Gotham Season 4 Premiere Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"Pax Penguina"

Ever since Gotham first graced our television screens back in 2014, I honestly didn't have the slightest clue as to where the series would go as I felt the tone and direction were never completely clear to me. Now we're entering its 4th season and I'm jumping up and down like a little child at the thought of seeing Batman in his pre-Batsuit vigilante years. Who would've ever thought that we'd would reach this point in the legendary comic book character's history? Not only am I happy to say that Gotham has earned its right to show Bruce in a makeshift costume fighting crime without coming across as forced, but the Season 4 premiere promises quite an amazing adventure for fans all around the board. Let's dive into what makes this arguably the greatest season premiere of the entire series thus far.

A Guardian Watches Over

In just the opening sequence alone, Gotham has already delivered what fans have been clamoring for since the series first premiered back in late 2014. You have the iconic imagery of vigilante Bruce Wayne (bat suit or no bat suit) looking over Gotham city in all of its dark and ominous glory. Those of you who have followed the Penny For Your TV Thoughts reviews will know how highly the artistic direction gets praised here since the series made its 2nd season run. Season 4 seems to continue this tradition by letting the visuals both beautifully and powerfully take over as an essential part of the storytelling giving us our spotlight heroic image without any need for words. It is through Bruce Wayne's determined look that we're already given a sense of passed time between the previous finale's end tag and now. In a sense, we are looking at a hero currently in deep with his career as opposed to a complete amateur.

Kicking things off the right way, we actually get to see Bruce get his hands dirty (or fists and boots to be more specific) with some muggers who so happen to pick the wrong time and place to target an innocent couple. Sounds like a classic Batman scenario doesn't it? There's even the classic villain lurking in the shadows moment with a dramatic soundtrack cue to seal the deal as we see a smirking and quite creepily stalking Ra's Al Ghul watching over Bruce's victory from a distance. My inner Batman nerd kept happily referencing the 90's animated series (which is still to this day a gold mine of Batman history worth re-watching) reminding me that "Yes, Gotham is the quality show that fans of the cape crusader should at least try out now more than ever" despite its shaky beginnings. At this point, Season 4 is looking quite promising so far.

Oswald's Alternative Solution To Crime

During Bruce's criminal takedown, we got a quick glimpse of what appeared to be a license giving the muggers legality to actually commit crime. Now, at first this concept sounded utterly ridiculous which only got worst during Victor Zsasz's follow up scene where we saw said license being exercised at a wedding. However, this is where excellent world building comes in to save the day as we get an excellent scene where Penguin negotiates with the city's new mayor cementing the legitimacy of the license. In another comic book television series like Daredevil or even Arrow, this plot point would have never flied whatsoever, but with the growing sense of insanity and political corruption brewing since Season 1, this negotiation scene actually felt appropriate for where we currently stand in the city's growing history of chaos.

We're now knee deep in a world of costumed villains (some with powers mind you) and vigilantes so much that a license to commit crime actually doesn't sound as completely off the wall as one might think. Now, I wasn't a huge fan of how quickly the mayor jumped onboard the "I want a percentage of the cut" conversation, but considering that Gotham will most likely never enlist a completely clean political leader who isn't solely out for themselves, this actually works in context. Aside from this interesting new piece to the city's expanding lore being an attempt to unionize crime, the scene itself was perhaps one of my favorite Penguin moments yet. I'm probably in the small minority here, but I actually enjoy seeing Oswald's more subdued moments where you can feel a seething psychotic outburst just waiting to happen. This is where I feel Robin's performance shines the most.

Of course it wouldn't be a Gotham episode without Jim going against the flow of things for the greater good as we see this criminal license dilemma continue at the GCPD. After Gordon arrests a robber casually exercising his right to rob a bar (alright maybe this does sound kinda outrageous), Bullock tries to convince him to play along considering the city's now "improved" crime stats. This actually perfectly calls back to Season 1 where we'd see Jim doing the right thing as a police officer while Bullock would attempt to sway him towards a more shady route towards justice. You gotta appreciate the consistency in character writing here over the course of 3 seasons. Jim sees a crime; he pursues it despite the cost. It's as simple as that no matter how drastically the climate of craziness changes. It's one of the things that I admire about the show: attention to character.

Batman: Year One

There are several things that are worth praising about the series now that we've had a pretty solid idea on what the team behind and in front of the cameras can do. However, if you were to ask me what is the one thing above everything else that truly makes me geek out to no end whenever the moment comes, it will always be the interactions between Bruce and Alfred. This is a Batman series after all even if the world's greatest detective hasn't visually showed up yet, so seeing Alfred and Bruce having deep conversations about destiny, missions, training, etc. always gets me immediately giddy like a child. One of my favorite moments of this episode is the point to where we see Alfred trying to guide Bruce away from cluttering his ultimate mission with other side goals. It's something that we've never really seen emphasized in the films or animated series showing a different side to the legend.

