The eponymous team of fledgling vigilantes in The CW’s Gotham Knights has gone through a turbulent ride so far since the very first episode. After the death of Gotham’s protector, Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, his adopted son, Turner Hayes, was indicted for the crime by the secretive crime society comprising the city’s elites, named the Court of Owls. Along with Turner, genius in their respective fields yet small-time crooks Cullen, Harper Row, and Duela were also taken into custody on suspicion of Bruce Wayne’s murder, and the group escaped imprisonment thanks to Carrie Kelley, aka Robin’s interference. Later, Turner’s best friend Stephanie Brown joined the team as well, and to clear their names and bring Bruce’s killers to justice, Turner and co. resorted to vigilantism. DA Harvey Dent, best friend of Bruce Wayne, initially pursued the group but changed his stance after becoming aware of the Court’s existence. However, gradually he too started falling into the Court’s trap, and his identity dysmorphia started getting triggered by their influence.

The fugitive group discovered the deep-seated corruption that has been perpetuated by the Court through the centuries and, during their investigation, helped the city multiple times. They gradually came to be known as the Gotham Knights (without the public knowing that they were the same bunch of fugitives). The elite-most couple of the city, Rebecca and Lincoln March, were the current leaders of the Court, and to protect their secrecy, Rebecca murdered their son, Brody, used Talons to kill all the members of the Court, and poisoned her husband, Lincoln. In the previous episode, an Electrum-resurrected Brody joined the group, and in their effort to apprehend the Court, the entire team of crimefighters got arrested by SWAT, thanks to Rebecca tipping off the authorities. Duela, on the other hand, had previously decided to go her own way with her deranged criminal mother, Jane, and seeing her team’s condition, she wishes to return to Gotham to help them. Unfortunately, she was drugged by Jane, who probably will hand her over to authorities for easy money or worse. In the finale of the series, along with a suitable end to the Court’s arc, multiple new clues and easter eggs are showcased as hints for the second season, but due to the series being canceled by CW, that will never come to pass.

Owls Perched At The Edge: What Is The Truth Behind Turner’s Parents’ Death?

The episode begins with the Gotham Knights behind bars, being questioned by Dr. Chase Meridian and Commissioner Soto, and despite their pleading their innocence multiple times, their situation of being incriminated by a secret cabal of Gotham’s elite who use undead assassins named Talons as operatives sounds too fantastical for the authorities to believe it. So far, the blame for the deaths of Mayor Cressida Clarke, the entire Court, and Bruce Wayne has been neatly fabricated by the Court to make the fugitives seem like the perpetrators. Carrie’s mother, a concerned Dr. Kelley, goes to the GCPD to see her daughter.

During the conversation between Turner and Commissioner Soto, Turner’s biological parents are mentioned, and Turner, who previously came to know that Bruce considered himself responsible for Turner’s birth parents’ death, asks her whether she helped Batman cover up the crime. The idea of Bruce being the killer of his parents was implanted in Turner’s mind by the Court, which was later solidified by Bruce’s cryptic journal notes, and this led to Turner momentarily losing faith in their cause. The Commissioner states that contrary to what he believes, Turner’s birth parents were ruthless assassins on hire who had killed innocent people all their lives, who were employed by a certain master manhunter named Henri Ducard to kill Batman, and in the process, got themselves killed by accident. The revelation helps Turner see the situation in a new light, and in his mind, he pledges to fight for his father’s cause of justice. Bruce never let Turner learn about his birth parents’ identity to save him the grief, and he believes where someone comes from never marks their identity; what they choose to do does.

During the final moments of the last episode, Rebecca unleashed her Talons, directing the Electrum-induced undead owl-motif assassins to kill the Knights while they were in custody. As the camera pans outside of GCPD, the Talons are seen perched on rooftops, waiting to strike at any moment. A crude, evil subversion of the Dark Knight’s rooftop brooding session, which used to symbolize the security of the city.

Dent Family Crisis: Did Harvey And Duela Patch Up?

In the previous episode, we saw Harvey captured by Rebecca Lincoln when he didn’t agree to accept the offer to spend his life with the ruthless leader of the Court. He finds himself bound in the secretive 13th floor of the Wayne Tower, investigating, where he learns about Rebecca herself being near immortal, plaguing Gotham through the centuries by extending her own life for hundreds of years after the elusive life-extending mineral Electrum came into her possession. After her final offer to join is rejected by Harvey, Rebecca reveals her wish to bring out Harvey’s nefarious, sadistic other half, the villainous persona in command.

To blackmail Harv into doing so, Rebecca brings out Duela, his daughter, as it turns out that Jane has sold her daughter to the Court in exchange for a fortune. Duela is tied to a phone-activated bomb, the disarm code of which will be given only if Harvey follows Rebecca’s command. As Rebecca leaves, Harvey takes the chance to apologize to his daughter for the abandonment, the loss of childhood, and, in general, every trouble she had to go through until her adulthood. Harv’s identity dysmorphia caused his other half to have a relationship with the maniacal villain Jane Doe, and for the longest period, Harvey was unaware of Duela’s existence as a result. Now, finally having the chance to say his bit, Harvey tries to make amends to his daughter and assures her that her father will always stay right by her side.

Did The Knights Survive The Talon Attack?

