[Header Image: David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne | Fox]
While there is one more episode after this one, this really was the finale to the show we’ve been watching these past few years. It closed up everything we’ve been experiencing while episode 12 is more of a flash forward to show us what life is like in Gotham 10 years into the future.
I actually put off watching these final 2 episodes because I couldn’t bring myself around to do it, however, now that I’ve seen them I have to say that episode 11 was a really simple but great way to finish up the story of Gotham. There wasn’t too much going on and the episode didn’t feel like it jumped around as much as they usually do. It meant that none of it felt particularly rushed or overdone.
In the previous episode, bombs had been dropped and the army was closing in. We see heroes and villains alike band together in order to protect Gotham from the oncoming threat. I adored seeing Jim, Harvey, Bruce, Oswald, and Ed working together to lead the attack on Bane and the army. They’re not a likely bunch but they always do seem to work together pretty well and they’ve all been around since day one so it was nice to see that. And they’re not the only ones, others join the efforts too.
The last we saw of Selina, she was with Alfred who thankfully (and a little unsurprisingly) is alive but severely injured. She and Bruce band together at one point to execute part of Jeremiah’s plan by blowing up Wayne Enterprises to trap the army and buy the green zone some time. Seeing the two of them fight together is always entertaining to watch and I’m so happy we got to see it one more time in this episode. The way they faced down Bane was awesome and I loved the added edition to the bats in order to help them gain an advantage against him.
Also in the previous episode, Lee was knocked out and Nyssa took Barbara and the baby. Lee is okay, albeit a sore head, and she goes back to the GCPD in order to help the refugees after seeing that Gotham is on fire. While she’s there she manages to get a message to Jim who goes straight to City Hall. His fight with Nyssa wasn’t too drawn out thank goodness but it was drawn out enough. It added a bit of action and the General is killed meaning that they can’t simply reverse the order and therefore raising the risk of Gotham being destroyed forever. That being said, Barbara and the baby are rescued and they all head back to the GCPD. Although, can I just say, Barbara gave just as good as she got. She’s so unbelievably capable and I love that she stabbed Nyssa in a similar fashion to how she stabbed Ra’s (although the former did survive), and I think we need to appreciate the fact that she snapped that guard’s neck by only using her legs.
Anyway, it seems that Jim, Barbara, Lee, and the baby might actually make a pretty functioning family and it seems like he has dropped any kind of thought process of taking the baby away while Barbara seems to trust him a more now as well. We saw in the last episode that she and Lee seemed to put their past behind them and it was really highlighted in this episode. Throughout we saw that the army was hesitant to gun down civilians and almost right at the end of the episode the army is locked and loaded but Jim and co simply walk right up to them and stand in a line. They’re low in number and it makes the army pause but not outright back down. Barbara and the refugees (along with some GCPD employees it seems) suddenly appear instead of fleeing to safety and stand with Jim and co in support. Seeing the mass amount of civilians and how they really aren’t much of a threat, the army backs down and ends up turning their guns on Bane and his men.
Unsurprisingly everything is stopped. Bane is arrested and sent to prison which before now I was curious to know how his story would end. It makes sense that they would keep him around and while his capture was pretty simple, I love how it went down. Nyssa, on the other hand, escapes via the submarine that Ed made and again, it’s not too surprising that they left it open-ended with her. Speaking of, Ed and Oswald have formed an alliance, trusting to work together again. Throughout the episode we see them side by side fighting for Gotham and it appears like they truly have put their past behind them. I’m glad, it really was getting tiresome and they always made for an interesting and entertaining pair.
Really everyone finds their place in some way, shape, or form. Jim becomes commissioner and I appreciate that the first person he talks to after the fact is Harvey. They’ve been through a lot over the course of the show and it was nice to see them finish on a happy note. However, on a not so happy note, Bruce decides to leave Gotham so he can be out of the public eye and make his journey into becoming Batman. He says goodbye to Jim and Alfred (and we can assume Lucius too) but he simply leaves a note for Selina. It was really upsetting to see her arrive too late to the airport but I am happy that his final on screen goodbye was with Alfred and I adore that the last shot was of Bruce as he flies away to become Batman.
Now, I know there’s one more episode after this but like I said at the start, this is the true finish to the season. I would argue that you could get away with just ending the show here if you wanted to so how they chose to do this episode was incredibly well done and it was a pretty fitting end to the 5 seasons of Gotham that we got. Having technically completed the show by seeing this episode, I do wish that the final season had been a regular length (usually 22 episodes) because certain things throughout did feel a little rushed but they did a fantastic job of working with what they had and I’m happy that one of my favourite shows of all time got to close up properly instead of being outright cancelled.
Also, can we just talk about everyone’s happy cheers and big smiles when the army backed down and turned their guns on Bane? It was so precious and I was so pleased to see them all so happy!
wonderoes 