Written by John Stephens & Seth Boston
Directed by Nathan Hope
Bruce: "I remember the night we met, you told me the world may seem dark."
Gordon: "There is light."
Now, wasn't that a hell of a call back to the opening episode of the series or what? We came so close to this being the last ever episode of the show and fortunately for us, FOX managed to do one solid by renewing the show for a fifth and final season. As brilliant as this episode is, it would've been wrong for this to have been the last ever episode for the series.
The last scene beautifully set up both James and Bruce's respectively role. Gotham has officially become a No Man's Land and while we've had this particular storyline done on the big screen with Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Arrow doing their own variation in two of their own finales, Gotham really only showed us the tip of this particular event.
By the end of this episode, the city had been cut, some had evacuated (Alfred and an injured Selina) but mostly everyone else was still here, marking their territory while both Bruce and Gordon banded together against the ensuing chaos.
The groups for now seem to be Barbara/Tabitha with the Sirens taking their misandry to a new level, Oswald, who has instructed Strange to revive both Leslie and Nygma (more on that in a bit), Firefly who wants to burn everything, Mr Freeze who wants to cool the city, the Scarecrow determined to create hell as well as the briefest glimpses of ManBat and Mother and Orphan, who genuinely look terrifying for the small bit of screen time we've seen.
As for Jeremiah, he played his part well enough but he really wasn't as big an attraction as the previous episode. I mean he succeeded in needling Bruce about Selina's injuries, kidnapped him and brought him to Ra's but even the latter himself was outsmarted by Barbara and killed off once again. Right now, Jeremiah is on the loose and ready to pop up but I am hoping with the episode reduction next season that too much time isn't dedicated to the show's version of the Joker at the expense of other villains.
Speaking of villains, Oswald played a blinder with this episode. The moment Butch and Tabitha looked like they were going to have a happy with the former being cured was the same one Oswald wrecked by killing Butch and vowing to finish Tabitha off when he felt she's suffered enough. Oswald's waited a long time to avenge his mother but that was stunningly cold, even for him. Tabitha will definitely be a dead woman by next season.
As for Nygma, Gordon and Leslie, that triangle came to a violent-ish end as well. Nygma might have failed in crushing Jim but he succeeded in stabbing Leslie after she did it to him first. I have to admit, I love that Leslie got the move in first and let's be honest, Ed completely deserved it as well. That said, what the hell is Strange going to do with them both next season aside from reviving them?
- Why didn't see Ivy carve out some territory in this episode given that she has a prominent role in the comics? And Sofia is still stuck in her coma? I really do think she could've been paired with Jeremiah and Ra's these last few episodes.
- It's been confirmed this show will get a fifth and final season of 13 episodes to air in 2019. I'll be doing a blog on that soon.
- So who do we think Mother and Orphan will be? I know the latter is meant to be Cassandra Cain but Orphan looked like a boy in that brief scene and ManBat was still partially humanoid.
- Chronology: From where One Bad Day left off.
No Man's Land came close to being a series finale and fortunately it wasn't. It's undeniably a brilliant episode, easily one of the show's best and possibly, it's best finale yet but a series finale wouldn't have been right. The hints for Bruce's journey have been hammered home all season long but we really needed another season to see the actual results and fortunately that's what we're getting.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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