Batman is known to be arguably the most focused comic book hero in the history of the genre yet we forget the simple fact that he is indeed human at the end of the day. Wouldn't Batman have wrestled with the issue of having several important missions coexisting at the same time? Protecting an entire city from daily crime, dealing with personal issues, training to take on a powerful and mysterious villain, and still remembering to eat breakfast makes up the majority of one guy's life which is utterly insane. We don't normally get to see the mental toll that it takes on Bruce which is what makes me highly intrigued to see how the show will dive into it.

The beauty of Gotham as a whole is getting the behind the curtains look into the world of Batman prior to his arrival and its scenes like Alfred attempting to mentor a dangerously committed Bruce that truly cements that idea here. It also helps that the performances between David Mazouz and Sean Pertwee continue to be a highlight of the show.

After getting intel from Gordon about Oswald's licenses (which sounds like I'm talking about Batman already but we'll get to that later), Bruce enters the Iceberg Lounge in order to get closer to Penguin's ultimate scheme. It's here here we get even more allusions to the cape crusader in his beginnings as Bruce uses his "rich boy persona" to talk his way around Oswald as a powerful figure in order to get the information that he needs. What I absolutely loved about this entire club scene as far as Bruce's segments go is how Alfred attempts to stop him from possibly overstepping his position. Again, we know Bruce Wayne in the future to have to ability to play off both sides of his persona perfectly, so it's fun to see how this method of playing to his celebrity status started.

Once our beloved group of bandits get captured by Oswald, I honestly started to geek out a little at the immediate response by Bruce as he swiftly turns to Alfred and begins planning out the best way to take them out. Again, it's this dangerously committed mentality with our vigilante in training that so far makes for a really entertaining and fascinating new arc for the character. I also really admired that Alfred doesn't just go along with his plan right away but instead quickly shuts him down. This moment alone perfectly leads the bread crumb trail of foreshadowing for what would eventually be Bruce's downfall at the end of the episode.

After things go immediately sideways following Oswald's failure to show dominance over the situation, we get another solid action scene (which this episode is satisfyingly filled with) as the GCPD rolls in to save the day along with their reputation. This however leads to one of the most tension filled scenarios towards the end of the episode after Bruce does his awesome pre-Batman light manipulating entrances to take the information that he needs from Penguin's license collaborator. Seriously, it gives me chills to my comic book loving bones that I'm even able to see this type of imagery on TV right now. In his vigilante getup, Bruce prowls the rooftops of a building which is in mid robbery only to accidentally fall through the cracked glass ceiling. I honestly wasn't sure what was more heart racing between the robbers having the option to shoot him or the GCPD popping up to find him.

These are the type of scenarios that I've been hoping to see explored from the moment the series was first announced, so you can imagine how happy I am to see just the season premiere alone introducing these concepts. Batman is known to be one of the closest things to perfection that you can ever find in a comic book hero career-wise, so it's rare that we ever get to experience his questionably arrogant and failed beginnings on the field. It's awesome to finally be able to see all of the mishaps that shaped Bruce into the crime fighting legend that he eventually becomes down the line. From what I've seen so far here, this season promises to deliver highly on what many fans have been begging for being a deeper look into the birth of the Dark Knight himself.

Catwoman's Origins

After the Season 3 finale left our beloved Selena Kyle with a new mentor (and a whip for good fan service measure), I was curious as to where we'd find our sassy street cat kid. To my delight, Season 4 kicks off Selena's story by paralleling Bruce Wayne's introduction via a street thug beat down sequence presenting our pre-Catwoman Kyle in action. Much like Bruce's scene, the fight choreography is solid here as is the overall direction showing off the swift and athletic fighting style of our new crime fighting...I mean...criminal..stealing?...trainee. As icing on the cake, we also get to see that badass whip in action which I'm pretty sure will get its spotlight during the course of the season.

I also really enjoyed the fun dynamic between both Selena and Tabitha getting teased with Selena suggesting that they grab a pizza after getting a lesson in fully taking down an enemy. Although we're not treated with a whole lot of scenes with the two together, the episode does offer up the perfect amount of bonding scenes to sell us on why these two were basically destined to team up inevitably. Funny, I never thought I'd be using this terminology now and with this character specifically, but I do believe Gotham has officially teased its first legitimate costumed dynamic duo, and I absolutely love it.

