Recap: GOTHAM Will Do Anything For You
Episode 305 “Anything For You”
Written by: Denise Thé
Directed by: T.J. Scott
Welcome, Gothamites, to our new and improved Gotham City with our new Mayor Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), aka The Penguin, where orphanages get school buses, the homeless get more soup, and Penguin erects a statue of his mom in the city. What could possibly go wrong?
Surprisingly, I like the way Gotham City is looking with Penguin as the Mayor and he seems to really enjoy being Mayor and it means that he’s in a better mood and he’s really clicking with his chief of staff, Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith).
But at the ceremony to unveil the statue… surprise! The Red Hood Gang beheads the statue of Penguin’s mom. And surprise! Butch (Drew Powell) is behind it all, setting things up so he could come out looking the hero and regain his position as Penguin’s lieutenant.
The dynamic between Penguin, Ed, and Butch is that of a love triangle full of scorned lovers. The Penguin is the object of affection for Ed and Butch, Penguin seems to have thrown Butch away and is preoccupied with his shiny new friend Ed, on whom he seems to be crushing pretty hard. Ed seems to have a crush on Penguin, too.
Butch just wants to get back in Penguin’s good graces and stop Ed as his right hand man. Butch plots the whole thing with the Red Hood Gang just to get some positive attention from his boss and friend. I think Ed and Penguin will declare their mutual affection for each other before Butch comes back into the picture after Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) breaks him out of the ambulance and hides him.
This episode really plays on who would do anything for you or who you would do anything for. Ed says he would do anything for the Penguin and he really tries by tricking Butch into telling Penguin that he is the leader of the Red Hood Gang and getting him shot.
Butch shows that he would do anything for Penguin by recreating the Red Hood Gang and trying to stop them and being the hero to get back in his boss’ good graces. Penguin shows that he would do anything for Ed by stopping Butch from strangling him.
Meanwhile, Bruce (David Mazouz) shows how much he’s willing to do for Selina (Camren Bicondova), hiring private detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) to try to find Ivy (Maggie Geha) in the hopes of impressing Selina. And while they found Ivy’s sweater, there’s no trace of Ivy herself — she shows up at the mayor’s party at The Sirens, but no one recognizes her, of course. Bruce would like to be Selina’s hero and recover Ivy, sure, but even though he’s not able to do that, he does manage to get Selina on a rooftop to confess how he feels about her.
And with “Rule Number One”, Selina plants a kiss on Bruce and leaves him thoroughly confused.
Tabitha, meantime, shows she’ll do anything for Butch by coming to his rescue after the attack at the club. With Butch outed as the mastermind behind the Red Hood Revival, things go from bad to worse. Shot in the leg, betrayed by Nygma, turned out by Penguin, Butch is now a man without a country. So Tabitha attacking his ambulance gives him a shot, not only at getting back at Nygma, but maybe it also means he and Tabby have a shot, too.
Things are really changing in Gotham. I really think we are going to see a more confident and powerful Butch, who will lead a gang to actually take on Penguin and Ed. I think he will assemble a team of citizens to go and fight them and become the new crime kingpin in Gotham. There is also a stronger, more confident Bruce that is emerging, but he is still as clueless as ever when it comes to girls.
Captain Barnes (Michael Chiklis) seems to be showing significant improvement after getting touched by Alice’s blood in the previous episode. He can at least walk again now. I think Captain Barnes will get more powers out of this little blood splatter and possibly turn into Clayface or Killer Croc given his stature, size, and tenacity.
This is going to be an interesting time in Gotham.
Gotham airs Monday nights at 8/7c on Fox.
