‘The Beginning…’ S05E12 Gotham Review

This is it. The final time I’ll ever write and you’ll ever read a new Gotham review. It feels kinda strange, how reviewing this series for more than 4 years is just over. Of course, we’ve had our highs and lows in the quality Gotham provided us but we’ve seen so many characters grow (and die) in those episodes that it almost feels like they are friends rather than tv show characters. And now we have to miss Gordon yelling GeeCeePeeDee, Penguin and Riddler being dorks, Bruce growing into Batman and of course many more other characters growing up or growing into the villains they will become in the future. It has been a true pleasure Gotham, but now it is time for you become the city that Batman needs.

The first scenes of this episode are devoted to a younger Bruce who we see and hear writing a letter to Alfred. He explains that he has found a place where he can learn to protect the people he loves, as we see him entering a small town flanked by a big mountain.

Flash forward to 10 years later. We meet Gordon (with moustache) and Bullock visiting Mayor James. HOW ON EARTH IS THAT MAN STILL ALIVE?! He has been through so many kidnappings that would give any normal being a one-way ticket to Arkham. Anyway, Gordon and Bullock are at the City Hall because Gordon is ready to hand in his resignation. He feels like it might be time for someone else to take the wheel, but the mayor is not having it. Before they reach any conclusion, Gordon has to leave to pick up his daughter Barbara Lee at Barbara’s. After the events of No Man’s Land, Barbara has made a living with real estate, and in a couple of months, she’ll have the biggest building in Gotham. Gordon takes Barbara Lee for some ice cream and when she is lying in bed, he feels that it is time to shave off his moustache.

Meanwhile, the rest of the villains are locked up. Penguin is in Blackgate, while Nygma and Jeremiah are in Arkham. We don’t know what happened to the rest of the bad guys and girls, but I’ll assume that Gordon would’ve caught them somewhere in the last 10 years. Jeremiah is still braindead and the rest of the inmates regularly make fun of him. One inmate was about to paint him when Nygma breaks his paintbrush in half and stabs Jeremiah in the leg. Shortly after, guards come into the recreation room and take Nygma away while a nurse rolls Jeremiah out. When the next morning comes around, the GCPD gets the call that Nygma never returned to his cell and that a guard didn’t show up for work. Bullock is sent to check out the guard, but he is overpowered as soon as he puts a foot in the guy’s house. The guard hands him a phone where someone gives Bullock some instructions before the guard shoots himself into the head. Bullock is then arrested and questioned by Gordon. Bullock claims that he shot the guard in the head, but Gordon doesn’t believe his story and that if Bullock doesn’t tell the truth, he will get sent to Blackgate. But Bullock doesn’t budge and remains by his story. Gordon puts all the cops on the lookout for Nygma, while he and Harper take a look into the guards past.

Meanwhile, the subject of the citywide GCPD search, Nygma, wakes up alone in a warehouse. He finds a note that is written by Penguin on top of a box full of C4 with instructions that he’ll must execute. The supposed writer of the note, Penguin, gets released from Blackgate with a new eye and a couple more pounds around the waist. When he walks out, he is greeted by the press and two mystery men looking at him from afar.

Gordon and Harper go check out a warehouse that has a connection to the dead guard. When they arrive there, they find a bunch of dead bodies and some crates of C4 that were stolen a few days ago from the military. When they want to get closer to the bodies to inspect them, suddenly they hear a voice from the dark saying that they shouldn’t touch the bodies. The mystery man throws a smoke bomb before escaping out of a window and vanishing. Later, when the GCPD researches the place a bit better they find out that the bodies were rigged with C4, and that the mystery man saved their lives in some way. Then Gordon gets a call that Mayor James is missing and that the cops he sends to follow penguin have lost him. He finds it too much coincidence that all of this happens on the day that the new Wayne Tower is opened, so he suspects that the building will be the target of some kind of attack. When he gets into his car to drive to Wayne Tower, suddenly Penguin is in the backseat and he forces Gordon to drive to the pier. The same pier where they stood all those years ago when Gordon was ordered to kill Penguin for Falcone. Penguin is pissed because he helped save Gotham and in return, he was sent to Blackgate. But when Gordon mentions his supposed plan to destroy Wayne Tower, stealing the C4 and breaking out Nygma, Penguin says that he has nothing to do with it. Before Penguin has a chance to shoot him, Gordon jumps into the water and escapes.

Af the opening party for the Wayne Tower, Selina and Alfred meet again for the first time in at least a couple of years. Selina asks for Bruce, but Alfred says that being abroad didn’t help Bruce his sense for punctuality and that he is not there. Then Selina spots Nygma and Barbara and she drags the latter with her to go after Nygma. Nygma has stolen some food to enjoy when he waits for Bruce to make his entrance. Next to him is the mayor who is covered in C4. Nygma is disappointed when not Bruce, but Alfred gives a speech but he is being distracted by Barbara so that Selina can knock him KO.

