Tonight on FOX Gotham continues with an all new Monday November 10, season 1 episode 8 called, “The Mask.” On tonight’s episode, Gordon [Ben McKenzie] and Bullock [Donal Logue] check out a brutal fight club that features bouts between candidates applying for work at a financial firm. Meanwhile, upon his return to school, Bruce makes a new friend.
On the last episode, as violence between Maroni (guest star David Zayas) and Falcone continued to escalate, Penguin revealed a new component of his manipulative strategy, forcing Gordon to deal with the consequences of his decision to spare Penguin’s life. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the FOX 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.”
Don’t forget to join us for our live recap tonight at 8:00 pm when Gotham airs on Fox.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
A man hides in an office. Another worker throws a trash can at him and they grapple. They each wear a knit mask. They engage in a brutal back and forth scuffle hitting each other with fists and objects. One finally kills the other with a sword. The winner pulls off his mask and holds up his arm in victory. He stares into the camera that was filming them. The viewer flicks the screen off. Edward checks out the victim the next morning as Jim and Harvey show up.
The body has a gash in the side of his neck and he’s covered in ink or some other black stain. Ed says he died at midnight but was moved there a couple of hours ago. They wonder if he was mugged, but muggers don’t usually move bodies. They wonder if he was attacked for being a financier. Ed asks if he should run all the prints including the one from the finger he extracts from the corpse’s throat.
Oswald approaches a woman on the street who is chatting on her cell phone. He compliments her broach and asks to have it for a friend. She’s disturbed, he says please and then he takes it. He shows up at Fish’s place and says he wanted to make a gesture of friendship. He slides a gift across the table and says he hopes they can be friends again. She accepts.
He says Maroni sent him to clarify terms. She says it’s business as usual and they will share Arkham with no blood spilled. Fish asks Timothy if he knew Oswald used to carry her umbrella like he does now but has a seat at the table. She opens the gift and slams the letter opener into his hand. He gestures his guard back and tells her that was uncalled for.
She says she treated him like a son and he betrayed her. He says he suffered and she says she ordered him dead and he should be dead. She tells him to pray for Falcone’s good health because he lives at the Don’s sufferance. He says to convey his respects to Falcone and she calls him friend and tells him to go in peace. He leaves but bleeding and angry.
Alfred takes Bruce to school and tells him it’s inevitable but Bruce says he prefers home school. Alfred says he needs to be around children his own age. Bruce says he finds kids childish and Alfred asks doesn’t he want to be normal. Bruce asks him to prove his case for normalcy but Alfred says he has to go in and tells him to have a good day.
The mom of the beating victim, Coleman, tells Jim he was a barista but was trying to get a job in finance. He has no record and his mom says he’s a good boy. Jim promises to do his best. Essen and Harvey chat and he tells her Jim is annoyed and thinks the other cops are cowards for bailing him to face Victor on his own. She says Jim will have to get over it and says he’s lucky he has Harvey.
Oswald takes the broach he stole to his mom. She sees his wounded hand and is angry and wants him to tell his boss on the person who hurt him. She tells him when she was in school, a girl named Magda was mean to her but the teacher did nothing. She says she denounced Magda’s father to the secret police to have her revenge.
She hears a rat trap snap and is thrilled. She says she just had to figure out his secret to get him to take the bait. Harvey and Jim show up to see a black market doc whose working on a GSW. They tell him they’re looking for a thumbless guy. He says no but Jim spots black ink on the table. He says the guy was mid-20s with a suit on. Jim calls an ambulance for the victim and a cruiser to pick up the doc.
Alvarez complains to Jim that he arrested the doc since he serves as a CI. He says he’s screwing the rest of them and Jim asks how he likes it. Harvey tries to get him to back down and asks him to let the doc guy. He says they can go check out the locale of the business card that fell out of thumbless guy’s pocket. Jim refuses to let him go and Harvey has to tell Alvarez to zip it.
Barbara pulls a gun on Jim when he comes home late and he tells her she shouldn’t be handling a gun when she’s been drinking. She says she can feel Victor stalking her everywhere and calls him a monster. He says he’s just a man not a monster and promises to protect her from Victor. She asks him to promise that he’ll be okay and that there are no monsters. She tells him to lie if he has to and he does.
