4 things we learned from Gotham Season 5, Episode 7: Quite a gas

The showdown between Jeremiah and Bruce finally comes this week on Gotham, as the young Clown Prince of Crime threatens the city with toxic gas.

Previously on Gotham, Selina apparently killed Jeremiah/Joker and desired to leave the city to get away from all of the scum of the city looking to get a piece of her. Meanwhile, Alfred was kidnapped by the still-living Jeremiah, and taken hostage to the Wayne Manor finding the Joker armed with a ton of noxious gas along with some old faces.

Meanwhile, Jim Gordon continues to try and get the government to provide some aid and rescue to Gotham, even after his most recent betrayal coming from his old friend Eduardo. The last episode culminated in the shock that Barbara was pregnant with Jim’s child after their brief tryst. What did we learn on Gotham Season 5, Episode 7?

1. Reunification can be tough

The episode opened with some mysterious fireworks that leaked green gas killing men with a “Z” carved onto their chests. It’s revealed that the dead men were “Chessmen” a gang that runs out of the Narrows.

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Back at the GCPD, Jim Gordon is now in contact with a mysterious general back on the mainland, who acknowledges that the government is ready to begin rescue operations. The whole conversation is very cryptic from the mainland’s side, making me think that either Walker was purposely stalling on both sides, or there is something more that we don’t know about. However, it ends with the general reassuring Jim that as long as the city remains stable(ish) he’s going to make sure the city is saved.

Searching for answers about the murdered Chessmen, Jim takes Lee into the narrows to find Acme Chemicals has been restarted, run by some hypnotized workers under the control of our old friend Jervis Tetch. With a little help from Ms. Harley Quinzel, the workers are able to subdue Gordon and reveal that the trio (along with the living Jeremiah) plans to launch rockets full of that toxic, green gas over the city. Gordon quickly realizes that if this happens, any hope of reunification with the mainland will be lost forever.

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2. Family reunions can suck

Bullock notes that Alfred has now been missing for five days, and Bruce is running himself ragged running search parties. Frustrated, Bruce takes a walk outside and finds a bunch of newspaper clippings from the day after his parents were killed, and follows what appears to be ghostly apparitions of the elder Waynes. He comes across Jeremiah’s tunnel, finding his mother’s pearl earring, and heads deeper into darkness.

When he comes out the other side, Bruce finds the ghostly, picturesque scene of his parents back in their old house. Bruce immediately is suspicious, but Alfred appears to reassure him (definitely not being held under duress by fully-Jokered out Jeremiah).

Jeremiah reveals that he has the mansion wired with explosives. Because this was the day that defined Bruce Wayne’s life and his non-biological, wannabe brother Jerome didn’t get to participate, he’s decided to perform a re-enactment.

However, Bruce isn’t willing to play along and so the Joker leaves him to his and his parents’ demise as the bombs tick down. Bruce narrowly escapes with Alfred through the tunnels and we watch as the famed Wayne Manor goes up in a blaze of glory.

3. Saving the city comes down to the wire

Bruce heads off to finish Jeremiah once and for all. At the same time, Alfred makes it out the other end and finds Selina and Oswald. In frustration that she cannot escape the island, as the pair thought Jeremiah’s tunnel would lead them under the river to the mainland, the kitty-Catwoman threatens Cobblepot. She stops short, at Alfred’s urging, then leaves to help her friend Bruce and exact her revenge against Jeremiah.

Meanwhile, Bruce tracks Jeremiah to the very movie theater he and his parents were at the night of their death. Jeremiah reveals that the men had a Z carved into their chests because of Bruce’s affinity for the Legend of Zorro, and Jeremiah taunts young Master B by saying if he had conquered his fears of the movie the elder Waynes might have survived that fateful night.

Outside, Bruce finds Jeremiah with his “parents” playing the random gunman who killed the Waynes. Jeremiah decides that if Bruce won’t be bonded by brotherly love they’ll be bonded by hatred. The big reveal comes that it’s not actually the zombified Waynes that are being threatened, but Bruce’s surrogate parents – Lee and Jim – hypnotized by Tetch.

Luckily, Selina manages to intervene at the last second, snatching the gun from Jeremiah’s hand with her whip and sending him sprinting for help to the now-abandoned Ace Chemical plant. Unfortunately, Harley Quinn seizes on the distraction and activates the fireworks. launching the gas grenades into the air. Realizing that the city will be doomed if that gas goes off Jim hops in a truck holding all the rockets and drives them into the river.

However, it appears this hasn’t saved Gotham, and reunification with the mainland won’t be happening. While the mystery chemicals didn’t explode in a gas cloud over the city, they did leak into the river as a chemical spill, so the reunification will be delayed until the spill is cleaned up.

4. The ultimate showdown met the hype

We finally get to see the showdown of Bruce vs. Jeremiah, one-on-one, in the Ace Chemical plant. The two square off, predictably, on a catwalk overtop a huge vat of green goo that was presumably used to make the mystery gas grenades.

Bruce gets the upper-hand initially, but Jeremiah fights back in frustration that Bruce still isn’t seeing that the two are (at least in his twisted mind) eternally connected. The battle ends with Jeremiah saying he’s the answer to Bruce’s life question “not just a joke without a punchline.” With that, Jeremiah swings and misses Bruce with a punch, flying over the edge of the catwalk, and into the goo below.

They fish Joker/Jeremiah out of the chemicals and we see him in the hospital with “no brain activity.” That sounds like something that we’ve definitely heard and seen to not be true time and time again on Gotham so if you’re a fan I’m sure you’re going to bet that Jeremiah will awaken again at some point before the finale.

What was your favorite moment from last night’s episode of Gotham? Let us know in the comments!

Gotham airs Thursdays at 8/7c on Fox.