If you would like to read my review of the last episode, click here.
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. (IMDB)
Writer: Charlie Huston
Director: Rob Bailey
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 42mins
If anyone ever wanted to know what a filler episode is, look no further. While still marginally more enjoyable than last week’s episode, it did very little to advance this season’s plot other than making Gordon Captain of the GCPD.
This subplot, however, was pushed aside as this episode focused on the Narrows, more specifically the fight club at Cherry’s place. That’s where the episode started with Ed, doing his best Penguin impression, riling up the crowd and rallying them around their hate of Penguin. Then we were introduced to Grundy’s new move in which this episode was named after. Grundy simply removed an arm from his opponent and beat them with it, leading the crowd to shout “stop hitting yourself”.
Hearing about Ed in the Narrows, Penguin sent Barbara, Tabitha, and Selina to the Narrows to fetch Ed and also Firefly to clean things up if they were unsuccessful. At the club, Tabitha recognized Grundy as Butch and Barbara was fascinated by the new Lee. Grundy didn’t seem to recognize Tabitha and Lee got some payback against Barbara. Gordon apparently didn’t know about Lee’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Penguin got some advice from Sophia and also befriended a bullied child at the orphanage who he imparted some advice of his own. It was through this relationship that he was reminded to be weary of friendships, specifically his with Sophia.
Being the only one not preoccupied, Selina took Ed but Lee stopped them. To settle their dispute, Selina suggested they do it in the ring with Tabitha taking on Grundy. Tabitha believed that Grundy wouldn’t hurt her because there was still a part of Butch in him. He still hit her but before he could perform his move on her, she found a weapon that managed to knock some sense into him, however, it was a little too late as she knocked him out.
Tabitha may have won but the crowd did not let them leave. Being past their deadline, Firefly showed up but was stop by a well-placed shot and a good one-liner by Lee. She then exposed Cherry for working for Penguin and Barbara shot her, getting the crowd on their side before leaving themselves. After Cherry’s demise and dispatching Firefly, Lee became the defacto leader of the Narrows.
Gordon, as mentioned, was promoted to Captain of the GCPD but he was skeptical of the motives behind the decision. He was still loyal to Bullock but their other choices did not share his beliefs about Penguin. Later, Bullock wanted Gordon to join him to initiate some officers to the bullet hole club where officers shot in the line of duty are presented with the bullets that hit them. One of those officers included the one who Bullock shot last week.
Gordon learned that Sophia was involved in his promotion but he didn’t want to do it like this. He was still loyal to Bullock and didn’t want to take the job. Perhaps feeling shame, Bullock left Gordon at the bullet hole club initiation. Gordon confronted Bullock about not showing up and was disappointed in him. This was enough for Gordon to sign the dotted line and to accept the position as the new Captain. Gordon claimed he got the promotion for doing his job but Bullock was skeptical because nothing ever came for free.
The episode ended with Gordon waiting for Sophia to tell her that he wasn’t willing to be her puppet. He asked for her help and now didn’t want it after seeing what it looked like. He wanted her to leave but she had no interest in going anywhere.
Overall, this was a marginally better, albeit filler episode that focused on the other characters with a rather meh story in the Narrows while pushing the much better main story to the side. It would have been nice to see more of the latter as the former doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It would have been nice to see more of the Gordon and Bullock relationship here but this will probably not be the end of the friction between them. What will Gordon do in his new position? That remains to be seen.
Score: 7/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
