Gotham Season One Finale Recap

Selina is warming herself by a garbage can fire when a boat appears through the mist. It is Fish and her league of goons. Selina is taken by the sight, and Fish approaches her. “It’s a brand new day.”

Two weeks later…

The gang war in Gotham has not eased a bit. In fact, an attempt is made on Falcone, with a rocket launcher. He survives, but he’s not safe for long – the city bigwigs have switched sides and are now backing Maroni.

Falcone is strapped to a gurney in a grimy hospital room. Penguin and Butch find him, and Penguin reveals that he started the gang war. Penguin selects a scalpel, but just as he is about to slit Falcone’s throat, Jim bursts in and arrests Penguin and Butch. He cuffs them to a radiator while he frees Falcone, who predicts a civil war if he dies. Jim agrees – Falcone is the least worst option. Loeb shows up with a couple thugs at his back, and a fun, if super-cheesy gun battle breaks out. Jim is running around with a big-ass semi-automatic rifle or something, then when that is out of bullets, he has a pistol in each hand, firing like a video game character. Bullock shows up at the last minute, takes out a remaining thug, and helps Jim and Falcone escape in an ambulance. Penguin calls in his favor, and Jim is obligated to take Penguin and Butch with them.

The four head out to Falcone’s safe house, an empty warehouse. He promises they will be safe there – the only people who know about it are dead. Unfortunately, people in Gotham never seem to actually stay dead. Selina appears, dressed up and hair done like a Fish protege, before Fish and her thugs reveal themselves. Falcone, Jim, Bullock, and Penguin are tied up; Butch is ecstatic to find his beloved Fish is alive and well, and Fish is worried about what Penguin has done to him. Jim tries to get Selina to help them escape, but she doesn’t know why she would jeopardize a “sweet gig” like this.

Fish tells her captives that she has made a deal with Maroni, returning control of her territories to her. All she has to do is bring him Falcone’s head. Maroni shows up and greets her warmly; Fish is standoffish. Penguin tries to talk his way back onto Fish’s side, or Falcone’s side… basically he is just doing his word dance to save his own ass. Maroni points out that Fish is not a boss, she is an underboss, which doesn’t sit well with Fish. “I don’t take orders,” she says. Maroni backs down, kind of, and says she is a boss – he is boss #1, she is boss #2. Fish doesn’t like this, and she doesn’t like it when Maroni keeps calling her “Babes.” Fish turns around and shoots Maroni square in the head. The entire warehouse is frozen for a moment – then a huge battle erupts. Bullock frees his fellow prisoners and they escape.

Jim, Falcone, and Bullock take a moment in an alley to catch their breath. Jim points out that Maroni’s death may be a good opportunity for Falcone. Falcone agrees, but he says he is done. He’s out. He knows he is letting Jim and the city down. Selina and a handful of thugs spill out into the alley, find them, and bring them back to Fish. Fish tells them they are looking at the new queen of Gotham. Penguin shows up, spraying the place with bullets. This allows the Three Amigos to escape, and ends up pitting Fish and Penguin against each other on a roof top. Butch shows up and has a real crisis of conscience. Does he side with the woman he loves, or the man who brainwashed him? He settles on shooting each, non-lethally, in an extremity, but runs to Fish, apologizing profusely. She assures him it is okay, but Penguin attacks, sending Fish over the edge of the building. “I’m the king of Gotham!” he shouts, seeing this as his victory. Of course, the building is located at the edge of the water, and no one ever dies from plummeting into the river.

Elsewhere, Lee has given Barbara her last check up and says, physically, her wounds are healed, but insists, over and over, that she get into trauma counseling. Barbara insists she is happier than she has ever been, that she doesn’t need counseling, but Lee is adamant. Barbara finally agrees – but only if Lee will be her trauma counselor. She doesn’t want to, but finally gives in and agrees. Counseling begins that afternoon at Barbara’s apartment, and at first everything seems normal. Barbara feels like this is all a dream, and that she will wake up and Jason will still be alive. But things get progressively creepier. She knows that Lee and Jim are dating, and while Lee tries to heavily downplay their relationship as just “four or five dates,” Barbara knows better. She is surprised that Jim never laid a hand on her and asks if he ever hits Lee, “y’know, out of passion.”

Barbara is hungry, so the two sit for some cake. She keeps trying to bring the conversation back around to Lee and Jim’s relationship, while Lee tries to get the session back on track and wants to know exactly what Jason did to her. She details the ride to her parents’  house, and how once they were tied up, she vented to them about “childhood issues,” like not nurturing her self-esteem and trying to make her disappear. “They never understood me, and have no clue who I am. Even as I was killing them they just gaped at me.” Lee insists Jason was the killer, but Barbara says she was the one and describes how she killed them. Alarmed, Lee stands up to leave, and Barbara chases her with a knife. The two women are full-on catfighting. Lee gets the upper hand. Jim, Bullock, and Falcone walk in to see Lee atop of Barbara, bashing her head into the floor. “She just went crazy!” Lee insists as she runs to Jim. Barbara is unconscious. I’m not really sure why Jim is there – I think he was planning on hiding Falcone there until he could leave town. Otherwise it would just be way, way too coincidental.

This is all we see of Barbara and Lee, which seems a dubious place to leave things. Will Lee be arrested? Likely not, but will Barbara be arrested? I doubt it. I must say this is pleasant though – Barbara finally has a purpose in this show outside of being Bat Girl’s mother. Jim says goodbye to Falcone, who promises he won’t change his mind about leaving. “Gotham needs a lawman now, not a criminal like me.” He gives Jim a beautiful switchblade that had once belonged to Jim’s father. Jim is surprised they were that close, and Falcone says he was the most honest man he knew… but he carried a knife. Seems to me that honesty and knife-carrying are not mutually exclusive.

Kringle picks up on the little clue Nygma left in the note “from” Dougherty; he plays dumb. But she leaves and his psyche fractures. He laughs maniacally, argues with himself, berates himself. The Riddler is born.

And finally, Bruce. Let’s not dance around this, like they do all episode. FOX already ruined it in the previews: Bruce finds his father’s “secret,” the deep cavern beneath Wayne Manor that will eventually become the Batcave. We don’t see him enter the Batcave, but after spending the entire episode tearing apart his father’s study, Bruce finds a remote control hidden in the binding of a book. Alfred doesn’t want him to push the button, but of course he does, and the fireplace moves to reveal a dark set of stairs that lead deep underground. And just in case there are any idiots watching this show, there is a flutter of bat wings coming from inside. You know, to just really drive the point home.