Gotham: Blood Rush Review

Gotham has been having a great slew of shows the past few weeks. This week Leonard Marciano continues with a recap on this weeks episode "Blood Rush."

Gotham: Blood Rush Review

This weeks episode centers around Captain Nathaniel Barnes and the virus from Alice's blood he has in him. The show opens with Barnes following a suspicious character in a shady van. He walks in on the man we learn to be called Paulie Pennies, who is disposing of a body for another criminal called Toad. Barnes finally gave into the virus within him and ended up decapitating Paulie. The GCPD learned about it and started investigating the issue. One interesting thing to note is the the investigation led Barnes to Toad and later to a plastic surgeon named Doctor Simon. Doctor Simon is responsible for making face transplants for the criminal underworld. On the surface it might not seem like much, but it sounds right up the alley of Professor Pyg. Professor Pyg would cut up people's faces and then put generic doll type faces to make people into his dolltron's.

Mad Hatter
Credit: Fox

Throughout his investigation Barnes would begin going mad hearing voices as the Mad Hatter described to him. Hatter was great in this episode even though it was a brief appearance he made, as his interaction with Barnes is very reminiscent of how Batman and his rogues interact whenever he pays them a visit at Arkham.

Nygma and Cringle
Credit: Fox

On the side story of this week we continue seeing Nygma's relationship with Isabella. Nygma gets frightened when she puts on her glasses because she didn't have her contacts on, and begins to hallucinate Ms. Cringle speaking to him from the dead. The actress does a great job at portraying both characters. Later on in the episode Nygma sends the Penguin over to break up with Isabella on his behalf as he does not want to hurt her. The Penguin tries to do so, but Isabella realizes that Nygma is doing so to protect her and that the Penguin is also in love with Nygma. Determined to win Nygma back Isabella devizes a plan to dress up as Ms. Cringle and show Nygma that he won't hurt her because they love each other, and she and Ms. Cringle are two completely different people. Nygma is tempted to but ultimately realizes he does love Isabella and asks her to keep the glasses on while they continue making out. When Nygma returns he advises Penguin that he will continue seeing Isabella and Penguin decides to take extreme measures when he decides on having one of his men cut Isabella's brakes. We cut over to see Isabella unable to stop as an incoming train is approaching and just hear her car getting hit. I'm suspecting this is not the end of Isabella and we may see her return, but perhaps with amnesia thinking she's Ms. Cringle as she kept Ms. Cringle's appearance.

Gordon finds Simon
Credit: Fox

In the final part of the main story we see Gordon has returned to the GCPD. He and Bullock are running down leads about the murder of Paulie Pennies, but they do not realize that Barnes is the man they are chasing. When Barnes brings in Doctor Simon only to have him released and show up at Lee and Mario's engagement party it drives him over the edge completely. Barnes ends up throwing Simon through a wall and Simon lands in a car. Meanwhile Gordon is confronted by Mario who punches Gordon. Gordon decides to take the higher road and says he'll allow the first punch for Lee. Gordon then is leaving the party thinking that Simon got away only to discover him on top of a car a bloody mess. He asks Simon who did this to him and Simon replies Barnes.

Many people are believing Barnes will end up becoming Lock-Up a Batman villain who takes justice into his own hand. Others also believe he might become Solomon Grundy. I at one point thought he would become the Calendar Man, but now it appears as though he may be an original villain all together. Given the Mad Hatter theme of this season I suspect he may play the role of the Executioner with Alice's blood granting madness to those it comes into contact with making it the Queen of Hearts. The theory is a bit out there, but this is just putting things into perspective with the classic "Alice in Wonderland" story.

Leonard Marciano is a Contributor to ComiConverse. Follow him on Twitter: @TLMLeonard