We open to a guy running through a dimly lit office, only to be jumped, and killed by the blade of a paper cutter. That's conviction - ripping the blade off one of those things. You have to WANT to kill someone. Bullock and Gordon wind up finding the body, and Edward is doing a cursory exam. He finds a finger in the mouth, which makes it a lot more sinister than a guy who just got killed in a brawl in an office...
Bruce has to go back to school, and he just wants to be homeschooled, and Alfred says no and gives that total parental 'because I said so' answer, which Bruce is totally not down with. Alfred wants him to be a 'normal kid', which is a thread in Bruce and Alfred's relationship for the rest of their lives.
Oswald's walking down the street, and sees a woman with an adorable dog and a really nice brooch. He asks if he can have it, and she's totally creeped out, but he then asks more politely (and more forcefully), and he winds up giving it to Fish in a sit-down. He's trying to gauge her since he's now working on both sides. She winds up stabbing his hand with the brooch, but he reacts really calmly. He then goes to his mother's house and gives her the brooch. She notices the puncture mark on his hand and gets the vapors about it. He says that someone at work is mean, and not afraid of the boss. She talks about a girl she knew in school, where they were in the same situation. She then catches a rat, and goes on about having found its secret cheese love. Oswald then goes 'yes, everyone has a secret'. Also, gotta say that's the cutest rat trap EVER.
Barbara is having issues coping with the truth. Because Jim came home late and didn't turn on the lights, she's got a gun on him. Okay, Oscar Pistoris. She asks that Jim even lies to her if he has to to point out that there's no monsters, and that Zsasz is just a man. (He actually kind of deserves the title of 'monster', though). But, she's getting exactly what she wanted.
Ed starts doing the autopsy on the dead guy, and I love his mention of having a cranberry muffin and saving some for later. Of course, we then realize as the REAL doctor comes in that Edward is a CSU guy, and has no business performing autopsies. He's on Gotham, not on CSI: Gotham, where the CSU people have too much involvement in their cases, and each one would be thrown out as soon as it got to court. I was ranting, wasn't I? So, turns out that they found a business card for Sionis Financial. I squealed when I heard the name Sionis. It's not surprising though, since the name of the episode is The Mask. However, it's Richard Sionis, the father of the famous Roman Sionis - AKA The Black Mask. (Who is actually just as much a Catwoman villain as he is a Batman one).
Bullock and Gordon go to Sionis, and see that pretty much every dude that works there is beaten up. Richard Sionis is less than forthcoming, but he's got masks all over the place, including the one he was wearing when he had three of his guys in cages earlier. He says that the masks may conceal the face, but they bring forward the true ideal of someone. He also sees a killer in Gordon. They don't believe a word he says, and when Gordon storms out of his office, he notices blood on the floor. He follows it into the bathroom, and sees a dude with a bloody nose, not missing any thumbs. But then a guy comes out of the bathroom with his hand all bandaged up, and tackles Gordon. Then Bullock totally knocks the guy out just by opening the door. Harvey speaks what we all think - that Gordon really sucks when he goes into a place alone, and Harvey is always saving his butt.
Bruce has issues at school with some of the rich prick students teasing him for being an orphan. He tries to fight, but isn't really good at it. But Alfred is good at fighting. He gives Bruce his father's watch, and takes him to the prick's house, where he uses the watch as brass knuckles and gives the kid a red grin. Alfred then points out to the kid that he totally let Bruce almost kill him. Alfred... that's badass, but that's not really good parenting.
So, they have statements from some of the office dudes that they fight it out for the job, and they duke it out in an abandoned office. Nygma found that it was printer toner, rather than ink, that was found on the victims, and he looked up past 'death by office supplies' files, and there were 4. Gordon goes to check some places out (ON HIS OWN LIKE A DUMBASS), and of course gets tazed by Sionis, and put into his game. While Gordon's fighting it out with three Sionis financial candidates (who will get a million dollar signing bonus if they can kill Gordon), Harvey thinks something's wrong and is trying to get some help from the other cops to check out the locations. Of course, they don't want to help them because they're Gotham cops, and Gotham cops are terrible, but Harvey bitches them out for being cowards. The Captain is the first to take a couple other addresses, and then the other cops follow suit.
Gotham fights off all the Wall Street dudes pretty easily, but then Richard Sionis comes out of the woodwork, with all his employees watching on a closed circuit feed. They're all cheering their boss on as he uses a sword against Gordon. Not really a fair fight. Gordon still fights him off like a boss, and gets the sword. He's totally standing over him in the kill pose, but doesn't do it. He likes the fight, true, but he's not a murderer, despite what happened in the forces.
Oswald has kidnapped Tim, Fish's new 'umbrella holder'. Oswald's men beat the shit out the poor dude, and then he finally blabs that Fish has someone close to Falcone. He then asks his goons to make sure the body isn't found. God, if you aren't on Team Oswald, there's no hope for you.
Meanwhile, that certain Liza that's close to Falcone comes to Fish's club while an old lady is singing on stage. She wants out, since she's scared that Falcone will find out at any time. Fish says no way, and tells a story of how poor she was, and how her mother entertained men while Fish slept behind a curtain and hid. Then one of her johns, a man of Falcone, killed her while Fish hid behind her curtain. She then promises that she'll never let anyone hurt Liza. Liza then gives her the copied ledger notes that Fish asked for earlier.
After that conversation, Fish is approached by the old lady on stage, who says that she was telling 'some stories'. Fish says that a lie with the heart of the truth can be effective. So... it seems like this lady actually is Fish's mother. Tsk tsk.
So, the episode winds down with a few things happening around Jim. He points out to Harvey that he's still on the warpath to clean up Gotham, and he's just letting Harvey know. Harvey's not as dirty as other cops (he just tries to act it, but we know he's got a conscience in all that gruff drunkenness). He also gives a call to Barbara, but she's leaving him a note and walking off with a suitcase. Also, a certain cat burglar (who we saw earlier trying to rob a high end store but getting caught), appears in Jim's life again.
We then end the episode with Bruce saying that it felt good to hurt that kid, and Alfred saying he deserved it. Again, yeah... bad-mouthing a kid's mother after she just died is a shit move, but it's still kid of dubious parenting. So is agreeing how to teach Bruce how to fight. But, I guess that has to happen if he's going to become Batman. Bruce Wayne is so messed in the head...
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