Directed by Danny Cannon
Written by John Stephens
Six months after the mass breakout from Indian Hill, the monsters are running rampant on Gotham's streets. Gordon, now a bounty hunter, chases them down for reward. Meanwhile, Bruce seeks out the conspiracy behind his company.
Tropes:
- Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Lee has moved on from Gordon. Gordon, while heartbroken, knows better than to try to damper her new-found happiness.
- Aesop Amnesia: Selina forgets that working with Fish is something she always regrets, since she's always out of her depth.
- Bad Guy Bar: Barbara and Tabitha have opened one.
- Batman Gambit: Gordon figures out Fish's attempt to bait him into leading her to Peabody, and goes along with it. It backfires.
- Boom, Headshot!: Penguin executes the gang leader who tried to hustle Barbara this way.
- Bounty Hunter: Gordon has taken up this line of work after leaving the GCPD, specializing in capturing Indian Hill escapees.
- Call-Forward:
- Gordon remarking to Bullock that "Gotham will never run out of monsters to hunt."
- Valerie Vale is either an Expy or an older relative of Vicki Vale.
- At Peabody's safe house, Gordon captures one of Hugo Strange's mutants, who appears to be a version of the Man-Bat.
- Car Fu: The mutant Gordon is fighting in the beginning of the episode gets run over and killed by a truck.
- Complete-the-Quote Title: The title is the first part of "Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven" from Paradise Lost.
- Curse Cut Short: When Oswald is negotiating with Barbara and Tabitha.Tabitha: You can take your offer and stick it up—
Barbara: We'll think about it, Ozzie. - Cutting the Knot: The Trope Namer is referenced by Nygma, when advising Penguin on simply taking the direct route when dealing with Fish.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: Barbara mocks the mobster's attempt to say "club" with an injured face impeding his speech.Barbara: What's a cwub?
- Exact Eavesdropping: Gordon arrives at Leslie's home at the precise right moment to hear someone inside, look through the window, see her kissing another man and realize she's moved on with her life without him, and quietly leave without creating a really awkward situation.
- Forced to Watch: Selina can't stop Ivy from being (seemingly) killed by Fish's goons.
- Have You Told Anyone Else?: When Fish asks this of Ivy regarding the fugitives' hideout, Ivy foolishly confirms she hasn't...yet.
- He Knows Too Much:
- The Court of Owls sends a Talon to abduct Bruce in order to stop him investigating their control of Wayne Enterprises.
- Fish's gang tries to kill Ivy for stumbling onto their hideout.
- Karmic Death: Peabody is killed by one of the people she experimented on in Indian Hill.
- Insult Backfire: When Butch is trying to defend himself from Barbara's accusations:Butch: Hello, she's crazy. She was in Arkham!Penguin: Hello, so was I!
- Mistaken Identity: In what will probably be a running theme, Ivy mistakes Bruce's copy for him.
- Mugging the Monster: A gang tries to shake down Barbara, thinking she's just someone stupid enough to build in their territory without anything to back it up with. She and Tabitha kill two of them and beat the crap out of their leader.
- Mysterious Watcher: Bruce's doppleganger is observing him from a distance.
- Pet the Dog: The only reason Penguin hasn't killed Tabitha for killing his mother is out of courtesy to Butch.
- Power at a Price: The more Fish uses her powers, the more her body rejects the foreign DNA and breaks down.
- Rapid Aging: Marv, one of the Indian Hill escapees, has the power to make a person age decades in a matter of seconds just by touching them with his bare hands. He uses this power to kill people.
- Shout-Out: The episode's title is a reference to Paradise Lost, where Satan proclaims, after finding himself and Beelzebub in Hell, "better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."
- Time Skip: The episode opens shortly after the last season finale, and then jumps ahead six months.
- Too Dumb to Live: Ivy petulantly telling the Indian Hill escapees to leave her alone or she'll tell everyone about them. Selina can only groan.
- Villainous Friendship: Penguin has been visiting Nygma in Arkham and bringing him gifts.
- Villain Has a Point: Penguin publicly calls out the GCPD for doing so little to deal with Fish and the other monsters, and keeping the city in the dark about it.