At the GCPD, Talons attack and start massacring the force, and soon Commissioner Soto finds her officers outnumbered and outmatched. Realizing that the group of fugitives had been telling the truth all along, she agrees to release them to help in their fight against the Talons. The Knights ask for access to Batman’s armory confiscated by the GCPD, and wielding the gadgets, they make a glorious entry into the fight. With the help of the Knights, the GCPD manages to push the Talons to retreat, but during their battle, Dr. Kelley gets stabbed. Carrie and Brody rush to Gotham State Hospital and admit her while the group investigates the next part of Rebecca’s plans. Dr. Kelley affirms her faith in her daughter’s career as Batman’s protégé, Robin, and, despite being mortally injured herself, asks Carrie to assist her team in battle.

Duela calls the team and lets them know about the situation. It turns out that along with the 13th floor of Wayne Tower, five other major secretive floors designed by Alan Wayne have been rigged by Rebecca’s Court operatives, and the prime controller of them is linked with Duela-Harvey’s bomb. Which, if disarmed, will blow up the other ones, thereby making Duela take the fall for the Court. But if the timer in the prime bomb runs out and it detonates, the other buildings will remain unharmed. Duela’s traumatic past at Arkham, surviving against the worst Gotham has to offer, has made her highly individualistic, which has been perceivable in most of her past actions. After their communication with Duela is over, the group considers that in a question between Duela and hundreds of other Gothamites, the later should be prioritized, but Turner argues against letting someone’s past define whether they deserve saving or not. This is a lesson he has re-learned recently after his adoptive father, Bruce’s actions, were revealed to him by the Commissioner.

Did Harvey Become Two-Face After All?

At the Wayne Tower, bound to the prime bomb, Harvey assesses the predicament and agrees to bring out his nefarious persona. Before triggering his other side, he urges his daughter, Duela, to seek a way to cure him if the unthinkable happens—i.e., the other half gains complete control—and Duela tearfully agrees. Harvey’s other half emerges, and as per the promise, Rebecca provides the disarming key to the phone. However, Duela has come a long way since parting ways with the Knights, and after betrayals from family and muddling through conspiracy, she has a heroic change of heart and refuses to disarm the bomb. Despite the city trampling over her throughout her lifetime, inspired by Turner and the others’ spirits, she is willing to save it no matter the cost.

As per her wish, Rebecca has gotten the nefarious other half of Harvey as the dominant persona. But she might have bargained for more than she can handle, as the evil another half only seeks to perpetuate his own existence, and Duela’s timely forewarning about Rebecca eventually betraying him makes the persona become unhinged. As Harvey is freed, he attacks Rebecca, who throws a bottle of acid in his face, melting one-half of it, thereby turning him into the iconic Two-Face. A Court operative takes him away, but Two-Face murders him and escapes.

Later, Two-Face arrives at Jane’s condo and ‘punishes’ her for selling their daughter out to the Court by gunning her down. The second season could have highlighted Two-Face as the main antagonist of the Knights and Duela’s effort to bring her father back, but with the series canceled after the very first season, we won’t get a chance to see that.

Did The Knights Save The Day? Who Is Henri Ducard?

Stephanie and Harper manage to reverse engineer the bomb so that disarming the prime bomb will blow it up, but the rest of the locations will be spared. Cullen takes Sgt. Apone’s help (whom he had fooled so far using a disguise to extract information but later made amends by saving his life) to clear out the Wayne Tower to control the damage and so that civilians don’t get caught in the explosion. Turner and co. arrive at Wayne Tower to save Duela and ambush Rebecca, whom her own son, Brody, injects with a high dose of Electrum, which causes rapid regeneration of her cells due to radiation poisoning. Disarming Duela’s bomb, the team saves her but has limited time to escape from Wayne Tower before it explodes. Carrie brings along the last tiny dose of Electrum, which can save her mother’s life.

However, as the team rushes towards the exit, Turner’s memories of the path he has chosen to honor his adoptive father, Bruce, flash in his mind, and he stays behind to take all the journals of Bruce to learn more about him and his crimefighting career. Eventually, all the Talons surround him, and a grievously injured Rebecca leads them to attack Turner. However, just before they deal the deathblow, a troop of co-op militants kills all the Talons, along with Rebecca using specialized rounds, and rescues Turner. Moments later, the Wayne Tower collapses in an explosion, and the Knights, who managed to get outside, watch in horror, considering Turner to be unable to have made it out alive.

The next day, the fugitives had managed to clear their names and were being hailed as the heroes who saved the town. Dr. Kelley survived thanks to the dose of Electrum injected by Carrie. The team mourns the absence of Turner, and it is Duela who, in order to honor Turner’s memory, inspires the team to continue the good fight as the Gotham Knights.

In the epilogue, it is shown that Turner had been rescued by the operatives of Henri Ducard, who states that he is willing to teach Turner like he taught Bruce, and with the rest of the world considering him to be dead, it’s beneficial for the plans he has for him as well. In comics, Henri Ducard is the legendary French manhunter and one of Bruce’s many teachers, whom Bruce approached to gain knowledge of crimefighting. Bruce had learned a number of investigative tricks and ways to hunt down criminals but wasn’t willing to delve into the ulterior motives of his master, which involved assassination and mercenary business, which led the duo on a conflict course later. If the second season of Gotham Knights had been commissioned, viewers could have gotten a glimpse of the lessons Bruce learned to become the greatest detective and the great potential of the original character could have been explored through Turner Hayes. Unfortunately, the series will now remain as one of many small-screen wasted potential of DC comics adaptations.