The fourth episode of Gotham Knights takes a deep dive into the long and bizarre history of The Court of Owls, and it turns out their influence is closer than people think.
Trigger Warning: This episode depicts suicidal behavior.
A Cry For Help
The episode begins in a park as a frantic man with strange wounds runs through, yelling, crying, and calling for help. He claims something or someone is after him while screaming, “They’re coming for all of us!” right before running into a police officer who tries to calm him down, but it doesn’t work. The man breaks down, grabs the officer’s gun, and shoots it in the air before pulling it on himself and ending his life.
At the school library, Turner, Duela, and the twins have bunkered down to use the school resources to help them with Alan Wayne’s case file when Harper discovers something interesting. She finds photos of Alan Wayne’s stab wounds. At the time, police believed the marks were not related and that it was his dementia that killed him. However, when the knife Cullen had stolen from the Talon falls and hits the ground, they notice the mark left behind from its tip, which matches the crosslink marks from the photos.
A Two-Faced Politician
Meanwhile, during Mayor Hill’s funeral, Lincoln March announces his candidacy for Gotham Mayor, giving Harvey a run for his money. March even goes as far as to call the DA a two-faced politician, a possible foreshadowing.
At the police station, Harvey discovers a strange key in his blazer, but even stranger, it is not his key.
Back at the Belfry—Carrie suggests breaking into all the GCPD case files. Cullen now has to go back undercover, but this time he needs to put in place a flash drive called a rubber ducky, which will give them remote access. Once completed, Stephanie can pull up all the case files matching Alan Wayne’s. They learn the man who shot himself in the park is a lawyer by the name of Pericles Jones, one of Bruce Wayne’s lawyers.
The Butcher of Gotham
Turner plans to break into the lawyer’s house to find clues about the lawyer’s death. Stephanie wants to go with him, but he tells her no. Harper, who does not want to be anywhere near Stephanie after the bomb-defusing incident, goes with him instead.
Duela finds a book on the history of Gotham City mass murders. They learn about a famous knife-thrower named Felix Harmon, who made his name in the 1900s. Felix was the best in the game; but had a dark history. When he was not performing, Felix used his knife skills to carve up innocent people and became known as the Butcher of Gotham. Why is this important? The knives he used are the same knives the Talon uses. Now Felix has been dead for over 100 years, which makes you wonder how the Talon got a hold of his knives.
Stephanie immediately jumps onto her computer and discovers that Felix has a living daughter, now named Eunice Monroe, living at the Robinson Park Nursing Home in Gotham City.
Birds of a Feather
Now inside Pericles Jones’s house, Turner and Harper discover the place trashed, someone beat them to the job, or so they thought. A male voice tells them to turn around. While holding them at gunpoint, the young man recognizes Turner and reveals that he is Jones’s son. The lawyer’s son tells them his dad trashed the house after going insane. He and Turner believe The Court of Owls is responsible. The lawyer’s son is familiar with the court and shows Turner and Harper all the scribblings on the walls, “The Owls are in the house.” Turner asks why the court would want to kill his dad, and the young man explains that Bruce Wayne met with Jones to change his will. The police believe Bruce died before he could change it, but in fact, Bruce did complete his will, and Jones tried explaining to the police and even reached out to Detective Ford. Bruce was not cutting Turner out, but Bruce did something that could change everything, and that is why The Court of Owls went after him.
Meet Eunice
At the Robinson Park Nursing Home, Carrie, with Duela and her convincing schoolgirl getup, goes undercover to speak with Eunice Monroe about her dad. Eunice is a seemingly sweet older woman, a bit childlike and very much on the eccentric side. Carrie creates a narrative that they are doing a project on old Gotham, but Duela skips the small talk and asks Eunice about her murderous father. Eunice is thrilled to talk about her father but begins speaking like he is still alive, which is impossible, and comes across as crazy rantings. The conversation turns when Eunice goes into excruciating detail about his murders. The older woman gets angry and threatens the girls with The Court of Owls.
Lincoln March approaches Harvey to talk. Though, it’s not the election he wants to talk about. The Court of Owls marked Lincoln with a coin, just like Bruce Wayne and Mayor Hill right before they died, and March is seeking Harvey’s help since he knows more about it than he does.
Left alone at the Belfry, Cullen and Stephanie play around with the idea that the Talon’s knives have a toxin used to drive his victims crazy, much like a hallucinogen. Cullen uses his experience with this alcoholic father as an example, and Stephanie hints that she also has gone through a similar experience.
The Betrayal
Stephanie and Cullen research what type of drug the Talon could have used on his victims. Stephanie reveals her mom is an addict. The shared experience brings the unlikely friends closer. Carrie and Duela soon return with the sign-in book that Carrie stole from the nursing home. When Duela rehashes what Eunice said about her father, Harper suggests someone in the court was staying in contact with her, and as soon as she does, Carrie notices that Eunice had a visitor—Cressida.
Back at the precinct, Harvey attempts to check out the Athenian coin found at Bruce Wayne’s crime scene in an attempt to help Lincoln. However, Harvey already had it, which was news to him.
At Wayne Manor, Turner unknowingly enters the lion’s den when he surprises Cressida. The reunion is long overdue but is over as quickly as it happened. Turner, not knowing Cressida destroyed the will or her ties to the court, asks for help, but in turn, Cressida pulls a gun on him right after he gets the call from Stephanie.
Turner manages to get the gun away from Cressida, learning she has ties to the court. She helped the court by slipping a toxin into Bruce’s food. The reason? Gotham City belonged to The Court of Owls, Batman was a threat, and Turner was collateral damage.
Suddenly, the court shows up, donning their white owl masks. They give Turner an offer; he tells them where the other three are, and they will spare his life. Turner refuses, and the court sends the Talon after him. Turner begins shooting him, but the bullets do not affect the assassin. The lights go out, and Robin jumps through the window just in time.
Robin sets off an explosive device, temporarily stunning the Talon. Robin and Turner escape through the Batcave with the Talon hot on their heels. Robin uses one of her explosive arrows to create an avalanche of rocks to crash down onto the Talon, allowing their escape.
The Owls Are In The House
Back at the Belfy, Turner opens up to Stephanie about Cressida’s betrayal, and Cullen confronts Harper about her prejudice towards Stephanie, which Harper admits is jealousy. Cullen tells her to give Stephanie a chance because they are more alike than she thinks.
Harvey meets up with Detective Soto to discuss the forensic findings of the mayor’s limo, but the only DNA they found was the mayor’s. Harvey asks how the bomb got into the vehicle, in which Soto tells him a key to the limo is missing. Harvey, on a hunch, attempts to unlock the limo with the key he found earlier, and it works.
Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, the court collected the mangled body of the Talon. The court patently surrounds the lifeless body while the Talon reanimates himself.
New episodes of Gotham Knights air every Tuesday on The CW at 9 p.m. ET. Find all of Nerds and Beyond’s coverage of the show here, and be sure to check out Your Bat Is Dead, a Gotham Knights podcast by Nerds and Beyond!
