Jim Gordon has to save the man who’s marrying Lee, the love of his life, in Fox’s Gotham season three episode 10. Airing on November 21, 2016 and titled ‘Time Bomb,’ the episode kicks off with Lee (Morena Baccarin) and Mario (James Carpinello) meeting with Carmine Falcone (John Doman) to go over rehearsal dinner plans. Mario tells his dad Lee’s going to take some time off from work for the honeymoon, but she’s worried about everything going on at GCPD. They discuss Captain Barnes and how the virus affected him, and that they’ve now developed a test to see if someone’s infected. As they’re leaving dinner, a valet retrieves Don Falcone’s car and it explodes in a huge fireball.
Jim (Ben McKenzie) arrives at the scene to check up on Lee, and Don Falcone pulls him aside. Carmine says it could have been anyone who planned the attack and that this was probably planned to coincide with Mario’s wedding just to hurt his family. Carmine assures Jim he’s not coming out of retirement, but he also isn’t just going to stand by after this bombing. Jim tells him that with Captain Barnes in Arkham, he doesn’t need the additional stress of worrying about Carmine’s men destroying Gotham. Jim swears he’ll get to the bottom of it, and Carmine agrees to give him one day.
Oswald (Robin Lord Taylor) is leading a meeting of the city’s most powerful families when Barbara (Erin Richards) interrupts, pulling a gun on him. In response, everyone around the table whips out theirs in return. She wants to know the whereabouts of Tabitha and Butch, but Oswald claims he has no idea where they are. Barbara says the two are an “item” now and Tabitha isn’t answering her phone. Oswald warns Barbara she might still get out of this alive if she lowers her gun and apologizes. She does, and everyone follows suit.
Oswald calls Ed (Cory Michael Smith) to let him know Barbara’s looking for Butch and Tabitha. Ed’s working through his grief and Oswald wants him to do it faster. Ed hangs up on him and returns to Tabitha and Butch who he has tied up and gagged. He takes Butch’s gag out long enough to listen to his threat if he hurts Tabitha, and to hear him say Penguin’s a coward for making Ed do this for him. Ed says it has nothing to do with Penguin and then calls Butch a coward for killing Isabella. Butch has never heard of Isabella, but Ed thinks he’s lying and shocks him.
The GCPD is in disarray and Harvey (Donal Logue) is having stomach problems since becoming the acting captain. Jim wants to know why he’s doing it, and Harvey feels he needs to keep Captain Barnes’ seat warm for him until they find a cure. Lucius (Chris Chalk) delivers his report on the car bombing and it appears it wasn’t a normal mob-type hit but something more complicated and deadly. Harvey thinks it’s the work of a nutjob named Fuse.
Harvey and Jim show up at Fuse’s place and find him dead on the floor. The killer just left and it appears Fuse was packing up to leave when he was murdered. Jim finds paperwork in Fuse’s apartment that indicates Carmine isn’t the target…Mario is.
Jim rolls up to the hospital as Mario is being attacked by knife-wielding motorcyclists. Jim saves his life, shooting at the cyclists who ride off without finishing the job. Jim tells Mario he’s the target, not his dad.
Alfred (Sean Pertwee) serves Bruce (David Mazouz) and Selina (Camren Bicondova) breakfast and Selina’s confused at the dish in front of her. Alfred describes it a few different ways until finally he just tells her it’s eggs and to eat it. (Poor Alfred, his culinary skills are wasted on the future Catwoman.) Ivy’s up in the conservatory and Selina wants to leave, but Alfred won’t let her until they figure out who’s following her and Bruce. Selina’s losing patience with being locked up, but Bruce agrees with Alfred. He’s still angry that Selina said they aren’t in a relationship, but he’s not ready to talk it out with his maybe/maybe not girlfriend. Bruce has his head buried in research, trying to figure out the importance of the key.
Alfred brings Ivy some breakfast and she schools him on the care of his houseplants. She wants the alarm turned off so she can take the plants outside, but Alfred doesn’t fall for it. She makes him take a sniff of her neck and Alfred says he’ll do anything she wants. She asks how to turn off the alarm.
