Gotham is back after a lengthy hiatus. I almost forgot the show was still on the air, but alas, it is back tonight. “Beasts of Prey” wasn’t the best of episodes, but it did advance many plot points that needed to be advanced, specifically Fish Mooney’s island adventures.
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One blue-eyed Fish Mooney is still a prisoner/worker on Dr. Dulmacher’s island of horrors. She notices a boat and a helicopter both peacefully waiting outside the mansion. So, she tries to escape, but is quickly stopped by a large group of men in jeeps with guns. They tell her they control the outside and she better get back in. She plays it blasé, but now she needs a plan.
Back in Gotham, Jim gives Bruce a visit to ask about why he and Alfred lied about who stabbed Alfred (it was Reginald Payne). Bruce continues to lie to Jim and doesn’t give up the truth. Back at GCPD, Jim is approached by a random officer named Len Moore (Brendan Griffin). He tells Jim that he likes him and looks up to him (odd) and that he wants Jim to take on an unsolved case of a dead girl named Grace Fairchild (Willa Fitzgerald). Jim is super busy, but Len Moore lays it on thick about wanting justice and wanting to be a part of “Jim’s team.” Jim buys it.
Jim goes to meet his girlfriend, Lee (Morena Baccarin aka perfection), in the morgue. He fills her in on the case and she urges him to investigate. Harvey, however, is against it. He doesn’t want to play with fire and is rather lazy. He tries to get Ed Ngyma on his side, but that’s a lost cause. Jim states that he is ambitious and blah blah blah and forces Harvey to help him investigate.
Back on the island, Fish recruits old friend, Kelly (Dashiell Eaves), and other angry inmates to help in her plan of escape. Her plan is going to involve cunning and guile, as she openly tells us. She tells them about the boat, disregarding the helicopter because no one can fly it.
On the investigation trail, Harvey is over it, but Jim will NOT stop till he has justice. A bar woman recognizes the girl and remembers her attractive date. That takes us into a blurry flashback where we see Grace with handsome and suave Jason Lennon (Milo Ventimiglia!) at the bar. He tells her he hasn’t been lucky in love because he wants unconditional, intense love. Cheesy right? Yes. This whole flashback is cheesy, Milo. However, she is into it and he takes her back to his apartment, where we get a glimpse at his room of chains. Fifty shades of Gotham, anyone?
At Wayne Manor, Alfred is up and walking around. He is going into the city to confront Reggie before he leaves. Bruce wants to come along, but Alfred refuses. Then Alfred suddenly starts bleeding from his stab wound. Uh-oh. Later, as Alfred sleeps, Bruce sneaks out to get Reggie himself.
In the morgue, Lee discovers that Grace’s body is pristine, except for the stab wounds. So she and Harvey maybe think she just ran away on her own. However, Jim KNOWS she didn’t and KNOWS there is a killer out there because Jim KNOWS everything and is NEVER wrong. NEVER.
We get more flashbacks to Grace and psychotic Jason. The night after their date, she is getting ready to leave, but he won’t let her. Then later, we see her chained to the table, pretending to love him. But unfortunately, she overcooked their dinner and he is not happy. So, he is going to kill her, of course. We see in his room of horror that she is not the first girl to go through this. He tells himself he will find the right girl one day. Alrighty then.
Back on the island of terror, Fish enacts the first part of her plan: stealing the keys from Dulmacher’s office. She sneaks in and is good, until Dulmacher’s reenters the office. He confronts Fish about her intentions before pulling a gun on her for lying to him. She makes up another lie to cover her lie that he seems to believe. She tells him she doesn’t want to ever become one of his experiments.
At GCPD, Ed brings Harvey and Jim a picture of a broken heart found at the crime scene and Harvey freaks out because he knows what it all means now. The killer is a serial killer called the Ogre. Jim doesn’t understand how he has no idea about it. Harvey tells him it is the GCPD’s little secret because any time an officer investigated the Ogre, he would kill their loved ones. So, they just stopped. Wow, what a great police force. So, whoever told Jim to investigate just wanted him to ruffle the Ogre’s feathers, so that someone close to Jim would die. Sneaky, sneaky.
The second part of Fish’s plan is ready to go. Escape time! It’s all a little too easy to escape the confines of the dungeon. Fish tells some of the burly prisoners to head towards the boat as she goes to free Kelly and others. She is interrupted by Dulmacher, who laments her lying to him again, but he is beaten down by Kelly and the prisoners while she looks smug. They all race towards the helicopter. Fish knows how to fly. The jeep commandos are distracted by the burly prisoners who were heading for the boat, but trapped by a gate that Fish was supposed to unlock. She set them up and they all die horrifically. The commandos turn in time to see Fish taking off in the helicopter. She gets shot in the stomach and starts bleeding out, but she still flies away. So, she escaped… but it is not looking good. Plus, we all know about Jada Pinkett not returning for Season Two, so this isn’t surprising.
Back in Gotham, Bruce wanders the streets looking for Reggie. Selina comes to help him, taking Bruce to the “shooting range” aka a heroin drug house. Reggie is addicted and weak. Bruce confronts him, asking who sent him to the Manor. Reggie doesn’t answer, asking about Alfred. Bruce continues to berate him as Selina holds his drugs hostage over an open window. Reggie eventually says a woman named Mathis and a man named Bunderslaw sent him before patronizing them for being kids. Selina throws his drugs out the window, but it sticks on the edge and he reaches to get it. Bruce has a moment of shaky-hands when he might’ve pushed Reggie out the window, but Selina does it instead. Reggie is dead! There are going to be consequences for that!
Meanwhile, in an unrelated, weird off-plot line, Oswald wants control of a bar owned by a angry woman named Lidia (Barbara Rosenblat). After some finger-cutting and granddaughter rescuing, Lidia angrily accepts his offer for part-ownership. Why is Oswald doing this? Because this is the bar where he will kill Don Maroni. Um, okay. That’s great and all of these scenes were a snooze-fest and unrelated to the main plot.
And finally, Jim and Harvey confront Officer Len Moore, who put Jim on the case. He tells them that Loeb forced him to do it. Jim now has a conflicted mind. His sense of justice tells him to find this Ogre while his worry/love for Lee begs him to stop. It doesn’t help that Lee mysteriously doesn’t answer her phone when he calls. So, Jim gets mad and straight up yells and confronts Loeb in front of everyone, vowing to find the Ogre and then coming after Loeb once and for all. Yowsa! Jim is pissed!
Perhaps this episode suffered because the show has been on hiatus for so long, but it felt a little meh. The characters feel “written” instead of real and the situations feel contrived. That Oswald story was out of place. And it’s hard to care about Fish when we know she won’t be back next year. I don’t know though. It wasn’t the worst. What did you guys think? Let me know in the comments below!
Gotham airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox. Watch full episodes on Fox.com, Hulu Plus and On Demand (check with your local cable provider).