Recap / Gotham S5 E1 “Year Zero”

Getting the gang back together

Directed by Danny Cannon

Written by John Stephens

Day 391 of No Man's Land. It has been a full 13 months since Jeremiah Valeska and Ra's Al Ghul destroyed all the bridges connecting Gotham City to the mainland. In city hall, Penguin is arming himself for war, as is the Riddler, Harvey Bullock and Jim Gordon. They meet on top of the quarantine wall around No Man's Land and introduce themselves to what appears to be the remnants of the city's police force. They're working together. Whatever they're fighting, it must be bad to unite Gordon, Penguin and Riddler under common cause. Gordon gives the order to fire, and then they all do, firing down on an unknown paramilitary force piled up against the wall.

Day 87 of No Man's Land. In the GCPD, James Gordon is on the radio with a representative of the local government. Gordon is giving a rundown of the situation - the city's rogue's gallery have carved up various pieces of Gotham for themselves. Penguin controls city hall, and has an armaments factory in operation; Barbara and Tabitha are operating a 'women only' zone from the Sirens' Club, where men can buy time; Mister Freeze and Firefly are at war with each other in the north part of the city. The GCPD has ten blocks walled off for themselves and any civilians that didn't get out before the bridges blew. For everyone, supplies are running short, and no-one's seen Jeremiah since day 1. The representative confirms that they will not be offering any aid to the GCPD. If Jim wants to save Gotham, he's going to have to do it himself.

Riddler wakes up on the roof of a building, and can't remember how he got there. Groggily, he gets himself back to the Falcone mansion, where he has his base. He's alive, but he's been blacking out periodically and waking up with no memory of how he got there. He is convinced that his Ed persona is controlling him during these blackouts, but he can't speak to Ed. That's strange. Mr. Penn is back to working for Penguin, and he's out of the baby bib. He's come to the Sirens' Club to make a deal with Barbara and Tabitha - ammo in exchange for food. Barbara is open to it, but Tabitha would rather die than ever work with Oswald Cobblepot. Barbara accepts the deal, after tripling the amount of ammo offered, and Tabby storms out.

Across the city, one of the guards monitoring the quarantine wall around the GCPD territory sees shadows moving in the distance. He tries to get his partner's attention, but he's having none of it. He returns his gaze to the porthole in the wall, and Scarecrow appears in it, gassing the poor cop. He opens the gate in the wall, and brings his men through.

At the GCPD, the power suddenly goes out, prompting Gordon to go to check out the generator. Across the district, in the hospital, Bruce is with Selina as she is being prepped for surgery to repair as much of her spine as possible. They weren't able to get her out of the city in time, so she's been stuck here, with limited medical equipment. Bruce promises to stay with her, but then the power goes out. He quickly susses that it's sabotage intended to incapacitate them while someone sneaks in to steal the medicine, so he straps on some Lucius Fox® night vision goggles and goes down to the storeroom. He finds Scarecrow's men, all wearing what resemble plague doctor masks. With little effort, he dispatches two of them, but by then, the others have finished the job. As part of their exit, they turn the lights back on, blinding Bruce to their escape.

Back at GCPD, Gordon enters the power room and finds the main generator (not the Wayne Enterprises one) has been sabotaged. He investigates a little bit, and then Scarecrow appears; he figured that while he was there stealing the GCPD's food, he may as well kill Gordon, and so he tries. Gordon falters at first, but soon turns the tables and pushes Scarecrow back. Scarecrow's scythe hits a gas pipe, and he slips away behind the resulting burst of steam, right as his guys elsewhere in the building get away with the majority of the remaining rations.

Back in the bullpen, Lucius explains to Gordon that they have a week's rations left. Gordon orders to cut rations in half, and not for the first time, giving them two weeks at most to get more food, when Bruce shows up and tells them what happened at the hospital. He lets them know he has already drafted a helicopter to fly into the GCPD district and drop off supplies. The government will stop him doing it again, so it has to work this time. Bruce goes back to the hospital, where Selina sullenly tells him she thinks being his friend is what did her in. Meanwhile, at city hall, Penguin is getting a contraption fitted to his leg to fix his limp. He thinks it should have a knife attached. Mr. Penn is debriefing Penguin on the situation in the gun factories. The workers are hungry, and more are getting injured by the day; the quality of the guns being produced is falling sharply, with many misfiring and jamming. Penguin tells him he cannot fix the food problem, even as he eats a steak that he then feeds to his bulldog for being 'overcooked'.