Back at the station, Jim wants to know who wants Mario dead. Mario says he can’t lay low and gets angry when Jim suggests postponing the wedding for a while. Jim says he has to trust him because whoever is after Mario will keep coming until he’s dead. Mario admits that with a target on his back, Lee’s not safe.
Jim asks Harvey to keep an eye on Mario and not let him leave. The pieces aren’t fitting together and Jim wants to visit Carmine.
Barbara pays a visit to Oswald’s maid and asks for the scoop on what she’s overheard. For the price of Barbara’s ring, the maid reveals she doesn’t like Ed at all even though Oswald is interested in him as more than just a friend. Barbara’s stunned by that and asks if she’s heard Ed mention Tabitha or Butch. The maid hasn’t but shows her a bill that was sent to the house for stocks and bondage.
Back at Ed’s torture workshop, he’s still busy laughing and zapping Butch. Butch continues to say he’s never heard of Isabella. Ed turns his attention to Tabitha, and Butch tries to distract him by making fun of Isabella. Tabitha asks what he wants and Ed admits it’s an eye for an eye thing and he wants to break Butch’s heart.
Selina is using vinegar and baking soda to take tarnish off the key, and Bruce yells at her about taking care of it because it’s old and fragile. Then he blurts out, “Why did you tell Ivy we weren’t a couple?” and Selina wants to know why he said they were. She wants to just be “us,” and Bruce changes the subject back to the key. There’s an engraving of an owl on it.
Alfred’s worried having the key could break Bruce’s agreement with the Court of Owls. Bruce wants to contact them and let them know Ivy didn’t know what she was stealing, and it’s then they notice Ivy is gone. The phone rings and a man tells them he’ll exchange Ivy for the necklace.
The meeting’s set and Bruce wants to be the one who delivers the key in exchange for Ivy. Selina and Alfred also climb down into the tunnel to make the swap and see Ivy as well as the men who’ve kidnapped her. Bruce asks to speak with Kathryn but the men want the necklace. Bruce holds firm and won’t hand it over until he talks to the kidnapper’s boss. He wants to make sure his friends are safe and that guarantee needs to come from Kathryn. The kidnapper says that woman is a liar and has no honor. She betrayed the kidnapper and now his group works to destroy the Court of Owls.
Jim tells Carmine the killer is after Mario and wants to know what’s going on. Jim thinks it doesn’t feel like a mob hit and asks if Mario is mixed up in something. Carmine swears his son is decent, and Jim thinks Mario is keeping secrets. Harvey calls Jim and lets him know Mario has left the station, telling Harvey he was going to “take care of this.”
Barbara visits the store where the stocks and bonds were purchased and the sales clerk tells her Nygma’s order was already delivered. She looks around the store and asks the salesman to show her how a bondage apparatus works, and of course he falls for the trick. She locks him in and makes him tell her the combination to the safe. He gives it up and Barbara learns Ed’s location.
Ed proudly unveils a machine he designed himself. When the timer hits zero, the machine’s blade will come down. It can be stopped with the click of a button, but that button will send a fatal jolt of electricity through Butch. Tabitha’s choice: kill Butch or lose her hand.
Ivy’s kidnapper introduces himself as Luka Volk (Costa Ronin) and also introduces his brother, Jacob, and Dmitry. Dmitry is wearing a mask until he proves he’s trustworthy and becomes a full member of the Whisper Gang, Gotham’s most notorious smugglers. The Court of Owls offered them a partnership and then betrayed them. Some of their members escaped back to Ukraine, but others remained behind hoping for revenge. The key opens a safe in one of the Court of Owls’ buildings. Inside the safe is a device that can destroy the Court of Owls, but Volk doesn’t actually know what it is. The Court doesn’t want it to fall into the hands of their enemies, and Selina points out the Court will know it’s the Whisper Gang that has the key. Volk explains there are two keys: one that was lost until he found it and one that is in the hands of the Court.
Bruce tells Volk the Court of Owls killed his parents and because he thought he couldn’t defeat them, he stood down. But if there’s something in that safe that can beat them, then Bruce is back in the game.
