Gotham Season 3, Episode 4 Recap And Review: “Mad City: New Day Rising”

In Gotham’s “Mad City: New Day Rising,” Jim must fight against the lingering effects of Jervis Tetch’s hypnosis.

Gotham‘s “Mad City: New Day Rising” episode sees Jim fighting for control of his mind, which leads to a revelation that it rooted in much deeper issues. The episode also solidifies Penguin and Edward’s relationship.

Spoilerific Recap: Harvey interrogates Alice and wants to know where Jervis is hiding. Her main concern is telling Harvey how dangerous Jervis can be.

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Jervis is seen shacked up at an amusement park now. He quickly kills his newest victim in a very gruesome fashion—let’s just say it was like a Gallagher “melon” show.

Penguin is completely immersed in his campaign and Butch really doesn’t like Edward Nygma butting into “private matters.”

Leslie continues to study Alice, who warns her that Jervis preys on people through their demons. To solidify this concept, we see Jim’s hypnotic state become activated with the sound of a ticking clock. He attempts to walk in front of a truck, but is saved by a citizen.

Alfred and Bruce are still trying to find the missing doppelganger. The Rolls he stole has turned up in the Narrows, leading Bruce to believe that he’s seeking out Selina. And lo and behold, that assumption turns out to be true when we see the doppelganger and Selina walking merrily down the street.

Selina gets herself in trouble soon enough when she enters an illegal gambling to joint in an attempt to rob it. Luckily for her, the doppelganger enters just in time and saves her with his fighting skills. However, he’s injured in the process. And the rest of the scars on his body give him away as being “not Bruce.”

Back in Penguin territory, Ed discovers that Butch has been paying off Penguin’s constituents. Butch really doesn’t like Ed’s prying so he has him followed.

Jim meets up with Barbara, who’s crazy as ever, and learns that Jervis wanted to hire some “muscle.” That “muscle” comes in the form of the wrestling Tweed Brothers. They’re not too thrilled with Jervis at first, but he finds a way to “convince” them with his “skills.”

Jim pushes Barnes for a chance to interrogate Alice. His persistence earns him five minutes where he finally learns that Alice, as a child, suffered at Jervis’s hands—he tried to push his twisted version of love onto her.

The Tweed Brothers and Jervis infiltrate GCPD (yes, the most easily accessible police department in the whole DC universe). Along with kidnapping Alice, Jervis and his crew take out a bunch of cops and almost successfully compel Jim to kill himself. I say “almost” because Barnes saves him with a nice hit to the noggin before he could put a bullet through it.

Jim wakes up and finds that he’s now under suicide watch—signed for and approved by former love Leslie. Their issues come to the surface when he claims that she wouldn’t bat an eye if he were to actually kill himself.

Harvey, interrogates the remaining Tweed and forces his hand to reveal where Jervis took Alice, which we all now know is back to his humble abode—the amusement park. There, he’s extracting her blood while reiterating his love.

Bruce and Alfred finally find the doppelganger. After a few short heated exchanges, the doppelganger reasons that he doesn’t belong in this world. He makes his exit by jumping off the rooftop and landing safely—disappearing into the city.

Thanks to Harvey, Jim gets some temporary freedom to hunt down Jervis and find Alice. The two raid the amusement park where Jim is quickly placed back into a trance. As Jim faces his demons, he breaks free of Jervis’s control. The ensuing battle ends with Alice dead and impaled after falling off the upper floor.

Penguin discovers that Ed took back all the bribe money—an action that would definitely make him lose the election. As Ed is about to be executed for betraying him, the election results reveal Penguin victory. An elated Penguin is shown that he didn’t need to bribe anybody. The people of Gotham loved him already.

As we wrap up the episode, we have Bruce curious as to whether or not his doppelganger kissed Selina; Jim and Leslie making amends; the doppelganger being kidnapped by the Court of Owls; Penguin naming Ed as his chief of staff; and Barnes getting a drop of Alice-blood in his eye—causing him some temporary insanity.

Next: Catch up with a recap of 'Look Into My Eyes'

Best Moment: “Mad City: New Day Rising” was all about Penguin and Ed. Or should I call them “Ped”? “Peddler”? “Osward”? You get the idea. The two have a great dynamic and the show should build on that.

Final Thoughts: The relationship between Penguin and Ed was nicely written in this episode. There was a nice tug-of-war between Ed and Butch, both vying for Penguin’s approval. In the end, the smarter man won. It truly was brains over brawn.

Jim’s overall behavior is getting stranger and stranger by the episode. The writers are creating very artificial conflicts that are much too blatant. There has to be a much more elegant way of writing this character. I’m having a hard time this season rooting for this supposed protagonist.