Gotham: A Dark Knight 4×03 Review (They Who Hide Behind Masks)

WARNING: SPOILERS for Gotham season 4!

Gotham Season 4 is bringing back some familiar faces in different ways and introducing some new characters. This episode focused a lot on Bruce, Edward Nygma as well as the introduction of Carmine Falcone’s daughter, Sofia. In the last episode, Jim took down Scarecrow and decided to go ask Carmine Falcone for help against the Penguin. Bruce gained a new suit from Lucius. Barbara Kean was revealed to be alive and is now partnering with Tabitha and Selina.

Summary

The episode begins off in Arabia during the year 125 A.D. Ra’s Al Ghul is dead and lying in the aftermath of a great battle. An old man with a beard arrives on a horse and takes Ras to the Lazarus Pit. He resurrects Ra’s and tells him that his destiny is to find his heir and be free. He gives Ra’s a knife. In present day, Bruce is staking out one of Penguin’s shipment. He sees a thief trying to steal something and then drops down to get a closer look. In doing so, he alerts a bunch of guards and they escape with what the thief was trying to steal. The thief removes her mask, revealing that she is Selina Kyle. Jim Gordon arrives in what looks like Italy with sunglasses. He meets with Falcone and his only daughter, Sofia. Falcone tells Jim that he can’t come back to Gotham, because he is dying. Sofia volunteers to go to Gotham but her father tells her that she isn’t ready for Gotham. Selina goes back to Barbara, who wanted her to steal the shipment from Penguin, and tells her about the failure. Barbara says that Cat isn’t ready which makes Selina storm off. Zsasz tells Penguin about his shipment almost being stolen and they leave to go check on it. A woman then sneaks in and uses a device to heat up the ice that Edward Nygma is trapped in. Ed awakens to the woman who broke him out. She is his biggest admirer and a former classmate of his. She praises him, but he doesn’t reciprocate feelings for her. Bruce decides to put on another mask, figuratively, and sneaks onto Penguin’s ship acting as a kid looking for his uncle. He gets caught but Alfred punches the two men who caught them and tells Bruce that improvisation is key when acting. Barbara tries to buy a knife from Oswald, the same shipment she tried to steal. He says that she can bid for it during the auction house. Bruce is able to find out that the knife that the thief wanted to steal belonged to Ra’s Al Ghul. Meanwhile, Sofia spends some time with Jim drinking and talking about her lack of a relationship with her father before he got sick. She talks about Mario’s death but doesn’t blame Jim for killing him. Ed’s secret admirer tries to fix his brain by telling him some riddles. Ed doesn’t know the correct answer, his answers are deranged, and psychotic. Jim tells Sofia about why he still tries to protect Gotham. They kiss. Bruce channels his inner teenage brat and buys everything at the action including the knife for a whopping 2 million dollars. Selina tries and fails to get Bruce to give her the knife. Ed escapes his admirer but hitting her with a book. She is killed by Zsasz as Nygma winds up on the streets. Ra’s Al Ghul shows up at Barbara and they kiss as she tells him about the knife being in Bruce Wayne’s possession.

Analysis

The episode title is called “They Who Hide Behind Masks”. That refers to Bruce who is hiding behind the vigilante, brat and teen looking for his uncle masks. It could also refer to Sofia who is clearly throwing herself at Jim. I mean that was fast. She is properly manipulating Jim. She may want revenge for Mario Falcone’s death or have big plans for Gotham. Unfortunately, this probably means we will have to see Jim chase Lee again. In last weeks episode, his biggest fear was Lee dead in a bath tub filled with blood. He still loves her and is probably not going to last long with Sofia Falcone. Bruce continued to get more Batman like. He showed off his comic persona with the way Bruce acted. He used his money, his smarts and even showed some sarcasm. We got some more information on Ra’s Al Ghul, his origin, he is working with Barbara Kean and that knife is the key to everything.

Overview

This was a good episode. The Ra’s Al Ghul scenes were awesome, especially his theme music, this Bruce storyline is the best Bruce storyline we’ve gotten so far. The bad guys are always awesome. The only major negative was how quickly Jim and Sofia started a romance. Valerie Vale was rushed but this was overdrive compared to that.

Written by: Neil Sharma

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