Gotham

About the series

Contains story spoilers.

Gotham moves the focus of Batman's world to the years before Bruce Wayne becomes a masked hero. The DC series ran from 2014 to 2019 and was created by Bruno Heller, who wrote and executive-produced it. Ben McKenzie plays detective James Gordon, paired with Harvey Bullock, played by Donal Logue; David Mazouz plays young Bruce, with Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth. Gordon's effort to enforce a law that is compromised from within gives the police stories a civic scale, while Bruce's grief and questions about his family keep the Wayne murder central to the city's larger power struggles.

The murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne brings rookie detective Gordon into contact with their grieving son Bruce and butler Alfred. The apparent solution comes quickly: Mario Pepper is shot during a confrontation, and the stolen necklace is found in his home. Information from Oswald Cobblepot reveals that Fish Mooney framed him. Gordon’s pursuit of the truth gets him captured, and crime boss Carmine Falcone intervenes to save him and Bullock. Falcone then orders Gordon to kill Cobblepot as proof of cooperation. Gordon instead sends him into the river alive and admits to Bruce that the wrong man was blamed. His first major case leaves both a promise to a child and a secret shared with a dangerous survivor.

The next investigation concerns kidnappers posing as volunteers helping homeless children. An escaped boy’s account draws Gordon and Bullock toward a trafficking operation, while the department tries to suppress public attention. Barbara, Gordon’s fiancée, leaks the story after hearing his frustration. The detectives rescue children, but the mayor’s plan to move them into juvenile services creates another opening: the traffickers seize their bus, including Selina Kyle, and prepare to send them to the Dollmaker. A worker’s tip allows the police to locate the captives and arrest the pair. Selina then tells Gordon that she witnessed the Wayne murders. Protecting a child neglected by the city may also give him information the celebrated murder investigation failed to obtain.

The Balloonman case turns public anger at corruption into spectacular killings. A businessman accused of fraud and a corrupt police lieutenant are lifted into the sky by weather balloons. Gordon and Bullock trace the equipment and identify Davis Lamond, who believes that murder can clean up Gotham. During the arrest, Gordon and Lamond are pulled into the air together until Bullock shoots the balloon. Bruce watches the news and rejects the idea that killing corrupt people makes the killer a hero. Elsewhere, Cobblepot has returned under an assumed name and found work in a restaurant used by Sal Maroni. He is building a new connection while Gordon deals with the consequences of vigilante justice.

Control of the Arkham redevelopment project links a municipal decision to the rivalry between Falcone and Maroni. Council members are attacked by a hired killer using the identity of Richard Gladwell, a man already dead. The detectives find initials that Gordon recognizes as those of the officers assigned to protect Mayor James, identifying the next target. Gordon and Bullock stop the killer at the mayor’s home. Across the city, Cobblepot gains a promotion after defending Maroni’s restaurant during a robbery that kills its manager. The episode reveals that he hired the robbers himself; after obtaining the position, he poisons them. His apparent loyalty is manufactured through a crisis whose victims cannot expose what really happened.

Spirit of the Goat gives Bullock a case that reaches into his own history. Ten years earlier, he and partner Dix pursued a killer targeting the firstborn children of wealthy families. Dix was injured and Bullock killed the suspect. A new death repeats the old pattern, followed by another kidnapping, forcing Bullock to question whether the original case was resolved. The detectives arrest a different man, and Bullock finds that both killers had the same psychiatrist, Dr. Marks, who hypnotized them. At the station, another apparent certainty collapses when Cobblepot walks in alive while investigators are accusing Gordon of murdering him. Clearing one accusation exposes Gordon’s defiance of the order that was meant to bind him to Falcone.

Penguin’s Umbrella follows the danger created by that return. Fish wants Cobblepot dead, and Gordon tries to remove Barbara from the city before pursuing Falcone and the mayor. Falcone sends Victor Zsasz after him; Montoya and Allen help Gordon escape, but Barbara is again used as leverage. Gordon eventually negotiates her release with Falcone. Cobblepot meanwhile kills Maroni’s lieutenant Carbone after buying the loyalty of his men. A flashback reveals the deeper arrangement: Cobblepot asked Falcone to assign Gordon as his executioner, betting that Gordon would spare him so he could enter Maroni’s organisation. His rise depends on understanding both criminal ambition and a policeman’s conscience, while supplying Falcone with information about Fish’s plans.

The first-season finale brings the gang rivalry into open warfare. Gordon prevents Cobblepot from killing an injured Falcone, then has to escape a hospital attack with the man whose influence has compromised the city. Fish captures their group and bargains with Maroni, but kills him after he insults her, setting off another fight. Falcone chooses retirement. Cobblepot confronts Fish on a rooftop, where the conflicted Butch shoots both of them; Cobblepot pushes her into the water and declares himself Gotham’s king. The episode also breaks Barbara’s account of her family tragedy: she admits killing her parents and attacks Leslie Thompkins, who subdues her. At Wayne Manor, Bruce and Alfred discover a mechanism that opens stairs behind the fireplace. While the underworld changes leaders, Bruce’s search reveals that his father kept a hidden life inside their home.