Awesome / Gotham Season Four

Season 4

4x 1 Pax Penguina

• Bruce performing his second Stealth Hi/Bye on Gordon (the first since Season 1). The relationship between Batman and Gordon is beginning to be established.
  • Normally Batman pulls if off on a rooftop or alone with Gordon in the room, so bonus points to Bruce that in this instance, it's the middle of the day in a crowded police station.
• Gordon arresting a criminal even though he has a license given by Penguin. Basically giving Cobblepot a "fuck you".
  • And later, Gordon and Harvey manage to arrest the crooks using Crane's fear gas to commit crime without a license right from under Penguin, basically humiliating him in front of the media and establishing that the GCPD still protects Gotham City.
  • Before that, Gordon is in the locker room when a pack of cops enter, not happy about him changing up this plan that's lowering crime in Gotham. Although outnumbered, Gordon still throws the first punch, knowing he'll be overwhelmed but fighting for his principles.
  • Even Nygma gets in on the Kick The Penguin act, if only metaphorically: just seeing Ed's frozen body under the effect of the Crane fear-gas leaves Cobblepot cringing in helpless panic, clutching for Gordon's protection as a hallucinatory Riddler pursues and berates him. Too bad Ed missed that, he'd have been so pleased to see it...
• Everytime Bruce is in his prototype suit. He's come a long way from the scared boy who had to be rescued by Alfred, Gordon, and Selina on a daily basis.
  • We also get to see the first signs of him using his Bruce Wayne persona to aid his vigilantism, as he gets info from Penguin on the list for the criminal licenses.
• Selina walks into an alley with five men there, putting moves on her. She then manages to kick all their asses completely by herself with her whip and skills. Tabitha shows up to help watch her back but clearly, had faith in how Selina could handle herself.
• When Bruce gets the list from Penguin's bookmaker, he grabs it from the guy without even having to threaten him. He's so scared of Bruce in his suit that he basically hands it to him. Remember Bruce is still a teenager during all this and he's already inspiring that fear in people.
  • The fact that Bruce's stance and body language are strongly evocative of how the Talons stood and menaced people last season hints that his "look" is 100% calculated and pre-planned. Our young Batman-in-the-making is picking up techniques from everybody, good or otherwise, and he's learning fast.
• Let's face it: after seeing how much of a shit Grady'd been to a kidnapped, perpetually-terrified Jonathan, to say nothing of his actions during the robberies, seeing that guy get a face full of fear-gas from one of the creepiest live-action incarnations of the Scarecrow yet was extremely satisfying.

4x 2 The Fear Reaper

• The ending has Bruce Wayne finally putting on a prototype Batsuit, determined to defend the city of Gotham.
  • The usual minor key that goes with the ending title card is changed to a major key with a more triumphant feel. Gotham definitely feels the future protection and hope that Batman will soon bring.
• Gordon breaking free of the effects of the fear toxin through sheer willpower, then fighting off Crane and his brainwashed inmate army.

4x 4 The Demon's Head

• Ra's Al-Ghul walks into the GCPD headquarters, dressed nattily in a 3-piece suit, looking more like an accountant than a warlord, as a representative of the "Embassy of Nanda Parbat."

4 X 06 Hog Day Afternoon

• Pyg's slitting Harvey's throat non-fatally to make Jim choose between letting Harvey bleed out or letting Pyg escape.

4 X 07 A Day in the Narrows

• Pyg's Batman Gambit that gets half of the GCPD killed in the courthouse.

4x 10 Things That Go Boom

• Oswald, in true Penguin fashion, initially seems to have been out-gambitted by Sofia and the Sirens when they take Martin captive. Only for him to fake the boy's death to get him out of harm's way and sell how ruthless Oswald supposedly is. Sofia, who has played everyone like a fiddle thus far, clearly didn't see this coming, and it's a refreshing reminder of exactly why Oswald is the king of Gotham.
  Penguin: You wanted a war! You've got one!
• Before that is his epic burn to Sofia, which is oddly heartwarming as well and pretty satisfying to see her verbally taken down a notch.
  Oswald: It must be hard for you, living day in and day out trying to earn daddy's approval! I myself can't relate, seeing as my parents loved me without condition!

