Gotham Knights season 1 episode 3 recap: Under Pressure

In the newest episode of Gotham Knights, it’s a routine night in the crime-infested streets of Gotham City. The criminal gang known as The Mutants, are up to their old tricks of doing something criminal.

It’s not clear exactly what, but that part doesn’t matter. Robin (Carrie) shows up and proceeds to beat up and take down the biggest Mutant in the pack, who happens to be the leader of the entire gang.

The GCPD shows up to arrest him, just as she makes her escape.

Gotham Knights season 1, episode 3 recap – A new murder mystery

Meanwhile, back at the hideout, Turner is still pouring over his dad’s journals that he got last episode, trying to figure out everything he can about The Court of Owls. Because he can’t solve Batman’s murder that happened three weeks ago, he figures it might be easier to try solving the murder of Alan Wayne, his great-great grandfather who also might have been killed by the Court.

The 100-year-old case has no new leads, but Cullen has a plan to sneak into the police department to steal the file, so that Turner can solve the murder. Instead of that being the main storyline of the episode, a rocket is shot into a GCPD police blimp in retaliation for the Mutant Leader being imprisoned.

Carrie feels guilty about it, since she’s the one that put the leader down. Meanwhile, across town, it’s been announced that the Founders Gala will be happening where all the rich people of Gotham will be.

Stephanie has been asked to go by the guy who took the fall for her hacking into all the banks from the first episode, so she feels like she owes him. When Carrie (and Turner) investigates the source of the rocket, they discover that The Mutants have stolen enough chemicals to make a chemical bomb to set off at the Gala, killing everyone there.

Gotham Knights season 1, episode 3 recap – A classic Gotham gala heist

The Mutants show up at the Gala and take everyone hostage, demanding the release of their leader. While the Mayor is complying with the demand, the group of teenagers sneak on site to try and disarm the bomb.

The only one missing is Cullen, who is stuck in the police department because the whole force is on high alert on account of the whole hostage thing. The bomb is discovered, but it looks like the bomb is set to go off regardless if the demands of the Mutants are met.

Stephanie and Harper set about trying to figure out how to defuse the bomb, while the rest of the group goes about beating up Mutants. Turner goes to find Harvey Dent who is a guest at the Gala, tells him everything he’s learned so far, and asks Harvey to trust him.

The Mutant Leader is released, and the Mutants prepare to set off the bomb. Thankfully Stephane cuts a wire at the last second, disarming the bomb.

This saves everybody, but Harper takes it as an insult. Apparently, Stephanie defusing the bomb and saving everyone meant that she thought she was smarter than Harper, because she was richer.

Stephane is confused and so it the audience. The next day, Harvey formally announces his candidacy for Mayor.

Given that the Court kills the current Mayor at the end of the episode as well, it looks like Harvey’s not going to have too hard of a time beating his opponent. Also, Duela shows up with all the jewelry that the Mutants stole from the high society of Gotham.

As the group goes through it, they find several symbols representing The Court of Owls, as the episode comes to a close.

Gotham Knights season 1, episode 3 recap – Too many crooks…

So the series has six main characters, seven if you want to include Harvey since it looks like he’s going to keep getting storylines. However, so far, it doesn’t feel like the show has enough plot to justify the number of main characters.

In every episode there has been at least one of the teenagers who seems to have nothing to do, but has to somehow be crammed into the story because they’re a main character. In this particular episode, Duela seems to be the one that is suffering the most from this problem.

She doesn’t have any reason to invest in the storyline in this particular episode, and the show seems to bend over backwards to find a reason for her to take part in the third act of the story at all. Obviously not every episode has to feature all characters equally, and obviously there should be different motivations for each of the different characters.

But there should be a few unifying motivations for all who are involved. (In this case, that would be solving the murder of Bruce Wayne and clearing the names of the falsely accused.)

Without that, you don’t so much as have a show, but rather three different shows, all waiting for their turn to be the important one.

What did you think of Gotham Knights season 1 episode 3? Leave your answers in the comments below!

Stay tuned for a new episode April 4 on The CW.