I’m taking over the great Sharmake’s duties this week, so I hope you enjoy.
Five men hold up Gotham Bank, one wearing a red hood. They steal cash from the registers and almost get caught by the police, but Red Hood tosses some cash into the street to get the attention of passersby and distract the police.
An old friend of Alfred’s, Reginald Payne, shows up late one night. They were in the army together. Bruce insists that he stay with them, since he has nowhere else to go. Alfred seems wary, though.
Fish, as promised, is brought to see the manager. He tells her that “The Doctor” owns the facility, whoever that is. She refuses to speak to anyone but The Doctor, who is supposedly away in Gotham. The manager reveals The Doctor’s real name is Dullmacher. Fish asserts that the basement is under her control unless Dullmacher negotiates.
The manager offers her a bath in his private bathroom and some new clothes before they continue their conversation. I sense something odd going on here…
Red Hood gets a bit overexcited about the successful robbery and insists that he lead the gang of thieves. One of them isn’t too thrilled with the idea; he shoots his partner and takes over the hood.
Penguin’s club runs out of alcohol. They can’t get more, as Butch points out, because Maroni is the supplier. In fact, Butch is being surprisingly helpful and conversational.
Anyone else REALLY want to know what happened to him in that basement?!
Jim and Harvey find original Red Hood’s body inside a fridge at the auto body shop that the thieves operate out of.
Meanwhile, the thieves pull off another heist and new Red Hood tosses the hostages some money as they leave.
A restaurant owner, Mr. Chan, shows up at the police department. He saw Red Hood’s face and agrees to help out if the cops clear his oustanding parking tickets.
Reggie tries to help Bruce learn to fight. At first, Bruce is awful, but Reggie is an aggressive teacher and it starts to work. Alfred walks in and isn’t impressed by Reggie’s violent approach. When Bruce leaves, Reggie apologizes and Alfred urges him to leave their violent pasts behind them.
Penguin and two of his men lie in wait watching two of Maroni’s workers stock a delivery of liquor. The half-assed plan is presumably to kill them off and steal the alcohol.
However, cops show up and tell the workers that their liquor license has expired, so the alcohol needs to be confiscated. That throws a wrench into Penguin’s plans until Butch shows up. The cops are friends of Butch’s and he arranged it all.
Selina thanks Barbie for letting her and Ivy stay with her. Barbie admits she likes having them around. She offers them a choice of anything in her closet, and encourages Selina to use her beauty as a weapon.
Selina replies snarkily that it hasn’t done Barbie any good. Ouch.
Fish wants to know why the manager and The Doctor are stealing body parts. For clients and The Doctor’s experiments, he explains. The manager gives her an option–either he takes her eyes or kills everyone in the basement.
Fish has another idea…she uses a spoon to gouge her own left eye out and step on it before she collapses.
That was, hands down, one of the most chilling scenes I’ve ever watched in my LIFE. I will have nightmares tonight.
Alfred and Reggie tell Bruce some old war stories over dinner. It’s revealed that they were once captured by the enemy and had to fight their way out. Alfred, unwilling to share as much as Regge is, closes up; he doesn’t want Bruce to see him differently.
Bruce overhears them after he leaves the room. Alfred makes it clear that Reggie should leave the following day.
Clyde Destro aka Red Hood, walks into his apartment to find one of his crew. He insists on having the hood and shoots Destro when he refuses. Jim and Harvey, watching the apartment, hear the gunshot. They withhold their help unless Destro talks. He doesn’t, so they go through his belongings to find out which bank is their next target
At rbe club, Butch and Penguin toast to “no longer being a sidekick.” And then Penguin proposes a toast to Fish, but Butch says she got what she deserved.
But does he mean it?
Alfred catches Reggie stealing from the house. He says he’s in trouble, but won’t elaborate. Apologizing, he stabs Alfred in the stomach.
Bruce finds him on the floor after Reggie leaves and he calls the police.
GCPD surround the thieves before they can rob the bank. They’re all killed in a shoot-out with the cops.
It turns out that Reggie, that backstabbing snake, was hired by the board of Gotham Enterprises to get rid of Alfred so that they can go after Bruce.
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