There are two men in suits locked in cages. A masked man is there and they ask when they’re going to get out of there and he says – that’s up to you – and hands them black knit masks like the other fighters wore. Next morning, Barbara tells Jim she’s okay and he can leave the spare gun. She says she can handle what’s going on. He says he wishes life wasn’t like this and she asks if he really means that.
She tells him to go catch bad guys. He kisses her and leaves. Ed is starting the forensic exam of Coleman. He finds a thumbtack stuck in the guy and some other odd objects. He takes samples then proceeds on to the saw to cut him open. The ME comes in furious that Ed is cutting up a corpse again. Ed says he found good stuff, calls the guy ignorant and leaves.
Some girls says hi to Bruce at school then Tommy and his buddy come to talk to him. They ask about his parents death and if he saw it. Bruce says he doesn’t want to talk about it. Tommy asks if there were guts. Bruce walks away from them. Liza goes to confession to meet Fish in a confessional booth. Fish says it’s the best way to keep it secret from Falcone.
She gives Fish an update for all the things she does for Falcone. Fish tells her she needs to copy two pages out of the ledger in his desk. She says she’ll need his key and Liza asks how to get it. Fish says she left a vial in the other room for her and says it will make him sleep for two hours. Liza asks if it will kill him and Fish asks if she cares for the old man. She says no and that it won’t hurt him.
Liza asks what if one of Falcone’s men catches her snooping and Fish says she’ll likely be dead. Jim and Harvey show up to a busy finance office. They are shown in to the owner’s office – Richard Sionis. He asks what they want and they show him Coleman’s photo. He says he doesn’t know him. They ask if anyone showed up with an injured hand and he says he doesn’t take roll in the morning.
Harvey asks why he has so much warrior baloney around and Richard says it inspires people. He says you need to be a warrior to succeed and Jim says no – you need to be good at business. He calls the rest play acting and Richard says he can tell that Jim has seen real combat. Jim asks about the masks – one looks like the bad guy. Harvey asks why so many employees are scarred up and he says they have aggressive tag team football games.
Jim says he thinks he killed Coleman and Richard tells him to prove it and gets a little physical. Harvey says he’d play good cop to him, but it’s not in his toolkit. Jim spots some blood spatters and follows it into a bathroom. Guy is at the sink with a bloody nose but has all his fingers. Another guy lunges at Jim from a stall and then Harvey comes in and says he should have waited for him.
Some boys corner Bruce on the stairs and they mock him for being an orphan. He asks Tommy why he’s being unkind. The kid mentions Bruce’s mom and he slaps him in the face and says not talk about his mother. Tommy doesn’t take kindly to being smacked for his bullying sass and says – oh really?
Timothy is dragged in before Oswald and he reminds himthey met at Fish’s. He says he has some questions for him and shushes Timothy. His cronies beat the guy good to warm him up. Harvey and Jim have the thumbless guy in who has told them Sionis makes them fight as part of the job interview. Ed is there and says the stains are toner and that the guy had office supplies all in him.
Ed says there was a case like this last year. He says he found four dead bodies murdered with office supplies over the past three years. Sionis sent a lawyer and shut down Adams’ confession. Essen says this makes no sense and wonders how this is normal, even for Gotham. Essen tells Jim she knows he’s still working on the Wayne case and asks how their deaths tied into all this.
He says their deaths, because they represented hope, is allowing all this stuff to bubble up to the surface that has been there but hidden. Bruce comes out of school and Alfred notices he’s been in a scuffle. Bruce says someone disrespected his mother. Alfred says he hopes he broke his teeth and Bruce says the guy was a lot bigger than him and he doesn’t know how to fight. Alfred is pissed.
Harvey tells Jim that Sionis owns half of Gotham. He also says Richard has his number – he sees the darkness lurking in Jim. Barbara calls him and he says he can’t talk then cuts off the call. She’s not happy. Liza fixes tea for Falcone when one of his henchmen comes in and startles her. She says its almost ready and pours the vial Fish gave her into the cup before serving it up.
Jim lurks outside a shady office building – it’s the fight site. He hears chains rattling and goes to investigate. He finds the two workers in the cages but Richard sneaks up on him and tases him. Jim passes out cold. Selina is caught stealing fur coats. Alfred gives Bruce his dad’s watch. They are in front of Tommy’s house and Alfred tells him not to be scared.
Bruce says he’s not and he’s just visualizing what he wants to do. He runs up to the door and rings the buzzer. Tommy comes to the door and asks what the hell he’s doing there. Bruce beats him down and tells him to never talk about his mother again. After a few punches, Alfred calls him off. Tommy says he tried to kill him and Alfred tells him to remember that next time and remember that he let him do it.
Alfred asks what he wants for dinner and he asks for pizza. He takes a happy Bruce away. Harvey is looking for Jim and can’t find him. Jim is woken by a disembodied voice over a speaker. Richard says three of them applied for a job. There are three masked men. Richard says the first to kill the unmasked man (i.e. Jim) gets the job. Jim tells the men he’s a cop and they should stop before they break a law.
Richard says he’ll throw in a million dollar bonus and Jim curses. It’s on. Harvey tries to get some of the cops to help run down addresses where Jim might be. They blow him off. He goes into a screaming rant and tells them he won’t let them wimp out again. He says he needs help checking the addresses. Essen asks for a couple. Alvarez is next to help out.
The crowd of employees at Sionis watch on a security cameras as the combatants fight. Jim has no choice but to fight the other men. He takes down all three but then the boss is there with his sword and mask on. He asks Jim where his brother police are and asks if they abandoned him. Jim says he doesn’t need them. Richard comes at him with the sword and Jim finds an implement to fight back with.
Richard says he’ll have to give himself the million dollars when he kills him. Jim knocks the guy down, grabs the sword and looks like he’s about to kill him then stops just short. Essen and the others are there. Jim turns, Richard goes for the sword and Jim punches his lights out. He thanks Essen for coming and she looks sorry that it took them so long.
An older woman sings on the stage at Fish’s place. Liza shows up and Fish tells her to stay back for a moment. The woman finishes and Fish applauds her then gestures Liza over. She asks why she’s there in broad daylight. Liza says she wants out because Falcone is going to find out. She asks Fish if it’s worth it. She tells her she’s rich and people are afraid of her and asks isn’t that enough.
Fish says it’s not. She says she grew up in a one bedroom place with cold water and slept behind a curtain while her mom serviced men. She says one of Falcone’s men killed her because he didn’t like the service. Fish says she laid by her mom’s dead body all night and says she promised herself no man would ever have power over her again. Liza hands over the requested ledger pages and says it will undo Falcone.
Fish tells Liza she knows she’s scared but promises she won’t let anything happen to her. She tells the girl to say – I believe you Mama. She does and Fish kisses her on the cheek. Oswald asks Timothy about Fish’s secrets. He says he thinks he’s holding back. Timothy says he heard her talking to Butch about a friend with Falcone. Fish has someone close to Falcone. Oswald thanks him and tells his men no one can find the body since they are officially at peace. Timothy begs but they slice him up anyway.
Harvey says the others are bringing in Richard’s men that tried to rabbit. Jim says he heard about the speech where he called him an ass hat. He thanks Harvey for getting them to back him up. Jim says he doesn’t love fighting, but isn’t afraid to. He tells him he’s not going to stop fighting until he has taken down the Mayor, Falcone and every dirty cop. Harvey tells him to go home.
The woman comes over to Fish – it’s her mom who is demonstrably not dead. Fish says a well crafted lie with truth at the heart of it can be powerful. She tells her mom to go sleep. Jim calls Barbara but she ignores his call, sets an envelope on the desk and walks out. He leaves her a voice mail promising things will be better and telling her he loves her.
Alvarez comes in and tells him they brought in a perp who asked for him. He says it was a professional B&E at a high end store. Jim goes to see and it’s Selina who says hi and asked if he missed her. Bruce tells Alfred he enjoyed beating the kid because he deserved it. Alfred says that’s natural. Bruce says he’s so angry all the time and asks Alfred to teach him how to fight. The butler eagerly agrees.
THE END!