On the roof of the GCPD, Bruce and Gordon see the helicopter coming in; it makes a pass around the GCPD and then proceeds down the street to find a better place to land. As it passes a junction, though, it is hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and goes down in a Lo Boyz warehouse. Aghast, Gordon mobilises the police force to go to the wreckage, and pick up the supplies before they are scavenged by the local gang.

At the crash site, the Lo Boyz are picking through the wreckage when Penguin shows up, flanked by rifle-toting goons in black dusters. He wants the supplies for himself. They kill all the Lo Boyz with minimum fuss and proceed towards the wreckage when the GCPD show up and draw their guns on them. Penguin informs Jim that he did not fire the RPG, and was not even aware there was a helicopter coming, and then tries to order Jim to take his cops and leave. Tabitha then gets the drop on all of them and kills half of Penguin's goons before grabbing Oswald himself. She holds a pistol to his face, then fires. The pistol misfires. Penguin, laughing at the irony, grabs the knife from his limp leg and stabs Tabitha, killing her. Barbara arrives just in time to see this, and overcome with hatred of Penguin, opens fire on him. A gunfight between all parties ensues. Bruce sneaks out of the warehouse and finds Penguin's truck, which is filled with ammo. He knocks out the two sentries and takes some. Back inside the warehouse, Barbara dispatches Penguin's remaining goons, but gets shot in the shoulder. Penguin advances on her when Jim walks out into the open again and offers Penguin a deal - 50% of the supplies for Barbara's life. Penguin makes Jim a terrible counter-offer, and then goads him with the fact he's out of ammo. Jim then draws his gun and shoots Penguin in his limp leg, using the ammo collected by Bruce. The GCPD can now collect the supplies.

Back at the GCPD, Echo, still in her harlequin costume, sneaks in and examines the radio Gordon has been using to contact the outside world. When Gordon appears, she vanishes. Someone unknown radios in and lets Gordon know that he has allies across the river, and the help will come. When he tries to get a name, he sees the map of Gotham he had put next to the radio, and the laughing face symbol used by Jerome's followers spray-painted over it. Meanwhile, in a dumpster in an alley, Riddler comes to again, and once again crawls back to the Falcone Mansion. He's losing his mind, more than usual. Where is Ed? Back at the Sirens' Club, Barbara swears that she will kill Penguin, and at City Hall, Penguin swears he will kill Barbara, as he is getting the bullet pulled out of his leg (without anaesthetic). At the hospital, Selina tries to kill herself with a scalpel that is left nearby, but is stopped by the nurses. After she is put back in bed, and Bruce tries to console her, a nurse tells him she must seek "The Witch" to properly heal. Amongst the refugees, Gordon is asking Lucius how much food they have - still not much, but more than they had. Gives them time. A cop comes close, holding the hand of a young boy, who told the cop he wanted to speak to Gordon. He tells Gordon that he came from across the city, where something is killing his brothers and sisters. Jim addresses the cops present, and asks them why they chose to stay behind when the bridges blew. He answers that it was to give people hope, that they would be protected even in darkness. He orders them to suit up. They're going to save these kids.

Tropes

• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Scarecrow and his gang invade the GCPD's territory in order to steal food and medicine.
• Ambiguous Situation: Whatever is happening to The Riddler. He blames his waking up in random places on the Ed persona but has yet to see or have a conversation with his other self so far.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Penguin has one back at his base remove the bullet in his leg. Unfortunately, because they seem to have little to no medical supplies, this has to be done without anything to dull the pain.
• Badass Longcoat: Penguin’s mooks all wear black leather dusters.
• Batman Cold Open: The episode starts 10 months after the events of the episode proper, over a year into No Man's Land, and sees Gordon, Bullock, Penguin and Riddler uniting along with the remnants of the GCPD and firing into a group of paramilitary stationed outside the quarantine wall. When we return after the intro, it's 10 months prior, and our heroes are dealing with a very different threat— that of starvation.
• Big "NO!": Barbara, when Tabitha is stabbed by Penguin.
• Bittersweet Ending: Jim and Bruce manage to acquire enough supplies to last for six more weeks and they got friends on the outside helping them (most likely in secret without the government's knowledge), but Tabitha is dead, Penguin and Barbara are preparing to go to war with each other, Penguin has put a large bounty out on Jim's head, and Jeremiah is implied to be back.
• Blatant Lies: Penguin claims that he cannot properly feed his workers because he doesn't have enough food to give. He says this while tossing out an expensive steak to his dog just because it was overcooked.
• Blinded by the Light: Happens to Bruce when the lights come back on while he's fighting Scarecrow's men due to him wearing night vision goggles.
• Came Back Wrong: Something is wrong with The Riddler following Strange saving his life at the end of last season. He keeps blacking out and finding himself places without remembering how he got there, and while he blames this on his Ed persona resurfacing, the latter isn’t manifesting in hallucinations anymore.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • A near-literal example: Mr. Penn warns Penguin that some of his manufactured bullets are flawed and causing misfires. During the episode's climax, one of these causes Tabitha's gun to misfire before she can kill Penguin, allowing him to kill her instead.
  • When first testing out his new leg brace, Oswald notes that it's missing something and tells his workers to put a knife on it; he then uses that knife to kill Tabitha when she's distracted trying to unjam her gun.
• Chewing the Scenery: Penguin and Barbara are in the same episode. It's a given.
  Barbara: I WILL KILL HIM!!
• Conflict Killer: In the episode's Cold Open, someone has united the GCPD, Penguin, and Riddler together in order to protect Gotham.
• Conspicuous Consumption: While Penguin's people are passing out from starvation, Penguin himself enjoys professionally cooked meals...and then feeds the entire thing to the dog because the meat was overcooked.
• Death Seeker: The crippled Selina has become suicidal.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Despite last being seen last season in the middle of being evacuated, Alfred and Selina failed to get out of the city.
• Despair Event Horizon: Selina is still devastated months after being crippled by Jeremiah, to the point she attempts to take her own life.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The opening shows Bullock at a bar, apparently having what could be his last drink. But when we cut back to him leaving the bar, we see he didn't even take a sip.
• Enemy Mine: The opening shows Gordon, Penguin, and Riddler working together against an unknown paramilitary force.
• Evil vs. Evil: In addition to Penguin's ongoing rivalry with the Sirens, Gordon mentions that Freeze and Firefly are at war with each other over territory.
• Foregone Conclusion: It's possible the U.S. military is attacking Gotham at the opening, as a result of constantly disobeying the government and getting outside help.
• Give My Regards in the Next World: Penguin tells Tabitha to say hello to Butch for him right before killing her.
• Ground by Gears: Mr. Penn mentions this has happened to one of the workers at the factory Penguin is using to make ammunition, due to passing out from hunger.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Subverted and played straight with the same thing: Penguin's bullets. In the first case, Tabitha attempts to kill him with them but a misfire gives him the opportunity to kill her. In the second, Penguin mocks Jim for his lack of ammo, not realizing that Bruce had snuck around back and raided one of Penguin's trucks and supplied the GCPD with his own ammo. Jim then proceeds to shoot him in the leg.
• How We Got Here: We open on day 391 of No Man's Land, and see Gordon, Bullock and the rest of the GCPD uniting with Penguin and the Riddler to make a last stand against an unknown paramilitary threat from the quarantine wall. After the intro, we jump to day 87, and the rest of the season creeps back up to day 391, explaining what could unite these diametrically-opposed characters.
