Recap / Gotham S 5 E 10 I Am Bane

Directed by Kenneth Fink

Written by James Patrick Stoteraux & Chad Fiveash

On the precipice of Gotham’s reunification, Gordon and Bruce find themselves face-to-face with a newly transformed Eduardo, and discover the real mastermind behind the city’s current chaos. Meanwhile, a pregnant Barbara turns to Lee for help.

Tropes

• Actually Pretty Funny: Lee earnestly tells Barbara that she does not have to flee Gotham, Lee will help her raise her baby. Barbara can tell she means it. Then they both reflect on their shared history and start laughing.
  Barbara: Well that's just weird.
  Lee: [laughing] I know.
  Barbara: "Hey, baby, this is your Auntie Lee. Mommy tried to kill her a few times."
  [They laugh harder.]
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Suggested In-Universe by Oswald to Edward: did Ed hide the fact he'd already recovered the submarine part they needed so the two of them could buy Barbara time to escape, or did he do it to try to protect Lee?
• Badass Boast: Bane gets plenty of these.
  Bane: Barbara Kean... your time is up...
  Bane: You cannot run from your sins, and you cannot run from me.
• Batman Gambit: Nyssa willingly allows Bruce and Gordon to escape so that they will bring the general back to the base where he can formally order Gotham to be destroyed.
• Big Damn Heroes: Bane is about to kill Lee, Barbara and her baby when Alfred suddenly runs him over and saves them.
• Big "NO!": Selina has this reaction when she sees that Bane has beaten Alfred to near death.
• Body Horror: The surgery that Eduardo undergoes is extremely painful and turns his veins bulging green and his eyes a bloody red. Not to mention the gaping hole in his chest that Gordon gave him.
• Buried Alive: Bane tells Gordon that the guards of Pena Dura played a "game" with the prisoners by doing this to them and then taking bets on whether they'd be able to free themselves. If a prisoner ended up being successful, they were then buried deeper and had to try again.
• Came Back Strong: After getting fatally wounded by Gordon, Eduardo endures an agonizing venomization process by Hugo Strange which gives him super strength and nigh invulnerability.
• Canon Character All Along: Theresa Walker is actually Nyssa al Ghul, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Barbara forces this on Penguin and Riddler when she steals a vital part of the submarine, forcing them to help her escape instead of leaving her to die.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: While they're fleeing the hospital in the middle of Bane's assault, Lee can't help but ask Barbara just how many people she's screwed over.
  Oswald: Current company excluded?
• Cold-Blooded Torture:
  • Nyssa has Bane savagely beat Gordon within an inch of his life. While the beating is for Bane's benefit, Bruce's psychological torment as he watches is for Nyssa's.
  • Discussed when Barbara claims that any torture Edward or Oswald could inflict on her to try to get the location of the part they need would pale in comparison to her labor pains.
• The Corrupter: Bane attempts to be this to Gordon, desperately wanting him to be a ruthless Knight Templar like himself, even having Strange perform the venom upgrade on him.
• Creepy Monotone: Bane barely raises his voice throughout the episode, though he is no less intimidating due to the voice modifier his gas mask has.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Now that he has been upgraded with super strength and invulnerability, Bane effortlessly crushes both Alfred and Selina. This is contrasted with his fight with Gordon in his last appearance where he was bested by him until his men intervened.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Played for Laughs when Nygma calls out Oswald for accidentally pointing his gun at Barbara's unborn baby.
• False Reassurance: Completely Averted. Unlike with his past test subjects where he would use a comforting euphemism for the experiments they would endure, Strange directly tells Eduardo that his transformation will be agonizing. And lengthy.
• Forced to Watch: Nyssa punishes Bruce for killing her father by forcing him to look on as Bane beats Gordon.
• Game-Breaking Injury: It's suggested that Bane breaking Alfred's back means that the latter is finished as a fighter and a bodyguard, explaining his future role as Batman's butler and behind the scenes assistant.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Bane actually Lampshades this and appears to be proud of what he's become.
  Bane: If the world is full of monsters, the only way to defeat them is to become one yourself.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The serum Strange gives Gordon accidentally increases his strength so much that he is able to break free from his restraints and attack Strange. Though since Nyssa wanted him to escape as part of her plan, this may have been intentional.
• Honorary Uncle: Touched by Lee's sympathy, Barbara calls her the baby's "Auntie Lee."
• Hope Spot: There are several just to show how deadly and serious the threat that Nyssa and Bane pose is.
  • An especially cruel one at the beginning. Lucius had finally successfully filtered out all of Jeremiah's toxins out of the harbor, and Gordon had just brokered a peace between the warring factions with Barbara's help. The general announces that reunification can begin as soon as possible, but then Bane shows up...
  • Oswald and Nygma detonate an impromptu explosive in front of Bane's face and it takes out his soldiers and seems to work as they exclaim in excitement... then Bane shrugs it off completely as he is now fireproof.
  • Bruce and Gordon finally get the general back to the army base and it seems like he is about to call in the reinforcements... then it turns out Strange did put in the mind control chip after all and he then orders Gotham to be burned to the ground.
  • Lee and Barbara make it to The Sirens with the baby... only to find that Barbara's henchwomen have been slaughtered by Nyssa, who was waiting for them.
• Idiot Ball: Both Alfred and Gordon pick this up.
  • Gordon breaks free from his restraints and attacks Strange and for some reason allows him to run off and sound the alarm, despite having ample time to knock him out had he not allowed him to finish his monologue.
    • Strange too, for waiting until Gordon was awake so he could be told just what was going to be done to him instead of just starting the procedure while he was unconscious.
