'Gotham' Season 4, Episode 14 'Pieces of a Broken Mirror' Recap: More Danger in the Narrows [SPOILERS]

After two months of hiatus, “Gotham” is finally back with episode 14, “Pieces of a Broken Mirror.” The episode sets up some key storylines that will push the entire season forward with new twists and crazy turns.
Tonight we see Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) in action as Gotham’s new Police Captain. He’s back in the Narrows and is in for a somewhat pleasant surprise as he follows the motives of assassin Griffin Crank (Thomas Lyons) AKA the Toy Maker. Alfred (Sean Pertwee), after Bruce fired him in the fall episode, is now trying to live his life alone in the Narrows too. Along the way, he encounters fits of anger as he tries to make things right for one of his only friends in Gotham’s slums. Meanwhile, Selena Kyle (Camren Bicondova), Barbara Keen (Erin Richards), and Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas)—AKA the Sirens—are back. After taking over Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor)’s club, a not-so-new face arrives, vowing to make Gotham her bitch.

Another day in the Narrows

“Pieces of a Broken Mirror” opens with Jim looking for his ex-partner Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) in a brothel. He tells the owner to give him a call if Harvey comes back. As soon as Jim leaves, a group of young hoodlums breaks into Ivy’s former lab. They see her lying inside a poison-ivy infested cocoon before she slowly reveals herself in a new body (played by Peyton List). One of the hoodlums try to talk to her, but Ivy infects him with her poison, leaving the boy dead.
Meanwhile, Alfred sits in a Diner, finishing up his breakfast. Due to Alfred’s strange get-up (unnatural in the Narrows), a group of thugs takes an interest in him. Tiffany Gale (Caissie Levy), warns them to stay away from him since he isn’t doing anything wrong. Alfred cleans up and gets up to leave. The thugs, however, follow him. Alfred passes by a building where we see Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin), now the leader of the Narrow’s underground folk, giving the criminals a rousing pep talk to change their ways. While she’s at it, a man (Toy Maker) assembles a toy airplane that’s actually a bomb—in an attempt to assassinate Lee (AKA The Doc).
Back outside, the thugs approach Alfred and demand his watch and wallet. However, Alfred engages in a brawl with them, where the lead thugs suffer a tremendous beating—until Jim breaks up the fight. As if on cue, the assassin’s toy plane takes off inside the building. Grundy (Drew Powell) swats off the toy explosive, so it goes off right outside the window. Despite Lee being safe from the blast, the bomb was strong enough to shake the entire building. Jim and Alfred rush inside to help the people inside to safety. As the people flee for cover, the new Ivy emerges, smirking.

Jim tracks down the Toy Maker

Cops gather outside the building to assess the situation. Lucious Fox (Chris Chalk), the GCPD’s resident Forensic Scientist, arrives at the scene to help the investigation. As they sift through the remains inside the building, Lucius discovers the toy plane that the Toy Maker used. They trace the toy back to a shop in the Narrows. Meanwhile, Lee, Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), and Grundy headed back to their headquarters to figure out who Lee’s assassin is. Ed wears to find the man and have Grundy break his bones. Lee, on the other hand, remains unfazed and thinks that the killer might not like the changes that Lee wants to do since taking over the Narrows from Cherry. As Ed blabbers on about his plan, Grundy has a moment of clarity and remembers his other life as Butch Gilzene.

Jim and Lucius arrive at the toy shop, greeted by its owner’s son, Cosmo Krank (Chris Perfetti). They ask Cosmo about the toy airplane, which he identifies as one of their products. He goes back inside to call his father. As Jim and Lucius look around, the Toy Maker activates a gun trap, sending the two hiding under the counter. They try to chase him but is abruptly stopped by Cosmo, saying Toy Maker is his father. They then question Cosmo about him, and he tells them that his father, Griffin, received a call to kill ‘The Doc’ of the Narrows. Curious, Jim and Lucius head out to find out who ‘The Doc’ is.
That night, Jim goes to Barbara’s club to ask about the Doc. Since Barbara knew about Lee’s rise to power during a wrestling match between Tabitha and then-Grundy, she tells Jim that the ‘Doc’ might be someone that Jim shouldn’t find out. She then tells Jim where Lee lives in the Narrows. Jim follows this lead and arrives at the wrestling pit. Meanwhile, Grundy comes to his senses and returns to Tabitha to tell her that he remembers who he was and that he still loves her.

Back in the Narrows, Ed introduces Lee to the crowd. Once she comes out, Jim gapes in surprise. After Lee’s inspirational speech to the underground folk of the Narrows, she goes to Jim as they engage in an awkward exchange of hellos. Jim then tells Ed about Krank/Toy Maker and that they should all be careful if they see him hanging around. True enough, Ed sees Krank lingering in the back of the hall, so he comes after him.

