Genre: Action/Superhero
Director: Reed Morano
Writer: APJ
Based on DC Comics characters
Cast: Madelaine Petsch, Bryan Cranston, Toby Wallace, Alicia Witt, Kristin Lehman, Chris Bauer, Maria Bello, Orlando Jones, Jake Gyllenhaal (cameo)
Plot: Commissioner Jim Gordon (Bryan Cranston) leaves GCPD headquarters to find a young man, James “JJ” Gordon Jr. (Toby Wallace) waiting for him. They get a cup of coffee at a diner down the street. Jim is cold toward JJ and asks how he got out. JJ tells his father that Arkham Asylum had to release him after 15 years as an inmate at the institution. Jim cuts to the chase and asks JJ what he wants. JJ simply says he wants the family to be like it was before everything that happened. Jim tells JJ that is not an option and pleads with JJ to stay away for the good of everyone. JJ tries to explain that his doctor has him on a new medication that really works and keeps the urges away. Jim isn’t interested in discussing that though. JJ storms off while Jim pays the bill.
Barbara Gordon (Madelaine Petsch) suits up as Batgirl. She sits on a ledge atop the Gotham Clock Tower listening to a police scanner she has propped up against a gargoyle. Finally, she hears of a car chase in progress nearby. Batgirl quickly repels down the side of the clock tower with police sirens blaring in the distance. Batgirl catches up with the chase on her motorcycle. She speeds in between the cop cars in pursuit. She then throws a batarang into the tire of the car they’re chasing. The driver loses control of the car, crashing into a light post. Batgirl gives the police officers a salute before speeding away and leaving them to arrest their criminal.
Jim and Barbara are out to eat. Jim asks Barbara how her mother is doing these days. They are soon interrupted by JJ though, who pulls up a chair and goes about reminding Barbara that she had a brother all these years. Jim forces JJ out of the diner, insisting this is the last time he wants to see him. Jim goes back to the table and tries to explain things to Barbara. He tells Barbara that JJ is unwell and bad things happen when he’s around so he’s been at Arkham Asylum for the last 15 years. Barbara asks why Jim and her mother kept JJ from her. Jim says they felt it was best for Barbara if they simply acted like JJ wasn’t part of the family. Barbara becomes upset and leaves the restaurant.
That night, Jim calls Barbara and apologizes for hiding JJ from her all these years. He adds though that she should stay away from him and she should not trust anything he says. Jim then hears a noise coming from outside his house. He tells Barbara that he has to go. After hanging up the phone, Jim grabs a gun and slowly walks down the stairs. He is attacked by a man with a face covered in bandages. Jim engages in a brutal fight with the bandaged man, but is overpowered. Jim lays on the ground, beaten. The bandaged man stands over Jim and tells him to “hush” before stabbing in the chest.
In the morning, Jim’s dead body is found with a knife sticking out of his chest and a bandage over his mouth. Barbara arrives on the scene where she is greeted by a saddened Captain Sarah Essen (Kristin Lehman) who breaks the bad news to her. Distraught, Barbara watches as her father’s dead body is taken away from the house. Barbara demands to know if the police have any suspects or leads in the case yet. Essen tells Barbara that she cannot discuss the investigation with her.
Barbara goes to the Batcave where she uses the super computer to tap into the GCPD database to see what the detectives have so far. She finds that the fingerprints on the knife belong to Thomas Elliot - a boy who was found murdered 15 years earlier. Bruce Wayne (Jake Gyllenhaal) emerges behind her and tells Barbara how sorry he was to hear about her father. Barbara ignores the condolences though and asks Bruce how the fingerprints of a kid long dead could be on her father’s murder weapon. Bruce starts to explain possible ways, but is cut off by Barbara. She asks Bruce for the chance to solve the murder herself before he steps in. Bruce asks why she wouldn’t want his help. Barbara simply asks Bruce if he would have wanted the chance to catch his parents’ murderer all those years ago. Bruce accepts Barbara’s proposal. He tells her that he knows what she’s going through, so if she needs someone to talk to or help with the case, she knows how to reach him.
