon and Bullock go to see a black market doctor who specializes in helping criminals. He admits a guy who had his thumb chomped off did come to see him that morning, and he dropped a business card of a financial firm that fell out of the guy's pocket. Gordon brings in the doctor over Harvey's objections.
When they bring him in, other cops voice their objections since this doctor is a good confidential informant for them. Harvey tries to persuade Jim to let him go, noting he was there for him with Falcone and he has to go along to get along, and that Harvey is on his side. Jim still says no, and the doctor stays locked up. Jim reiterates his dedication to cleaning up the city and the department at all costs.
Jim comes home to a drunk Barbara wielding his gun. She is clearly on edge since the run in with Victor Zaz and Falcone. He admonishes her for handling a gun while drunk and tries to reassure her that things will be okay.
A man in a mask at the abandoned office space approaches three men in cages. One asks when they will get out. The man says that is up to them.
The next morning Barbara apologizes to Jim about last night as he is taking his extra gun. She says it was just nerves and to leave the gun. He puts it back in the box and locks it up, and gives her the key. He says he wishes it wasn't like this. "Do you really?" she asks, and then immediately takes it back and tells him to go and catch some bad guys.
Nygma is conducting his own unauthorized autopsy on the dead guy. He seems to have hit on something when the coroner enters and angrily shoos him out. It's clearly not the first time he's done this.
Liza meets Fish at confession and says she hasn't learned anything interesting from Falcone. She cooks, cleans, and sings for him and they go on walks. Fish instructs her to drug Falcone and get a copy of the last two pages of a ledger in his office drawer. She wonders if the drug will kill him. Fish says no, but is worried Liza has caught feelings for Falcone. She says she hasn't. Fish says she doesn't want to kill him yet, just siphon his power. Liza wonders what happens if one of Falcone's men catches her. Fish notes she will probably be dead then.
Gordon and Harvey go to the office on the card and see that many of the workers are bruised and injured. They meet the boss, Richard Sionis, whose office is littered with swords, masks, and other artifacts of war. Jim can tell he's responsible for what's going on. Richard tells him to prove it. They ask about the memorabilia. Sionis says business is war. Gordon says no, war is war. Sionis can tell that Gordon was in a war and really killed people, and says he must miss the battlefield. They don't have anything on him so they have to leave. As they do, Jim notices a trail of blood going into the bathroom and bumps into the one-thumbed guy. They tussle, the man is only knocked out when Bullock opens the door into the guy's head.
The Penguin kidnaps Fish's right hand man Timothy and squeezes him for Fish's secrets. He finally spills that he overheard that Fish has someone close to Falcone. He doesn't know who. Penguin has one of his guys kill him, telling him the body can't be found.
The guy flips on Sionis and says when people apply for a job at the firm the top three are brought to the abandoned office and told to fight and the last man standing gets the job. (He is clearly breaking the first rule of fight club.) Nygma says four more people were killed with office supplies in the last few years. Then the man's lawyer shows up before they can get him to sign a statement so they need to figure out where the fights are being staged.
The Captain is freaked out and wonders what has happened to Gotham. He says the turning point into chaos was the Wayne murder, since they represented something decent and hopeful. The Captain apologizes for not staying with Jim when Zaz showed up.
Harvey gets a list of properties owned by Sionis and they split the list to start looking. Harvey says Sionis has Jim's number, that there is a demon in him, that he likes to fight. Barbara calls to check in and Jim basically hangs up on her.
Liza makes the tea for Falcone and puts in the drug. She goes to Fish's and hands over the copied ledger pages while an older black woman sings onstage. Liza says she wants out. Fish says that's not possible. Liza wonders what Fish's beef is since she is rich and powerful. She wonders why she is bothering. Fish spins a yarn in which as a poor child she would often hear her prostitute mother entertain men on the other side of a curtain in their small apartment. One night, one of Falcone's men killed her. Fish stayed silent the whole night, two feet from her dead mother. She vowed to never let herself be powerless again or let any man be over her. Liza is duly moved by this story. Later, the older black woman comes to sit by Fish at the bar and says she overheard her "telling stories." Clearly, Fish was lying and this woman is her mother. Fish shrugs and says a lie with a heart of truth is a powerful thing.
Jim finds the office and is promptly tasered by Sionis. He wakes up to hear Sionis telling the three others that instead of killing each other, their task is to kill Gordon. Gordon tries to persuade them to stand down since he's a cop. Sionis throws in a million dollar signing bonus. Gordon knows his goose is cooked. Except, of course, it's not -- because he's Jim Gordon. He takes on all three men and more or less handily dispatches them, while a crowd of people in another location watch the brawl on camera.
When Harvey hasn't heard back from Jim, he starts to get worried. He asks the other cops to help him look into the addresses that were on Jim's half of the list since he might be in trouble. He gets no takers. Bullock makes an impassioned speech to the precinct house, saying he knows that Gordon can be an asshat but he is still a cop and not one of them stood up when he needed it the first time and he won't let that happen again. The captain steps up as do several others.
Not that it matters, because Jim has taken care of the three men by himself -- and Sionis to boot when he attacks him. Jim gets the upper hand and is poised above Sionis with his sword but simply drops it. The Captain shows up, gun drawn, and just as Sionis is about to attack from behind, Jim turns and decks him. She is impressed. He thanks her for showing up.
Meanwhile, while all of this has been going on, Alfred has forced Bruce to go back to school where he is promptly pitied by the cute girls and bullied by the awful boys. When one of the boys goes too far and makes a disrespectful comment about Bruce's mother, Bruce slaps him. The bully, Tommy Elliott, and his friends, retaliate. When Bruce emerges roughed up, Alfred isn't having it. He gives Bruce his father's watch and drives Bruce to the bully's house, where Bruce unleashes a can of whup ass on him, using the watch to serve as brass knuckles. The rich brat Tommy complains to Alfred that Bruce tried to kill him. Alfred agrees, adding that Tommy should take note that Alfred did not try to stop Bruce. Later, Bruce tells Alfred that he is just so angry all the time, and asks Alfred if he can teach him how to fight. Alfred says he sure can.
At the precinct house Jim thanks Harvey for having his back and says he's wrong, it's not that he loves fighting but he's not afraid to. And if they don't, who will? He says he won't stop until he has the mayor, Falcone, and all the dirty cops. As Jim is finally leaving for the day, the case closed, he calls Barbara and tells her he's coming home and he loves her. We see her ignore the call and wheel a suitcase out the door, and a note addressed to Jim on the table.
After getting busted for shoplifting Selina summons Gordon.
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