In an alley, Krank surprises Ed and asks him about the job that Ed supposedly offered. Upon looking in a mirror, it turns out that Ed’s alter ego, The Riddler, hired Krank to kill Lee so that he could be free from his double-persona within Ed. Luckily, Jim sees this commotion and shoots Krank. Jim asks Ed what Krank told him, and he gives Jim lies about Krank acting alone in his mission to kill Lee.

Alfred’s ‘killing spree.’

After the blast, Alfred returns to the Diner to grab a drink. The thugs approach him and offer their respect for his act of saving their people. Tiffany brings out a bottle of expensive scotch to celebrate Alfred’s heroism. Together with the thugs, they have a toast. As Alfred proceeds to talk to Tiffany (in an attempt to make a romantic connection), he notices a bruise on her forehead. Tiffany dismisses this as an accident.
That night, Alfred takes Tiffany out for a walk. But their mini-romantic date is cut short when Tiffany’s boyfriend shows up to pick her up. Alfred ultimately finds out that it’s her boyfriend who did the bruise on Tiffany’s forehead. Alfred then collars the man and threatens to beat him up. Alfred then loses his military ring in the street, but the boyfriend picks it up. Tiffany, tells them to stop, and she reluctantly gets in her boyfriend’s truck.
Later, as Jim leaves Barbara’s club, he gets a call about a murder in the Narrows, where the suspect is Alfred. When Jim arrives, we see Tiffany’s dead body, with Alfred’s ring marked on her forehead. It’s clear that it was her boyfriend’s doing, but he made an alibi and blamed Alfred for her death. Jim questions Alfred, but he convinces Jim that it wasn’t his fault. Luckily, a bystander who saw Alfred and Tiffany’s boyfriend’s earlier altercation came forward to tell the cops what really happened.
Alfred leaves the scene and tracks down Tiffany’s boyfriend. He then finds him in a bar, and Alfred beats the daylights out of him. Two of the boyfriend’s friends try to come to his rescue, but Harvey helps Alfred by beating the thugs with a baseball bat. Finally, the boyfriend confesses to killing Tiffany, and Harvey calls it in.

Ivy Reborn

The new Ivy walks around the Narrows and sees a couple leaving their house for a vacation. As soon as they’re gone, Ivy breaks into their home and wears the woman’s clothes. She then looks for food to eat and sits in front of the television. Ivy then comes across a commercial promoting the Sirens’ new club. Since Ivy knew them before her new body, she decides to visit them. Meanwhile, Lucius returns to his lab as his partner tells him about what he discovered inside the dead hoodlum’s body. This discovery fascinates Lucius as he sees poison Ivies grow from inside the body.

That night, Ivy arrives in the Club and looks around for the Sirens. Meanwhile, Barbara has Selina break up the mess that drunk Bruce (David Mazouz) and his friends are doing. Selina comes up to Bruce and learns that he fired Alfred so he could move on with his life. Another fight breaks out between to men who are fighting over Ivy. Tabitha breaks it up and asks Ivy to leave. Ivy then tells Tabitha that she was always rude to her, puzzling Tabitha. Ivy then walks around as she says goodbye to Barbara and finally to Selina—who figures that it’s Ivy immediately. Selina follows Ivy to her new home. She crept in but wasn’t silent enough. Ivy startles her and infects her with her—giving her the antidote right away. She asks Selina to join her so they could take over Gotham together.

Holding grudges

The episode ends with Harvey and Alfred asking about each other’s day. It’s weird for Harvey to see Alfred in the Narrows, to which Alfred also feels the same. They then toast to Tiffany’s death, whom Alfred admired so deeply. Jim arrives places Harvey’s badge on the table and asks him to come back. However, Harvey has enough of the goodness of Jim’s heart and how he’s cementing himself deep within a compromise. He hands Jim the badge back and tells him to leave.

‘Gotham: Pieces of a Broken Mirror’ Overall Verdict

Tonight’s season 4b premiere left me excited for what’s to come. It’s been a long wait before “Gotham” finally returned, and the stage is ready for a more complicated predicament for Gotham’s heroes and villains. Lee and Jim finally meeting is also something to look forward. Will this be the beginning of an unlikely partnership, or will the former pair’s differing good intentions clash with each other? There’s also a question of when The Riddler finally return. Now that Penguin is in Arkham, Ed might prove to be Gotham’s new king, provided that The Riddler persona triumphs over Nygma’s conflicted personality. The episode isn’t that action-packed, but it successfully sets up the greater challenges and complications that “Gotham” must have before the final reveal—is Jerome the Joker?
“Gotham” continues next Thursday, March 8th, with “A Beautiful Darkness” at 8/9c on FOX.