Written by John Stephens
Directed by Danny Cannon
Gordon: "Fire on my command .... for Gotham!"
It's been eight months since the ending of the show's fourth season and back for a shortened fifth and final season, things really kicked off in style as the No Man's Land storyline took hold over the show. The city is in dire straits, various baddies have marked their territories and the government have no desire to help out the struggling Gotham either.
We open with a nifty look into the future as Gordon, Bullock, Oswald and Edward band together to defend the city, then we go back quite a bit to when things weren't so uniting with these four characters in particular. For Edward though, he was mostly waking up in strange places, trying to figure out what was happening to him but with the rest of them, there was a case of business as usual.
It's not so shocking that Oswald would become something of a tyrant when assuming the power he did, but even here, we saw him literally overindulging in food, feeding his adorable pet dog, Edward some overcooked meat while his workers looked like they were going to drop dead from hunger and exhaustion alone. After all these years, Oswald really hasn't learned a single thing about loyalty or giving people incentives other than intimidation and fear.
The funny thing is that while he's been living the high life of the current disaster that the city has become, he also has spent a great deal indoors, seemingly to avoid being killed by Tabitha as payback for Butch. Now had the show gotten 22 episodes again for it's final year, I imagine this storyline would've gone on for a bit longer, but here it's rather abruptly ended as Oswald managed to best Tabitha and kill her off for good.
I've not been the greatest fan of Tabitha as a character but as deaths go, this one was rather anticlimactic and rushed. As for Barbara, I really do hope the writers have more to offer than an inevitable to fail revenge plan because if Tabitha couldn't kill Oswald, then Barbara certainly doesn't stand a chance in doing so either. Saying that though, Oswald could do with another lose on his hands, other than Gordon getting to shoot him in the kneecaps, which he totally deserved here.
Speaking of Gordon, he's been doing the best he can in a dire situation. He's done his best to keep the peace at bay, to try and stop divisions among residents currently starving and even working with Bullock and Bruce for some temporary solutions. We even got a rather neat if brief fight scene with Jim and the Scarecrow as the latter was stealing medical supplies.
As for Bruce - well, the training is coming in handy and he did help Gordon and Bullock gain an advantage over Oswald, but mostly his scenes were with Selina as the latter struggled to cope with her paralysis this week. Of course with the scene of Selina trying to kill herself being the most harrowing thing from the episode, Bruce soon became persuaded by that weird nurse to seek out the witch. Given the synopsis and guest cast for next week's episode, let's just say our "witch" is likely to be a little green fingered.
- With the exception of Leslie, all the regulars for this season were somewhat accounted for.
- Ecco briefly appeared in this episode in her Mummer costume, longer hair and left a message for Gordon, in case he forgot that Jeremiah wasn't an ongoing problem for everyone. Jaime Murray was also in the credits but was only heard in a brief moment with Gordon rather than seen. The producers haven't revealed much about her character so far.
- If the title wasn't a clue, this season seems to be incorporating parts of the Zero Year arc as well.
- Chronology: Flash forwards was 391 days into this arc, but the majority of the episode took place on Day 87.
Year Zero certainly didn't waste time in showing us the absolute shit show the city has become in the wake of Jeremiah's actions and the consequences are definitely interesting so far. While Tabitha's death lacked a certain oomph and I greatly don't care about Barbara's thirst for revenge (you're gonna fail, Babs), this is a great start to the final season and with the trailer giving us a very distinctive image of Bruce's Dark Knight future, I am going to miss this show when it ends.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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