The eponymous team of young vigilantes gets their reality check in the ninth episode of The CW’s Gotham Knights, as the city gives them a brief glimpse of the ugliness residing in its recesses in the form of the Court of Owls’s heinous tactics. In the previous episode, Turner and Duela went to a private meeting arranged by the Court in disguise and came to know that the Court was looking to use Alan Wayne’s old map of Gotham to obtain a rare mineral called Electrum, which apparently provides the user with immortality, as the Court seeks to use it to reign over Gotham for centuries to come. Just as the duo managed to steal the map from the Court’s inventory, they saw the former Wayne family attaché and member of the Court, Cressida (responsible for Bruce’s death), who had been summoned to be executed by Talon in front of the Court due to her apparent betrayal.
Turner decided to save Cressida by beheading the Talon, and as he fled with her, he got to know that his adoptive father, Bruce, had altered his last will to donate his entire wealth to the city in order to break the Court’s grasp, which was a result of their exploitation of poverty. However, the Court caught up to the duo; Lincoln March was revealed to be the leader of the Court, and after killing Cressida, he captured Turner. As the rest of the team members try to rescue Turner in Gotham Knights Episode 9, DA Harvey Dent keeps drifting into his dark subconscious.
Spoilers Ahead
Where Did Harvey End Up This Time?
In the ending sequence of the previous episode, Harvey wakes up in a dilapidated room in the wilderness with no recollection of the events that had happened and finds himself wearing a bloodied mask of the Court. Gotham Knights Episode 9 begins with a live telecast from Robinson Park in Gotham City, where the remains of Cressida Clarke have been found. The media is already on its way to connect the death of Bruce Wayne with his attaché, and Harvey anxiously looks at the mask in his office, having a disturbing premonition about himself being involved.
Speaking with his assistant Aja, Harvey gets to know that the GCPD suspects the fugitive Turner Hayes to be the culprit, and the sword being used as a murder weapon along with Turner’s DNA sample under Cressida’s fingernails is causing GCPD to double down on that suspicion. Harvey leaves Aja confused when he affirms his faith in Turner not being the murderer and goes back to his office; he secretly prepares to test the DNA sample of the blood stains on the mask. Both Harvey and Turner are getting mired into the quicksand of conspiracy laid by the Court, and it’ll be interesting to see how they tackle the public perception even if they manage to bring the Court to justice.
What Did The Rest Of the Gotham Knights Plan To Save Turner?
Members of the Gotham Knights get into a row while discussing their possible course of action. Duela and Stephanie chide the rest of the members for not rescuing Turner immediately, while Carrie and the Row siblings are of the opinion that doing so would have ensured their deaths and, in turn, no chance of rescuing Turner ever again. While pondering a way to solve this near-impossible challenge, Stephanie hits upon a plan to find the Electrum using Alan Wayne’s map and strikes a deal with Court to give it to them in exchange for Turner’s life. Carrie is concerned about the disastrous consequences of the Court becoming basically a conduit for immortality, but Duela is adamant about saving Turner’s life by any means necessary.
Considering the initials of Alan Wayne in the map to be the spot as the possible location of Electrum, Harper, and Stephanie go to the spot but find the Court already searching through the place using a geological study operation as a front. They manage to snag a walkie-talkie from the construction workers, but even after using it to eavesdrop on the Court and the workers’ conversation continuously, they are unable to find a clue. Cullen speculates that they might be looking for the spot wrongly and turns the map to show particular dots made on the entire map. Connecting the dots, they find a rough draft of a skyline that matches one of Alan Wayne’s century-old cityscapes of Gotham. Now once again assuming the initial to be the marked spot, the team enters the subway system of Gotham and manages to find the Electrum at last. Carrie gives the group a reminder about her concern about the danger of it falling into the wrong hands, which Cullen makes sure not to let remain a matter of concern by creating an exact fake replica of the mineral.
What Does Lincoln March Do To Turner?
A captive, Turner is brought to Wayne Manor by Lincoln March and the members of the Court. Lincoln injects Turner with a strange hallucinogen by stabbing him with a blade of the Talon, which causes him to see visions of his dead birth parents. After an emotional reconciliation with them, Turner’s vision gets frightening as they repeat the question about why Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, despite being the world’s greatest detective, did not investigate their deaths and why Turner didn’t either. Lincoln manages to insert this suggestion that Batman was responsible for Turner’s birth parents’ deaths, and out of guilt, he adopted Turner as his son. Lincoln goads Turner for his past action of killing the Talon and tries to provoke his darker side. It is revealed that Lincoln wants Turner to become the next Talon, serving the Court for generations.
Turner was afflicted by a sense of self-doubt from the beginning, struggling with insecurity regarding why he was chosen by Bruce among the hundreds of hapless orphans in Gotham. Lincoln used the same insecurity to break him, and only time will tell how it will affect his feelings about his adoptive father or whether he gets to know the truth that Carrie is hiding from everyone else.
Did The Group Manage To Save Turner?
Triangulating the signal of communication between the construction crew and the Court, the group manages to deduce their current location in Wayne Manor. As Lincoln conveys his proposal to Turner about joining the Court, Duela and Cullen break in and threaten to blow the members to pieces if the Court doesn’t honor their deal of handing Turner over to them in exchange for the Electrum. Duela is wearing a literal ‘bomber’ jacket laced with grenades, which will remind viewers of the introduction scene of the Joker in “The Dark Knight” movie. Lincoln agrees to the deal, and to verify their bluff, he slits Turner’s throat right in front of them. He remarks that the real mineral will heal Turner in no time, while the one they have given him, if it’s fake, will produce no such effect. Carrie steps into the scene, as she is carrying the real Electrum, and uses it to heal Turner’s injuries. In the end, they have to hand the Electrum over to Lincoln and take Turner back to their hideout at the Belfry Clocktower.
At the clocktower, Carrie is a bit distraught, considering that she had to hand over the Electrum to the Court to save Turner’s life. Cullen arrives and reassures her, stating that her actions have solidified her as a true protégé of the Dark Knight and also the fact that whatever the Court plans next, they’ll stand in their way as a team. Stephanie tries to comfort a visibly shaken Turner; she realizes that Turner is keeping something from her but decides to give him some space anyway. Later, as Turner goes to thank Duela for risking her life for his sake, he suddenly starts vomiting and convulsing. It seems that the Electrum side effect is starting to get a hold of him, and in the next episode, the team has to look for ways to once again rescue Turner from this strange conundrum.
Has The Two-Face Corrupted Harvey’s Mind?
Meanwhile, Harvey gets to know from forensics that the DNA sample belonged to Cressida and realizes that he is being gradually cornered by the eventual possibility of two murder charges being pinned on him (Mayor Hill’s being the first). Harvey decides to record a video confession, where he states his split personality disorder in a detailed manner. However, he also notices two new recordings in the storage, and as he plays the first, a more carefree, eccentric version of him initiates a conversation, addressing him on the other side. Gotham Knights Episode 9 ends with the ‘other’ Harvey stating that the main Harvey is not a killer.
The eventual mental degradation of Harvey Dent was an anticipated event, and hints of it were scattered throughout the series. With a chance of Harvey being convicted for crimes he didn’t commit, it will be interesting to see in the upcoming episodes whether the latent Two-Face persona in his psyche emerges as the dominant one as a defense mechanism.
