The team of amateur crimefighters discovers the fact that the worst lots of Gotham City’s criminal underbelly act as the secondary enforcers of The Court of the Owls, and Harvey Dent slips further into trouble – this time in the shackles of his own mind – in the fifth episode of CWs “Gotham Knights.” In the previous episode, we saw Harvey find the key to the deceased Mayor Hill’s limo in his pocket, and he has no recollection of the events that happened the previous night. Turner finds out about Cressida’s betrayal, and the elite members of the Court pay him a visit inside Wayne Manor. Later, with Carrie’s help, Turner barely survives the attack of Talon, who is later revealed to be Felix Harmon, a serial killer from the early 1900s who is still somehow alive. During the analysis of the undetectable hallucinogenic poison Talons have used, Stephanie Brown and Cullen Row bond over sharing a common experience with their addict parents.
Spoilers Ahead
Cesspool Of A City
As “Gotham Knights” Episode 5 begins, we see a bunch of gangsters enter a bar to extort money from the elderly owners. When they are unable to pay the demanded amount, the gangsters trash the place and set the front desk on fire, warning the owners of even more severe consequences if they fail to pay up the next time. A piece of newspaper with Harvey’s face burns on the desk, denoting the impossibility of the task of tackling the city’s crime that the soon-to-be mayor will face. With the Dark Knight gone, the common people remain vulnerable to the increased activity of the criminal wretches, and hopefully, the group of amateur vigilantes will step up pretty soon.
Mother-Daughter Duo
The scene moves to the Kelley household, where we see Carrie’s precious sleep cut short thanks to her mother, Dr. Kelley’s, attentiveness to Carrie’s studies. During their conversation, Carrie reminds her mother of the parent luncheon to be held at her school, Gotham Academy, the next day. Although a busy schedule will make it kind of problematic for Dr. Kelley to attend the event, and also despite the fact that Carrie is casual about it, too, she nevertheless promises to adjust her schedule accordingly to attend the event, as responsible parents should do for their child. The bond between Carrie and her mother seems like the total opposite of what the Row siblings, or Stephanie, for that matter, had with their respective parents.
A Mob Problem
Stephanie goes to the Belfry Clocktower, the hideout of the quartet—Turner, Duela, Cullen, and Harper—and shows the portion of the investigation she has kept herself busy with so far. Although Cressida has a connection with the mentally broken daughter of Felix Harmon, she wasn’t the one to fund her admission to the hospital through the years. By tracing the transaction records, she has found a shell company named “G&S Limited Holdings and Acquisitions,” which the team speculates is a front for The Court of Owls’ financial dealings. Turner and Co. decide to check out the company’s address to find out more clues, and it turns out that it’s the hideout of the former gangbangers. Harper identifies them as the members of the most powerful syndicate—the Irish crime family McKillens. She also reveals that she used to date Dylan, the son of the leader of the crime family; hence, she has an idea about their operating pattern and strongholds.
At the Belfry, Harper remarks that back when she was close enough with Dylan to know about the operations of the crime family, some of the illegal money laundering the McKillens undertook were extremely secretive, and she connects that with the recent discovery to deduce that the McKillens are in fact working as the secondary enforcers for the Court. And in exchange, they are getting protection from the Court to let them remain untouchable to the authorities (which doesn’t matter given how corrupt Gotham PD is anyway). This means if they can expose the financial exchanges between the McKillens and the Court, they’ll be able to prove their innocence and get both the Court of Owls and the crime family convicted. However, there’s no chance of sensitive information like that being recorded digitally, and fortunately for the team, Harper has an idea of where the physical hardcopies of the records might be. Turner proposes the insane idea of robbing the mob, and despite the initial reservations of the team members, they later agree.
Following Harper’s lead, the team of five breaks into the particular hideout of the McKillens, where the financial ledger records are kept, by hacking through the frequency-oriented security system. They manage to get their hands on the ledgers and also find the extortion money stacked in the millions. However, Dylan appears and holds the team at gunpoint, getting surprised after seeing Harper. During their conversation, Dylan mentions that Harper took down a score on behalf of the crime family, something that shocks her brother Cullen.
