‘Gotham’s Penultimate Episode Felt Like a Series Finale

Spoilers for Gotham‘s penultimate episode “They Did What?” past this point.

There’s still one more episode of Gotham to go before the series wraps up, but for all intents and purposes what aired tonight on FOX could have been a series finale. And it makes sense that it felt that way, too. Next week’s “The Beginning…” will jump 10 years into the future to show us David Mazouz’s Baby Batman all grown up and in the suit; but despite what fans have been talking about for years, that’s never what the show was really about.

Nope, it was about (get ready to pick your jaw up off the floor) Gotham City, and the people who lived there. Gotham always had the promise that we would see Bruce Wayne suit up, but the focus was always on the diverse array of characters who lived there, often at the expense of Bruce’s character arc. He wasn’t even the linchpin of the show, necessarily. That fell to Ben McKenzie’s Jim Gordon, with his Batman ready growl, strict moral code and frequent fisticuffs. While Bruce moped and trained, Gordon already was the hero Gotham deserved.

And this episode, “They Did What?” brought all of that together in the most literal way possible. After almost being totally destroyed last episode, the citizens of Gotham all rallied together to fight against Bane (Shane West) and his minions, standing up to him and his relentless destruction of the city. We got to see Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) embrace their destinies as villainous frenemies. We saw Barbara (Erin Richards) name her daughter Barbara Lee Gordon, leading to that baby’s destiny as Batgirl. And most importantly, Gordon was finally named Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, though he still hasn’t grown a mustache (next week, maybe).

Actually, most importantly Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham City. After the resolution with Bane, Nyssa al’Ghul (Jaime Murray) licking her wounds, and both Wayne Manor and Wayne Enterprises destroyed, Bruce is free to go pursue his dream of training his mind and body with a series of mean old men, before dressing as a giant bat and beating the shit out of criminals. He leaves Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) behind as she tries to stop him at the airport, but that final shot is Bruce looking from his plane out into the skyline, knowing he won’t be back to Gotham for a long time, if ever.

I’ll save an overall post-mort on the series until next week’s finale, but this could have been a completely satisfying end to the show. Bruce’s journey on Gotham has never been about him getting all those wonderful toys, it’s been about getting him to that point where he’s ready to outfit a cave and drive a car chicks dig. And more than that, it’s been about getting the city to a place where it needs him to be that man, that force of vengeance in the night.

We’ll see how next week’s finale is executed, but we’ve just seen that Gotham with the stage set, which is what the prequel was always all about. That may continue, or we may get one episode of Batman: The Live Action Series. Either way, the Gotham we know has officially become the Gotham we love.

Gotham‘s series finale airs Thursday, April 25 at 87/c on FOX.

Where to stream Gotham