Gotham Season 3, Episode 5 Recap And Review: “Mad City: Anything For You”

By Steve Lam | Oct 18, 2016

Gotham’s “Anything for You” episode has Penguin solidifying his power by going after the notorious Red Hood Gang.

Gotham‘s partners in crime—Ed and Penguin—solidify their relationship after Butch attempts to regain his place next to his former boss. Meanwhile, Bruce finds a way to tell Selina that he has feelings for her.

Spoilerific Recap: Penguin celebrates his mayoral win and makes the usual rounds of photo ops with new BFF Ed at his side. Butch looks on like a jealous girlfriend. To honor his mother, Gertrud, Penguin presents the city with a statue of her. The Red Hood Gang soon arrive to terrorize everyone, as well as destroy the statue.

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Valerie has spent another night at Jim’s. And from their conversation, she really doesn’t want this to become a “thing.” He’s interested in her date which we later find out is mostly for business—she’s having dinner with a hematologist researching Alice Tetch’s blood. When the conversation focuses back onto Jim, he closes right up.

At GCPD, Ed makes his grand return—and he’s loving it. Barnes will now have to report to him for the duration of the Red Hood Gang investigation. Yep, Barnes really hates it.

The best defense is a great offense, which is why Penguin has hired a bunch of killers (Victor Zsasz included) to hunt down the Red Hood Gang—which we later find out was hired by Butch. Why? We’ll know the answer real soon.

Bruce makes a surprise visit to Jim and wants to employ him as a PI to find Ivy. Jim knows that it’s young love in the works (Bruce wants to impress Selina). But like all 14-year-old dudes, he tries to deny it.

Ed makes a trip to the forensics lab where a very passive aggressive conversation takes place between him and Lucius Fox. That “small talk” is eventually put to the side as Ed looks at Fox’s findings.

Harvey’s got some 411 for Jim in regards to the missing Ivy. A construction worker claims a redhead knocked him out (guess the guy from “Mad City: Burn the Witch” didn’t die after all)—except she was in her twenties. Leslie quickly grabs Jim to the side to give him a courteous heads up about her engagement announcement. Jim’s pretty apathetic and already knows that she’s marrying a Falcone all along.

We soon see Leslie run into Ed near her office where she owes him a punch to the face for Kristen Kringle’s murder (“Rise of the Villains: By Fire“). And it doesn’t end there. She threatens to use some mob muscle via the Falcone name.

Barbara and Tabitha make it a priority to find the Red Hood Gang so that Penguin will owe them a debt. We quickly see what our infamous gang is up to: blowing up a school bus and a Catholic priest. All in a hard day’s work.

Jim gives Bruce some fatherly advice: tell Selina his true feelings before it’s too late. When it’s time for Jim to get some advice, he quickly shifts the attention.

An accidental wine spill triggers Ed’s ingenuity: he quickly figures out where the Red Hood Gang is holed up. At the same time, Tabitha and Barbara are already confronting Butch about his disloyalty. He comes clean and admits that he’s only using the Red Hood Gang to make himself look like a hero. Penguin will never be hurt. The big guy is also doing it so he can have the power to protect Tabitha. Pfft, like she really needs it.

As Penguin and his men make their way to the Red Hood Gang, Butch tries to clean up the mess by telling his hired men to leave. When they refuse, Butch unleashes a barrage of gunfire—killing all of them and triumphantly proving his faked loyalty to Penguin.

The GCPD are on-scene and so is Ed. Even though Harvey and everyone else thinks it’s fine and dandy that a group of murderers are gone, Ed’s deductive powers tell him something’s amiss.

Barnes learns from Leslie that Alice’s blood was tested on rats. A few of them showed an increase in strength, but one of them became aggressive. To Barnes’s dismay, no one knows why.

Bruce arrives at Penguin’s party and thanks him for saving his life from the psychotic Theo Galavan / Azrael (“Wrath of the Villains: Unleashed“). Quickly spotting Selina, Bruce runs off to find her. As Selina pickpockets the guests, she’s unknowingly confronted by the transformed Ivy, who drops some hints about her real identity.

Ed corners Butch and reveals his knowledge about the ruse. With the upper-hand, Ed makes Butch an offer: put on the red hood and kill Penguin, or Zsasz will kill his crush Tabitha.

Bruce finally finds Selina and requests a private conversation.

When Penguin takes the stage to make his triumphant speech, Butch attempts to shoot him, which turns out to be a double-cross by Ed. Butch is shot and Penguin is again revealed to be a hero. Tabitha breaks free from her captors and Butch, in a fit of anger, tries to choke Ed. Penguin knocks Butch out and saves his friend.

On the rooftop, Bruce tries to admit his feelings to Selina, and she pushes back. Are you surprised?In the end, his little monologue seems to have worked because she gives him a peck on the lips. However, our future Dark Knight Detective still needs a few more years of training. Why? After all that, he’s still confused.

Valerie’s “date” with the hematologist isn’t going so well. Jim, quickly and slickly, interrupts it. Taking a bit of his own advice, he’s ready to tell Valerie what she wants to know.

Ed reveals his master plan to Penguin: he left Penguin in the dark because he needed a genuine reaction. After Ed professes his loyalty, Penguin embraces him.

In the closing shots, Tabitha intercepts Butch’s ambulance and breaks him out of custody. Barnes, is shown to not need his crutches (due to a droplet of Alice’s blood entering his eye). And Jervis has kidnapped an unfortunate female victim, making her dress up as Alice. He promptly slits her throat and uses her blood to write Jim Gordon’s name.

Next: Catch up with a recap of 'Mad City: New Day Rising'

Best Moment: Any scene with Barbara Kean. I found myself laughing out loud at how amused she was when violence suddenly erupts.

Final Thoughts: I have mixed feelings seeing Ed’s loyalty towards Penguin. Now, I’m not ambivalent about their partnership. I am, however, not so sure about Ed pining for Penguin’s attention—wanting to serve him. Well, the title of the episode is, after all, “Anything for You.” Maybe Ed has another ace up his sleeve that we don’t know about. Let’s see if Gotham‘s writers have an ace up their sleeves as well for this story arc.