Written by John Stephens
Directed by Rob Bailey
Harvey (re Batman): "Who is he?"
James: "A friend."
It's been five seasons and 100 episodes and expectations were certainly riding high on this episode. Could the show with it's budget pull off the Dark Knight? Would it feel like enough? Would we even get a clear shot of him in costume. Well, the answer to the last question was a resounding yes. For me, it also felt like more than enough as well.
It made sense to begin with one last scene with David Mazouz physically onscreen before pushing the narrative to ten years where the city has rebuilt itself from reunification and Gordon was on the verge of handing in his badge. Thanks to Jeremiah though, it seems like James won't be retiring the Commissioner role any time soon.
This episode felt like a series of vignettes, which is something that I've wanted the show to do for a while, so it's rather appropriate that this would be the episode to do it. Needless to say, all the vignettes are connected by our Batman and Joker of the pieces as the former saved the day behind the scenes while the latter played the long game and used certain players for his own goals.
First of all, there was Oswald. It seems that helping during the No Man's Land saga didn't exactly earn him a pardon and instead, he was sent to Blackgate for a decade and upon his release, Oswald had revenge in mind. I liked the call back to the pier and I laughed when Oswald's attempts to kill Gordon proved to be unsuccessful. Hasn't Oswald learned anything about James by now? It would seem not.
With Oswald gaining weight while in Blackgate, Edward was growing his hair out again in Arkham when he wasn't encouraging other inmates to be brutal to a seemingly catatonic Jeremiah. Edward certainly lost his own vicious streak in the last ten years and upon his escape decided to have a call back by kidnapping the thoroughly incompetent Mayor Aubrey James and trying to blow up the gala in Bruce Wayne's honour. Luckily for us, both Selina and Barbara were at hand to scupper Edward's latest attempts to remind everyone he was the Riddler.
Of course while both Oswald and Edward were a little too easily (even for them) outsmarted by our civilian allies this week, I absolutely enjoyed their reunion scene together. This show might not have wanted to take the plunge and make Nygmobblepot canon but the writers knew how much the pairing meant to audiences and it's why they got some great scenes together, especially the one that involved their encounter with a certain Caped Crusader and showing some appropriate trepidation with his presence in the city.
Then there was Selina herself. I've been critical of the Catwoman outfit they chose for Lili Simmons as the lack of ears have been a little off putting but it kind of worked on screen. We did get to see Catwoman steal a diamond while Batman watched but did nothing to apprehend her and that rooftop scene was certainly written for BatCat shippers in mind as Selina managed to articulate her own issues with Bruce nearly face to face. A part of me wished that scene had lasted a little longer but what we got was pretty spot on nonetheless.
Last but not least on the Rogues Gallery front - there was the Joker and Not Harley Quinn aka, Jeremiah (in desperate need of a name change) and Ecco as the latter broke her man out of Arkham but still managed to get herself killed when Jeremiah attacked Barbara and kidnapped Barbara Lee in order to attract James's attention. I guess the finale had to have one major death and sadly for Ecco, it had to be her while also hearing that she would soon be replaced.
The Ace Chemicals plant scene was pretty interesting as I did think for a moment we were going to get a full on Batman/Joker fight while Gordon rescued his daughter. We didn't but oddly enough what we did get felt satisfying enough as I got the impression Jeremiah realised who Batman was or didn't care enough about Bruce now that the Caped Crusader was on the scene.
Then for the last scene - I got the impression that Gordon had worked out that Batman was Bruce and Alfred had certainly informed Lucius about it as well. As for the Bat suit in general - for a TV budget it looked a little better than Joker and Catwoman's looks (which while not terrible, could've been a tiny bit better, more hair for the former and cat ears for the latter for example) but you can tell there was some CGI manipulation around the facial area. Either way, there was a certain chill in the air with the very last shot as a new era has befallen the city.
- Let's be honest, the only ones who looked noticeably older were Oswald, Barbara Lee, Selina and oddly enough, Alvarez. I liked that the latter and Harper were a part of this episode.
- In 10 years Barbara has grown her hair to a similar style to Poison Ivy and has become a business tycoon. We didn't find out who took over the Sirens though. Leslie also helped to defuse a bomb here.
- Alfred was rocking the cane during his various scenes in this episode. It seemed that Bruce had returned to the city weeks before his no show at the gala though, given the Bat sightings reported throughout the episode.
- How many call back to the pilot did this episode have? It seemed like there were a few, some more noticeable than others.
- The final title card had the Bat symbol and Jeremiah got a batarang to the hand.
- Chronology: 10 years since the events of They Did What?
The Beginning ... might have marked the ending for this show and the launch of a sequel series that we'll never see but at least it went out in style. Yes, it could've done with being a two parter and yes, I wish we had seen a few more characters in it but for a show that managed to do it's own thing while also alluding to some of the best and varied Bat related media out there, this was a fantastic way to end the show. I'll miss it but with Batwoman, Titans, Pennyworth and The Batman all looming in the corner, we're never too long away from this madcap part of the DC universe. Gotham, you were one of the most bonkers series I've watched and I'm glad I didn't miss a single moment of it.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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