4 X 11 Queen Takes Knight

• Oswald's aide enters the office, telling his bodyguards they're waiting for instructions. The Sirens (with Sofia) take them out in three seconds.
• Oswald storms into police headquarters to demand Sofia, offering money to anyone who helps. One cop asks "Captain, can we...?" At Gordon's nod, several cops move in to drag Oswald and his goons away.
• This leads to a montage of the cops of Gotham doing their job, taking down Oswald's safehouses across the city.
• Although it's a serious case of The Bad Guy Wins, you have to give props to Sofia Falcone's evil plot coming to fruition. By the end of the episode, Penguin is out of the picture, Gordon has been brought to heel, and she is in complete control of Gotham. And she never had to leave her wheelchair.
• Unfortunately for her, she may not be in charge for long, considering the man next door to Penguin's cell who is proposing an alliance with him to take back Gotham - Jerome.
  Penguin: I know that laugh!

4 X 13 A Beautiful Darkness

• Bruce's nightmarish hallucination reaches a showstopping climax when he comes face-to-face with the one character that fans have been waiting for since the beginning: the God. Damn. Batman.
  Bruce: Why did you bring me here?! This is where my parents were killed!
  Batman: No. This is where I was born.
• After an episode of being humiliated and tormented by Jerome, Penguin gets in the (proto) Joker's good graces by making him laugh. How? By tricking him into getting close in a truly hilarious mime-off between the two, and then beating the ever-loving shit out of him.
  Oswald: (kicking Jerome and cackling hysterically) TRY LAUGHING NOW, YOU GINGER SAP! YES!!!!

4 X 14 Reunion

• Penguin's simple but effective Batman Gambit to drive Ed into a breakdown so that Riddler can take over again and help him.
• Bruce suiting up in a makeshift-Batman outfit to take out a few of Ivy's brainwashed Mooks.
  • The moment before we see Bruce return to the fight, the lights flicker and turn off. And Bruce appears out of the darkness. It's enough to raise goosebumps.
    Bruce: I'm getting you out of here, let's go!
    Alfred: These people need help. This is who you are.
• Bruce taking a major step towards his destiny after his frightening vision last episode. In many ways, him embracing all of himself is the titular "renunion" of the episode. "I'm going to help people. And if that means embracing all of myself, good and bad, then I will."
• Selina being the one to finally undo Ivy's plans.
• Horrifying as it is, Sofia handily out-gambitting Lee is pretty awesome.
  Lee: You'll never get out of here alive! My people will kill you!
  Sofia: Your people? Who do you think planted those guns?

4x 15 The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause

• Bruce and Selina handily curbstombing the fence and his goons. It begins when Bruce casually tosses Selina a blunt object and they start kicking ass. It ends when Bruce takes the money he'd brought to buy the fence off and tosses it on his unconscious body like a boss.
• The climax:
  Sofia: You!
  Lee: Yeah. ::BLAM:: Me.
  • And before that, from Gordon: "Sofia....go to Hell!"
• Riddler freeing Martin from Sofia's safehouse, and holding up against the Dentist's torture.
• Penguin bulls-eyeing two of Sofia's thugs from a fair distance away to save Riddler's life.

4x 16 One of My Three Soups

• Jerome, Jervis and Jonathan escaping Arkham Asylum before the opening credits.
• Selina disarms Jerome using her whip. Not bad from the stealth mistress!
• Selina outright tries to shoot Jerome. Unlike both Bruce and Gordon's angsting and attempts to take Jerome alive, Selina goes directly for the solution of just shooting him.. Had she succeeded, it might have ended everything there, as she later tells Bruce.
• "I can't save you. Save each other." And it works!
• Barbara taking command of the League of Shadows, giving a vicious summation to the other members that they are too weak for being unable to change. That is then followed up with five of the female assassins gunning down the others to cement themselves as strong to the new "Demon's Head".
  Barbara: Listen up! I am the Demon's Head! So you sons of bitches better start bowing down or it's gonna get ugly in here!
• By the end of the episode, Johnathan's got a brand new hooded Scarecrow mask that looks like it was ripped straight out of the Arkham games.

4x 17 Mandatory Brunch Meeting

• Harvey counters Jervis' attempt to hypnotize him by roaring and chasing after him while shooting, thus keeping Tetch too distracted to do anything. Cue him and Scarecrow having to run for their lives.
• Lee literally beating Riddler at his own game.
• The ending. Jerome and Crane have created Joker Gas.
• Jerome finding his way through Xander's labyrinth without help, simply because he knows how his brother thinks and paid attention to the mazes Jeremiah used to draw for fun.

