Everyone's doing anything and everything for the person they admire the most on the most recent episode of "Gotham."
Ed will stop at nothing to prove to Penguin that he is his most trusted confidant. That includes turning Butch's schemes on their heads to vilify him. Butch and Tabitha, meanwhile, win the award for cutest platonic couple for their willingness to risk their lives for each other.
As for our hero Bruce, he's got his heart set on showing Selina how much he cares. To start, he swings by Jim's place and asks him to find Ivy for Selina. Sheesh, Bruce, most guys would just buy a girl flowers and call it a day.
But he doesn't stop there. Bruce opens up and — gasp! — admits that he likes Selina. Wow, he's 15 and can already talk about his feelings. People twice his age could learn a thing or two.
But since "Gotham" is never a show to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy, "Anything for You" dished out cold-blooded acts of betrayal. Problem is, these double-, triple- and quadruple-crosses were predictable and messy. Monday night's episode had a lot of moving parts, and would've moved more smoothly were there less extraneous deceptions.
"Anything for You" begins with the return of the Red Hood gang in full force, shooting off the head of Penguin's statue dedicated to his mother. That's an attack directed at Penguin, and he knows it. What he doesn't know is that one of his own is behind it.
Butch, jealous and threatened by Ed's friendship with Penguin, wrangled the new Red Hood troop and orchestrated the attacks on Penguin so he can shoot them later, appearing to save Penguin's life and the day. Just one of the many betrayals in this episode.
Once Ed discovers Butch is the boss behind the Red Mask gang, he sets him up to look like a traitor. Butch, with a gun against his head and a threat against Tabitha's life, is forced to wear a Red Mask and start shooting at Penguin.
Then after being shot, Ed pulls off the mask and reveals Butch's deception in front of the entire party. He's humiliated and close to being killed, but Penguin stops himself and promises to perform his mayoral duties and prosecute him, rather than execute him. It's exactly what Ed wants.
Ed is an egomaniac, obsessed with proving he's smarter than everyone else. Sure, he has a bromance of the ages with Penguin, but what's friendship without backstabbing, or love without betrayal? He's plotting something, and based on his current pattern, I suspect he's setting up Penguin to be humiliated in front of all of Gotham.
In the past two episodes, Ed has hatched schemes to prove to Penguin that Butch is not loyal. By doing so, he is not only he destroying Penguin's friendship with Butch, he's also manipulating Penguin into thinking Ed is his only true support.
"I hope you know, Oswald, I would do anything for you. You can always count on me," Ed says before hugging him. The hollow lovefest doesn't stop there. Ed also convinces him that the city truly loves him.
"Your shock when seeing Butch had to be genuine," he says, explaining to Penguin why he didn't tell him that Butch was behind the Red Hood gang. "The people had to believe it. And they did. Once again, you're the city's hero."
Maybe they do, but for how long? You don't have to be poll guru Nate Silver to know that public opinion changes faster than Ivy's recent — and beyond creepy — growth spurt. (Cringe.)
Case in point: Penguin's rise to the top. He was a former Arkham Asylum patient who became mayor with little to no resistance. It won't take much for Gothamites to turn their back on him once he's fallen on his face, and that's exactly what Ed is secretly hoping for.
The only thing that will make the fall hurt even more is the crushing realization that the people who he thought loved him no longer do — and that's exactly what Ed is counting on. Few things crush the spirit as much as the wrath from an entire city that once loved you.