  • Alfred runs Bane over with a car and orders Lee and Barbara to drive off without him, even though Bane was still incapacitated at the time and he could've easily just sped off with them.
• Imperiled in Pregnancy: Bane attacks the hospital just as Barbara's baby is coming.
• Irrational Hatred: Nyssa fixates on punishing Bruce and mostly blames him for her father's death, even though he never intended to kill him and was instead forced to do so by Barbara. To her, however, Barbara is merely an afterthought and she casually sends Bane to dispose of her while she continues to torture Bruce. It could be possible that she blames Bruce's destiny for killing her father, as the prophecy involving him and Bruce drove Ra's to become a Death Seeker.
• It's Personal: The reason Theresa Walker is so dead set on destroying Gotham: she's actually Nyssa al Ghul, Ra's' daughter, and is doing all of this to get revenge on Bruce for killing her father. She also sends Bane after Barbara because of her past involvement with Ra's, and having helped to kill him.
• Juggling Loaded Guns: A bit of Black Comedy ensues when Oswald is holding Barbara and Lee at gunpoint. He was absentmindedly aiming the barrel at Barbara's belly, and Lee chastises him for apparently threatening the unborn baby. Oswald petulantly protests that he didn't intend to do so and was just making a "general threatening gesture," and then exasperatedly apologizes when Eddie chimes in that Oswald did indeed point the gun at the baby.
• Made of Iron: Alfred puts up an amazingly tough fight against Bane despite losing. Considering that Bane is able to kill people with a single punch, it speaks volumes that Alfred not only survives (barely) but is actually able to get a few licks in as well.
• Mama Bear: Barbara draws two pistols and shoots down two of Bane's goons. From a wheelchair. While in labor.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Hugo Strange helps a member of the al Ghul family order a mass military bombing of a walled off and especially dangerous area of Gotham City. Sounds familiar.
  • Additionally, Nyssa's desire to make Bruce suffer by destroying his beloved city is very similar to Bane and Talia's plan in The Dark Knight Rises, as is Bane having been in a pit and having a deep connection to Ra's al Ghul's daughter (though in this case, she saved him).
  • Bane (apparently) breaking someone's back, although this time it's Alfred.
• Neck Snap: This appears to be Bane's preferred method of killing after his transformation.
• The Needs of the Many: When Gordon pleads for Bane to spare Barbara as she is carrying his child, Bane coldly replies that one soul against the weight of the world is irrelevant to him. Though he says it in such a mocking tone, it likely he just wants to kill his child to spite him and uses the needs of the world as a sarcastic excuse.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Bane's upgrade has rendered him immune to both bullets and fire in addition to his super strength. The only thing that hurts him at all is Alfred running him over with a car, and even that barely slows him down.
• No-Sell: Bane has become so strong that almost none of the attacks thrown at him hurt him seriously. Not even Penguin and Riddler detonating a bunch of gas tanks in his face makes him flinch. The most prominent example is Alfred throwing everything he's got at him and him barely reacting at all. The only thing that "worked" was Alfred hitting him with a car, and that was more because he was knocked off his feet and had to get back up.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: While it was previously suggested that Nyssa wanted to invade Gotham in order to purge it of all criminals, it's revealed here that she simply wants to get revenge on Bruce and Barbara, and by extension the city the former loves for killing her father. Furthermore, Bane's motive has twisted into purging the world of the weak and corrupting Jim Gordon.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Gordon is absolutely shocked and horrified when he sees Eduardo after his transformation into Bane. It's one of the few times his stoic composure breaks under pressure.
  • Edward and Oswald have one when they see that their plan to blow up Bane didn't work and he just strolls through the fire it created, calmly patting out a flame on one of his arms.
• Pet the Dog: Nygma reveals that he still cares for Lee when he hides the submarine part from Oswald so that he will help him protect her.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Horribly subverted. Alfred uses one on Bane before going at him, but then proceeds to suffer a painful and one sided beating.
  Alfred: Well you're a big one, ain't cha? Let's see what you've got! (gets punched so hard he coughs up blood)
• Pregnant Badass: Barbara fends off two attackers with dual pistols while going through labor.
• The Purge: Special Order 386. A military order that allows Gotham to be bombed to rubble if it were deemed beyond salvation. The brainwashed military general gives the order at the end of the episode.
• The Reveal: Theresa Walker is Nyssa al Ghul and wants to destroy Gotham in order to avenge her father.
• Say My Name: Penguin furiously screams out Barbara's name when he realizes that she has stolen a part of the submarine, ironically mirroring Barbara's vow to kill him as revenge for Tabitha's death at the beginning of the season.
• Screaming Birth: Barbara, since Lee doesn't have any of the proper sedatives to give her for the pain.
• Shaped Like Itself: Oswald has this to say when Barbara complains about his loot being too heavy.
  Oswald: Because you know what's worth its weight in gold? (Beat) GOLD!
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Bane gives Gordon a Hannibal Lecture about the new era he's ushering in, only for Gordon to cut him off and say he's heard it all before.
• The Social Darwinist: Nyssa and Bane do not particularly care about justice or punishing criminals, their top priority is ridding the world of the weak.
• Sudden Downer Ending: Bruce and Gordon escape from Bane, reaching the safe hospital in time. Then it turns out Strange also put a chip in the general's head and orders him to bomb the entire city of Gotham. Meanwhile, Lee and Barbara go to The Sirens with the baby for safety, only to find that Nyssa arrived there before them and killed everyone there.
• That Man Is Dead: Bane emphasizes that he is no longer the man James Gordon once knew.
  Jim: Eduardo?
  Bane: Not anymore.
  