At the funeral of Jim Gordon, all of the city’s elite have turned out to pay their respects. Barbara sits next to her mother Barbara Kean (Alicia Witt). Barbara finds herself distracted by the many questions she has about her brother. Kean tries to tell her daughter they can discuss that later as now is not the time. Barbara, angry, goes and sits away from her mother. She then looks off in the distance where she sees JJ watching the proceedings. After the funeral, Barbara trails JJ away from the cemetery and finds a rundown apartment building where JJ appears to be staying. Barbara heads back to the funeral where she confronts her mother once again about what happened with her brother JJ. Kean admits that Jim kept most of the details away from her, but that JJ did some bad things and Jim did everything he could to keep the family as together as possible. Barbara is about to walk away when Kean mentions that Barbara should look up her father’s old partner, Harvey Bullock.
Barbara goes to the GCPD headquarters to see Essen. Barbara asks about Harvey Bullock. Essen tells Barbara that Bullock was Jim Gordon’s first partner on the force and they worked together for nearly a decade. Bullock eventually was kicked off the force though after his alcoholism became out of control. Barbara asks if Essen knows where to find him. Essen says that last time she heard, Bullock was working security at Ace Chemical. Barbara heads down to the Ace Chemical plant and begins asking around for Bullock until she is led to a guard booth. Harvey Bullock (Kim Coates) recognizes her instantly and gives her a hug. He apologizes for not attending the funeral but he couldn’t get anyone to cover his shift here. Barbara admits that she does not remember Bullock. He laughs and says that he doesn’t blame her. Barbara then asks Bullock about her brother. His demeanor grows much more serious and asks her if she’s ever heard of the “Hush” murders. She shakes her head. Bullock then explains that about 15 years prior, children were turning up murdered with bandages around their mouth - hence the nickname the Hush Killer. She asks what that has to do with JJ. He continues the story, explaining that he and her father were working the case when they finally found the killer - James Gordon Jr. He had been luring neighborhood kids and killing them. He regrets it now, but he and Jim then covered up JJ’s involvement in the murders and had him sent off to Arkham Asylum. Barbara says that JJ was recently released and that her father’s mouth was bandaged. Bullock sighs, and says that they are now the only people who know that the police should be looking for JJ. Barbara then mentions that the fingerprints on the knife that killed her father didn’t belong to JJ, but rather Thomas Elliot. The mention of that name sends a chill down Bullock’s spine as he says that they caught JJ right after he had murdered a boy named Thomas Elliot.
Next Barbara goes to Arkham Asylum to request to see her brother’s doctor. Barbara is led to the office of Dr. Leslie Thompkins (Maria Bello). Barbara asks why her brother was released after all these years. Thompkins says that JJ could not be held involuntarily any more. Thompkins insists that Barbara has nothing to worry about with her brother as she has personally concocted JJ’s current medication regimen and it has proven to decrease JJ’s aggression, as well as his violent and psychopathic urges exponentially. Barbara asks how Thompkins can be sure, or what happens if JJ decides to stop taking the medication. Barbara gets up to leave. On her way out, Thompkins tells Barbara that JJ is going to be okay.
Barbara suits up as Batgirl and breaks into JJ’s apartment. The place is completely rundown aside from a collection of family pictures carefully displayed. Batgirl looks closer at the picture and notices that in a picture of the four Gordons, her father’s eyes have been scratched out. Batgirl doesn’t find JJ in the apartment, but she does find JJ’s medication. She takes one pill to find out what it is.
Batgirl breaks into the house of Lucius Fox (Orlando Jones). When he notices Batgirl, Fox comments that he needs to change his locks. Batgirl asks him if he can run some tests on a pill to find out exactly what is in it and what it does. Fox agrees to run the tests immediately. Batgirl thanks him and quickly disappears from his residence.
