BWW Recap: GOTHAM Gets a Fatal Fight Club

Master Bruce Wayne gets some pointers on defending himself from his trusty butler. Plus, who knew Gotham had its own fight club. Of course, it makes other fight clubs look tame, but with Gordon and Bullock on the case, things turn out ok. Yep, we're eight episodes into GOTHAM and things are heating up in the crime wars and behind the scenes machinations of the various villainous elements.

In a dimly lit office, two masked young men slaughter each other with staplers and other found objects while they are being monitored via video. The next mornig, Bullock and Gordon investigate a dumped body, presumably the loser of the office fight club. Ed Nygma, looking over the body, finds part of a thumb in the dead guy's mouth - and all before breakfast!

Oswald Cobblepot takes to the streets to rob a nice lady of an expensive brooch so he can offer a tribute to Fish Mooney. He meets Fish and they talk terms of the tentative agreement between the Falcone Maroni crime families. Maroni keeps drugs and unions, both families share Arkham, and Falcone keeps his substantial interests. She takes the jewelry Oswald tries to give her and jabs the brooch pin into his hand. (Clearly, she is still miffed he survived the planned hit on his life.) He takes the present he intended for Fish to his batty momma and she discovers his fresh wound.

Alfred urges Master Bruce to return to school for the first time after the Wayne murders. Bruce is reluctant, preferring to remain at home educating himself. Alfred tells him he needs to be around people his own age and won't take no for an answer.

The dead guy's name is Coleman Lawson and Jim questions his mother his background. Coleman worked in a coffee shop but he was trying for a job in finance. Bullock gives Captain Essen a progress report. A shady doctor tips them off about an investment firm that may be involved in a mass of injured professionals. Nygma does a forensics exam in the GCPD morgue while he also practices his bad riddles. The real coroner arrives and kicks Ed out, but not before Nygma discovers some information for the detectives.

Jim returns home late and Barbara almost shoots him, being scared after her abduction by the sadistic Victor Zsasz. She has Jim lie that there aren't any "monsters." A quick scene change flashes to the office fight arena, where a ritualistically masked figure tells someone it's up to them how they get out.

At the upscale day-school, a couple of douchebag rich boys, lead by Tommy Elliot, question Bruce inappropriately about his parents death. Clearly there is going to be trouble for Bruce from this silver-spooned turd. Tommy provokes Bruce into such a sudden rage, the boy orphan smacks the older twit across the face. When Alfred picks him up, Bruce is visibly shaken and hurt. Tommy, larger and older, retaliated and gave Bruce quite a beat down.

Liza meets Fish in a confessional to update the crime-boss wannabe about her progress with Falcone and gives her a new mission to get information. To help her, Fish gives her a vial of knock-out serum. Liza is clearly worried she will get caught.

Jim and Harvey arrive at the busy stockbroker's firm run by Richard Sionis, who has a thing for knives and elaborate masks. Sionis only admits to kill people figuratively, even though some of his employees have scars and wounds. Jim finds a trail of blood leading in to the bathroom where two wounded employees are tending to their injuries. One of the bleeding employees happens to be missing a thumb. Apparently the top three candidates for a job had to literally fight to be hired. At the police station, Sionis sends his lawyer to gag the suspects.

Back at Falcone's house, Liza slips some knockout juice into Falcone's tea in order to get him asleep so she can steal information for Fish.

The detectives discover Sionis owns half of Gotham and Jim sets out to find one of the properties. At a Sionis owned building, Gordon gets tazed by the creepy stockbroker. It's pretty clear James is in hot water and better practice his hand to copy paper combat skills.

After a firm "talking to," Alfred brings Bruce to the brownstone apartment of Tommy. The butler gives Bruce his late father's expensive and impressive wristwatch. Bruce knocks on Tommy's door and gets off a few good punches, taking down the bully pretty quickly. (The heavy watch and Alfred's coaching were helpful too.)

Bullock is at the GCPD station, trying to run down clues and discovers the other cops are not willing to help Gordon. He tries to shame them with a rousing speech until shames Captain Essen and a few others follow suit. They begin checking addresses of Sionis properties. At the same time, Gordon is thrust into the sadistic fight club and the real contestants are instructed to kill Gordon for a million dollar signing bonus. Elsewhere, the Sionis employees watch the brutal battle on closed circuit TV. The office brawl begins and Jim dispatches the wannabe fighting stockbrokers. Even though the boss jumps in, Sionis is bested by Gordon. Just in time, Captain Essen shows up with reinforcements.

At Mooney's club, an elderly chanteuse sings a bluesy, jazz tune. Liza arrives to beg to get out of her deal with Mooney, spying on Falcone. Mooney tells Liza that one of Falcone's men killed her mother years ago and she vowed to never be powerless. Liza give Mooney the stolen intelligence, and Fish promises to protect her. After Liza leaves the club, we see that Fish's momma is the saloon singer.

Oswald tortures and questions Fish's new sidekick Timothy to find out that Mooney has someone close to Don Falcone - useful information for Cobblepot's plan to rise among the crime lords of Gotham.

Bullock and Gordon share a bonding moment in the police station, showing they share the common ground of cleaning up Gotham. Harvey urges Jim to head home. Jim tries to call Barbara, but as the voice-mail picks up, we see Barbara drop off a note by the phone and she closes the door, leaving the apartment.

Before leaving the police station, another detective tells James he has a visitor and he sees its Selena, picked up after getting caught stealing furs.

And back at Wayne Manor, Bruce tells Alfred he enjoyed hurting Tommy and that he is angry all the time. Bruce asks his butler, "Alfred, can you teach me how to fight?"

"Yes, Master, Bruce," replies the British butler. "Yes, I can."

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and follow me on twitter @jeffwalker66.

See you next week: Same Gotham time, same BWW-TV World location!

Here's a brief rundown for GOTHAM episode 9, "Harvey Dent": Harvey Dent gets introduced to GOTHAM and James Gordon meets the future district attorney (and villainous Two-Face) for the first time. Bruce Wayne begins his rigorous training with Alfred, while the orphaned boy continues to bond with the catty Miss Kyle.

PHOTO CREDIT: Fox

Before you go, check out a preview for next week's episode:

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