‘Gotham’ series finale recap: Batman arrives as show says goodbye

After five seasons, Gotham officially came to an end on Thursday night as Gotham City finally got the hero it desperately needed.

The final hour kicks off with Bruce Wayne arriving in Nanda Parbat to begin his intense training to fulfill his destiny. Right off the bat, we see the ten year time jump take full effect as a mustache-wearing Commissioner Jim Gordon contemplates retirement.

However, it wouldn’t be Gotham City without something to mess up those plans. Both Ed Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot have escaped from prison, but neither of them planned this breakout. So who exactly broke them out? We’ll come back to that.

Meanwhile, Harvey is checking up on an Arkham guard who did not show up for work following the escape. The guard ends up jumping Harvey and giving him a phone, with an unheard person on the other line giving Harvey orders to take the blame for what’s going to happen; seconds later, the guard shoots himself in the head.

Jim doesn’t believe Harvey would do this and neither does the rest of the GCPD. This leads Gordon to investigate an empty warehouse, where a mysterious bat-like figure comes to his side and indirectly offers to help.

Elsewhere, there is the new Wayne Enterprises party to celebrate Bruce Wayne’s vision. Selina shows up clearly hurt that Bruce left; she feels that now he has no business to come back into their lives and she doesn’t want him to. Alfred rightfully notices that for someone who wants nothing to do with Bruce, she sure made an effort to dress up. I’ll be honest, I was not sure what to expect from Lili Simmons playing Selina but she impressed me.

Selina notices Nygma going into a back room and asks Barbara Kean to help her out. Babs knocks out Ed and saves the day, sort of.

Nygma escapes and is reunited with Penguin, but that little happy catch-up session is short lived after the mysterious bat figure catches them and hangs them from a street lamp in classic Batman style. Lucious and Alfred both clue the viewers in that they know Bruce is Batman, but continue to keep Jim and the GCPD in the dark.

Besides, Jim has his own mess to deal with at the moment anyways. You see, there’s a bomb planted at Wayne Enterprises and it’s set to go off, unless it is defused. Jim, Lucious, and Lee work together to defuse the bomb at the party, and Jim quickly realizes the person who is really behind all of this. He goes to press Harvey on it as he is being transferred. He says, “Jeremiah” and the crooked guard was wearing a wire.

Back at Arkham, Jeremiah was faking being brain dead for 10 years. He shows up at Barbara’s club and kidnaps both her and Jim’s daughter to finish what he had originally started. Jim tracks down Jeremiah — or “J” — at ACES Chemicals, where little Barbara is dangling over a vat of acid. Jim asks why J faked being brain dead for 10 years and he said he was waiting for Bruce to come home. Cameron Monaghan did such a good job with his portrayal of The Joker. He really portrayed how sick and twisted the DC Comics character was and brought it to life on the small screen.

Anyway, the mysterious bat figure shows up to save little Barbara and Jim, but then disappears; going by comic history, he gets better at that as he gets older.

The series final scene saw Jim dusting off the old spotlight, which will be used as the future bat signal. He tells Alfred and Harvey that he is not going to retire after all. Meanwhile, Selina is standing on the roof and correctly guesses that Bruce is behind her. Although she doesn’t see him, she knows he is Batman. She explains to him that he hurt her by leaving because all she wanted was him in her life. He promises to never leave Gotham again.

Jim turns the stoplight on as he and Alfred reflect on how Jim ‘saved’ Bruce all those years ago. Harvey interrupts and the three look high above the rooftop as they see Batman for the first time.

Harvey asks, “who is he?”

“A friend,” Jim replies.

As the camera focuses in on Batman’s full suit and masked face, we get the show’s final scene ever.

Episode Notes:

• The finale felt rushed and honestly should have been a two-part episode.
• I don’t really understand what the writers or show was trying to accomplish with that phone call to Harvey after the crooked cop shot himself. We don’t even know what was said.
• Overall, this finale felt like a brand new beginning to the next era of the show. Oh how I wish Netflix would pick it up.

Speaking of Netflix, I’m off to binge watch Gotham Season 1! Thanks for reading everyone.