Only two episodes are left before the twisty, turn-y, utterly unpredictable run of Gotham comes to an end on Fox, and there are a lot of loose ends to tie up before the action jumps forward in time. An epic three-minute trailer for the penultimate episode (called "They Did What?") has released after several weeks of hiatus, and it teases the culmination of the No Man's Land arc that began way back in the end of Season 4.
Take a look at the new footage, and then read on for our rundown of key details and what they could mean!
Holy intense footage, Batman! The trailer indicates that viewers are in for a wild ride that won't fail to deliver on all the build-up throughout the season. Bane is on the scene along with Nyssa al Ghul, and it looks like these two baddies are bad enough that even villains like Penguin and Riddler are siding with Gordon and Co. for the final showdown. Interestingly, Jeremiah is notably absent, which suggests that he may not appear until after the time jump in the series finale.
Even without Cameron Monaghan sporting a twisted new look as a Valeska brother, there's a lot to break down and consider from this trailer. So, read on for the questions we're asking after spotting some of the most intriguing details from the new footage!
Will Ra's Al Ghul Return?
Ra's al Ghul is featured pretty prominently in the trailer for a dead guy, and there can be little doubt that Ra's was capital-D DEAD as of the end of Season 4. After being stabbed by Barbara and Bruce, Ra's' body literally disintegrated, although not before telling Bruce he needs to seize his destiny and become "Gotham's Dark Knight." He's so dead that his daughter -- although perhaps not the daughter Gotham fans expected -- is on a crazed revenge mission.
Still, Ra's al Ghul seemed pretty dead once before, and the show never fully explained how he could do a lot of what he could do. Besides, this is Gotham we're talking about, and the final season means the time to pull out all the stops and embrace the over-the-top as never before. Is the footage of Ra's in the trailer a sign that he could make a comeback? It would kind of weaken Nyssa's quest for revenge on Bruce, Barbara, and Gotham if her dad turns up alive, but we shouldn't rule anything out.
How Can The Good Guys Win?
The trailer is somewhat short on details about what's going to lead up to the huge confrontation that was first teased way back in the Season 5 premiere, but one thing is already abundantly clear: the good guys are seriously outnumbered. Even before Harvey popped into Jim's office to announce that at least 600 soldiers busted through a GCPD checkpoint, led by Bane and presumably armed to the teeth, it was evident that Jim and Co. were outmanned and outgunned.
Still, we can pretty confident that the good guys are going to triumph, even if some of them bite the dust before the very end of the episode. The series finale is going to be a flash-forward to Bruce by the time he has become the Bat, and that's not going to happen if Gotham City is reduced to rubble by Nyssa al Ghul and Bane, right? The good guys have to win. The question is what they could possibly pull off to make it happen.
Will Bane Survive?
Can the good guys truly win if Bane is left alive? Bane is traditionally a bad guy who does some serious damage to Bruce Wayne when he's already three sidekicks into his run as Batman, so it would be a bit odd if he bites the dust before Bruce dons the cape and the cowl. If we assume that Penguin, Riddler, and the closest thing Gotham will ever deliver to the Joker will survive, should we assume that Bane is another iconic baddie that will stick around?
Well, not necessarily. Gotham has taken a lot of liberties with adapting Bane for the small screen. Most notably, Bane's famous back-breaking sequence did not take place in the Batcave and did not break Batman. Instead, Bane smashed Alfred's back up against a pole with a terrifying crunch.
If Bane could break Alfred's back and menace Gotham on the bidding of Nyssa al Ghul, then perhaps Gotham could kill him off. The show has never been beholden to comics canon; why change that now just for Bane? Maybe Bane will truly die.
What Happened To Penguin's Eye?
With the exception of Alfred, Penguin seems to be the major character in the roughest shape in the trailer. Admittedly, for most of it, he seems more or less okay as he tries to talk Ed into staying in Gotham to try and save it and then joining forces with Jim. That said, there is a shot of Penguin reeling in agony with his hand pressed up against his right eye -- or eye socket, as the case may be.
A later shot shows Penguin with a bandage over his eye with a big bloody spot where his eye is/was. Did Penguin lose an eye? If so, I'm going to assume that it was for the sake of giving Penguin the iconic monocle from the comics, especially since actor Robin Lord Taylor more or less ruled out Penguin getting as... well, hefty as he is in the comics. Aside from the eye, Penguin appears more or less okay. What happened that his eye was seemingly seriously damaged, but he was otherwise unhurt?
Can Alfred Recover?
Alfred was rather thoroughly broken by Bane in the previous episode, and the trailer indicates that he's still down for the count in the penultimate episode. Interestingly, he also has an eye covered with a bloody bandage. I'm not saying it would be kind of hilarious if Dr. Strange gouged out Penguin's eye to transplant into Alfred for some mad reason, but I would definitely laugh at the pure Gotham-ness of it. Fish Mooney would probably have something to say about it!
One would think that Alfred would have to be up and at 'em to be the Bat-butler for Bruce in the flash-forward series finale, so we may want to expect something to happen to get him back on his feet. This is the show that brought Ra's al Ghul back from the dead the first time, fixed Selina's broken back with a seed from Ivy, and put the various Valeska brothers through all kinds of physical trauma without killing them off until Jerome finally laughed his last laugh.
Hey, maybe Felicity could cross over from Arrow to share her back-fixing technology! Okay, probably not on that last one. If we assume that Alfred will be back on his feet for the finale, then it should be interesting to see if Alfred's healing begins in the penultimate episode or if he's just back in action after the ten-year time gap.
How Can Jim Live With Himself?
Jim has proven that he is very good at blaming himself for things that go wrong, whether or not they actually are his fault. A lot of things went very wrong in the year or so that passed between the end of Season 4 and the second-to-last episode of Season 5. Even though Nyssa technically brought Bane to Gotham because of Bruce and Barbara, Jim is the one with a past with Bane.
Also, now that he's a father, I can see Jim shouldering more responsibility than ever, even if it's nothing that was necessarily his fault. Will Jim be even more serious than ever by the time the finale picks up? Or will raising his daughter -- assuming he gets the chance to do it -- keep him a bit lighter? There's plenty of potential trauma in the three-minute trailer alone. There could be way more packed into the episode, and it could haunt him moving forward.
Tune in to Fox on Thursday, April 18 at 8 p.m. ET for the penultimate episode Gotham. For some of what could happen before the very end, swing by our picks for big Batman twists that need to happen before the final credits roll.