The Crane Legacy: Scarecrow Origins

One of my all time favorite things about the Batman mythology back when I was a young kid gazing at comics in grocery stores or watching the animated series was seeing the origins to some of the more bizarre and visually profound characters in the city's gallery of baddies. I suppose it's also the reason why I got into the horror genre so deeply as well. There was something about telling a compelling story about why a creature or terrifying looking costumed criminal looked the way that they did that appealed to me as someone who was fascinated with standout character designs. Scarecrow was one of those entries at the top of that list as I'd always see a profoundly different look to his appearance no matter which adaptation I'd come by.

Despite my issues with Season 1's assortment of baddies, the introduction to the Jonathan Crane name and fear toxin concept was by far one of the better executions of that season yet we were never given any insight as to its return for three seasons straight. However with the Season 4 premiere, as far as character introductions go, I was already sold by the more "tragic villain" direction taken with him in the beginning. For one thing, I love the fact that we're given a quick little refresher by Arkham's head honcho confirming that Crane was indeed injected with his father's formula keeping him in a constant state of terror resulting in him creating his own boogeyman. Sounds like a horror movie synopsis if I've ever heard one which is exactly how I've always pictured the Scarecrow character to be.

With the return of our previously shunned wedding crashers attempting to exploit Crane's knowledge of the toxin, the sight of Jonathan constantly shivering and freaking out, and of course that creepy image of the charcoal drawn scarecrow in his cell, this episode beautifully set the stage for our new big bad. I kept thinking to myself "You know what? Even if they screw up his character after this point, this is by far one of the best comic book TV villain set ups that I've ever seen" which is high praise for any series of this genre. It's a great idea treating his scenes in the same vein as a slasher icon's origin story even down to the traditional bully figures making fun of his disorder. This was a brilliant choice made by the writing as far as villain motives go as Crane was clearly built up years back as someone who'd go completely insane eventually creating a persona out of his insanity. 

Now, before we get to Crane himself unleashing some Scarecrow craziness, I loved the idea of us starting off with his criminal captors using the toxin themselves to get vengeance for their previously failed robbery. What could've easily been a forgettable group of thieves ended up being a surprisingly charismatic, and dare I say, worthy first outlet to show off the fear toxin in effect. For a second, I actually forgot about Crane once I saw these guys barging through the bank with gas masks, spraying everyone with the toxin, and robbing the entire place clean. This leads to arguably the most visually terrifying image that the series has ever shown as the leader sprays one of the bank employees, takes off his mask, and forces him to gaze at his now demonic looking appearance. Not only were the visual FX astounding, but the performance by the actor made it all the more menacing.

It's actually quite brilliant thinking back how all of the Season 4 promos either focused on Bruce Wayne's vigilante beginnings or Scarecrow himself making his mark. None of the trailers really spotlighted this new bandit crew using the fear toxin and presenting themselves as a threat to Penguin's license making them all the more interesting. It's like seeing a group of psychotic clowns running around the city before the Joker ever puts on his makeup for the first time (which I guess sort of did happen). It's interesting to see proto-versions of these iconic villains teasingly leading up to the actual character debut. Throughout the episode I kept thinking how this bandit crew actually worked exceptionally well as a "villain of the week" entry. So, even if the Scarecrow was completely absent, Gotham still would've delivered on a genuinely entertaining antagonist.

However, after the bandits fail in their attempts to take down the Penguin at the Iceberg Lounge, we get our highly awaited cliffhanger once one of the escaped outlaws runs back to Crane for more toxin. This was the highly marketed scene to where the henchman confusingly sees Jonathan in the corner and calls out to him to which Crane says "Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore. It's just a scarecrow!". Now, in the trailers, I honestly felt the line to be just a tad bit cheesy yet, strangely enough, it worked perfectly in context here. Earlier we saw Crane being locked in a closet with his nightmarish Scarecrow "friend" which by now must've sent him over the edge becoming the villainous persona. Although I would've liked to see him actually craft the suit, I immediately got distracted by its freaky design and the monstrous growls that he made. Scarecrow is already shaping up to be a villain worthy of getting hyped up for.

Overall Thoughts

The Season 4 premiere of Gotham had two essential things that it needed to accomplish in order to be successful overall: establishing where our central characters are in their lives from where we left off and a compelling set up for our big bad. Fortunately, these were two components that were executed triumphantly as Bruce Wayne's vigilantism was beautifully showcased with a sense of passed time, Oswald's somewhat dominance over the city was more than satisfyingly presented, and of course we had what I believe to be one of the most impactful villain origin stories in the genre's television outlet. With entertaining new character arcs, a possibly short lived but fun villain of the week, and a solid flow of action perfectly paced in, this was without a doubt the greatest season premiere in the show's 3 Season history. I am happy to say that I am genuinely amped up to see where the season goes from here.