Barbara is in the Batcave trying to locate JJ in the city. Bruce asks her how her visit to Arkham went. Barbara says that Dr. Thompkins insisted that JJ was better and his medication is working. Bruce then reminds Barbara that Thompkins used to work with Hugo Strange and Harleen Quinzel, so her opinion should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Batgirl gets the results back from Fox on JJ’s medication, showing that the pill is actually a form of transcranial stimulant which can improve moods of the recipient, but can also lead to psychotic breaks and episodes. The pill has not been approved by authority on the globe for the treatment of any mental disorder due to animal testing going horribly wrong. Barbara wonders aloud why they would ever give her brother such a medication.
Batgirl crashes through the window of Dr. Thompkins’ office. She grabs Thompkins by the neck and demands to know why she would prescribe an unapproved drug to violent patients and set them free. Thompkins informs Batgirl that Anderson Pharmaceuticals paid her and the facility itself a lot of money to prescribe their new medication to patients with psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies. Batgirl asks if Thompkins cares at all what these patients could do out in the world on a medication that could worsen those tendencies. Thompkins smiles at Batgirl and says that the company paid her to prescribe the pill, not to care about the side effects or consequences. Batgirl knocks Thompkins out with a punch to the face.
When Barbara returns to her apartment, she finds the place has been ransacked and all of her family pictures have been destroyed. As she starts cleaning up, she hears something. Suddenly the bandaged man leaps out of the closet with a knife. He tries to stab her, but Barbara dodges several knife attacks before kicking her attacker in the face. As he stumbles back, Barbara rips off the bandages to reveal JJ. Barbara tries to explain that it might now be his fault that he killed their father. JJ laughs and says he knows about his medication’s side effects but that had nothing to do with it - he’s wanted to kill their father for several years, the medication just helped him over the hump. As they continue to fight, Barbara kicks JJ out of the window, but when she looks at the ground below she finds that JJ has gotten away. Batgirl goes to JJ’s apartment to look for him. She then notices in the family pictures that their mother’s eyes have been crossed out.
Batgirl rushes across town on her motorcycle to her mother’s house. Batgirl barges in right as JJ is about to stab Barbara Kean in the chest. Batgirl throws a batarang at JJ, knocking the knife from his hand. JJ pulls another knife from his pocket and throws it at Batgirl. She knocks it away and charges JJ, tackling him to the ground. While Batgirl and JJ fight, Kean struggles to free herself from restraints. She accidentally knocks over a candle as she falls over, setting the carpet of the house on fire. As fire engulfs them, Batgirl kicks JJ across the room and uses a batarang to cut her mother free. JJ stands between his mother and sister and the only exit reachable due to the fire. He grabs a knife from the ground. Just then, Harvey Bullock arrives and points a gun at JJ. Batgirl uses the distraction to throw a small explosive pin at JJ, which knocks him out. Batgirl, Kean and Bullock leave the house. Batgirl however goes back in and drags JJ out of the fire. Kean thanks Bullock for being there. He tells her that he actually had just come by to apologize to her for what he and Jim did about JJ all those years ago. Kean then turns to Batgirl and tells her that her father would be proud of her. Barbara tells her mother that her father already knew about her being Batgirl. Kean says that she actually meant that he would be proud that she showed mercy and saved her brother from the fire.
Police and firefighters arrive on the scene, including Capt. Essen. Batgirl has already left. Essen orders some officers to cuff the unconscious JJ. Bullock admits to Essen that he and Jim covered up JJ’s murders 15 years ago and that JJ was the Hush Killer all along. Kean comes over and says that while her ex-husband and Bullock may have handled things incorrectly all those years ago, she would be dead right now if Bullock hadn’t arrived and that should count for something in the eyes of the GCPD.
JJ has been sent to a psychiatric hospital following his arrest. He is informed by the guards that he has a visitor. JJ is escorted to the visitation room where he finds Barbara waiting for him. He admits that he never thought he’d see her again after he tried to kill their mother. Barbara admits that she is never going to forgive JJ for the crimes he has committed, but that he’s still her brother and he deserves to be part of a family. She then gives him a photograph of them as children that she found in their father’s house.
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