Knight Moves: Gotham Episode 413, "A Beautiful Darkness"

It's the episode of GOTHAM you've been waiting for -- not because of the return of Jerome (CAMERON MONAGHAN), not because ot the confrontation he has with Oswald (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR), and not even because Ivy (PEYTON LIST) is showing off just how much of a badass she is in this new incarnation (which only gets more dangerous as the episode draws to a close). No, it's because this is the episode where Bruce Wayne (DAVID MAZOUZ) finally gets sense beaten into him about what a dick he's been the last half-season.

Ivy and Selena (CAMREN BICONDOVA) are palled up to do a home invasion / robbery. But Selina isn't aware that Ivy has a secondary motive: she's going to kill the head of the household in front of his family because he works on a top secret project for Wayne Enterprises that "tortures plants." She's still got her ability to infect people with plant growth just from a scratch, but she apparently has a degree of control over even that, as she can make it happen quickly -- or slowly.

Slowly is what she does with Bruce, because he's the titular head of the foundation and signed off on all the paperwork on Project M. And can I just be jealous for a half-second that at 17 I wasn't getting to kiss women like Peyton List? There, I said it. Because the poison acts slowly on Bruce, he lays there and suffers, hallucinating, for the bulk of the episode. And it's in these hallucinations that he sees who he really is, encountering versions of James Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE), Ras al Ghul (ALEXANDER SIDDIG), and an adult shadowy figure (played by McKenzie's stunt double, TURNER SMITH). Yes, Bruce Wayne meets Batman...ish finally, and while I can't find a confirmation, I'd like to think that the voice of that character was done by KEVIN CONROY.

Meanwhile, Ivy finds the secret behind Project M -- not a plant killer after all, but a growth formula based on the waters from the Lazarus Pit.

In Arkham Asylum, Oswald Cobblepot becomes the focal point of Jerome's interest. Jerome obviously has the run of the asylum, with both inmates and guards in his pocket. He's planning something, but first he wants Cobblepot as his partner, and to do that he's got to break him out of this funk he's been in for the past six weeks. So Sofia Falcone (CRYSTAL REED) has someone you love held hostage; so what, big deal, lighten up. That's Jerome's goal, and he's willing to kill The Penguin if that's what it takes. But Penguin has his own plans for getting out, and they hinge on a visit from his least favorite people -- Ed Nygma and The Riddler.

Now that Bruce has his head on straight (of course he was rescued; you didn't think they were going to let him die, did you?) it is going to be much more interesting to watch the development of GOTHAM. Perhaps he's going to go back to stalking the streets, if "Poison" Ivy leaves anything left of Gotham to stalk.