Mario’s at the jewelry store checking on the wedding rings and Jim confronts him for using himself as bait. Mario’s worried that Lee isn’t safe and Jim tells him he’ll get killed. Jim asks why someone is after Mario but Mario claims he doesn’t know. Jim notices a motorcycle outside, tells everyone in the store to get down, and the attack begins. Jim pushes Mario out of the way of a thrown knife and shoots one attacker right away. As Jim faces off with another one, the first guy shot attacks Mario. Mario gets the better of him by stabbing him in the eye with a piece of jewelry. He screams at the man, wanting to know why they’re coming after him. As Mario strangles the man, the attacker gasps, “You know why.”
Jim handcuffs the remaining attacker as sirens are heard approaching in the background.
Returning to Ed’s torture chamber, Butch continues to try and convince Ed he hasn’t heard of Isabelle. Ed screams, “Isabella!” and then changes the deal after Butch points out he’s going to die no matter what Tabitha decides to do. Ed swears that if Tabitha sacrifices her hand, he’ll set them both free. Tabitha tells Butch she likes him but doesn’t love him, and Ed laughs. Butch knows he’s about to die and tells Tabitha the last few weeks were the best of his life. He loves her and that’s enough. Then Butch decides to confess to a murder he didn’t commit by saying Isabella talked to him right before he put a bullet in her brain. (She died in a car/train accident.) Tabitha doesn’t push the button and her hand is chopped off, meaning Butch won’t receive a fatal shock.
Tabitha passes out after looking at her bloody stump and Butch finally convinces Ed he didn’t kill Isabella. Barbara shows up, gun drawn, and sees a bloody Tabitha and Butch still chained to the chair. Ed says, “I’d put that hand on some ice,” as he walks past a stunned Barbara.
At GCPD, neither Mario nor Carmine Falcone recognize the attacker. Harvey reports the Feds are transferring the guy upstate, and Carmine figures out that’s because the Feds want him away from the Falcones.
Lee shows up at the station and Jim tells Mario he needs to let her know what’s going on.
Carmine Falcone enters the interrogation room and pulls a knife on the one remaining attacker.
Jim asks Harvey how it feels to be captain, and Harvey’s actually liking yelling at people including his partner. Harvey tells Jim it isn’t every day he gets to save the man who’s marrying the woman he loves. Jim replies, “Yeah, I’m really something.” Harvey thinks Jim should tell Lee how he really feels, but their touchy-feely talk is interrupted when Jim spots Carmine Falcone in the interrogation room going after their prisoner. Carmine removes a tooth with an owl engraving from the attacker and he now knows who’s behind all this, promising to take care of it his way. Jim tells Carmine he’s going to find out what happened and how Mario’s involved, and Carmine tells him to let it go.
Volk and Dmitry are at the dock at night and suddenly Dmitry is attacked and killed by a masked man. He asks Volk if he found the second key and then they fight. Before killing Volk, he asks again about the key but Volk doesn’t answer him.
Barbara holds a bag with Tabitha’s hand as Butch pushes Tabitha’s wheelchair through the hospital halls. Butch is declaring war on Penguin and Ed while Barbara’s trying to figure out what the motive was for killing Isabella the librarian. Barbara figures out that if you cut someone’s brake lines, you know them, and then laughs because she knows who did it. The same person who’s in love with Ed and doesn’t want to share him killed Ed’s girlfriend. She tells Butch if she’s right, they can have it all – way more than just vengeance. She wants to start a war.
Carmine meets with Kathryn, believing the attack must have been a mistake. He does what the Court of Owls tells him to do and she admits they’re trying to kill his son but the reason is a secret. He warns her if Mario is harmed, he’ll come after her with everything he has. Gotham will burn. Kathryn thinks only the Court of Owls can save the city and if he responds when they call for his help, then Mario will be safe.
Lee stops by Jim’s apartment on her way to the rehearsal dinner. Mario told her everything and she insists her future husband is a good man. She’s visiting Jim because she wants to give him the opportunity to say whatever is on his mind. Jim spills his guts, confessing his feelings, but telling her he wants her to be happy. She kisses him gently on the lips and says, “Bye, James Gordon.”
Mario secretly watches her exit Jim’s place and get into a cab. Two men approach Mario from behind, asking if he’s lost. It’s obvious now that Mario has Alice’s blood in him as he hears voices inside his head telling him Lee loves Jim. He strangles one of the men and breaks the arm of the other while yelling, “She loves me!”
