The Mask

"The Mask" is the eighth episode of Season One of Fox's Gotham. It was written by John Stephens and directed by Paul Edwards. It is the eighth episode of the series overall, and premiered on November 10, 2014.

Synopsis
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.

Recap
Detectives Gordon and Bullock have found themselves wrapped up in yet another murder case. This seems to be becoming the norm in Gotham City.

This sends the two of them in search of a man who runs a sort of fight club comprised of the people who apply for employment with his financial institution.

We don’t know about you, but somehow we just don’t think the ability to lay the smack down on someone qualifies them to write loans, manage accounts, and crunch numbers. If it does, maybe we are in the wrong business.

Did Gordon and Bullock get to the bottom of their new case? Furthermore, what happened tonight in the ongoing war between Salvatore Maroni and Carmine Falcone? Let’s take a look at tonight’s episode of Gotham titled “The Mask” and find out.

When tonight’s episode kicks off, we see two men in business suits in an office beating the absolute daylights out of each other. What kind of water cooler dispute can you possibly have that would result in you tearing apart your office in order to beat down your co-worker? We think we’re about to find out.

The next morning, Detectives Gordon and Bullock find themselves in the middle of a murder case. We have a distinct feeling this is one of the men from last night’s office dispute. While Gordon and Bullock go over the details of the situation, Edward Nygma examines the body.

It seems as if he will have an extra fingerprint to scan when he gets back to the lab. Nygma found a severed finger deep in the victim’s mouth. Well, we certainly didn’t expect that one.

Later, we see Oswald Cobblepot having what looks like a civil meeting with his former employer Fish Mooney. The two of them discuss the upcoming plans of their respective bosses. After a short conversation, Cobblepot presents her with a gift.

HE’S (BRUCE) SEEN MORE PAIN IN HIS YOUNG LIFE THAN MOST PEOPLE TWICE HIS AGE. As soon as she takes the gift in her hand, she stabs Cobblepot in the hand with it. It would seem as if Cobblepot has made some drastic changes since getting his lifestyle upgrade.

Whereas he would have normally lost it after being stabbed in the hand, he is pretty manly about it, calling off his men who look to retaliate.

Right now, there is a fragile peace between these two sides, but there is no denying that this is going to explode at some point and bathe the city in its flames.

Elsewhere in Gotham, we watch as Alfred sends Bruce Wayne back to school. If Bruce had his way, he would continue to be home schooled, but Alfred would much rather him be socialized like a normal kid. Unfortunately, Bruce is not a normal kid. He’s seen more pain in his young life than most people twice his age.

Back at the station, we see Gordon interviewing the murder victim’s mother. She can’t imagine that there is anyone in Gotham that would want to hurt her son.

In another office, Bullock discusses Gordon with Captain Essen. He tells her that he is angry at what happened and ever since then, the rest of the force has been treating him like the plague because he reminds them what cowards they really are.

A little later, we see Oswald paying a visit to his dear mother. Apparently, the item he so graciously lifted from the woman on the street earlier in the day was a gift for his mother. Of course, she loved it. Unfortunately, once she realized that someone hurt her boy, the switch flipped and the eccentric side of her came out to play.

Elsewhere, after Gordon and Bullock went to one of their underground contacts Gordon decides to drag the informant back to the station and lock him up, the rest of the force seems to take issue with this. Bullock pleads with him to go with him on this one and let the Doctor out, and the two of them will check out the lead tomorrow.

Gordon went against what seemed like his better judgment and agreed to Bullock’s request.

The bad news is, the tip that the Doctor gave them is about to lead them down a twisted road to a different kind of criminal in Gotham City.

WE BELIEVE AT SOME POINT THAT THE CORONER WOULD HAVE WANTED TO HEAR WHAT HE (NYGMA) HAD TO SAY. In the GCPD morgue we watch as Edward Nygma goes over the body. Is it just us or does he have entirely too much fun at his job. Well…at someone else’s job. As he is not the coroner, it isn’t really his job to go over the bodies in the morgue.

He may have discovered some new information, but the real coroner doesn’t want any of his interference and demands that he leave. We believe at some point that the coroner would have wanted to hear what he had to say.

That afternoon, we watch as Fish Mooney meets with her new weapon. As Falcone has eyes everywhere, the only place that they can meet is in the confessional. Mooney tells her that there is something in his office that she desires. It involves Liza breaking into his desk.

It seems as if Liza has developed some sort of feelings for Falcone, but she agrees to do as Mooney asks of her.

Later that afternoon, Detectives Gordon and Bullock pay a visit to a man by the name of Richard Sionis. He is the head of a financial institution; the same institution that had its name on a business card in the murder victim’s pocket.

Sionis doesn’t seem to acknowledge ever hearing of the man. In fact, he seems to be doing everything he can to avoid speaking with them any longer than he has to.

There is something incredibly strange about him. His office is littered with all sorts of “warrior” memorabilia. Looking around, Gordon is pretty convinced that Sionis is somehow behind the murder. This point is driven home by the amount of physical injuries are apparent on his employees.

As they continue to make their way through the building, they stumble upon a trail that looks like blood. As Gordon ventured into the room, he soon found himself doing battle with a man who clearly didn’t want to be detained. Unfortunately, Gordon didn’t seem to come out on the winning end of this encounter.

It seems as if bad days are contagious. Bruce is not having a very good day at school. It seems that all anyone wants to talk about is his dead parents. As you can imagine, he has no interest in having this conversation with people he hardly knows, let alone people who are being completely insensitive jerks about it.

It isn’t long until he is cornered by a couple of boys who are giving him a hard time. When one of them dares to mention his mother Bruce quickly strikes the boy in the face. Unfortunately, we are not quite sure Bruce thought this one through. The boys are much bigger than him and not amused at what just happened.

