Rise of the Villains: Tonight’s the Night

Episode

Cast

Crew

"Rise of the Villains: Tonight’s the Night"
Information
Director	Jeffrey Hunter
Writer	Jim Barnes
Season	2
Airdate	November 9, 2015
Viewers	4.11 million (live) 6.81 million (total)
Episode	8
Chronology
←  Previous "Rise of the Villains: Mommy's Little Monster"
Next  → "Rise of the Villains: A Bitter Pill to Swallow"

"What life? You and me... we had a life. We had real love. You asked me to marry you. I booked a church. I bought a damn wedding dress."

—Barbara Kean to Jim Gordon

"Rise of the Villains: Tonight’s the Night" is the eighth episode of the second season of Gotham. It aired on November 9, 2015.

Synopsis

Galavan sends Barbara after Jim Gordon, while he tries to make a business deal with Bruce Wayne. Barnes and Bullock are hot on Barbara’s trail, and Nygma has a run-in with a familiar face.

Plot

Barbara enters in a wedding dress at Gotham Cathedral to wed Jim Gordon. But the wedding turns into a disaster when the priest becomes the Penguin, Theo becomes the wedding's pianist, and the guests become Arkham Asylum prisoners. A bird then comes flying out of Barbara's mouth, and she's then bonded and gagged while everyone around her mocks her, including Jim and Leslie Thompkins who had taken her place as the bride. After waking up from the horrible nightmare, Barbara finds a gift from Theo in her room. Elsewhere, Theo confessed to Tabitha that Gordon's intervention had forced him to accelerate his plans. Since the day was the day he planned to get Wayne Enterprises from Bruce Wayne, he needed Gordon distracted. When Barbara arrived in the room, thanking Theo for his gift, he finally revealed to her that he was allowing her to kill Jim Gordon.

At the GCPD, Detective Gordon reveals to Captain Barnes his suspicions about Theo Galavan being behind the events that had occurred in the past weeks, but the captain orders him to find actual evidence to support his suspicions because otherwise, they could not act against the mayor. After that Leslie talked to Jim, agreeing with what Barnes had told him because Jim was going after the most popular figure in Gotham City. Insisting that he not act on impulse and not make the case personal, Leslie was interrupted when Barbara arrived at the GCPD entrance, and several officers held guns aimed at her. Later, Jim visited Barbara in the interrogation room attempting to see what information he could get out of her about Galavan, while Detective Bullock, Leslie, and Captain Barnes watched them from the other side of the glass. Jim tries to convince Barbara of wanting to offer his help, though when it fails, he kisses her and seeing that he still had feelings for her, Barbara tells him that if accompanied her to a surprise she had for him, she would answer anything he wanted. When Gordon leaves the room, Barbara walks to glass to Leslie's position to mock her.

In Barnes' office, Jim offers to go see the thing that Barbara wanted to show him. Barnes and Bullock agree that Barbara wanted to lure them into a trap, while Leslie advocates for Barbara being sent to a hospital as quickly as possible to resume her treatment. Despite this, Gordon manages to convince Barnes to comply with his request because she was their only link to Galavan, and it was worth the risk. Meanwhile Edward Nygma drives to a forest near the city to bury the body of Kristin Kringle in a suitcase. Elsewhere, Bruce visits Galavan's home to meet with Theo. When he arrived he encountered Silver who kept him company before Theo arrived, apologizing for keeping Bruce waiting. Back at the GCPD, the new crop of Strike Force members geared up to shadow Gordon, Bullock, and Barbara. Captain Barnes tells Bullock that Gordon was too wrapped up in everything emotionally, and he needed to make sure that one of them wouldn't be sucked in by Barbara's mind games. Before leaving, Leslie and Jim had an argument, as Leslie told Jim that Barbara had sucked him back in, and that his and Barbara's sickness fed off of each other.

At the Galavan penthouse, Theo asked Bruce that if he could have one dream come true, what it would be. Bruce confessed that it was to find and kill the murderer of his parents, and Theo then confessed that his greatest dream was to help the city and presented an opportunity for both to fulfill what they wanted. Outside the GCPD, Detectives Gordon and Bullock escorted Barbara to the car. After getting into the car, Barbara told the Detectives to head downtown. Back at the Galavan's penthouse, Theo revealed to Bruce the illegal activities and corruption that was going on at Wayne Enterprises. Bruce vowed to Galavan that he would look into all of it, and stop whoever was responsible for the acts. However, Galavan told him he couldn't as Wayne Enterprises had a board that would kill to protect its secrets. Galavan then proposed to buy the shares Bruce controlled in his company in exchange for an envelope with the identity of the man who had killed Bruce's parents.

As they drove downtown, Jim tries to get Barbara to confess her affiliation with Galavan, however, Barbara keeps her mouth shut, promoting Harvey to tell Jim that they needed to turn the car around. However, Jim asked Bullock for more time. Elsewhere in the forest, Nygma finished digging the hole for the suitcase and then pours a two glasses of wine to formally say goodbye to Kringle, thanking her for merging his two personalities. In the midst of his toast, a hunter arrives unexpectedly on the scene, snooping on the contents of the hole. Nygma then knocked him unconscious with the shovel. Ed then went to go and get tools from his car as he had to improvise. While venturing downtown, Gordon asks Barbara not to throw her life away on madness. Captain Barnes then contacts the Detectives through the radio telling them that he was pulling them out as it was the perfect place for an ambush. However, Barbara tells them that if they turned around they'd get nothing. Gordon and Bullock then ignored Barnes' order over the radio, continuing on. Barbara reminded Jim of their engagement, and that she still loved Jim, and she suspected deep down he still loved her. Suddenly a truck rammed the patrol car and left Bullock unconscious while Jim was disoriented. Mercenaries then appeared to confront the strike force, and Tabitha arrived to inject a tranquilizer in Jim. At the GCPD, Barnes organizes an operation to find Gordon and reprimands Harvey for not obeying his order and sends him home. In the forest, Nygma comes back with a bone saw in order to downsize the body of the hunter but discovers that someone had stolen his lunch and left behind a trail of blood while doing so.

In Thomas Wayne's lair, Bruce sits behind his father's desk, when Alfred Pennyworth arrives. He then asks his butler how many years would it take for him to gain the skills to be the man he needed to be to take down the corruption at Wayne Enterprises. After Alfred tells him that there wasn't a set timeline, Bruce tells him that he wondered how many more people would die because of the corruption caused by Wayne Enterprises in the mean time. Overwhelmed by the dilemma, Bruce tells Alfred about Galavan's proposal, and Alfred stresses that the proposal was extortion. However Bruce told him he couldn't help but considered it, as his parents were killed trying to stop the corruption at Wayne Enterprises, and while their deaths at that point had been in vain, if Galavan could truly fix the corruption at Wayne Enterprises it was his moral duty to allow him to do so. Alfred then reminded Bruce that Wayne Enterprises wasn't his parent's legacy, but that he was. Bruce then began crying asking Alfred if he was wrong to just want it all to be over, and the latter embraced him. Later, Gordon awakens in the cathedral tied to a wheelchair, across from Father Callahan who was also tied to a chair. Barbara enters dressed as a bride holding a shotgun, ready to begin the ceremony. Soon after, Barbara tells him that his fondest wish was about to come true, which was his death. Though Gordon told her he didn't want to die, Barbara told him that he did, and asked him if he was tired of hiding his true self and lying to himself and Lee. Gordon told Barbara that he didn't lie to Lee, prompting Barbara to tell him that they'd ask her. A masked Tabitha then entered the cathedral wheeling in Leslie who was also tied to a wheelchair.

At the GCPD, Harvey listens to the audio recording of the patrol until he comes to a realization of where Barbara had taken Jim. He then informs Captain Barnes that Jim had been brought to the cathedral, as Barbara wanted a do-over for the wedding the two never had. At the cathedral, Barbara tries to tell Leslie who Jim really was. As proof of good faith, Barbara confesses the location of Mayor Aubrey James. She then asks Gordon to admit to something, though when he questions Barbara as to who kidnapped Mayor James, she asks Lee whether she knew how he got reinstated at the GCPD. Leslie surprises her by telling her that she knew Jim had killed a man for Penguin. Barbara then held a knife to Lee's face, telling the latter that she would prove that she loved Gordon more by carving Leslie's face off of her skull. However, Leslie distracts her by asking her where she got her wedding dress from, allowing Gordon who had been filing the ropes holding him with the pipe on the chair, to break free, and grabs the shotgun Barbara had previously wielded. Undeterred, Barbara challenges him to shoot her because she knew he longed to kill her.

The GCPD then arrived invading the cathedral and Barbara begins to flee while two men in masks arrive to kill Jim. However, Jim successfully subdues the two lackeys, but is forced to take refuge behind one of their corpse when Tabitha arrives shooting at him. Jim then grabs the gun of the underling he had shot, and shoots Tabitha in the shoulder causing her to flee. Bullock and several Strike Force members arrive, chasing down Tabitha on Jim's orders. Jim then begins to free Leslie from her bondage, though he is alerted by Leslie of Barbara escaping. Jim chases Barbara to the top of the building, where he once again tries to reason with her, but she ignores him and he lunges at him with a knife. In the ensuing struggle, Barbara goes through a stained glass window and is saved from falling thanks to Jim. However, Barbara apologizes to Jim for being a bad date and releases her hand from his grip, falling to the ground.

Later, Leslie informed Jim that her life was saved thanks to bushes that broke her fall, but she sustained half a dozen broken bones, and was in critical condition. After that, Gordon informs Barnes about what Barbara had told him about Mayor James being stashed at China Docks. Barnes then orders all mobile units to China Docks, and Gordon, Bullock, and Barnes got into a patrol car headed there as well. There, Detectives Gordon and Bullock discover Mayor James, who had a box over his head. Gordon questioned James as to who had kidnapped him, with Mayor James confirming his suspicions about Theo Galavan. Meanwhile, Bruce and Alfred visited the Galavan penthouse for Bruce to sign over his shares of Wayne Enterprises, but at the last moment, Bruce refuses to sign the documents. Suddenly, Gordon and the GCPD burst into the penthouse to arrest Galavan for kidnapping Mayor James, but before they did so, he threw the envelope with the Wayne's killer in the fire, leaving Bruce devastated. In the forest, Nygma follows the trail of blood to a trailer where he is surprised to find Penguin who was injured, and asks for help.

Media

GOTHAM Preview "Rise of the Villains Tonight’s the Night"

GOTHAM A Nightmare Rehearsal from "Rise of the Villains Tonight’s the Night"

GOTHAM Decisions from "Rise of the Villains Tonight’s the Night"

GOTHAM Today Is The Day from "Rise of the Villains Tonight’s the Night"

GOTHAM Deep Down from "Rise of the Villains Tonight’s the Night"