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Stop hitting yourself saw people Grundy beating his opponents with their own arms. Harvey was beating himself up with guilt. Jim was hitting himself about making a choice to be captain or not. Penguin was being mocked by Ed but also trying to find a hobby outside work. We had action this week but a lot of the action was internal.
Stop Hitting Yourself:
Ed has become the promoter and hype man for Grundy. He is playing both Penguin and Riddler in the ring. He is getting the crowd pumped up to cheer for Grundy, but what it is really doing it getting them mad at Penguin. Lee warns him that Penguin will come after him. Ed is not too worried because he has Grundy. Ed and Lee both don’t want to stick their necks out so they let things slide with each other.
Grundy’s fighting style is to take a few hits. Then he rips his opponent’s arm off an beats them with it. The crowd starts chanting “stop hitting yourself.” But the hits that Grundy is taking are jogging his brain and bringing back memories of his time as Butch and memories of Tabitha. But he is fighting through it.
The Sirens are sent to the club to get Ed. Tabbs is distracted by seeing Butch there and she seeks him out to talk with him. Babs sees Lee and goes to get the scoop on her out fit and life in the Narrows. Only Selina stays on task. She distracts Ed, knocks him out and ties him up. After her conversation and a hit to the head by Lee, Barbara heads down to do her job. Tabitha cannot break through to Butch. Butch sees Babs and Selina taking Ed and goes to stop them. But Lee mediates a stop and Selina suggests a Narrows grudge match to solve who gets Ed.
Tabitha has to fight Grundy to get Ed. But what she is really trying to do is break through to Butch. Selina and Babs both warn her. She tries to break through but all she gets is a beat down. She finally takes a club of hammer heads and hits Grundy. It brings Butch back to the surface but a second hit knocks him out.
The crowd is not happy and the Sirens cannot escape. Firefly has been send to roast them if they don’t complete the task. It is too late and she is going to BBQ them all. But Lee takes her out. Cherry is outed and shot by Babs. The Sirens say they are no longer working for Penguin and are safe to leave.
Hitting Back Or Getting Others To Do It For you:
Penguin has called the Sirens in to mediate a deal with the Demons biker gang they knocked over. But Mr. Penn brings disturbing news. He shares about how Ed is aping Penguin in the Narrows. They all begin to laugh but that is a bad move for the biker. Penguin kills him and says the debt the Sirens were in is now his. He will clear the debt if they bring Ed to them.
Oswald heads over to the orphanage to talk things out with Sofia. She is in the middle of doing her work and while she lends her hear she is not very sympathetic. She says the Penguin needs chickens. Her father kept and cared for chickens as a hobby. She says that he needs something outside his job to give him balance. He is mulling over this and looking at the orphans play. He notices Martin (Christopher Convery), he is a young boy getting bullied by two other orphans. He gets lighter fluid and matches and is about to set their bags on fire when Penguin stops him. It looks like Penguin’s new hobby will be to teach Martin the ropes. First lesson don’t let them know it was you. Second lesson, get them to fight among themselves. Third lesson, minions are better than friends because friends stab you in the back. These lessons open Penguin’s eyes to Sofia and he sees she is not there to help him.
Hitting Yourself Over Your Choices:
Harvey is prepping for the bullet hole ceremony. This is a club is for officers who were wounded in the line of duty. They are presented with the bullet that hit them that has been gold plated. Harvey is normally fine with this, but this time it is hard on him. He has to hand them out to the people he got shot in the battle with Pyg and the officer he shot himself. Harvey convinces Jim to go as a help to him. Jim shows up but Harvey does not he has left the bullets and told Jim to do it for him.
Jim has been given the Captainship of the Central Gotham Department. All he has to do is sign. It was not Penguin’s doing. Jim finds out it was Sofia’s influence over the Mayor and Commissioner. Both the Mayor and Sofia say Harvey is weak and needs to be replaced. After Jim sees Harvey skip the ceremony he goes to confront him. Harvey could not stand up and face his fellow officers. He could not do the job so Jim is reluctantly forced to sign the paper and relieve Harvey. But Harvey warns that Jim will have to pay for the job.
Lee has been lurking in the Shadows of Cherry’s club. She has been patching up the fighters for Cherry in return for money. She uses the money to run her clinic. She calls out Ed for pumping up the crowd but she calls her out. Neither of them want to stick their necks out. But Lee is forced to save people from Firefly and call Cherry out for calling Penguin. It gets Cherry killed. The people need a leader and they are looking to Lee. Ed tells her it would be better if it were her rather than someone worse than Cherry. So Lee reluctantly takes leadership in the Narrows.
Closing Thoughts:
Karen mentioned in the podcast the trope of “Stop Hitting Yourself” click here to read more. While this episode of Gotham was lighter on action, it ramped up character development. We called out Donal Louge’s excellent acting in this episode. He conveyed guilt, heartbreak, and caring in the midst of one scene. It really proves how strong of an actor he is. We saw Jim and Lee both forced to take leadership to protect Gotham. We saw Penguin help out a young boy and have his eyes opened. We saw Tabbs realize Butch was alive and then loose him to Grundy. It was a great character episode. Next week we take our characters on Pyg’s wild ride! (The meme Karen read at the end of the podcast can be found below.)
News:
A Dark Knight: Let Them Eat Pie: Professor Pyg continues to torment Gotham city, involving Jim Gordon whenever possible. Sofia and Penguin get ready for a fundraiser for the orphanage, and things don’t go as planned when Professor Pyg shows up as the chef. Meanwhile, Bruce’s partying gets in the way of his relationship with Alfred in the all-new “A Dark Knight: Let Them Eat Pie” episode of GOTHAM airing Thursday, Nov. 16 (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (GTH-409) (TV-14 D, L, V)
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