'Gotham' Season 4, Episode 9 'Stop Hitting Yourself' Recap: The Manipulation of Power [SPOILERS]

Things are getting a bit woozy for the latest episode of “Gotham” Season 4. In the 9th episode, titled “Stop Hitting Yourself,” Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) rises to the ranks of Gotham City Police Department’s Captain, ultimately bumping off Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) from his post. Meanwhile, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) has The Sirens pick out Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) from the Narrows, only to fail at the hands of Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin). There’s a noticeable shift in power for both the GCPD and the Narrows, and this just intensifies the rift between the two factions in Gotham City.

Ed & Grundy: The Narrows’ famous attractions

The episode opens with a pre-match performance from Nygma where he mocks Penguin, whom the people of the Narrows loathe. He rouses the crowd with his performance and seems to fuel their hatred against the reigning crime lord of Gotham City. After Nygma’s rousing skit, he introduces Solomon Grundy (Drew Powell), and Cherry (Marina Benedict) introduces a new contender named Murder Face. During the match, Grundy sees flashes of his old memories with Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) back when he was Butch. He shakes it off and severs his opponent’s arm.

Word of Nygma’s mockery reaches Penguin, and he is furious. And since he’s settling a dispute between The Sirens—Barbara Keen (Erin Richards), Tabitha, and Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova)—and some random gangster, he sends The Sirens to kidnap Nygma so he can punish him. He also tasks Firefly (Camila Perez) to act as a backup just in case The Sirens won’t be able to get him before nightfall.
The Sirens head to Cherry’s place, where Grundy is in the middle of another death match. Nygma makes the same intro, and The Sirens couldn’t help but be disgusted at his downgrade. Upon Grundy’s introduction, Tabitha is shocked to see that it’s Butch. She leaves Barbara and Selina so she could talk to Butch after the match. Another thing also catches Barbara’s attention—Lee watching the game and of course, sporting a new look since the last time Barbara saw her. Annoyed, Selina sets out to do the job herself.
Meanwhile, in the Falcone Orphanage, Penguin rants to Sofia Falcone (Crystal Reed) about Nygma and his revenge plot against him. Sofia sees this as another way to have him by the neck and tells him that he needs a distraction from what he’s already doing. As Sofia leaves to meet Jim, Penguin looks out the window and sees a mute kid being bullied. After the bullies are done with him, the kid goes over to their bags and prepares to set them on fire. Penguin sees this and calls the kid to him, telling him that that’s not the best way to exact revenge. Penguin decides to mentor the kid.

Back in Cherry’s place, Tabitha sneaks up on Grundy and calls him by Butch. She asks him if he remembers her, only to be greeted by a confused grunt from Grundy. Barbara also comes up to Leslie and catches up with her. She accidentally tells her that they were there to kidnap Nygma. Selina, on the other hand successfully catches Nygma.
As Penguin mentors the kid on how to carry out the best revenge plot, he tells him that the best way to ruin a person is by befriending him. The kid then tells him that both his bullies are bad at math. Penguin tells him to use it against both the bullies so they can be torn apart and come at each other instead of him. The kid lets the other bully copy his math test, while the other gets jealous. This makes the kid and his other bully instant friends. In the playground, the kid pretends to have been bullied again, his now bully-friend asks him what’s wrong and he points her to the other bully. The two bullies then engage in a fight. Penguin is proud once the kid comes to him to admire what he did, and he tells the kid to never be friends with anyone because they’ll only end up turning their backs against you.
Again at Cherry’s place, Selina drags Nygma out as Barbara sees them both. In the other room, Tabitha is still trying to help Grundy remember her. Once Selina and Barbara come in with Nygma as a prisoner, Grundy loses it and threatens to kill them for taking Nygma. Lee also tries to break them all up. And then Selina remembers the Code of the Narrows (back when she used to live there herself) and tells them that in order to get Nygma, they’d have to fight for it in the ring. They would have to pit Tabitha and Grundy against each other, to which Nygma agrees.

As they fight in the ring, Grundy has the same flashbacks he has with Tabitha. She hits him repeatedly with a club, and with every club comes a wave of memories for Grundy. Once he remembers who she is, Tabitha hits hard, knocking Grundy out. She rushes to his side and tries to wake him up just as Firefly comes in to burn them all because of The Siren’s missed deadline. Firefly aims at them all, preparing to roast them into flames—until Lee shots her gas tank, which sends her flying across the room, knocking her out as well. Cherry freaks out because she actually had Firefly sent over so Penguin could have Nygma right away. Angered, Barbara shoots her in the head, announces that The Sirens aren’t working for Penguin anymore, and leaves. Back in the Orphanage, Penguin is informed that The Sirens weren’t able to take Nygma, and that Firefly was incapacitated as well.
As Lee cleans Grundy up, the people of the Narrows look to her as their new leader.

Captain James Gordon

The mayor offers Jim a promotion to GCPD Captain. Jim is reluctant because he doesn’t want to take it from Harvey. The mayor assures him that the GCPD needs new leadership, and Jim is the obvious candidate. Seeing how Harvey sent police officers out for Professor Pyg only to be trapped, the Mayor thinks that Harvey is incompetent and doesn’t have the balls to be Captain. He asks Jim to think about it.
He returns to the GCPD, and Harvey asks him to come with him during the bullet-giving ceremony at the Bullet Hole Club. It’s a symbolic thing for cops who have been shot and survived. The bullet that shot them will be given to them by their Captain as a form of respect. The only catch is that Harvey was the one who accidentally shot Officer Patel after he mistakenly thought of her as Professor Pyg in the previous episode. Harvey is guilty, and he wants Jim to be there with him.
Later, Jim meets with Sofia to ask if Penguin had anything to do with his promotion. It turns out that it was Sofia who influenced the Mayor and Police Commissioner to promote Jim. He doesn’t like it because it’s just another form of corruption. For Sofia, however, she’s only doing this to get back at Penguin for removing the Falcone name as Gotham’s crime lord.
That night, Jim arrives at the Bullet Hole Club for the ceremony. Harvey isn’t present, and the barista gives Jim the box of bullets. Harvey couldn’t muster the courage to show up, even though he’s the Captain. And so Jim ends up being the one to hand the bullets over to the Police Officers. After the ceremony, Jim storms back to Harvey’s office and asks why he wasn’t there. Harvey was so overcome with guilt that it didn’t even matter for him to be symbolically present. On top of that, he’s back to drinking. Not exactly the traits you’d look for in a Police Captain. Seeing this, Jim decides to sign his promotion in front of Harvey. He relieves Harvey of duty, and now a wedge is driven between the once detective partners.
Jim goes back to Sofia’s place and tells her to leave because he doesn’t need her anymore. She refuses because she wants to stick to her mission of restoring the Falcone name.

‘Gotham: Stop Hitting Yourself’ Overall Verdict

This is a rather slow episode of “Gotham,” but important nonetheless. It’s funny to even think that As Jim elevates his leadership position, the same is true for Lee. I can only imagine how these two would clash soon, seeing how Professor Pyg loves to operate within the area of the Narrows. Nonetheless, it also sets up the progress of the respective plans of Penguin and Sofia. Once Sofia gets the upper hand, Penguin is in for a sorry beating. But of course, this can only happen if Penguin remains oblivious—which he is also slowly figuring out.
“Gotham” continues next Thursday with “Let Them Eat Pie,” 8/9c on FOX.