'Gotham' Season 2, episode 9 Recap: 'A Bitter Pill To Swallow'

This week on the FOX drama series “Gotham,” Mayor Galavan (James Frain) is behind bars but his sister has plans to avenge him. Elsewhere, Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) continues to seek answers about his parents’ murder.

Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) is eager to get back at detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) for arresting her brother, Theo. She hires an underground syndicate to send a hitman to take out Jim.

The hitman catches up with Jim, as he is on the way to Theo Galavan’s apartment, to look for more evidence against the Mayor. Jim manages to fight back against the first hitman and a slew of assassins is sent to go after him. He is trapped in the apartment, along with Capt. Nathaniel Barnes (Michael Chiklis), a forensics officer and a rookie cop.

Barnes ends up getting injured, while the forensics officer gets killed. Just when they thought that they had taken out all of the assassins, a man named Eduardo Flamingo is sent to finish the job. Flamingo is a notorious hitman, who is known to eat his victims.

Jim comes out to face Flamingo and decides against killing him on the spot. He holds back and arrests him instead. He is bothered by something that both his girlfriend, Lesley Thompkins (Morena Baccarin), and his ex-fiancee Barbara Keane (Erin Richards) said. They both believe that Jim has a sinister monster in his personality and that he has been giving in to his evil side more and more.

Jim thinks he has avoided giving in to the dark side of his personality by arresting Flamingo instead of shooting him. Unfortunately, Flamingo manages to kill a cop, while he was being booked into the prison. When Jim finds out what the psychotic killer has done, he second-guesses his decision to hold back against killing the criminal.

Meanwhile, Gotham City looks set to face a fresh wave of villains. Theo Galavan reprimands his sister, Tabitha, for sending a hitman after Jim. He says that he has a plan that’s already in motion and her actions might have compromised everything. Father Creel has arrived in the city with a group of monks widely believed to be the Order of St. Dumas.

The Order, as well as the organised crime group called Court of Owls, are familiar to followers of DC Comics and the “Batman” franchise. While searching through Galavan’s apartment, Jim discovers a monk’s cassock among his belongings. Jim will likely dig into the mystery and attempt to uncover Galavan’s involvement with the Order.

Elsewhere, Ed Nygma (Michael Cory Smith) is busy nursing Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) back to health. He is deterined to seek guidance from Penguin, now that he’s given in completely to the murderous side of his personality.

Penguin resists Nygma’s ideas and continues to mourn his mother. Once Penguin is well enough to communicate properly, Nygma tells him about his recent murders, including what he did to his girlfriend, Kristen Kringle. Nygma convinces Penguin that the people that they love have become their weakness.

Over at Wayne Manor, Bruce Wayne is still convinced that Galavan has information about his parents’ killers. He contacts Silver St. Cloud (Natalie Alyn Lind) and tries to ask her for help. Alfred can read right through her act and tells her to leave. He intercepts Bruce, when he tries to sneak out to see her. Bruce is furious but Alfred puts his foot down and vows to continue to guide Bruce and to protect him, even if he needs to be protected against himself.

Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) seeks out Bruce and tells him that she finally has some evidence, which would prove to him that Silver is bad news. Find out what she’s uncovered, when “Gotham” returns next Monday, at 8:00 pm ET on FOX.

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