Hugo is terrifying.

Pinewood

Barbara Kean Does Not Understand Boundaries

We pick up where we left off last week with Barbara showing up on Jim’s doorstep. Barbara wants to talk, Jim? Barely keeps himself from shooting her in the face. After telling Jim that she’s sorry for all the things she’s done, Barbara tries to insinuate herself back into Jim’s life but he’s not having it. Unfortunately/fortunately Barbara sees the files that Jim had open and hones in on the fact that Jim is still working on the Wayne Murders, leading her to using her reputation and crazy eyes to get Jim the info from The Lady on who contracted her to kill the Waynes: The Philosopher.

While Jim appreciates the help he, rightly, tells her that if she wants to be better she has to do it for herself, not for him, or anyone else.

So of course that goes in one ear and out the other and Barbara goes running back to Tabitha and Butch.

Hugo Strange: Frankenstein or Moreau? You Decide

On the other side of town, despite Alfred trying to put the train back on the tracks, Lucius and Bruce are neck deep in Thomas’ files and track down a sweet young lady named Karen. Karen was one of the many people who were experimented on by The Philosopher aka Hugo Strange. When Thomas found out what Hugo, who was an old friend of his, was doing he shut down the bioengineering that was happening, but not before Karen ended up with an ostrich claw for a hand. Karen tells Bruce and Alfred that Thomas shipped her and all the surviving test subjects around the world, with money and new identities and was horrified by what was going on. Especially as Thomas was the one who started up the department in the first place.

Apparently Thomas had good intentions and, with the notable exception of Lucius, lousy friends.

Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

Since Hugo is not the type to leave loose ends lying around, or let a good test subject go to waste, he sends Victor to contain or kill Karen. The only good thing to come out of this is that Jim finds out Victor is very much not dead, which leads to the crew realizing it’s more than likely that Hugo is still continuing his experiments with his never ending supply of test subjects at Arkham.

 

Unfortunately, they have no idea just how bad it’s about to get.

• Victor had the opportunity to kill Jim and didn’t, I wonder why…
• Hugo seemed curiously unfazed by the fact that Jim more than likely knows what’s up.
• Tabitha and Butch should seriously be wondering what Penguin is up to. I guarantee that revenge train is not going to be late.