  Bane: Eduardo's dead, Jim. There is only Bane now.
• Three-Month-Old Newborn: Barbara's baby, obviously.
• Trailers Always Lie: The trailer for the episode shows scenes that are not present in the episode. Such scenes include Bane firing an RPG at the border, Bane threatening to kill Selina, and Bane murdering an army officer for defying him.
• Trash the Set: The entire city is firebombed at the end of the episode.
• Vader Breath: Bane's gas mask doubles as a breathing apparatus as the injury Gordon gave him seems to have permanently damaged his lungs. This gives him very labored and mechanical breathing as a result.
• Villainous Friendship: A one-sided example. The same way Jeremiah views Bruce as his best friend, Bane still considers Gordon to be his comrade and does everything in his power to corrupt him, including forcing the venom surgery on him.
• Wham Episode: Gordon's baby is born, Alfred is possibly crippled, Nyssa al Ghul is out to get revenge on Bruce, and Gotham is now under attack by rogue military forces.
• Wham Line: When Walker reveals her true identity.
  Walker: My name is Nyssa al Ghul... And revenge is just the beginning of what I want.
• The Worf Effect: Bane effortlessly beats up Alfred, a tough as nails Battle Butler, in order to show off his new super strength.
• You Killed My Father: Nyssa wants to destroy Gotham as revenge against Bruce for killing her father.