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The Gotham Finale Leaned Into The Insanity

This article contains spoilers for the 2-hour season finale of Gotham.

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This third season of Gotham has been all about embracing the insanity that is Gotham and the 2-hour finale turned that up to 11. Many of the citizens have been infected by the Tetch Virus as have Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins by her doing. The Riddler, Barbara Kean and her crew are at war with Penguin, Fish Mooney and her "freaks", Bruce Wayne has been mentally conditioned by Ra's al Ghul's man, Hugo Strange is the only one who can help and he's trying to leave the city…. and at the center of it all are Harvey Bullock, Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth trying to fix everything.

The episode really was controlled chaos but did a really nice job of putting the pieces back to where they belong as well as taking some off the table all together. The Bruce / Alfred story introduced us to Ra's and the League, but it also reaffirmed the connection between Bruce and Alfred and has sent Bruce on the final part of the path to becoming Batman. He literally goes out on the streets in all black to protect Gotham. Why? Because Alfred let Bruce in on a secret, his strength comes from knowing what he loves and being willing to do anything to protect it. For Alfred, that is Bruce. For Bruce, that is Gotham.

The Jim Gordon story pushed him to his absolute edge, made him kill more people… okay, a lot of Ninja's and Fish Mooney, but in the end it showed him what a monster he can be and then he got the cure and in a way it may be the cure to the dark path he's been going on for three seasons. With Lee leaving town after all of it… and really, shouldn't she be arrested for stealing the virus and using it willingly? But with Lee gone and Barbara dead… we'll get to that in a minute… Jim might have a clean slate to start anew. To become the Jim Gordon in the comics.

Now, the Penguin / Riddler story also put Penguin back as the clever, scheming, controlling villain we all love to watch. He played Nygma through the whole episode and the end result, freezing Riddler and keeping him, is just twisted and brilliant. We'll get him back later of course, but now Penguin is going to take back control of Gotham's underworld and have the Iceberg Lounge. Plus, with the death of Barbara… we'll get to that in a minute… the power has shifted to the "freaks". I don't like the word freaks, but it's what they use.

Now, the whole Barbara, Butch, and Tabitha thing finally got resolved with Barbara killing Butch and then Tabitha killing Barbara. Except I don't think either of them will be dead for long. Well, Butch isn't dead I don't think anyway, he's in the hospital with a bullet to the head, but we learn that his real name is actually Cyrus Gold… aka Solomon Grundy… so looks like things will be changing for Butch. And between the way Barbara died, electrocution, and the word that we were supposed to see Harley Quinn in the finale makes me think that she might come back as Quinn. We'll have to see next season.

The feeling that the writer's said, "Aw, to hell with it, lets go nuts" this season made for one very interesting and entertaining year and I can't even begin to imagine what they'll do in season four.

So Lee Thompkins is gone, Bruce is fighting on the streets, Selina has a whip, Penguin is leading the "freaks" and has Riddler on ice, and the folks of Gotham can go back to their normal routines…. until the fall. They ran a preview last night for the new season, but with no real new footage and a push about the show moving to Thursday nights.

https://youtu.be/b8nvSrGmY4Q


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Dan WicklineAbout Dan Wickline

Has quietly been working at Bleeding Cool for over three years. He has written comics for Image, Top Cow, Shadowline, Avatar, IDW, Dynamite, Moonstone, Humanoids and Zenescope. He is the author of the Lucius Fogg series of novels and a published photographer.
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