This Ball of Mud and Meanness

[1] Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) continues to be disturbed by the torture sessions at Arkham Asylum where he imagines watching himself beat his mother (Carol Kane).

In an alley, Bruce (David Mazouz) receives a gun from Selina (Camren Bicondova), that he intends to use to kill Patrick "Matches" Malone.

Cobblepot is released from Arkham Asylum after being declared sane, although Strange states to Ethel Peabody (Tonya Pinkins) that he still has plans for experiments on him.

The fourteenth episode of the season is titled "This Ball of Mud and Meanness", written by Jordan Harper, with John Behring as director.

[2] Erin Richards, James Frain, Jessica Lucas, Chris Chalk, Drew Powell, Nicholas D'Agosto, and Michael Chiklis don't appear in the episode as their respective characters.

The guest cast for the episode include B. D. Wong as Professor Hugo Strange, Tonya Pinkins as Ethel Peabody, Lori Petty as Jeri, Ian Quinlan as Carl Pinkney, Michael Bowen as Patrick "Matches" Malone, Stink Fisher as Aaron Helzinger, Jamar Green as Terrence "Cupcake" Shaw, and Carol Kane as Gertrude Kapelput.

The episode received a rating of 90% with an average score of 9.0 out of 10 on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus stating: "A masterful performance by young David Mazouz and the beginnings of a gratifying Riddler transformation pave the way for "This Ball of Mud and Meanness" to explore Bruce Wayne's newly maddened soul.

"[9] Andy Behbakht of TV Overmind gave the series a perfect star rating of 5 out of 5, writing "This week's Gotham was one of the strongest episode of the second half for Season 2 so far as Bruce's arc got to a very compelling point while Penguin continues to go through a hellish time at Arkham that takes a surprising turn of event at the end.

Freeze origin story in the last two episodes, Gotham finally turns its attention to young Bruce Wayne's encounter with the man who he believes killed his parents.

Meanwhile, Penguin's story gets even stranger as his therapy continues at Arkham, and Nygma draws ever closer to his destiny as one of Gotham's most notorious super-villains.

"[13] Keertana Sastry of EW reacted positive, stating: "Monday night's episode of Gotham, 'This Ball of Mud and Meanness,' focuses on change.

But the gradual buildup over the past season and a half make the tension worthwhile when he confronted his biggest foe: Matches Malone, the man who killed his parents.

"[15] Lisa Babick from TV Fanatic, giving a perfect 5 star rating out of 5, highlighted David Mazouz's performance in the episode, stating "If there were any doubts about David Mazouz's ability to transform into Batman whenever that time comes, those doubts were shattered (like Bruce's childhood) after his brilliantly understated performance this hour.