‘Gotham’ Season 5, Episode 8 ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ Recap: A Haunted Past

This week’s episode sure does dig in deep into the past and puts Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) in the spotlight. Gotham City appears to be in an eerie period of peace as Jeremiah Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) is presumed dead. The horrors are over—but the internal struggle seems to build up within the frontlines of the GCPD.

In this week’s episode of Gotham, titled “Nothing’s Shocking,” Bullock’s dark past is explored when someone close to him mysteriously commits murder at the Sirens. Meanwhile, Bruce (David Mazouz) and Alfred (Sean Pertwee) investigate disappearances at the city’s sewers, and Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and Nygma’s (Cory Michael Smith) plans to escape are disrupted by the arrival of a familiar face.

Is Bullock to be Trusted?

“Nothing’s Shocking” opens with former GCPD detectives Boggs (Jimmy Palumbo) and Lewis (Jerry Walsh) entering the Sirens for a good time. Barbara (Erin Richards) refuses to serve them but is forced to keep the two around when they offer mediocre intel. But just as the two settle down, another former GCPD detective Dix (Dan Hedaya) and Harvey’s former partner appears out of nowhere and tells the two to keep a lid on what they did in the past. Dix then stabs them and leaves.

Barbara calls Jim and Harvey to investigate, shocking Harvey when he sees that it’s Boggs and Lewis. Based on Barbara’s statement, people saw Dix kill the two, which is another shock to Harvey since Dix is in a wheelchair and has been incapacitated after leaving the force. Jim and Harvey set out to interrogate Dix, who greets them with a shotgun blast through his door. True enough, they find him in a wheelchair and with an alibi that seems shabby but believable enough for them to not suspect that it’s Dix. Still, Harvey refuses to believe that it was Dix.

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A knock on the door alerts them, and it’s revealed to be another Dix, who’s ready to kill them. Harvey brawls with the man and his face suddenly come off—it’s someone pretending to be Dix. They head back to the GCPD where Jim backchecks the case where Dix, Harvey, Boggs, and Lewis worked on. Harvey is shaken and a bit troubled at what Jim might find and refuses to share the specifics of the case. With every question that Jim asks, Harvey deflects with an iffy answer. It involves a woman named Victoria Cartwright who allegedly killed her husband and was convicted on the statement of her seven-year-old daughter, Jane. Jim benches Harvey and has Detective Harper (Kelsey Griffin) come with to interrogate Jane.

Harvey catches up with Dix, and they remember the case they built against Jane’s mother. Harvey is growing worried over time, thinking that he might be incriminated. Meanwhile, Jim, Harper, and a police officer arrive at Jane’s house. It’s abandoned but shows signs of life. As they split up to sweep the area, a figure in a mask incapacitates the police officer. Upon touching him, the figure shapeshifts into the police officer. They head out, but Jim sees the officer’s body. A struggle happens, and the shapeshifter is revealed to be a Jane Doe (Sarah Pidgeon). During the interrogation, Jane tells Gordon that she was experimented on by Hugo Strange and the reason she killed the cops. If Gordon wanted to know why they died, he should ask Harvey. Jim leaves, and Jane shapeshifts her hands so she can break off her cuffs and escape.

Later, Harvey takes Dix to the stockroom and strangles him in an effort to hide his involvement in Jane’s case. Barbara then comes in to ask Gordon to protect her from being arrested when the government finally saves Gotham. Jim and Harper later look for Harvey and Dix and finds the latter dead. Harvey frames Jane for killing Dix. Barbara then returns and tells Jim that Jane assaulted her. Another Barbara appears, saying she’s the real Barbara. When Jim asks a question that only the real Barbara can answer, Jane reveals herself as the “assaulted” Barbara. She threatens to kill Barbara before running away. The police chase after Jane.

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Harvey later catches Jane back at her house. They hold each other at gunpoint, with Harvey eventually shooting Jane. With her dead, Harvey’s guilt over what he did takes a toll.

Later, Harvey confesses to Jim about what really happened in the Victoria Cartwright case. When evidence about her case did not support her conviction, Harvey used Jane to rat on her mother so she’d go to prison and to earn the respect of the detectives (he was a rookie at the time). Later, Harvey found out that the husband was physically abusing Victoria and Jane. A dismayed Jim says, “You’re looking for forgiveness. I can’t give that to you.”

The Ventriloquist

As Nygma struggles to finish the submarine for their escape, he grows more and more frustrated about Penguin not helping that much. Sure, he has the money and all, but that’s all he ever did. The two argue about their roles but are cut short when an intruder comes in. Penguin turns death white when he sees Mr. Penn (Andrew Sellon) come into the room. Penguin is shocked and awed at how Penn managed to turn up alive after getting shot during the Haven standoff. But there’s one catch, though—Mr. Penn is now working for Mr. Scarface, a ventriloquist dummy.

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Penguin tries to talk some sense into him, but Penn is convinced that Scarface is telling him things. Penn says that Scarface pressured him into revealing Penguin’s plans to leave and his treasure stash. When Penguin refuses to give him more info, Scarface tells Penn to shoot Penguin. Nygma de-escalates the situation by telling Penn that he can come along their escape. Penguin distracts Penn, telling him about all the things that he did when he took him under his wing.

Finally, Penn snaps and goes on a tirade about how he was mistreated by Penguin. He aims his gun but is knocked down and struggles with Penguin. But when Penguin shoots Scarface, Penn seemingly breaks free from his trance-like delusion and thanks him. But Nygma has none of it and shoots Penn in the head. A shocked Penguin asks Nygma why he put Penn down, with Nygma saying that they can both agree that Penn had to be put down.

Bruce & Alfred vs. “Killer Croc?”

Elsewhere in the episode, Bruce and Alfred go on a crusade of hunting down whatever it is that’s killing/stealing people in the sewers of Gotham. It turns out that the Jeremiah “Joker” toxin that Jim had to release into the river infected a man who happens to be in the area too. Bruce and Alfred apprehend the man-creature hybrid just as he was about to devour a man alive. The duo take turns in beating him up until the creature finally begs them to stop. They bring the creature back to the hospital but find out that he’s beyond repair. In the end, Alfred admits to Bruce that he blames himself for the destruction of Wayne Manor. But Bruce tells him that families need to stick to each other and have to rely on each other to be strong again.

‘Gotham: Nothing’s Shocking’ Overall Verdict

For some reason, “Nothings’ Shocking” feels a bit bland at most times. The three-narrative subplots used to work well with every Gotham episode, but this one seems like it was put in for a filler. It’s massively bleak and doesn’t have the action and thrills that every season 5 episode has shown so far. It might’ve been the writers’ decision to treat this as a breather episode, but I think it would’ve worked better if they continued the established feel from the get-go. Among the strong points of the episode were Harvey’s guilt obviously holding him back from being the good cop that he wants to be. The emotional undertones of the episode made for a good-enough redemption.

Gotham continues next Thursday, May 7th, with “The Trial of Jim Gordon” at 8/7c on FOX.