“She’s our Firefly. We don’t know who the other one is,” says Barnes (Michael Chiklis) to Gordon as they watch a video of Bridgit dressed up in her Firefly gear exiting a building with her huge flame thrower. “I do…damn it!” responds Jim (Ben McKenzie) as he realizes that Bridgit’s partner in her latest caper is Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) in season two episode six of FOX’s dark comic book-inspired crime series Gotham.
It seems even though Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) hacked off Butch’s hand the big gorilla is still loyal to him – because in season one he was programmed to be Penguin’s loyal muscle man in a Manchurian Candidate sort of way – and goes to try to infiltrate Theo’s (James Frain) organization. The chopping off of Butch’s hand is to help sell the lie of Butch (Drew Powell) going to work for Theo because Penguin is losing it. Not really believing Butch’s story, Theo asks both Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) and Barbara (Erin Richards) what they think. Tabitha is keen on the idea of having Butch join them, calling him cute, “like a sad teddy bear,” but Barbara recalls how he was once mean to her and isn’t interested in him being there. Theo decides to entertain his sister’s whims and brings Butch on board.
Bruce (David Mazouz) and Alfred (Sean Pertwee) are back down in the secret cave sparring and boxing, with Alfred training Bruce as he promised he would. It’s interesting during the training that Alfred makes a few unconventional fight moves on Bruce telling him to always be ready for the unexpected.
Gordon’s search for Selina keeps hitting dead ends and it falls to his more seasoned partner, Bullock (Donal Logue), to find out where the sly cat is hiding herself these days, discovering the truth by striking a bargain with little Ivy (Clare Foley) while interrogating her. He gives Jim the info so he can go talk to her.
The whole reason Selina and Bridgit (Michelle Veintimilla) robbed an underground sex-slavery ring was to get enough money for Bridgit to get out of Gotham, away from her fire-starting brothers and start over somewhere. It’s clear, however, the more Bridgit dresses up in the firefly outfit and uses the flame thrower to intimidate and steal, the more she enjoys it. Just as Selina and Bridgit are saying their goodbyes, Bridgit’s brother Joe and his friend speed up in a van, grab Bridgit, and pull her inside while Selina fights with one of them and wins by getting his shotgun away from him. The van speeds away with poor Bridgit inside.
Gordon finds Selina where Bullock told him he would but she’s not happy to see him, pointing the shotgun she lifted from one of Bridgit’s brothers right at Jim. Knowing Selina won’t shoot him, Jim holsters his weapon and tells her he wants to find Bridgit before the other cops do so she won’t get killed – remember in last week’s episode Bridgit killed a member of the strike force. Selina, trusting Gordon to help her friend, tells him about the brothers grabbing her and where their loft is. She pleads for him to help Bridgit, saying she’s a victim of her brothers’ violence and abuse. Jim promises Selina he’ll try.
Back at the Pike brothers loft, the two sadistic jerks are threatening to blow up Bridgit if she ever tries to leave them again. After having enough amusement at her fear, order her to go make them dinner. Bridgit comes back from the kitchen with her Firefly outfit on and the flame thrower pointed at them. One of the brothers laughs and asks, “What are you going to do, kill us?!” to which Bridgit replies coldly, “Yes.” Firefly then lets the flame thrower loose on the two men as they scream and burn to death.
While all this killing, chasing, stealing, and interrogating is going on, Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) overhears Kristen Kringle (Chelsea Spack) talking to Lee (Morena Baccarin) about her relationship with Ed, saying how sweet and gentlemanly he is but she just wished he would be a little more forceful at times. Not wanting to disappoint his true love, Ed enters and tells her in a take-charge tone of voice they are having dinner together tonight at his place to which Kringle smiles and says okay.
Up on a rooftop somewhere in Gotham City, Selina finds Bridgit and tries to reach out to her friend but realizes all too quickly Bridgit has changed since killing her brothers. She goes into the gory details about which brother burned the fastest and tells Selina that she’s finally free and is ready to go after all the creeps and bullies who hurt people like them. Realizing she won’t be able to talk Bridgit out of whatever she has in mind, Selina tells her to be careful and gives her a hug goodbye. Knowing what Bridgit is going to do and wanting to save her friend from getting killed, Selina reaches out to Gordon and tells him where Bridgit is headed.