4x 18 That's Entertainment

• Alfred gives Bruce a Cool Car for his birthday, a clear precursor to the Batmobile.
• The ending is a sight to behold. Jeremiah returns to his safehouse, seemingly free of any further harm now that Jerome is dead. Then he finds a present on his table, seemingly coming from Wayne Enterprises. The present's contents: a jack-in-the-box with a nozzle in it. It suddenly fires Joker Venom in Jeremiah's face as it quickly starts to eat away at his sanity...and then, at the end of it, Jeremiah does something that he hasn't done before in the series. Smile. 4 seasons in the making, and Gotham's worst nightmare has finally been born. Enter...The Joker.
• Oswald, disgusted by Jerome's plan, saves the day by commandeering the zeppelin carrying the Joker Gas and diverting it from Jerome's target, piloting it over the river to safety.
  Jim: Oswald Cobblepot. Gotham owes you its thanks.
• A rather quieter example than most of the above, but Jeremiah agreeing to give himself up to his brother as a hostage, despite having been so terrified of his brother from childhood that he hid himself in a mazelike bunker for six years, even before Jerome's first arrest for their mother's murder, is a pretty amazing act of courage. Especially as, when it becomes clear that Jerome has had the police snipers shot, Jeremiah is still in the general audience and could easily make a run for it. He gives himself up anyway, despite being obviously terrified of his brother.

4x 19 To Our Deaths and Beyond

• Barbara going up against Ra's and actually gaining the upper hand, forcing him to threaten Tabitha to get her to surrender the Demon's Head to him.
• Riddler tricking Penguin and Butch into helping him rob the bank, then double-crossing them.

4x 20 That Old Corpse

• Everything about Jeremiah Valeska in this episode. He firmly establishes himself as an Evil Genius and The Chessmaster, effortlessly playing everyone around him like a fiddle (including Bruce, Gordon, and Jerome's old followers) in a massive Batman Gambit. And literally no one saw him coming.
  • But the real kicker comes in towards the end, in a moment worthy of Jack Nicholson. After shooting one of Jerome's minions, Jeremiah calmly wipes the blood spatter from his face...revealing that his skin is white underneath. Well hello there, Mr. J.

4x 21 One Bad Day

• Gordon is held prisoner by Riddler so that he won't be able to tell anyone where Jeremiah's bombs are until Riddler and Lee extort pardons out of the mayor. Gordon responds by distracting Riddler then decking him, enabling an escape.
• Selina fighting Scarecrow and a couple of goons, knocking them out and forcing him to flee.
• Harvey, with a little help from Lucius, is able to disarm the bombs about to destroy Gotham.
• Oswald, Tabitha, Butch and Barbara try to force Jeremiah to hold the city for ransom with his bombs, most likely underestimating him because he became a criminal very recently and is also not as obviously Ax-Crazy as his brother. Cue Jeremiah shooting at them with a rocket launcher.

4x 22 No Man's Land

• Oswald waited two seasons for it, but he got his revenge on Butch and Tabitha for their roles in his mother's death.
• When the military come to arrest Jim Gordon, the entire damn GCPD pull their guns. They're not taking him again.
• The montage of all the Gotham Rogues taking a part of the city for themselves:
  • Penguin takes over City Hall, musing "This will do nicely". The layout is very similar to the Iceberg Lounge from Batman: Arkham City, implying that he's recreating his base of operations.
  • Mr Freeze calmly ices a bunch of mooks and takes over their territory.
  • Firefly has gained followers and orders them to create a ring of fire 10 blocks wide around their turf and to burn anyone who tries to stop them.
  • A looter comes across Scarecrow's lab and gets a face full of fear gas before being decapitated.
  • When the last of the male League of Shadow members show up to pledge their loyalty to Barbara since Ra's died again, she declares that men are the source of many of the problems plaguing her and the city, so she decides that the Siren's territory will be a man free zone. She has her female assassins kill them all and display their bodies as a warning for others.
• The closing scene of Bruce and Gordon standing atop GCPD Headquarters, with a very familiar light near them. It's the final shot of the season, and you know it means that in this chaos, Bruce will finally emerge as the hero he was always meant to be: BATMAN!!
• In this continuity, the Bat Signal has a predecessor in the GCPD Signal. Gotham City doesn't have to wait for the Batman's debut to know there's a light, and help to be had, in the darkness.