Gotham S04E22 Review – No Man’s Land

Hello Gothamites, here it is, the last episode of this season. And what a ride it has been these past 22 episodes. We started with the aftermath of the Tetch virus and Penguin being in control of Gotham’s underworld, to complete chaos where all the villains have taken control of this city. But without further ado, let’s get this review started!

We start this episode with Seline being taken care of in Gotham General. She is still alive, despite being shot by Jeremiah in the last episode. Meanwhile, Alfred has brought Jeremiah to the GCPD where the bomb squat is cleaning up all the remaining bombs in the city. Jeremiah is in a cell and requests to speak to Bruce. He says he has more bombs planted in the city in case his first plan failed. He will only reveal their locations if he can speak to Bruce.

In Penguins mansion, Hugo Strange has arrived to turn Butch back to normal. By flushing his body with antitoxin, fresh blood and an electric shock he would turn into his old self again. Tabitha is holding him company but leaves after she hears that Selina is shot. Not to visit her, but to kill Jeremiah.

The mayor of Gotham wants to lift the evacuation order. With all the bombs being disarmed, he sees no harm in letting the people of Gotham returning to their homes. Then his secretary sees Ra’s al Ghul standing on top of the building next to them. Before they know it, a bomb underneath them goes off and the building collapses.

At the GCPD, Gordon tries to get more info out of Jeremiah, but nothing works. He just keeps smiling and requesting to speak to Bruce. The interrogation is disrupted when Gordon is informed that the army is taking over control of the city and the chaotic situation. The major now in charge wants to give Jeremiah what he wants and requests that Bruce is picked up. Gordon disagrees with this and is arrested and escorted to outside of the city. But before that can happen, he and the soldiers escorting him are attacked by The Riddler. When Gordon wakes up, he is restrained underneath a pressure plate. Nygma thinks that he needs to get rid of Gordon to break Lee from her past. And to let her become the person he thinks she can be.

Meanwhile, Ra’s al Ghul visits Barbara. He wants her to come with him when he leaves the city. Since he got the Demon’s head back from her, he notices that it is not working like it is supposed to be. He thinks that a part of the Demon’s head is still inside of her. Therefore he wants to protect her before making sure his vision of Gotham in flames will become true. The destruction of Gotham will give rise to the one he foresaw long ago, his heir.

Bruce and Alfred arrive at the GCPD, in cuffs and against their will. Bruce agrees to talk to Jeremiah because then he can go back to Selina. Jeremiah is now in an interrogation room, restrained fully, and guarded by two soldiers before Bruce is allowed to go in there. There, Jeremiah reveals a small part of the plan. It was never about creating a new Gotham for himself, but for Bruce. Now that he had met the one who opened his eyes, Ra’s al Ghul, he could see it all clear now. Then he tells that the story about more bombs was just a trick to get Bruce there. Then the lights go off and before they know it, the two soldiers are dead and Bruce and Jeremiah are gone.

Back in The Narrows, Lee has found out that Nygma kidnapped Gordon. After all, she is the queen of The Narrows and knows everything. Lee finds it insulting that Nygma thinks that Gordon is holding her back. Since she is done with her work in The Narrows, she is leaving Gotham and she wants Ngyma to go with her, but not if he kills Gordon. Nygma loves her, so he leaves Gordon under the pressure plate with the remote to follow Lee. Once Gordon is out from under the pressure plate, he walks out of the club but is followed by Lee. She gives him keys to a car so he can get to the GCPD as soon as possible. Gordon tells Lee that he would change everything that brought them to that moment, just to change the outcome. Lee disagrees because then Gordon wouldn’t be the man he is now. After this touching moment, they share a kiss before Gordon calls Bullock. He has some bad news that not only Jeremiah escaped, but he also took all his bombs that the GCPD had in storage. When Gordon gets back to the GCPD, they already have figured out that the bridges might be the target now. Jeremiah has sent GCPD trucks across the bridges to plant the bombs and turn Gotham in a dark island. Gordon is ready to stop that from happening, but the major is not happy to see him and demands his arrest. But before he has any chance to do so, all the cops present pull out their guns and turn against him.

