Recap / Gotham S 5 E 7 Ace Chemicals

Directed by John Stephens

Written by Tze Chun

Gordon races to uncover the criminal element threatening to end talks of Gotham’s reunification with the mainland. A very much alive Jeremiah returns and organizes a twisted recreation of the murder of Bruce’s parents with the help of Jervis Tetch aka Mad Hatter.

Tropes

• All for Nothing: Lee says this as she's upset that all her work to make the Narrows better has been undone.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When Oswald seeks Nygma's help, Nygma is surprised and lists off all of the transgressions Oswald has put upon him throughout the season.
  Nygma: After all this time, you come to me for help. After allowing Strange to put a chip into my brain! After attempting to sell me out to Gordon! And after naming... a dog after me!
  Oswald: First of all, I'm very fond of that dog...
• Attention Whore: An extremely twisted example. The sole reason Jeremiah recreates the murder of Bruce's parents is that he cannot bear the thought of someone else having a larger impact on Bruce's life than him.
  Jeremiah: "I wanna be the star of the show!"
• Bad Boss: Penguin once again shows his utter disregard for his employee's lives when he forces them to ride boats across the river in order to test if the mines the military planted there work or not. They do.
  • In a Dark Humor moment, Oswald notices that his lackey survived the mine and is swimming back to shore. Then... boom!
• The Bad Guy Wins: Zigzagged with Jeremiah. He fails to kill Gordon and Lee, fails to make Bruce see him as his Arch-Enemy, and ends up in a comatose, braindead state for his troubles. However, he does succeed in his secondary goal of making the government abandon their plans to reunite Gotham with the mainland.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Barbara yells this to Oswald when he asks who the father of her child is.
• Body Horror: Re-enacting The Mark of Zorro, Jeremiah first carves giant Zs into the torsos of Narrows gang members while they're still alive. Then he gasses them with a substance that turns their faces purple and bloated.
• Call-Back: When Gordon and Lee comes across Tetch, he mentions the twisted tea party he made them attend back in Season 3.
  Tetch: "My my, what a thrill. Jim Gordon... and the woman he told me to kill."
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Barbara is again ready to kill Penguin, but he talks his way out by offering to take her and her unborn baby with him out of Gotham.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Jeremiah, in spades. He's obsessed with the fact that no matter what he does, the man who murdered Bruce's parents will have a stronger hold over him. Jeremiah sets out to correct this by recreating that night but with himself as the murderer.
• Didn't Think This Through: Selina calls out Oswald on "not having a plan to get off this rock before you stole everyone's crap?"
• Faux Affably Evil: Jeremiah behaves like a gracious dinner host while holding the entire Wayne family hostage. He even jokes around with Bruce as if they were best friends.
• Hope Spot: Without Walker's interference, there's a chance for Gotham to be reconnected with the mainland.
• Last-Second Word Swap: Alfred says that if he ever sees Tetch again, he'll "stick that watch so far up his... nose..."
• My Greatest Second Chance: Selina arrives on the scene of Jeremiah's recreation of the Wayne murders just in time to save Gordon and Lee's lives, allowing her to atone for not doing anything to save the Waynes the first time around.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Jeremiah stars in a recreation of The Mark of Zorro, a movie Bruce and his parents went to see right before the couple were killed in the pilot. Comics usually depict the Waynes seeing some type of Zorro movie the night they are killed, and Zorro is one of Bruce's inspirations for Batman, which is another Mythology Gag since Batman the character was inspired by Zorro as well.
  • Bruce and Jeremiah's showdown is in Ace Chemicals, and ends with Jeremiah falling into a vat of chemicals, just like in many versions of the Joker's origin story. For bonus points, his last lines before this are stating that without him, Bruce is just "a joke without a punchline".
    • Hilarious in Hindsight considering Joker himself now has a sidekick named Punchline.
  • Jeremiah attempting to make himself the one who killed Bruce's parents is one to Tim Burton's Batman where the man who would become the Joker is the one who murdered them.
  • It's not the first time Wayne Manor exploded.
  • Penguin and Riddler planning to leave the city by building a submarine.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Jeremiah tries to make himself Bruce's ultimate villain by inserting himself into a recreation of the murder of Bruce's parents. Instead, he enables Selina to insert herself into the scene, giving her a chance to make up for the guilt she felt for not saving Bruce's parents.
• No OSHA Compliance: Ace Chemicals is as ludicrously unsafe as ever; narrow catwalks with flimsy, easily breakable guardrails are all that separate Bruce and Jeremiah from the uncovered vats of bubbling toxic chemicals during their fight.
• Not Quite Dead: Jeremiah survives the fall into the chemicals, but is rendered braindead.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Surprisingly averted. The army general Gordon speaks to is more than happy to begin the reunification process and it is revealed that Walker was deliberately prolonging Gotham's isolation so that she and Eduardo could have an excuse to purge the city.
• Railing Kill: During the fight with Bruce in the titular chemical factory, Jeremiah smashes through a beat-up piece of railing and plummets into a vat of chemicals.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lee gives a brief one to Tetch, calling him out on how pathetic he is compared to some of the other villains.
• Sarcastic Clapping: How Tetch announces himself upon Gordon and Lee realizing he's responsible for the hypnotized workers at Ace Chemicals.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Nygma and Barbara join Penguin's plan to escape Gotham.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: During their showdown, Jeremiah is gleeful even as Bruce gives him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, claiming this proves Bruce feels the same way about their Arch-Enemy status as he does. Bruce quite vehemently responds by stating that Jeremiah is nothing to him, which gets under Jeremiah's skin and finally makes him lose his cool.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Lee slaps Gordon near the end of the episode before passionately kissing him.
• Shout-Out: Barbara greets Lee with "What's up, Doc?"
• Sure, Let's Go with That: This little exchange with Alfred.
  Alfred: (pointing to a bomb) A cake, Jeremiah? How kind, is it Italian meringue?
  Jeremiah: (Beat) Sure.
• Trash the Set: Wayne Manor is completely destroyed by Jeremiah's bombs.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Alfred saves Penguin's life by talking down a very angry and homicidal Selina. Penguin thanks him by ignoring the wounded Alfred and just points him in the general direction of the GCPD to walk back to on his own.
• Villainous Friendship: Oswald and Edward have put their vendetta aside and started to work together to create a submarine.
• Wham Shot: After Jeremiah reveals to Bruce that he already killed the Thomas and Martha Wayne lookalikes off-screen, he tells the couple behind him to turn around, revealing them to be none other than Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: The plan to reunite with the mainland is scrapped once again when they catch wind of Jeremiah's plot, seeing it as a sign that Gotham is still too unstable.