If you dont forever hold your peace anyway,youllcome off looking like the jerk.
For all we know, thats who Mario really was before Jervis Tetch pricked him with a laced needle.
The cops inner darkness is his disillusionment with the state of crime and punishment in Gotham City.
Credit: Jeff Neumann/Fox
Mario knows what happened to Barnes.
He cozies up to a tech at a bar to steal away some information and his key card.
The mans death isnt necessary, but Alices blood overpowers reason.
The mans face morphs into Jims as Mario holds it in his hands.
He pushes and pushes until hes crushed it, blood spattering onto his impassive face.
His ex is getting married, and Jim should be drunk.
Jim takes off to investigate.
If Jim dies in the line of duty, Lee will be affected by it.
Mario wants him erased from Lees heart.
Hell kill Jim, but only after hes tricked Lee into loathing him.
Jim comes to with the word Arkham scrawled on his hand.
Barnes is raving, so his attacker wouldnt have sent Jim to see his former boss.
Instead, he pays a visit to Jervis, the inmate looking resplendently nuts in his mod-podge newspaper hat.
Theres another citizen infected with Jerviss dear sister, and Jim wants to know who it is.
Hes so pleased, he cant help but reveal more than he should.
As soon as healer to killer comes out of Jerviss mouth, Jim is on the phone to Mario.
But Mario left the lab with what he needed: the ability to pass the blood test.
Jim isnt satisfied, and this is where Tetchs puppet-mastering starts to bear fruit.
The test is conclusive.
Jims inability to accept the results makes him look irrational and biased.
He cant help himself.
He tries to arrange a meeting to warn her, but Mario intercepts the message.
The doctor confirms Jims suspicions about his contamination and his obsession with Jim and Lees history.
He leaves him in the hands of Zsasz, who babysits Jim for an allotted amount of time.
NEXT: Speak now
Jim has no evidence to support his theory and no time to get it.
All he can do is ask Lee to trust him.
But with what hes been through, shes not too hesitant to assume Jim has subconsciously invented this threat.
Lee has done everything she can to move on, yet she cant even get married in peace.
Mario said that you would never let us be happy, she says.
Theyre leaving Gotham for good after the wedding for that exact reason.
Jim knows hes screwed, but he cant nottry.
This is what he wanted.
Thats why he put me on his trail, he tells her.
She looked happy and he didnt want to disrupt it.
If he didnt want to then, why would he want to now?
Unconvinced, Lee tells him he needs help and asks Carmine to have his lackeys escort Jim out.
Carmine walks Lee down the aisle to a beatific Mario while Jim gets wailed on in a church corridor.
Vows are said, and its over.
Good old Lucius Fox puts stock in Jims instincts and therefore didnt stop at Marios initial blood test results.
Mario and Lee leave town before the search warrant can be executed.
(Smooth move, Alvarez.)
At their idyllic lake house, Mario prepares to revel in Lees hatred of Jim.
Too bad shes not a vengeful person.
A part of me will always care for him, she says.
But I married you.
Its not the denouncement Mario wanted to hear.
Jim appeals to Carmine for Marios whereabouts, but the man wont knowingly sign off on his kids death.
If Mario kills Lee, Jim explains, hell never be able to return from that place.
He might as well be dead.
Theres a chance Carmines son can be saved, but only if Jim gets to him in time.
The ex-gangster wants to send his own men, so Jim takes them out at the kneecaps.
(Hes serious.)
He promises to bring Mario back alive and heads to the lake house alone.
Jim shoots him and Mario drops, the knife falling from his hand and washing away in the lake.
Without the knife, Jim is a cold-blooded killer who couldnt stand to see his love with someone else.
Gotham villains are efficient in their use of others as weapons.
Barbara Kean has the information necessary to weaponize a very powerful person.
She waltzes into Eds office to casually drop the bomb.
(Did you just fake-cough Penguin?)
Ed would never have suspected Oswald because hes ignorant of his possible motive.
Or is he, really?
Babs hints that Oswalds feelings are more than friendly, and Ed cant dismiss the idea completely.
NEXT: The Friend Zone
Ed smokes Oswald out by presenting him with his resignation.
Oswald lights up and reciprocates instantly.
One cannot deny love, he beams.
Ed backtracks, and Oswalds daydream-come-to-life dips right into nightmare territory.
Ed was talking about a business partnership, not a romance.
Oswald is rejected, and we know he doesnt handle that well.
Still, Oswald cant stand the idea of Ed not being in his life.
He begs his friend to forget the conversation ever happened.
Theyll revert to their mayoral bromance, and Oswald wont say or do anything to make Ed uncomfortable.
Little does he know Ed was just visualizing his violent death.
Youre the best friend Ive ever had, Oswald appeals.
I dont want to lose you.
Ed steps rigidly into his arms and lets himself be held.
Youre my best friend as well, Oswald.
Butch and Tabitha move to attack, but Barbaras meddling has done the trick.
I dont wanna kill him, Ed says of Penguin.
I want to destroy him.
I want to take away everything that he loves.
I want to make him despise.
And isnt that outcome a little shortsighted for someone like Nygma?
Call me a romantic, but Im still pulling for Nygmobblepot murders and all.
Selina opens the safe with the key and pockets the inexplicable crystal owl sculpture nestled inside.
Who is this mystery mom, and does she have a connection to the Court?
Selina and Bruce could be in deeper than they ever suspected.
Odds & Ends:
