'Gotham' Season 01 Episode 17 Recap: 'The Red Hood'

The story behind Jim Gordon’s rise to power as Gotham City’s Police Commissioner heats up in the new FOX series “Gotham.” As the season winds down, more and more notorious villains known in the “Batman” comic books are given faces in the series. In episode 17, the story revolves around a bank -- robbing criminal known as “The Red Hood.”

Episode 17 opens with a gang of small time crooks in the process of robbing a bank. One of them sports a makeshift red hood that he sewed for himself in order to conceal his identity. The group holds the bank at gunpoint and clears out the registers. One of the security guys attempts to fight back by shooting the guy in the red hood but fails to hit him with six shots. The guy in the red hood starts to feel a false sense of invincibility because of the missed shots. On their way out, the police arrive and the guy with the red hood decides to throw out some cash in order to get the crowd going crazy. The swarm of civilians going after the cash prevents the police from catching the crooks.

Jim and Harvey start investigating the robbery and follow some clues. They soon discover a body which turns out to be the guy with the hood. The gang continues to rob banks and the two officers track them down. The Red Hood is at the center of all the action and whoever ends up with it leads the gang. This results in a power struggle within the group and the second guy also ends up getting shot by one of his mates. On their way to another job, the police goes one step ahead of the gang and intercepts them. The third guys sporting the hood starts shooting back at the police without any cover. He believes that the hood can protect him but of course, the hood doesn’t really have any special powers and the guy is shot dead along with the rest of the gang. Just when everything appears to be over, a teenager picks up the discarded hood and puts it on leaving a clue that this isn’t the last time that the Red Hood will be seen.

Meanwhile, Alfred’s old friend Reggie Payne comes to visit him at Wayne Manor. Bruce insists that he should he stay for a few days and the two of them get along well. Unfortunately, he reminds Alfred of his days in the special forces and Alfred becomes uncomfortable. Eventually, Alfred catches Reggie stealing during the confrontation, Alfred gets stabbed. It turns out that Reggie was hired by the members of the Wayne Enterprises Board to investigate Bruce Wayne’s inquiry on the company’s illegal activities.

Elsewhere in the underworld, Fish Mooney has a meeting with the manager of the facility where she is locked up in. She finds out that a man called Doctor Dulmacher is in charge of the place and is behind the human experiments and organ harvesting. She demands to speak with him but the manager threatens to take out her eyes as a present for the Doctor. She fights back and scoops out her own eye to prove that they can’t get anything out of her or the rest of the kidnapped prisoners.

With Fish gone, Penguin has been having trouble running her club which he renamed as Oswald’s. He has failed to provide good entertainment and now his liquor supply has run out. The city’s booze is supplied by Don Maroni and he has cut off Oswald’s club. For sentimental reasons, Butch help out Penguin by securing some booze for him with the help of some dirty cops. Penguin finds an unexpected ally in Fish Mooney’s former right hand man. The latest Batman spin-off series continues next week on “Gotham.”

For questions/comments regarding the article, you may email the writer at: c.caparras@ibtimes.com.au