Ladies, gentlemen and Batman fans of all types, our long national nightmare has come to an end now that Gotham has officially come to a Season 1 close. Bullets flew, Riddlers riddled and bats fluttered, so find out if “All Happy Families Are Alike” with our spoilery review of Gotham‘s first season finale!

Yes indeed, you’re warned of all the Gotham spoilers for tonight’s finale from here on out, but even as Bruce Wayne remains a good decade away from donning a cape and cowl, he now has yet another area of Wayne Manor to mope the years away. Tonight’s “All Happy Families are Alike” began and ended with Bruce frantically searching his father’s study for secrets supposedly suggested by Lucius Fox last week, with Alfred predictably nonplussed by all the disorder.

Still, at the last moment Bruce clued in on Fox’s description of his father as a “stoic,” finding a book on the Stoic philosophy that carried a hidden remote in its back cover. What did the mysterious button activate, you wonder, if not a bomb as Alfred suggested (we wish)? Why, a hidden passage behind the fireplace to a cavernous downstairs, complete with fluttering bats! What will Gotham make of Thomas Wayne’s own pre-batcave? We have no idea, and we’ll bet they don’t either!

Gotham Season Finale Review Batcave
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Gotham Season Finale Review Batcave
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Granted, Gotham itself had plenty going within the city limits this week, as Maroni and Falcone’s mob war plagued the city, landing Falcone in the hospital and awaiting a city-sanctioned mob execution. Penguin seemed happy to start the violence off himself, but wouldn’t you know it, that do-gooder Jim Gordon stepped in at the last moment to protect Falcone, believing the aged gangster the “best bad man” for the city over Maroni.

Gotham Season Finale Review Falcone
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One standoff with Comissioner Loeb and a suped-up John Woo gunfight later, Gordon, Falcone, Bullock, Butch and Penguin all found themselves in Falcone’s safehouse, when out walked yet another surprise to turn the tables: Fish Mooney! Yes, having returned to town some weeks earlier (and apparently recruited Selina, because Gotham), a freshly-shorn Fish and her new gang prepared to hand over the foursome to Maroni in exchange for her old turf. Well, except for Bullock, because “we’re cool.”

Gotham Season Finale Review Selina Fish
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If you’d guess that didn’t go so smoothly, fish dinner’s on us! Maroni’s repeated insistence of belittling Fish by calling her “underboss” and “babes” earned him a bullet to the brain, kicking off a warehouse-wide shootout that…somehow killed no one important, and landed Gordon and Falcone right back in Fish’s custody anyway. This time around, Penguin returned to kick off another shootout, letting Jim and the others go free while he pursued Fish to the rooftop above.

Penguin and Fish seemed evenly matched, at least until Butch showed up confused about which of his bosses to kill, apparently owing to that brainwashing the show had barely discussed (seriously, remember that?). Butch came to his senses after shooting at either, but inadvertently left Penguin the opportunity to finish the job, hurling Fish off the roof into the water below. Not exactly a conclusive exit for Jada Pinkett Smith, but Penguin seemed pretty happy with it.

Gotham Season Finale Review Penguin
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Mob drama wasn’t the only knock-down-drag-out fight this week either, as an eerily calm Barbara agreed to trauma counseling with Leslie Thompkins (apparently medical doctors can do this), both women discussing the events of the season at Barbara’s apartment. Barbara naturally prodded about Leslie’s relationship with Jim, but really delivered a pointed shocker in revealing that she’d been the one to murder her parents last week, not the Ogre as implied. Yep, Babs is talking loco, and we like it.

Summoning the strength of every slasher flick combined, Barbara lunged at Leslie and attempted to make the good doctor her next victim, even bludgeoning through the bathroom door, Shining-style. Leslie managed to get the upper hand just long enough for a weary Jim and the others to arrive at the apartment, and break up the melee. Barbara has officially gone cuckoo-pants, and wouldn’t you know, it Season 2 will probably try to shoehorn her back in anyway.

Oh, and speaking of crazy, Ms. Kringle caught onto that “NYGMA” clue in our future Riddler’s suspicious Dear John from Officer Daugherty. He then proceeded to go crazy. That’s really all there ever was to this, guys.

Back at the loft (apparently we glossed over Barbara being hauled off), Falcone promised to retire from a life of crime, musing that Gotham needed a firm lawman like Jim Gordon moreso than an organized criminal. To wit, Falcone even handed over a knife he’d been noodling with over the hour, noting that Gordon’s father had given it to him as a gift, honest man though he was.

Well, what now? Bruce going batty opened up our first look at a familiar cave, but what preposterous secrets might the late Thomas Wayne have had to justify such an elaborate hideaway? What will Penguin do with his new moniker as the King of Gotham? Will Barbara go full-on supervillain for Season 2? Perhaps a team-up with an equally crazy Riddler lies in store!

A messy end to Gotham‘s disaster of a first season, but an admittedly entertaining one. We’ll bring you the latest on Season 2 as FOX beats a dead bat for any and all origin avenues to explore, but how did Gotham fare by its first season finale, “All Happy Families Are Alike?”

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