TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Gotham Season 5 Episode 11: They Did What?

And so here we stand. At an ending, and yet, with one ending left to go. You had to wonder how Gotham was going to do their ending to both tie up the storylines and then also introduce Batman and the classic version of the villains they’ve built up. And “They Did What?” did indeed set up an ending by doing an ending of their own before that.

With the Army now in Gotham trying to kill everyone, it was time for the last stand that was teased at the beginning of the season. And while it wasn’t as epic as it could’ve been, it was great to see the GCPD, Bruce, Penguin, and Riddler teaming up and helping each other as they tried to weather through Bane’s attacks.

There was honestly so much going on at times that I was shocked at how much got done in an hour. Just the first half-hour was very riveting, and the back-half set up things very nicely as well.

Mind you, there were some questionable things. Like how Bane was somehow defeated by bats, and how Nyssa got away when she honestly should’ve died. Or how the Army soldiers didn’t fight back when Bane killed the one commander, but did fight back when the civilians came out to defend the main characters…but hey, not everything can be picture perfect.

There was a lot of great character stuff here. Like the interactions between Jim and Barbara (who named her daughter Barbara!!!! Hello Batgirl!!!), Barbara and Leslie, Riddler and Penguin, Bruce and Selina, Bruce and Alfred, it was all top notch. For me.

And when all was said and done, the final steps were taken for these characters to become who they truly were. Penguin and Riddler agreed to be who they were meant to be, and to forgive the other for all past crimes. Gordon became Commissioner at last, and Bruce set off on his training mission to become Batman.

The next episode will be the time jump to cap things off and also start off the new adventure. It’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out, but I am looking forward to it. And “They Did What?” really helped set that up beautifully.