Directed by Danny Cannon
Written by Steven Lilien, Bryan Wynbrandt, Megan Mostyn Brown, & Tze Chun
The Shaman prepares to unleash the Alice Tetch virus. The Riddler hunts the Penguin. An infected Leslie makes her move against Gordon.
Tropes
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Jim Gordon is now infected with the virus.
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- The Shaman is killed, but not before unleashing the virus on the city.
- Lee successfully forces Gordon to take the virus himself.
- Board to Death: The Shaman calls a meeting for the Court's top-ranking members... so he can have them all executed.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: The Shaman has the Court of Owls' leadership killed by their own Talon minions.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: It's confirmed that Bruce has been indoctrinated by the Shaman.
- Buried Alive: Lee does this to Gordon, to force him to take the virus to survive.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Gordon vs a Talon, after the former is hyped up on the virus.
- The Bus Came Back: Fish Mooney returns, having fled the city back in episode two of the season.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Disc Two, actually (Kathryn was Disc One). Shaman is shot by Alfred before episode's end but before he dies, he tells Bruce to seek out his master.
- Downer Ending: Gordon is forced to take the virus to escape from being Buried Alive. Also, the Shaman's death isn't enough to rescue Bruce from his brainwashing, and he is taken away by the police - right as the virus is being released onto the entire city.
- Godzilla Threshold: Only when Gordon learns there's going to be an epidemic at Union Station in about 20 minutes does he decide to take the virus, which carries a very real risk of driving him mad.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Taken up to eleven in this episode. The Shaman was already the Greater-Scope Villain behind the Court of Owls and Kathryn, who was the Greater-Scope Villain to Strange, who was the Greater-Scope Villain behind the Wayne murders. And then Shaman mentions having his own superior, "The Demon's Head" — Ra's al Ghul.
- High-Altitude Interrogation: Alfred dangles Strange off a roof to get some answers. When this doesn't work (Strange assumes Alfred will kill him anyway if he talks), he instead offers him his freedom in return.
- The Reveal: The Shaman was acting as leader of the Court of Owls on behalf of Ra's Al-Ghul.
- Sadistic Choice: Lee leaves Gordon Buried Alive with the virus, and tells him that he can either inject himself with it and gain the strength to escape, or run out of air and die. When Bullock and the GCPD don't find him in time, he chooses the former, because he's the only one who knows where the Tetch-virus bomb is.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: While Penguin was held captive by the Court, Freeze and Firefly decided he wasn't coming back and took off.
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite Selina's obvious leading questions, Ivy still told her where she and Penguin are hiding, leading Riddler and the others right to them.
- Despite suspecting that Lee has injected herself with the virus, which gives people superstrength, Jim tells the police detail outside her house to go back to HQ so that he is completely alone when he confronts her.
- Wham Line: As the Shaman lies dying, he tells Bruce to search out his master."Find... the Demon's Head."
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Shaman wipes out the Court of Owls' leadership partly as this, and partly as overdue punishment for the Wayne murders.