Gordon also arrives at the Wayne Tower where he starts to evacuate everyone. The evacuation goes a lot faster when Barbara, Selina, Nygma and the C4ed mayor walk in. The GCPD takes Nygma away before Gordon discovers that the entire maquette of Gotham is rigged with explosives. They find the detonator for the bomb in the Gotham Clocktower and it is Lee who, with her steady doctors’ hands, disables the bomb. Then when Fox comments on the clocktower still having the old style, something clicks inside of Gordon’s thoughts. He goes somewhere where Bullock is about to be taken away to Blackgate. The cop that takes him away can’t be trusted and Bullock and Gordon knock him KO. Gordon says that he thinks that it is Jeremiah who is behind the explosives. By the mention of his name, Bullock goes crazy because he knows that the cop is wearing a microphone and now something terrible is going to happen.

Meanwhile, in Arkham two inmates are discussing the prices for injuring Jeremiah. But before they can come to an agreement, Ecco disguised as a nurse comes in and cuts their throats before telling Jeremiah that their cover is blown. And low and behold, Jeremiah wakes up!

The cop that takes Nygma away is knocked out by another cop when they get in the Wayne Tower elevators. The second cop turns out to be working for Penguin, as the latter picks Nygma up outside of the building. Their plan is to get away, but they are stopped by Bruce. When Fox and Alfred walk out of the Wayne Tower sometime later, talking about Bruce and his journey, they are greeted by the sight of Penguin and Nygma hanging from a lamppost.

Barbara and Barbara Lee are at the old Sirens club where Barbara retrieves her gun from her office. Suddenly there is music playing in the main area. Barbara orders Barbara Lee to say behind as she looks where the music is coming from. When she is in the main area, she spots Ecco standing at the bar. When she orders Ecco to turn around, she hears a voice behind her. Jeremiah pushes her in Ecco’s direction who places a knife on her throat. Barbara Lee hears the commotion and throws a glass towards Ecco and starts to hit Jeremiah. The distracted Ecco overpowers Ecco before stabbing her in the stomach. Meanwhile, Jeremiah is not impressed with Barbara Lee’s punches and captures her before shooting Barbara in the leg. Because Ecco is deadly injured, Jeremiah shoots her in the head saying that there will be no one quite like her, but there are other fish in the sea. Jeremiah gives Barbara a message to pass along to Gordon, that he needs to go to the place where he was born again: Ace Chemicals.

A little while later, Gordon finds Jeremiah in Ace Chemicals where he tied up Barbara Lee above a barrel with chemicals. Jeremiah tells Gordon that he was faking being brain dead for the past decade until Bruce would return to Gotham. He also thinks that the name Jeremiah doesn’t fit him anymore, although he doesn’t have another one, so he’ll call himself J. Then Jeremiah drops the rope and Barbara Lee is almost falling into the chemicals, but Gordon is able to catch the rope in time. This allows for Jeremiah to stab Gordon in the shoulder. He is ready to stab Gordon even more, but then Bruce comes to the rescue. He throws a Batarang in Jeremiah’s hand before knocking him over with another Batarang to the head. Gordon is able to hoist Barbara Lee to safety.

Sometime later, Penguin and Nygma are in a GCPD arrest wagon, but Nygma knows to free their hands. Penguin is pissed because he didn’t spend 10 years in Blackgate to give his city to a guy dressed as a bat. They escape the arrest wagon with the intent to go after ‘the bat’, but when they are standing on the street and see him jumping between buildings, they’ll decide that going after him tomorrow is early enough.

Selina has now become a burglar who stole a diamond earlier in the episode. When she is standing on a roof, she is visited by Bruce. She demands him to tell her why he left her like that 10 years ago because at that time he was all she had. He doesn’t give her a clear answer, only that he won’t leave Gotham ever again. He tells her to return the diamond before disappearing, but Selina’s reaction is just perfect: ‘like hell!’

Bullock and Gordon are on the roof of the GCPD HQ and Gordon is doubting his retirement. He sends a message to Wayne Manor, thinking that Bruce might like to be there when they light the spotlight again. But it is Alfred who shows up saying Bruce is busy (again). After they lighted the spotlight, Alfred tells Gordon that he saved Bruce all those years ago in the alley by saying that eventually there will be light in the darkness. Then Bullock spots someone standing on a nearby roof and wonders out loud who that is. Gordon replies by saying that it is a friend before we get a closeup of Bruce a.k.a. Batman.