Dylan informs the rest of the present gang members about the presence of the team but gets knocked out by Turner, who uses his distraction as an opportunity to strike. The hideout door, still closed as the team used Dylan’s operator to shut it from the inside, started getting bashed in by the gang members crowding outside. Duela manages to hold them off momentarily by threatening them with Dylan’s life, but soon the police (on the McKillen payroll) arrive to make matters much worse for the team. The gang distracts the hooligans by pretending to burn their money, then flees in a van, taking the extortion money and the ledger with them. The police chase them for quite a while, but when Carrie, Turner, and Cullen decide to scatter the cash throughout the streets of Gotham (much to Duela’s dismay), a ruckus ensues, and the cops stop in their pursuit.
Stephanie’s Misery
At the Gotham Academy luncheon, Stephanie tries to make an effort to bond with her mother and presents her best speech to make her proud, but her mother’s addiction almost continues to embarrass her in public. Mrs. Kelly has managed to attend the luncheon, searches for Carrie, and asks Stephanie about her daughter’s whereabouts. Stephanie warns Carrie (who’s on a mission at the moment) by texting, and later, when Mrs. Kelly gets informed about Carrie’s continual school bunking, she calls her to give her a piece of her mind. Seeing her own mother in a dismal situation due to her addiction problem, Stephanie takes her home.
In the Belfry, the team finds the ledger to be coded in ciphers, and Turner decides to hand it over to Stephanie, as he is confident in her deductive abilities. The team’s achievements get lauded by the public, and the media refers to them as ‘Gotham Knights,’ unaware of the fact that they are the framed fugitives whom the authorities are still trying to hunt down. Previously, an infuriated Cullen asked her sister why she risked her life by doing a mission for the mob and the fact that she shouldn’t be overprotective of her brother if she herself acts however she wishes to. Harper begrudgingly reveals that she did it to provide for Cullen’s top surgery and to escape from the bigoted, abusive father. After returning to the Belfry, Cullen apologizes to his sister and makes amends. Carrie reaches her home just in time without raising further suspicions about her mother. The team gets a first taste of public appreciation in “Gotham Knights” Episode 5, which will surely motivate their future actions from now on.
‘Gotham Knights’ Episode 5: Ending Explained: Is The Appearance Of Two-Face Imminent?
Harvey ponders about the key to the deceased Mayor’s car, which he found in his pocket, and Rebecca, the wife of Lincoln March, pays him a visit to ask whether Lincoln came to ask about their affair (between Harvey and Rebecca). Harvey has got too much on his plate already with the mayoral campaign and now the fear of being incriminated for the Mayor’s murder, so he selfishly asks Rebecca to leave. Later, he visits the chambers of his old acquaintance, criminal psychologist Dr. Chase Meridian, to consult with her about his slipping mental condition, and gradually their conversation veers to Harvey’s father, who suffers from identity dysmorphia. Harvey ends up explaining everything about the situation and how he cannot remember anything from that particular night. Chase assures Harvey that there is no chance of the condition being hereditary, and perhaps his overworked mind created a mental blockage. Harvey leaves and goes to the wilderness to throw the key into a lake. He receives a call from an unknown number, and as he listens to the other side, Mozart’s Fantasia starts playing.
Later, Harvey discovers himself in the bed of Rebecca March. It is indicated that they have slept together, but Harvey has no recollection of anything since he heard the music in the phone call. Rebecca informs him that it was Harvey who called her multiple times to meet, and a confused Harvey checks his phone, which confirms her statement.
Harvey’s gradual descent into a troubled mental state seems less hereditary than it seems triggered by the Court of Owls. After killing off the Mayor, the Court has found its perfect pawn in Harvey, and in this iteration of Gotham, it seems the infamous villainous personality of Harvey, the Two-Face, will emerge due to the Court’s actions. With Harvey gone, the last straw of an authoritative figure standing against the Court will also vanish, and the young vigilantes will soon end up in deep waters.
