Gotham 5×11 – review

“It’s enjoyable and violent which are two words that could easily sum up the whole show”.

So, it comes to this: After 5 series of questionable logic, insane set-pieces, and characters backstabbing each other one week and loving each other the next, we near the end of Gotham, frontrunner for the maddest show on television. When I watch this show, I like to relax, stop thinking too hard about anything, and just enjoy whatever uniquely camp, gothic, superpowered-soap-opera schemes Gotham feels like throwing up. The penultimate episode of its final season is no exception.

The episode opens with hordes of refugees pouring into the GCPD attempting to escape the attack on Gotham ordered by a mind-controlled General Wade, masterminded by Nyssa Al Ghul and her faithful lapdog, Bane. With the city facing a full-blown invasion by the US army, and Nyssa having kidnapped Barbara and her newly born baby daughter, things are looking bleak both for Gordon and the GCPD.

What follows is a pay-off of the tease from the very first episode of this series: The majority of our characters united, pulling a classic slow-motion walk into battle against the US army. It’s not quite the epic showdown we were promised (It’s always difficult for TV shows to pull off these sorts of epic climaxes without falling flat) but it’s enjoyable and violent which are two words that could easily sum up the whole show.

After the barricade is breached and the battle is over, with Penguin losing an eye after a grenade lands right at his feet (I’m pretty sure that’s not how they work)  Gordon runs off by himself to city hall hoping to fry the chip in Wades brain and rescue his daughter and former lover with the genius infiltration plan of walking in through the front door and hoping all the guards are facing the other way( Amazingly, this plan works) It’s here we encounter the weakest part of this episode: The villains.

 Gotham made the choice many years ago to focus on the city’s future supervillains as much as its future protectors. It was a good choice, resulting in the likes of the penguin becoming one of the most entertaining and nuanced aspects of the show, but It also means that there’s a struggle to provide a genuinely despicable and threatening antagonist. With the shows other candidates too humanised to represent the apocalyptic, city-ending threat this episode is supposed to feature, we instead get the generic Nyssa Al Ghul and the derivative, Tom Hardy-inspired Bane. two characters introduced far too late in the series and who are far too similar too previous villains. After all, how many antagonists have we seen targeting both the city and Bruce Wayne for convoluted reasons? It’s really a shame, given the cataclysmic stakes, that the least compelling part of the episode are the people who are supposed to be providing those stakes.

After Wade kills himself on Nyssa orders, Gordon gets Barbara back to the GCPD and prepares for a heroic last stand. In a nice way to realistically end the conflict, the soldiers turn on Bane after realising that he’s ordering them to mow down unarmed civilians. 

Through the episode we get some nicely understated character moments between the cast. We get a heart-warming moment between Bruce and Alfred where the later refers to him as his son, a cute speech from Barbara where she grants her new baby the full name “Barbra Lee Gordon” to remind the child who she can always count on in Gotham and finally, we get an excellent moment between Ed and Oswald. Their odd friendship has always been a highlight and here, with the two embracing, each with knives in their hands preparing to plunge them into the others back, it seems as though this partnership is coming to an end. At the last minute they both realise they can’t go through with it and pull each other tighter, summing up their demented relationship perfectly.

Overall, this penultimate episode of Gotham zips along nicely. Action scenes are enjoyable, though repetitive. The character moments are affecting, and the pace rarely lets up. Despite its share of cringingly stupid moments-Gordons insane rescue plan, Bane suddenly being beaten by Bats of all things and the many Gotham extras who can’t act-if you’re willing to relax and not think too hard about anything, you’re bound to enjoy yourself.