While Bruce handles his bad day, we watch as Cobblepot has a meeting with Fish Mooney’s new version of Cobblepot. He has many questions for him, but first a little payback is in order. Thankfully for Cobblepot, he has men to do his dirty work for him.

Back at the station, Gordon and Bullock interview the man from the office that assaulted Gordon. After a little persuasion, the man informs them of a sort of “fight club” set up by Sionis as part of the “interview process.” They weren’t supposed to fight to the death, but well…

Edward Nygma brought his findings to Captain Essen. It turns out that there are four other people who have died in a similar manner in the last three years. It seems as if we have a pattern here.

The captain wants a confession out of the man immediately. Unfortunately, before they can do that the man lawyered up. It looks like they will have to pursue other avenues.

So, in that same spirit, they head out to take a look at some of the other locations that Mr. Sionis owns. When they say that you should be careful what you wish for, they were not exaggerating. Detective Gordon stumbled right onto what he was looking for; Sionis himself.

Unfortunately, Sionis saw him before Gordon saw Sionis. It was an electrifying experience, just ask Gordon.

Elsewhere, it would seem as if Bruce Wayne has decided to embrace his dark side. Alfred takes him to the home of the boy who gave him such grief earlier. Alfred hands him his father’s watch and Bruce heads off to ring the bell. As soon as the kid emerges, Bruce proceeds to beat the heck out of him.

After a few hard punches land, Alfred steps in to stop it. Alfred tells the boy to remember this the next time that he sees Bruce. We don’t know about you, but we think this boy won’t be messing with Bruce, or speaking about his mother, any time soon.

Back at one of Sionis’ many offices, Gordon finds himself surrounded by three masked men. Apparently, rather than your traditional fight club, tonight has a special stipulation.

Whoever it is that kills Gordon is the victor. Gordon seems to think he can talk the men out of this, but when Sionis offers a million dollar signing bonus all hope of that happening goes out the window.

At the GCPD Station, Bullock has a feeling that something has gone horribly wrong with Gordon’s investigation. When he asks the other officers for assistance, none of them are very receptive. It is then that we see a side of Bullock that we haven’t seen before.

Bullock stands in the middle of the station and scolds everyone for not being there when Gordon needed him. No one makes a move until Captain Essen volunteers first. Slowly, but surely, officers start to step up.

Thankfully, Essen was able to track Gordon down in time. Gordon may have fought off the other three men, but Sionis is much more of a challenge. Gordon gets the best of him, but the good man inside of him doesn’t allow him to kill him. As Essen walks in, she notices Sionis coming up on Gordon from behind.

As you can imagine, he warns him in just enough time to prevent Gordon from being sliced in half.

Unfortunately, Liza is not having as good of a day as Gordon. Fish Mooney may show affection for her, but she certainly doesn’t have her back. When Liza tells Fish that she wants out, Fish is having none of it. All Fish cares about is getting what she asked Liza to obtain.

Like a good little weapon, she hands over what Fish asked for. Fish tells her that no harm will come to her, but knowing Fish the way we do she has no intentions of having her back.

Meanwhile, back at Cobblepot’s little meeting, he finally gets the information that he is looking for from Fish’s little henchman. He uncovers that Fish has someone close to Falcone on the inside. This is certainly music to Cobblepot’s ears. He now has something new to bring back to his boss.

Looks like Liza really did have reason to be worried. It won’t be long now until Falcone is able to put the pieces together and discover who the rat in his organization is. He’ll be much angrier when he realizes that it’s someone he has taken into his own home.

As the episode begins to wind down, we watch as Gordon calls home to let Barbara know that he’ll be coming home soon. Unfortunately, she is on her way out at the moment. In fact, from the looks of things, it would seem as if she is going to be gone for quite some time, if not forever.

Just as he thinks he is going to make it out the door; he is stopped by Alvarez who tells him that they brought in a suspect that is asking for him. It doesn’t take very long before he realizes that he is talking about Selina. What kind of information can she have for him now?

Back at Wayne Manor, Bruce asks Alfred if he can teach him to fight. Being former military, of course he can. Thankfully for Bruce, he also agrees to.

Starring

 * Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon
 * Donal Logue as Detective Harvey Bullock
 * David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne
 * Zabryna Guevara as Captain Sarah Essen
 * Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth
 * Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot
 * Erin Richards as Barbara Kean
 * Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle
 * Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma
 * Victoria Cartagena (credit only)
 * Andrew Stewart-Jones (credit only)
 * John Doman (credit only)
 * Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney

Guest Starring

 * Todd Stashwick as Richard Sionis/The Mask
 * Makenzie Leigh as Liza
 * Cole Vallis as Tommy Elliot
 * Frank Deal as Dr. Felton
 * Orlagh Cassidy as Mrs. Lawson
 * Carol Kane as Gertrude Kapelput

Co-Starring

 * JW Cortes as Detective Alvarez
 * Philip Hernandez as Medical Examiner
 * Robbie Tann as Timothy
 * Teodorina Bello as Maggie
 * John Quilty as Lawyer
 * Louis Balletta as Falcone Thug
 * Danielle Guldin as Receptionist
 * Alet Taylor as Rich Woman
 * Allison Loskot as Pretty Girl
 * Bryce Biederman as Coleman Lawson
 * Brian Morvant as Adams
 * Frank Alfano Jr. as Young Man in Cage
 * Jay Hieron as Patient

Production Notes

 * Bruce Wayne's childhood best friend, Tommy Elliot, is featured. In the comic book Tommy Elliot is seen to have become one of batman's most mysterious and clever villain, "hush".