Alfred goes to The Sirens club to find Ra’s al Ghul and, of course, Bruce. Barbara has no idea where he is now, but she does know where he will be. They decide to team up, Tabitha can kill Jeremiah, Alfred can save Bruce and Barbara can kill Ra’s. Then Penguin shows up to help and they go on their way. Meanwhile, Jeremiah takes Bruce to Ra’s al Ghul who is staying in a building from which they have a perfect view of the destruction of Gotham. The destruction that will help Bruce become The Dark Knight he is meant to be. Then Barbara crashes the party, with the only knife capable of killing Ra’s. He destroyed it, but she found someone who was able to fix it. At first, Ra’s thinks she is outnumbered, but then Penguin, Alfred, Tabitha and the female League members come storming in. What happens next goes so fast, but Tabitha and Jeremiah have a fight. Tabitha is winning at first, but then Jeremiah reverses the roles and is ready to kill her. Her saviour comes from Penguin who shoots Jeremiah in the shoulder. At the other end of the room, Barbara and Ra’s are fighting. Bruce comes to help and puts the knife in between his tied up hands before stabbing Ra’s. Because Bruce is holding the knife, it’s power is awakened and Ra’s is turning into ashes. Sadly this all is happening too late as the first bombs are already going off, destroying the bridges.

Back in The Narrows, Lee is forced to stay in Gotham now. Not only because of the destroyed bridges but also because the people of The Narrows need her help more than ever. Nygma comes in with a knife behind his back. He finally figured out that the other Nygma was right. Lee was using him and was never going to leave Gotham with him, nor be the person he wanted her to be. Nygma wants to stab her, but Lee beats him to it and stabs him first. When she is not paying attention, Nygma takes the knife out of himself and stabs her with it. They share a kiss before they both collapse on the ground.

In Penguins mansion, Butch is back to his old self again. Both him and Tabitha are very happy about it and Butch will do anything for Penguin now. But then Penguin takes his gun and shoots Butch dead, right in front of Tabitha. He feels like this is an eye for an eye since she killed his mother. He will kill her when she’d suffered enough, but now she wants nothing more than to kill him too

Selina did well in surgery, but the doctor tells Bruce that she might have permanent spine damage. The hospital is shutting down due to the bridges and she is in the last ambulance out of there. The doctor offers him and Alfred a place in the ambulance, but Bruce refuses. Although Alfred tries to tell him that Gotham is not his responsibility, Bruce wants to make it his responsibility, especially since Jeremiah is still walking around. Alfred wants to stay too, but Bruce sends him away to look after Selina.

The major is still continuing with the evacuation, he wants the city to be completely empty until they have figured out what to do with it. Even the government is abandoning the city, calling it ‘No Man’s Land’. Gordon doesn’t give a damn what the government thinks, he refuses to leave the city. Meanwhile, we see Penguin, Freeze, Firefly and Scarecrow taking over Gotham and declaring their own territories. Penguin finds Lee and Nygma and brings them to Strange ‘to be fixed’. Tabitha is brought back to The Sirens club by some of Penguin’s men. Some of the men of the League Of Shadows, who were previously loyal to Ra’s, come to the club to be loyal to Barbara. It’s then that she decides that all the greed, destruction and wrong in the city can be traced back to one thing: men. And she lets the men be slaughtered before declaring it a men free zone.

Both Fox and Bullock also decided to stay behind in Gotham. Because there is no power in Gotham anymore, Fox restored one of Jeremiah’s bombs to its original purpose to power the GCPD. Meanwhile, Bruce is beating up criminals to find Jeremiah when he sees a huge light lighting up the sky above the GCPD. When Bruce goes up there he meets Gordon. Both of them are ready to fight, how much darkness there will be, there is always light to defeat it. All the while we see new criminals taking over the city like Man-bat and a woman and child, who is stabbing someone, wearing grey masks.