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"You know that feeling, Jim, when you've won the battle, but you know you're going to lose the war?"
Nathaniel Barnes to Jim Gordon

"Mad City: Blood Rush" is the eighth episode of the third season of Gotham. It aired on November 7, 2016.

​Synopsis[]

Barnes begins to feel the effects of a recent incident and begins to go mad. Meanwhile, Nygma is out of his depth in his relationship with Isabella and Carmine Falcone throws Lee and Mario an engagement party.[3]

Plot[]

A man is hiding a corpse in his car near a store. Nathaniel Barnes passes by and notices blood on the man's face. Barnes follows him to an abandoned building where he sees him melt the corpse, stating he is just a cleaner and was just destroying the corpse for the real killer, someone known as "The Toad". Upon seeing the blood, Barnes begins losing control and, as he realizes that the man would just get a few years in prison, he kills him with his strength.

Before their engagement party, Lee informs Mario that Jim Gordon is back in the GCPD, but that she is fine with it. Edward Nygma and Isabella are eating breakfast when she uses her glasses, reminding Nygma strongly of Kristin Kringle. He goes to the bathroom and sees Kringle in the mirror, teasing him that he is still a killer and it is just a matter of time before he kills Isabella as well. Gordon and Harvey Bullock are investigating the cleaner's scene, getting shocked after seeing his mutilated corpse.

Barnes visits Jervis Tetch in Arkham Asylum, demanding to know about the virus. Tetch wants to know "the darkness that Alice brought back to life" and he will tell him about the virus. Barnes explains that he expresses rage at the guilty criminals. Tetch instead teases him, stating that he could hear voices from within. Nygma talks with Oswald Cobblepot about Isabella, and after some talk, he decides to break up with her but he asks Cobblepot to do it for him. Barnes tracks The Toad to a bar and uses his strength to make him confess to having hired the cleaner but that he was contracted by a person named Dr. Symon, a plastic surgeon who gives new identities to the criminals. Barnes nearly kills him but he takes the Toad with him to find Symon.

Cobblepot arrives at Isabella's, telling her to never see Nygma again. Isabella deduces that he is in love with Nygma too but states that she will not let him go. Barnes arrives at Dr. Symon's office just as he is beginning surgery on a woman. Symon surrenders but Barnes still attacks him just as voices inside him repeat "Guilty". He takes Symon to the precinct and then leaves his badge and gun on his desk. The engagement party begins, just as Mario says a few words with Carmine Falcone. Barbara Kean is revealed to have gotten inside the party and asks Lee how it feels to be with a man who is having a war with himself. While Lucius Fox shows Gordon the toxicology reports on the case of the victim, Bullock informs them that the woman refused to press charges against Symon, seemingly being paid off, and a judge ordered his release.

Attending the party, Barnes talks with Falcone, seeing that even if he did good things, he still ruled the mob and he is not above the law. Symon shows up at the party and the GCPD has arrived to try to imprison him again. Mario talks with Gordon in private and he confronts him that he preferred to save Lee rather than Valerie in the tea party. Gordon calls him weak and Mario punches him in the face but Gordon decides to let it pass just for Lee. Barnes then sees Symon and the voices finally persuade him to say "Guilty". He corners Symon in the bathroom and brutally attacks him, declaring that the law could not let him do what was right, claiming he is the "judge, jury and executioner". He then slams Symon to the wall, causing him to fall off the building.

Nygma visits Isabella, discovering to his shock that she dressed like Kringle, trying to persuade him that he can live without fear of hurting her. She puts his hand on her throat to show him that he can't strangle her and they end up having sex. Nygma tells Cobblepot about this and after leaving, Cobblepot has Gabriel cut the brakes of Isabella's car, causing her to crash just as a train is crossing. Gordon leaves the party after talking with Barnes and discovers Symon, who is nearing death. Gordon asks who threw him off, and Symon responds, "Barnes".

References[]

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