It’s the day after Jervis Tetch forced Jim Gordon to choose between the two women in his life, and both of them want to talk about what he said. The Mad Hatter’s tea party game fulfilled its purpose: Gordon decided who would get the bullet, and Valerie and Lee got the same message. “You love Lee,” Valerie says to him from her hospital bed. “Which means we’re done.” This very conversation is the reason why Tetch didn’t shoot to kill.
While Gordon wrestles with the personal truths Jervis’ guerilla therapy session brought to the surface, Jervis is widening the scope of his revenge. Gordon gets the blame for Alice’s death on the micro level, but it’s the entire city of Gotham with her blood on its hands. What better recompense then, than to use that blood to drive all its citizens insane?