In Review: Gotham: A Dark Knight – Stop Hitting Yourself

Synopsis: Grundy and Nygma become main attractions at Cherry’s Place in The Narrows, Penguin wants revenge when he hears Nygma is mocking him on stage and enlists The Sirens for help. Meanwhile, Gordon is offered the position of GCPD Captain, putting him at odds with Bullock.

Review: Gotham gets personal as several key players make some significant moves in the psychological chess game of who wants to be a crime boss. Penguins irrational lust for vengeance could well prove to be his downfall as Sofia Falcone continues to manipulate him, but might she perhaps be being a little too smart for her own good. It’s quite obvious to viewers that Penguin is starting to recognize her game.

Much of the action in this episode takes place in the Narrows where Cherry has seemingly bitten off a little more than she can chew and in so doing has manufactured her own downfall. A downfall, which is helped along by the arrival of Barbara, Tabitha, and Kat aka The Sirens, who have been sent by Penguin to bring back Nygma. A job, which is complicated when Tabitha recognizes Grundy as her former lover Butch and proceeds to try and help him regain his memory of his past.

By the close of this episode the game has changed somewhat. Sofia feels a little more secure in her quest to retake Gotham in the name of Falcone but is likely to find out that she cannot count on the co-operation of the newly crowned Captain Gordon who is just too good of a cop. Penguin is beginning to wake up to Sofia’s machinations and has taken on a young apprentice. And most surprisingly of all. The good Dr. Tompkins, Gordon’s former love is crowned as ruler of the narrows.

Just how all of this will affect things as the series moves forward is anyone’s guess.

The one thing we all know is that Gordon is going to have a difficult road ahead in his new role as Captain and he’ll likely not be as able to count of his badly hurt friend and former Captain Harvey Bullock for help. Which might mean he’ll begin to rely on outside help from other sources such as Bruce Wayne and Alfred.

Overall. A fun episode with lots of agendas being served up with some rather gruesome fight sequences.

As always great performances from Cory Michael Smith and Robin Lord Taylor as Riddler and Joker and a solid performance Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock.