Directed by Scott White
Written by Megan Mostyn Brown
As the Mad Hatter prepares to make his next move against Gotham, he gets his hands on a dangerous hallucinogen known as "Red Queen", a powerful red powder that gives people hallucinations before driving them completely insane. Still bent on revenge, he uses the drug on Gordon, plunging him into a nightmare where he comes face-to-face with his past, as well as his future. Meanwhile, the romance between Nygma and Isabella blossoms, while a jealous Cobblepot seeks to end their relationship.
- Evil Laugh: Jervis, when he realizes that Barnes has been infected with Alice's blood.
- Fantastic Drug: The Red Queen is a powder that induces hallucinations, but will ultimately drive the user insane.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Bullock and Barnes do this to a suspect, but it quickly devolves into Bad Cop/Worse Cop due to Barnes' new Hair-Trigger Temper and increasing Sanity Slippage.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Penguin tries to sabotage Nygma's new relationship with Isabella out of jealousy.
- Hallucinations: After Jervis infects him with Red Queen, Gordon plunges into a nightmarish hallucination that's fueled by his inner demons.
- Hospital Hottie: Hallucination!Barbara is wearing a naughty nurse outfit during the second phase of Gordon's trip, which she lampshades. Gordon quickly catches on that she's a projection of his subconscious and mentally swaps the outfit for a dowdy nun's habit (despite the potential for that one to be corrupted as well).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Jervis is taken down due to his own Large Ham tendencies — if he had simply spiked the Founders' Dinner wine and left the attendees to be poisoned, he could have escaped. But since he had to reveal himself and force them to drink, he gets caught by the GCPD.
- Human Resources: Tetch steals Alice's body from the morgue and literally drains the blood out of her in order to make his Psycho Serum.
- Idiot Ball: The chemist that produced the Red Queen allows Tetch to take out a sample of the drug and then hold it in front of his face. One quick puff of air....
- Internal Reveal: Isabella finds out what Ed did to Kristen. She doesn't seem to hold it against him.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Subverted. Oswald expresses delight that Nygma's happy with Isabella, then goes behind his back to sabotage his new relationship.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Turns out Isabella knows nothing of Ed's criminal past, which Penguin helpfully fills in for her. She justifies it by saying that she prefers books over newspapers.
- Misaimed Fandom: Isabella actually thinks that Romeo and Juliet were the perfect couple and a standard-bearer for real-life romance. Maybe she ain't as bright as Edward thought...
- Misplaced Retribution: Tetch, again. This time, he's blaming Gotham as a whole for turning Alice against him (which was his own fault).
- Mushroom Samba: Red Queen sends its victims on a hallucinogenic journey of introspection. In Gordon's case, it's Barbara guiding him through visions that represent all his guilt and regrets.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Barnes beats Tetch bloody during their confrontation at the Founders' Dinner. He only barely manages to keep himself from losing control entirely and killing Tetch.
- Parental Sexuality Squick: Jim's imaginary daughter is grossed out when he comments on how beautiful her mother (Lee) is, because she thinks Boys Have Cooties.
- Psycho Serum: Alice's blood counts as one on its own, but Tech combines it with an accelerant so that the "psycho" part happens instantly instead of taking weeks.
- Relationship Sabotage: Oswald tries to do this to Ed by revealing he spent times in Arkham. It doesn't work.
- So Proud of You: How Jim's dad signs off and ends the dream.
- Standard '50s Father: Jim hallucinates himself as an old-style father heading a nuclear family comprised of Lee and their two children.
- The Reveal: Jim's father had ties to the Court of Owls.
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Learning that Ed had killed his previous girlfriend who looks very much like her only seems to make Isabella even more infatuated with him, since she had spent her whole life reading tragic romances like Romeo and Juliet where the couple dies in the end, and set that as her gold standard for love. Most real-life men could not measure up to those tales for her, but Ed can.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Barnes and Bullock finally put their feet down and bar Gordon from getting messed up.
- Wham Shot: Katherine is talking to a colleague in the Court of Owls, who is shown to wear a ring identical to the one worn by Gordon's father.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: Bullock and Lee sense Gordon is afraid of something. He's afraid he'll never be good enough to be like his father: a man who lived up to his promises and kept his loved ones safe.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Gordon gets chewed out a lot over the course of this episode, for pretty much every choice he's made this season.
