The fourth season of the American television series Gotham, based on characters from DC Comics related to the Batman franchise, revolves around the characters of James "Jim" Gordon and Bruce Wayne. The season is produced by Primrose Hill Productions, DC Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Television, with Bruno Heller, Danny Cannon, and John Stephens serving as executive producers. The season was inspired and adapted elements from the comic book storylines of Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, and Batman: No Man's Land. The subtitle for the season is A Dark Knight.
The season was ordered in May 2017, and production began the following month. Ben McKenzie stars as Gordon, alongside Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Morena Baccarin, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Jessica Lucas, Chris Chalk, Drew Powell, Crystal Reed and Alexander Siddig. The fourth season premiered on September 21, 2017, on Fox, while the second half premiered on March 1, 2018. The season concluded on May 17, 2018.
The season received positive reviews from critics and audiences, who cited the character development, writing and action sequences as highlights of the season, with some calling it the best season yet. The premiere was watched by 3.21 million viewers with a 1.0 in the 18–49 demo, which was a 17% decline from the previous season premiere but on par with last season's average. Despite remaining with consistent ratings throughout the first half of the season, the second half experienced new series lows in the spring and being in danger of cancellation. Despite the ratings drop, Fox renewed the show for a fifth and final season on May 13, 2018.
Premise Crime in Gotham has been reined in by Penguin, who has issued a law in the underworld that licenses must be obtained before any criminal activity. However, things turn out for the improve when Batman ends the empire of Carmine Falcone; his daughter Sofia arrives in Gotham with the intent of rebuilding her family empire. At the same time, Riddler escapes his icy prison and allies with Lee, who has become leader of the Narrows. Serving as their enforcer is an amnesiac resurrected Butch, who now goes by the name Solomon Grundy.
During the second half of the season, Joker breaks out of Arkham Asylum with the Mad Hatter and the Scarecrow, hatching a plot to plunge Gotham City into anarchy. Although he is ultimately killed, he manages to drive his twin brother Jeremiah Valeska insane by exposing him to Scarecrow's chemical gas. Jeremiah forms an alliance with the immortal Ra's al Ghul to threaten the city and push Bruce Wayne into fulfilling his destiny as "Gotham's Dark Knight".
Cast and characters
Main David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne / Batman Ben McKenzie as James "Jim" Gordon Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock Morena Baccarin as Leslie "Lee" Thompkins Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin Erin Richards as Barbara Kean Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma / Riddler Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan / Tigress Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean / Cyrus Gold / Solomon Grundy Crystal Reed as Sofia Falcone Alexander Siddig as Ra's al Ghul
Recurring Anthony Carrigan as Victor Zsasz Maggie Geha and Peyton List as Ivy "Pamela" Pepper / Poison Ivy Andrew Sellon as Arthur Penn Charlie Tahan and David W. Thompson as Jonathan Crane / Scarecrow Kelcy Griffin as Detective Vanessa Harper Nathan Darrow as Victor Fries / Mr. Freeze Marina Benedict as Cherry Michael Cerveris as Lazlo Valentin / Professor Pyg Camila Perez and Michelle Veintimilla as Bridgit Pike / Firefly Christopher Convery as Martin Cameron Monaghan as Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch / Mad Hatter J.W. Cortes as Detective Carlos Alvarez
Guest Michael Maize as Grady Harris Damian Young as Warden Reed Nico Bustamante as Orphan Michael Buscemi as Merton Larry Pine as Mayor Burke John Doman as Carmine Falcone Ilana Becker as Myrtle Jenkins Dakin Matthews as Niles Winthrop Benjamin Stockham as Alex Winthrop Owen Harn as The Hunter Anthony Rodriguez as Anubis Albert M. Chan as Pharmacist Will Janowitz as Wally Clarke Gordon Winarick as Tommy Elliot Samia Finnerty as Grace Blomdhal Tommy Nelson as Brant Jones Kyle Vincent Terry as Headhunter Stu "Large" Riley as Sampson Thomas Lyons as Griffin Krank Chris Perfetti as Cosmo Krank Francesca Root-Dodson as Ecco B. D. Wong as Hugo Strange Alison Fraser as Gertrude Haverstock
Episodes
Production Development The show was officially renewed by Fox for a fourth season on May 10, 2017. Just like the second and third seasons, the fourth season also carried a new subtitle for the season: A Dark Knight.
