A Bitter Pill to Swallow

Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) arrives at a bar where she enters an underground illegal casino run by a woman known as The Lady (Michelle Gomez). Tabitha offers money in exchange for killing Gordon (Benjamin McKenzie) after the arrest of Galavan (James Frain). Gordon is notified in the hospital that Barbara (Erin Richards) will survive and be transferred to Arkham Asylum. Elsewhere, Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) wakes up in Nygma's (Cory Michael Smith) apartment. When he begins to panic, Nygma sedates him to sleep again.

Bruce (David Mazouz) tries to get the information about his parents' killer from Silver (Natalie Alyn Lind), but is stopped by Alfred (Sean Pertwee), who asks Silver to leave. Silver gives Bruce her hotel key. Lee and Gordon's relationship gets tense after Lee watched Gordon kiss Barbara during the interrogation. While in the elevator to Galavan's penthouse, Gordon is attacked by a hitman, Billy Boy (Jon Sklaroff), but he manages to defeat him. Finding out he failed, The Lady sends more hitmen to kill Gordon.

When Billy Boy regains consciousness, Gordon asks him who sent him. When Billy doesn't reveal anything, Gordon nearly throws him from the penthouse until he is stopped by Barnes (Michael Chiklis). While Barnes chastises Gordon, hitmen arrive at the penthouse. The unarmed forensics officer, standing guard at the door, is killed by a hitman entering from the stairs. The hitmen enter the penthouse and a gun battle begins. The officers appear to kill all of the hitmen, but in the chaos, Billy Boy frees himself and takes Officer Parks (Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut) hostage. Gordon shoots him in the eye, using his round glasses frame as a bullseye. Gordon and Barnes discover a hidden monk's cassock of Galavan's, but, before they can investigate its meaning, an only injured hitman regains consciousness and stabs Barnes in the leg, prompting Barnes to shoot him in the stomach. The Lady then sends another hitman, Eduardo Flamingo (Raúl Castillo) to kill Gordon.

Cobblepot wakes up again and tries to leave, but Nygma prevents him from doing so, stating he's a wanted man for the attempted murder of Galavan. Cobblepot begins to feel guilty after having failed to protect his mother. Nygma tries to help him by offering him a captured associate of Galavan, Leonard, to kill, as retaliation for the murder of his mother. Cobblepot refuses and sobs in the bed. They bond together over the respective deaths of their loved ones. Nygma says having no one whom they love makes them free, because they cannot be threatened. They decide to have fun with Leonard.

The police officers arrive but they're killed by Flamingo. Gordon, seeing this on the closed circuit TV, goes down to the street below, and is attacked by Flamingo. Although Flamingo gets the upper hand, Gordon defeats him. Gordon can't make himself kill Flamingo and arrests him. However, at the GCPD, Flamingo bites Parks' neck and she later dies from blood loss. Selina (Camren Bicondova) visits Bruce and convinces him she has enough proof about Silver. Tabitha visits Galavan in jail, where Galavan expresses his anger for hiring hitmen, when he expressly told her to do nothing, and states that if she does it again, he'll kill her. Later that night, the religious sect of the Galavans arrive in Gotham City where they're greeted by Father Creel (Ron Rifkin). They then kill a patrol officer when he sees them and begin to advance to Gotham City.

• "A Bitter Pill to Swallow" at IMDb