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TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Gotham Season 04 Episode 08: Stop Hitting Yourself

November 10th, 2017 by Todd Black Comments

One of the best things Gotham does at times is severely shift the balance of power. And “Stop Hitting Yourself” did that in numerous ways, making this easily one of the best episodes of the season, all while delivering powerful storylines to ensure these shifts stuck.

For example, Gordon is now a Captain, but he only took the rank because he saw that Bullock couldn’t perform as a Captain anymore due to the incident with Pyg and the Narrows last week. If Gordon took the role willfully, it wouldn’t have worked. Instead, he stayed loyal to Harvey, right up until he couldn’t do what “the job required”. And then he knew it was best to take over. What’s more, he’s no longer working with lady Falcone, which no doubt will cast many shadows as the season progresses.

Then there’s Penguin, who got to be a “mentor” to a young boy, and in the process, not only find an outlet for his pain (in the good way I mean), but also, realize that he’s being played. I’m REALLY happy they did this, as Penguin was looking like a fool before. But now, he’s back to being suspicious of her, and that will add up in the end.

And then, there’s the Narrows. Penguin found out about Nygma mocking him at the fights, so he sent the Sirens to deal with him, which led to Tabitha (now called Tigress!) finding out about Butch, which caused many fun things to happen. First, they tried to kidnap Nygma, which lead to a Death Battle, Butch came back to life so to speak, then Firefly came in and almost roasted them all, only for Leslie to beat her with a gun, and then Barbara shot Cherry (the ringleader) for betraying everyone, and now Leslie runs the fight club! Not bad for an hour huh?

I also like this shift in position for Leslie. As she now has a role that no one would’ve suspected seasons ago, and what she does with it will intrigue. And hey, Nygma’s still free! Double bonus!

Now, my dad of all people noticed that Bruce and Alfred weren’t in this episode at all, but that’ actually ok, because all the other players got to shine.

“Stop Hitting Yourself” took a fun diversion and led to some great scenes. Let’s hope the return of Pyg next week keeps things rolling!

4.5 out of 5 nerds

Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!