Sure enough, Jim, Bullock, and the some of GCPD’s finest find Bridgit aka Firefly freeing all the girls from the underground sex-slave ring while setting a few of its henchmen on fire. Surrounded by the police Firefly gets ready to turn her flame thrower on the cops and set as many of them ablaze as she can when Gordon shouts, “Don’t shoot! Hold your fire,” and holsters his weapon putting his hands in the air and slowly walking toward Bridgit, telling her she doesn’t have to do this and he can help her.
Unfortunately, Firefly doesn’t know Gordon the way Selina does and doesn’t trust him. She has no intention of going quietly and begins to turn her weapon toward Jim which causes one of the officers to shoot and hit her right where the fuel for the flame thrower is on her, causing it to leak. The fire she has created doubles back being drawn to the fuel and Bridgit aka Firefly goes up in flames.
Back at Lee’s place, she’s being held at gunpoint by Selina who’s waiting for Jim to come home. When Jim arrives, Selina asks if Bridgit is okay and did he help her. It seems Selina did hear about the big fireball incident. Jim tells her he tried but it went bad and to be honest he didn’t think Bridgit wanted to be saved. Devastated, Selina refuses to forgive Gordon for not keeping his promise to help Bridgit and lets it slip that the Pike brothers were hired by Penguin to set those fires. She leaves, tears in her eyes, telling Gordon she should never have trusted a cop.
Meanwhile, Penguin finally gets some news about his mother’s whereabouts after Butch escapes from Tabitha’s imprisonment and torture – seems the only reason Theo took in Butch was so his little sister could have a new plaything. Butch tells Penguin he’s figured out where Gertrude is being kept and they have to move now…tonight.
Dinner between Ed and Miss Kringle goes so well that Kringle takes Ed back to his bedroom. Afterward, Kringle begins to tell Ed she’s worried about officer Tom, that if he ever came back to town and found out he might try to kill Ed. Ed tells her he killed him so she doesn’t have to worry. At first, she doesn’t believe Ed, but when she realizes he’s telling her the truth she becomes enraged telling him that he’s some sicko and she’s going to tell the police and make sure he gets what’s coming to him. Trying to calm her down and keep her quiet, Ed grabs her neck and shuts her mouth effectively and accidentally killing poor Miss Kringle. Realizing what he’s just done, Ed holds Kristen’s lifeless body close to him as he sobs from grief.
The last scene in the episode shows Bridgit, extremely badly burned and bandaged, being wheeled on a gurney through a strange corridor by two men in white coats talking about how her suit melded with her skin making her essentially fireproof. She looks to one of the walls that reads: “Indian Hill – A Division of Wayne Enterprises.”
Dark, action-packed, and violent, season two episode six titled “By Fire” shows the birth of a new enemy who will undoubtedly resurface down the line and edges Selina closer to the distrusting, lone Cat Woman burglar/thief she will eventually become. The series is becoming much more brutal and sinister with the deaths becoming much more gruesome, in particular in this episode Firefly setting people on fire. Not that her “brothers” didn’t have it coming but the joy and glee Bridgit took in it was very disturbing, even to Selina.
Speaking of Selina, Camren Bicondova once again delivers the stand-out performance of the episode, capturing perfectly the struggle within herself as she tries to help Bridgit. More than once different characters ask why Selina cares so much about Bridgit and each time she plays it off like she really doesn’t, when the truth is that Selina sees a part of herself in Bridgit and she desperately wants to save her in a weird way, hoping maybe she can save herself too. It’s been a few tough weeks for Selina, being chased off by Alfred when she tried to see Bruce and now losing a friend from when she was younger. The hurt and betrayal Camren displays when Ben McKenzie as Jim tells her he couldn’t save Bridgit is crushing.
With Penguin about to either save his mother or walk into a trap and Theo about to up his game in order to become Mayor of Gotham, the next few episodes should be extremely intense. Can’t wait!
GRADE: B
