Gotham captured the imaginations of many audiences, from longtime Batman fans to those dipping their toes into the world of the Caped Crusader for the first time. With a final season consisting of only 12 episodes and a series finale featuring a 10-year time jump, the show had a lot to wrap up. They nailed it with certain characters but inevitably dropped the ball with others.
Look for the Bat-Signal as we explore Gotham: 5 Characters Who Got Fitting Endings (And 5 Who Deserved More).
Deserved More: Selina Kyle
The first scene featuring Selina Kyle in the series finale is awesome as she cleverly and lithely navigates through security to steal a precious diamond. What comes after is a problem as the scenes that follow are mostly about how Selina has emotionally struggled in Bruce Wayne’s absence.
While Bruce was always a big part of her story, there was always a lot more to Selina than just her relationship with Bruce. Instead of thoughtfully exploring how Selina has grown and who she’s become in the past decade, most of the time is spent with her bitter about Bruce leaving and now struggling with the idea of his sudden return.
Fitting: Jim Gordon
As fans had always expected, Jim Gordon finally became Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department. It was well deserved after his many acts of heroism and leadership within the GCPD. The series finale showed that Jim had also found balance within his life as not everything was about work anymore. He’d also proved to be a good husband to Lee Thompkins and a good father to his daughter Barbara Lee.
Under his leadership, Jim had kept Gotham relatively peaceful and stable for the past decade. As villains started to climb out of the woodwork again, Jim did his best to keep things together and helped usher in an era where the GCPD would work alongside Batman to protect the city.
Deserved More: Tabitha Galavan
Initially introduced in season 2 as a key player in the arc featuring her brother Theo Galavan, Tabitha went on to become a significant figure in the larger series. The issue with Tabitha’s death in the season 5 premiere is that it ultimately wasn’t about her; it was about forcing Barbara Kean back into Jim Gordon’s arms.
Alone and reeling from the loss of Tabitha, Barbara and Jim spent a fateful night together that led to the birth of Barbara Lee Gordon. Tabitha deserved to end her story on her own terms and not as a plot device to bring a child into the Jim Gordon-Barbara Kean-Lee Thompkins love triangle.
Fitting: Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot
Monocle and all, audiences finally got to see this show’s version of Oswald Cobblepot fully entrenched in the classic Penguin persona. He had the attention of the public and his own schemes were afoot. Fans also got to see him working with his old friend the Riddler one more time, whose relationship was always one of the best things about Gotham.
Penguin’s confrontation with Jim Gordon on the pier is also satisfying. Not only does it bring the series full-circle to the beginning where Jim saved Penguin’s life on the pier, but it highlights the ongoing and problematic nature of Jim and Penguin’s relationship. In times of need – such as facing Theo Galavan in season 2 or when they faced massive armed forces led by Bane in season 5 – Jim embraced Oswald’s help. When he no longer needed Penguin, Jim would be happy to throw him into Arkham Asylum. Audiences were able to realize heroes can be manipulative and villains can be taken advantage of, and the dichotomy between heroes and villains isn’t so clear cut.
Deserved More: Lee Thompkins
Lee does get a happy ending. She’s a successful doctor, a mother, and is happily married to Jim Gordon. Other than holding some wires steady and cutting them with her doctor’s hands to help defuse a bomb, though, the finale doesn’t show Lee in action and helping others as she’d so often done in the past.
There was always far more to the woman who became the unlikely but formidable Queen of the Narrows in season 4. Unlike Jim, she’d always been a good romantic partner, so being a good wife doesn’t hold the same weight as him being a good husband. Again, it’s not necessarily a bad ending, but the ending deserved to be more about Lee as an individual.
Fitting: The Riddler/Edward Nygma
Even though he’d spent a decade in Arkham Asylum, Edward Nygma hadn’t lost his touch and remained as sharp as ever. From his personality to the costume, he fully embraced the Riddler persona. It was a delight to see him interacting with Penguin again, the chemistry between them as palpable as ever. The Riddler and Penguin might’ve been thwarted by Batman this time, but the duo is back together and their shenanigans are only getting started in this new era of Gotham.
True to the Riddler that evolved in the show, in the finale he still wasn’t the most diabolical villain at play. He’d stab a seemingly comatose Jeremiah in the leg and strap explosives to Mayor James, but actually none of this was as sinister as what the true Joker had planned. He was a villain for most of the show, but he was rarely the worst of them.
Deserved More: Victor Zsasz
Serving under both the Falcone family and Penguin at different points in the series, the quirky and deadly Victor Zsasz made a point of doing what he loved for the most powerful figures in Gotham’s criminal underworld. The Falcones and Penguin were powerful in their own rights, but it was largely Zsasz who helped enforce their reigns and who handled their worst enemies. Zsasz still lived on his own terms, though. He was unafraid to say what he was really thinking to Penguin and the Falcones and unafraid to switch to the stronger side.
That made it disappointing for Zsasz’s last episode to feature him as a patsy whose mind was being controlled by Poison Ivy. His last appearance in the show was all about the machinations of Ivy and had nothing to do with Zsasz living on his own terms or with willfully supporting the true criminal power in Gotham.
Fitting: Joker
Whether he was playing Jerome or Jeremiah Valeska, Cameron Monaghan’s acting was always a highlight of Gotham. This continued and paid off in the series finale as all the Jerome and Jeremiah transformations finally culminated in the manifestation of the true Joker. As Batman’s arch-nemesis, it’s only fitting that the Joker is the villainous mastermind behind the events in the series finale.
His escape from Arkham Asylum revolved around Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham and the birth of Batman. Even though he’s defeated, he’s thrilled about Bruce reaching his potential and becoming a worthy adversary, with the two of them now forever locked in a game of wills over the fate of Gotham.
Deserved More: Nyssa al Ghul
In order to avenge her father’s death and fulfill his legacy, Nyssa al Ghul manipulated events so Gotham wouldn’t be reunified with the mainland and the city would be destroyed. Barbara Kean managed to wound Nyssa with the same knife that killed Ra’s al Ghul and Nyssa’s master plan is foiled. Yet, the wounded Nyssa still manages to escape Gotham in the submarine Barbara, Penguin, and the Riddler were going to use.
While her plan fails and she’s defeated, it still feels like Nyssa didn’t face dire enough consequences. She doesn’t truly pay for her crimes as she remains free and that is the last audiences see of her. There should’ve been a more definitive and epic ending for one of the show’s final and most important villains.
Fitting: Bruce Wayne
After all the gradual development throughout the series, fans finally got to see Bruce Wayne become Batman. The only way to properly end this show was for him to appear in the iconic Batman costume as he overlooked Gotham.
The show did exactly that and also gave glimpses of him in action against key members of his rogues’ gallery like the Joker, Penguin, and the Riddler. Reaching this point felt earned after everything that Bruce went through and worked toward throughout Gotham’s 5 seasons.