Writing The producers revealed that the season would be based on the comic book stories Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Year One. According to executive producer John Stephens, the season would not consist of "direct adaptations", but "loose interpretations" of the comic book series. Ben McKenzie explained that the structure for the season would be "the beginning is more Long Halloween, our version of that, and the end is more Year One." According to Stephens, the show would handle a horror-oriented direction on the season: "At the very beginning of the season, Penguin has solidified his control upon Gotham like never before. Where he's kind of unionized crime. And Scarecrow comes in to basically reintroduce fear into Gotham and to remind people that the dark is still scary out there. And we're really going to fashion, especially Episode 2, almost a horror movie episode where we really get to see Scarecrow. I think he's like purely terrifying. Imagine, rather than the other versions of Scarecrow out there—because there are a lot of different versions—what if you just really tell Scarecrow as a horror movie? Because he could be scary as hell." Executive producer Danny Cannon stated, "When the studio asks you to tone back because it's too scary, you know you've done something right!"
Regarding Bruce's beginning of vigilantism, McKenzie explained that "We are definitely leaning into Bruce, having learned some of the skills to be a vigilante, now actually attempting it. Now, we have a long, long way to go before he can realistically be Batman, so there will be many stumbles and falls – and regressions back to being a kid at times – but Gordon will eventually become aware of what he's doing and that will bring them against each other." David Mazouz also added, "Bruce really is taking on this vigilante persona and all the things that go along with that. Whether it be creating another persona, a public persona, that's also definitely going to be a major part of Bruce's journey this year. His relationship as this other person. Batman is coming. Absolutely." Mazouz also stated that he was worried the writers could pull back some aspects from Batman, deeming it "too fast" but he was glad it didn't stop. He said that Bruce would take the "Batman persona" this season. Cannon also explained that Bruce will be seen "as the emerging threat he is." Alexander Siddig stated that his character will seek to make Bruce his heir and will "do anything he can to get his hands on him, to manipulate him into what [Ra's] wants him to be." He also claimed that the season is "a season so far of extremes."
Talking about his character, McKenzie stated, "Comparatively, perhaps he's in a better place than some of these other truly evil, evil people." But as the season will be with him dealing with Cobblepot, Gordon "doesn't have a lot of good options. He has to either fight him directly or find allies to fight Penguin—surrogates to fight Penguin—which leads him down a dark path. So, that's kind of the way we start for him in season 4." According to Stephens, "We're going to see Jim make, in some ways, big steps toward I guess what you would call the commissionership. But also we're going to see Jim, in his quest to save the city, cross different ethical lines than he ever did before. It's going to bring him to an ethical nadir that we haven't seen him at, and it's going to be told through the context of a relationship that he has with Sofia Falcone, the daughter of Don Falcone, who's played by Crystal Reed this year. And that's going to be a really compelling and interesting relationship." Sean Pertwee also stated that the season will also explore Alfred's mysterious past "indirectly".
McKenzie made his writing debut on the episode "The Demon's Head", after previously directing the third-season episode "These Delicate and Dark Obsessions". McKenzie went to Los Angeles to work on the writers' room to break the story and then go back to New York City and finish many drafts. He explained, "I've been fiddling around with writing for a long time, but I'd never written an episode of television, so it was quite a learning process." He also added that, "From being on a set, the directing came fairly naturally. It was challenging, but there were a lot of things that I understood about directing just from observing, just from watching director's work. Writing often takes place behind-the-scenes. Physical production is not privy to how scripts come out... I wasn't so familiar with that process of breaking a story, of starting with a story document, then an outline, and then a draft; it was informative".
For the second half of the season, Cameron Monaghan stated that "We're borrowing very heavily from some of the most iconic Batman storylines. I think that they're deep enough, and they show where its really splitting that duality and start totally embracing the main arcs. I think that we did a little bit in season three to bring it into The Killing Joke." He also added that the plan for the final episodes is to adapt Batman: No Man's Land, stating, "We're really getting into it this year. I think the way that the story escalates is something that shifts and is not anything the show has done before. I think it's going to be a really unique experience. Especially by the past few episodes, it's going to be really... it's pretty insane."
Casting