Bonus Thoughts

Easter Eggs

1. The Iceberg Lounge

When the Iceberg Lounge was first teased during the season finale, I was stoked at the idea of having a central setting where everyone (criminals and other characters of interest) can be sort of tossed into the same mixing bowl of corruption and villainy. A place where someone like Bruce could interact with the likes of the Penguin without the need for disguises. This concept gets perfectly exercised in the premiere. Also, there's a frozen Riddler on display, sooo...yeah.

2. The Iceberg Lounge's Design

Although we don't get a whole lot of exterior shots of Oswald's new exotic club, I did enjoy the luxurious aesthetics of the interior (especially the neon lit umbrella logo). In many of Gotham City's adaptations, the Iceberg Lounge has been presented as one of the more alluring settings in the city, so I look forward to seeing how the show approaches its evolution in the future. 

3. Scarecrow's Fear Toxin

After we saw the Tetch Virus in full affect during Season 3, I remembered saying that I felt we were being sort of prepped for another mind bending, poison spreading villain to show up. To my delight, I was correct in guessing the Scarecrow's fear toxin to be the next step in Gotham's spectacle component. And judging from what's been shown so far, we're gonna be in for quite the joyride of nightmare fueled imagery.

4. Classic Batman & Gordon

As if the episode couldn't make me geek out for Batman Easter eggs anymore, we get to see the classic Gordon-Batman dynamic with Bruce showing up to Gordon's surprise,  getting the info that he needs alongside a brief discussion about not giving up the mission, then vanishing before Jim can notice. Yep, Gotham has officially embraced its destiny and I'm 100% onboard. More of these please?!

5. Batman's Surprise Entrances

Just like the classic surprise Batman pop-ins being teased with Gordon and Bruce's brief conversation, we get yet another awesome nod to the cape crusader's antics as Bruce makes a heart racing entrance in his vigilante getup. After scaring his target by making the lights flicker with his arrival, just like the Dark Knight himself, he vanishes after getting the intel that he needs.

6. Classic Batman & Catwoman

In what is by far one of the best Bruce-Selena scenes on the show, we get an awesome parallel to other adaptations of the character as Selena is shown dangerously balancing at the edge of a building slightly flirtatiously speaking to a much more stoic Bruce. It's interesting to see these two, who have now evolved over the course of the series (both now with mentor figures molding their future) discuss their current endeavors while dancing around the details. Sounds like classic Bats and Catwoman to me.

7. The Dual Identity Dilemma

One of my favorite traits of the Batman story is how much Bruce struggles in his balancing act of being Gotham's protector and having something of a normal life. Here, we get to see a nice little tease of that conflict through Alfred's line "There is a time for masks and there is a time for Bruce Wayne". 

8.The Tetch Incident

One of my all time favorite things to see utilized within my comic book properties is a strong sense of continuity and historical relevance whenever something significant would take place. The Season 4 premiere does this by briefly referencing the mass spreading of the Tetch virus during Oswald's negotiation with the mayor. Gotta admire the show's attention to its lore.

9. The Riddler's Insignia

During Oswald's exposure to the fear toxin, the Riddler shows up as a haunting specter with his iconic green insignia eerily floating beside him.

10. Scarecrow Imagery

Throughout the episode, we see Jonathan Crane's ultimate fear always creepily posted up somewhere during the future villain's more traumatizing moments.

11. Careful Gotham, Your Season 1 Is Showing

Thankfully this only happens once in the episode for me, but there was a brief moment where I felt Season 1's awfully cheesy tone slipping in a little. This takes place during the scene where Victor Zsasz playfully gets rid of a band of outlaws only to open the doors for a newly licensed group of criminals. That over the top "best wedding ever" line delivery was the deal sealer that did it for me.

12. Alfred & Victor's Smile of Approval

Ah yes, the moment when one badass acknowledges the skills of the other despite what side of the fence they're standing on.

13. Gotham's Traditional Logo Change

Traditionally, Gotham stylistically changes its end tag logo to fit the theme of the current major villain arc taking place. Here, we see Scarecrow's fear toxin effect as the spotlight alteration.

14. Bats Fluttering?

Alright, this might be a bit of a stretch on my part, but there's a brief audio cue that I could've sworn sounded like bats fluttering by as Bruce looks up towards Ra's Al Ghul's location. 

Episode Rating: 9/10