The fourth season of Gotham is sadly nearly coming to an end. With only two episodes left, the big guessing about what the season finale will be about starts. Although a fifth season hasn’t officially been confirmed yet, executive producer Danny Cannon has promised that next season will serve as ‘almost a reboot’. The same characters will be present (if no one dies of course), but the face of Gotham will be changed forever. This makes me wonder what will happen during the catastrophic event that Ra’s al Ghul has predicted.
We do know that this season takes its inspiration from two Batman stories: The Long Halloween and Year One. With the beginning being more Long Halloween and the end is more like Year One. Although the stories are not direct adaptations, but more loose interpretations.
The story of the Long Halloween is heavily influenced by film noir and films such as The Godfather. The story revolves around the gradual transition of Batman’s rogues’ gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains. It is also the origin of Two-Face.
The plot follows Batman’s struggle to find a mysterious killer, while Harvey Dent’s and Jim Gordon’s marriages are strained during the process. As the story unfolds, Carmine Falcone hires “freaks” (Poison Ivy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter) in an attempt to stop the Batman and restore power back to the family, only to discover that the freaks are more powerful than he expected. (source)
Batman: Year One recounts the beginning of Bruce Wayne’s career as Batman and James Gordon’s with the Gotham City Police Department. Bruce Wayne, aged 25, returns home from training abroad in martial arts, manhunting, and science for nearly twelve years. In Gotham, he bides his time, waiting for the right moment to strike, all the while preparing himself. At his first street mission things go sideways, he barely makes it home, bleeding from his various wounds. There he sits, looking for inspiration, something he feels will strike fear into the hearts of criminals. A bat crashes into the room through a window and perches on a sculpture of his father, to which Bruce immediately responds. He has found what he is looking for, stating the words “Yes Father, I will become a bat.” At the same time, Gordon tries to clean up GCPD. (source)
As you can read, many things of these comics have already been shown in the show. For example, the villain’s who became more ruthless and extreme and Bruce becoming a vigilante. Not that that has been one of his greatest successes, but at least he is trying. Another thing we have seen this season, and something that definitely has been inspired by Year One, is Gordon’s quest to run and clean the GCPD. He only becomes Captain at the end of the comic, but you can tell that the comic was a huge inspiration for Gordon’s story line this season.
The title for the finale episode is No Man’s Land. Coincidence or not (most definitely not) this also happens to be the title of a DC comics crossover story arc. So you would say, that there might be some kind of connection between that story and whatever we are going to see in No Man’s Land. The story arc consists of three story arcs: Cataclysm, Aftershocks, and Road to No Man’s Land. (source)
The plot of the Cataclysm story line centers on Gotham City being hit by a massive earthquake, the epicenter of which is less than a mile from Wayne Manor. In the wake of the destruction, Batman and his allies join the frantic rescue efforts around the devastated city, which soon spirals into chaos. The story ends when the U.S. government officially evacuated Gotham and then abandoned and isolated those who chose to remain in the city.
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If we go back to episode 19 of Gotham’s season four, called ‘To Our Deaths and Beyond’, Ra’s al Ghul gets a vision of a cataclysmic event that will soon devastate the city. Although he saw fires, I still think that the Gotham writers will stay close to the truth. This means that Gotham will be struck by a massive earthquake, naturally or intended. It wouldn’t surprise me if Jeremiah would have something to do with it. He already has built a generator that exploded, make it bigger and you would have enough power when exploded to give the city a massive earthquake.
Regardless of what the finale might bring us, it is going to be a hell of a ride. For example, read what Executive producer John Stephens has to say about it: “We’re really getting into it this year. I think the way that the story escalates is something that shifts and is not anything the show has done before. I think it’s going to be a really unique experience. Especially by the past few episodes, it’s going to be really… it’s pretty insane.”
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