• In Medias Res: The episode opens more than a year after No Man's Land was declared, with Gordon leading the defense as the GCPD is laid to siege by a heavily armed force. Then it cuts back to just under three months after the city was sealed off, leaving the rest of the season to reach that point.
• Irony: Attempted by Tabitha, wanting to use Penguin's own bullets to kill him, but a defect (which Oswald himself had dismissed) causes a misfire, saving his life and giving him the opportunity to kill her.
• It's Personal:
  • Barbara constantly tells Tabitha to be patient about killing Penguin, but then he stabbed Tabitha to death.
  • Likewise, despite their history, Penguin wants Gordon dead for shooting him in his right leg.
• Killed Off for Real: Penguin stabs Tabitha in the heart.
• Knee Capping: To stop Penguin from killing Barbara and taking the supplies from the helicopter, Jim shoots him in his injured leg.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The last of Penguin's mooks wisely sets down his gun and puts his hands up after the rest are gunned down by a rearmed GCPD.
• Mêlée à Trois: The shootout at the climax is between the GCPD, Penguin's gang, and Barbara.
• Mook Horror Show: Bruce picking off the Scarecrow goons at the clinic in the dark. Made even better by his night vision goggle POV.
• Not Me This Time: Penguin denies being the one who shot down the supply drop helicopter, as he had no way of knowing it was coming. When Gordon is dubious, Penguin points out that he would openly admit doing it as "it's not like you can arrest me."
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: The Government. Particularly the person Gordon is talking to through the radio. He constantly has to remind Gordon, obviously annoyed that Gordon refuses to listen.
• Pragmatic Hero: Jim could have easily killed Penguin when he had the opportunity and have one less villain to deal with, but Penguin's death would mean his turf would be up for grabs, and with his stockpile of weapons and ammunition factory, anyone who gets their hands on it could spell serious trouble for Jim and his people. So while Jim is not exactly thrilled at Penguin's set up, he's arguably the best person to be in that position.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Tabitha doesn't want to trade with Penguin for obvious reasons, but Barbara points out that they need his ammo in order to protect the women they're sheltering, and even bargains to get 2,000 more rounds on top of the 1,000 initially offered.
  • Instead of killing her immediately, Penguin gives Barbara the chance to just close the chapter on the whole Tabitha/Butch thing and walk away from wanting revenge, knowing that (1) if he kills Barbara, her followers will hunt him down, and (2) Barbara is somehow able to acquire fresh food, which is a luxury right now, so having her alive is in his all around best interests.
• Revenge Before Reason: Tabitha jumps at the first chance she gets to kill Penguin instead of coming up with a more thorough plan, which results in her death.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Weaponized as a force for Good: Bruce Wayne uses his money and connections to defy the military blockade of Gotham and fly supplies into the city.
• Series Continuity Error: Alfred claims that they tried to get Selina out of the city, but the bridges were blown up before they got the chance. The problem is, Alfred and Bruce didn't get back to the hospital until after dealing with Ra's and Jeremiah, where the bridges were blown up during the fight.
• Status Quo Is God: Early in the episode, Oswald is fitted with a leg brace that all but eliminates his limp. Later on, he gets shot in the knee, and as the flash forward to Day 391 shows, even with the brace on, he ends up getting the limp back.
• Suicide Mission: Tabitha knew there would be no way she'd escape alive after killing Penguin, but took the chance to get her revenge for Butch.
• Tempting Fate: Penguin mocks Jim for attempting to bargain when he has nothing to offer and is out of ammo, unaware that Bruce had raided Penguin's own truck for bullets. This leads to all but one of Penguin's mooks getting killed and him being shot in the leg.
• This Means War!: After the shootout over the helicopter supplies, Penguin puts a bounty on Gordon's head and Barbara swears revenge on Penguin.
• Villain Has a Point: When Penguin threatens to kill Jim and the rest of the GCPD, Jim fires back, asking what Penguin thinks the government would do in response to his murder of the last cops in Gotham. Penguin laughs and says "Nothing!" Considering that the government has cut off the city and refused to help at all, he may be right.
• Weird Currency: Because actual money is basically worthless in the city now, when Penguin puts out a bounty on Jim for shooting him, the reward is 100,000 bullets.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Oswald now has a bulldog that he named "Edward".
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: While Jim does shoot Penguin, Harvey says he should've shot to kill.
• You Are Not Alone: A mysterious voice over the radio assures Gordon that he has friends outside.