With the battle between good and evil raging, and Gotham City’s gang war reaching its boiling point, the season finale of Fox’s Gotham will see Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) go head-to-head with Maroni (David Zayas) and Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), in an attempt to re-stake her claim on the city. Meanwhile, the two most important women in Jim Gordon’s (Ben McKenzie) life, Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) and Leslie Thompkins (Morena Baccarin) are brought together after recent events, and Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) searches Wayne Manor for anything that might point to answers about his father.

With awards season in full swing, a recent event was held to screen the finale for voting purposes, and Collider was invited, along with a handful of other outlets, to speak to the talent in front of and behind the cameras about what to expect from the aftermath of this season’s events. Actors Ben McKenzie, David Mazouz and Camren Bicondova talked about being left to wonder what might happen in the first episode of Season 2, Bruce Wayne’s journey to Batman, Jim Gordon’s evolution and changing mission, and walking questionable lines, while executive producers Bruno Heller, Danny Cannon and John Stephens talked about extending the story to fill out the extra episodes this season, new villains and the further exploration of Lucius Fox. From those interviews, we’ve compiled 8 things you should know about Gotham.

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Image via Jessica Miglio/FOX
  • To tease the season finale, Camren Bicondova (aka Selina Kyle) said, “It’s very explosive and surprising. You have to tune in, obviously. There are people who die, that you don’t expect to die, and there are people that join in power, that you don’t expect to join in power. It’s just really exciting. Everything comes together, and you won’t know what’s going to happen in the first episode of Season 2. I’m really excited.

  • Talking about what he thought of Bruce Wayne evolving from being the victim to taking control, David Mazouz said, “Bruce is taking a journey, and it’s continuous. It’s just the beginning of his journey. I don’t really know the exact timeline of the show, but I don’t think it’s been more than several months since he’s lost his parents. He’s still at the beginning of his journey to becoming Batman, and it’s been exciting to see the little teases of the characteristics that Bruce might have, that Batman also has. It’s just been really fun, watching him grow.”
  • Jim Gordon has had such an evolution, over the course of the first season, that his mission will have to change a bit for Season 2. Ben McKenzie said, “I think the plan is still to be determined. The plan that Bruno [Heller] and Danny [Cannon] have is to fundamentally change the mechanics behind the show. There will be no more case-of-the-week. There will also be a large mechanical shift behind how Jim will actually go about maintaining order and getting rid of bad guys. I think it will be really cool.”
  • From the beginning of the series, Selina Kyle has been a character that has walked a questionable line in her actions. In talking about what she’s enjoyed about the discovery of this version of the character, Bicondova said, “Her complexity. She’s very guarded, and she’s just a survivor. I really enjoy characters like that. I think they’re really fun to watch, and they’re really fun for me to play. It’s just fun!”
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    Image via Frank Micelotta /Picture Group for FOX
    When Gotham started, it was originally picked up for 16 episodes, that then got extended to 22 episodes, during the season. And that extension of the season order did affect the show, in the sense that they had to add and extend some of the storylines. Said executive producer/writer John Stephens, “We had mapped everything out to 16 episodes, so we did have to stretch things a little bit, which is a plus and a minus. The minus is that you have to work harder. The plus is that you get to do things that you were probably going to do later, anyway. It also allowed us to really get some more money, so we got to do a couple of bigger episodes. All of those things allow you to define more of what the world of the show is.”
  • With the extra episodes, they didn’t pull from material they’d thought about holding off for Season 2, but instead came up with other stories to tell. Said executive producer/director Danny Cannon, “It’s tough because all of our favorite shows are 10 or 13 episodes, or something like that. When you do 22 episodes, it’s like doing two seasons. The great thing about Gotham is that there are so many stories to tell. We just had to knuckle down, really. It never gets dull to do that because it’s such a great palette.” And executive producer/showrunner Bruno Heller added, “Just on a technical level, 22 or even more episodes a season is a network model based on mostly procedurals and stand-alones, and formats that this is not. Telling big, cinematic, beautifully produced and beautifully shot shows, like Danny is producing, is really, really difficult to do.”
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Image via Frank Micelotta /Picture Group for FOX
  • It had already been stated that Clayface and Mad Hatter will be introduced in Season 2, and that Cameron Monaghan will be returning to further explore the possibilities of his role. When asked who he would most like to tangle with, McKenzie said, “Everybody we’ve ever introduced from the mythology. I think we erred in introducing villains that weren’t really part of the mythology, like Balloon Man. When we’ve had the opportunity to introduce those characters from the mythology, we’ve done a wonderful job, and the actors have done a wonderful job. I would love to see Cameron Monaghan come back. I would love to go further into Riddler’s evolution. That’s a great villain, and has always been one of my favorite villains. And then, of course, there’s what Robin [Lord Taylor] is doing with The Penguin. And we’ll have a brand new villain, I’m sure. We’ll do a larger, half-season or full-season arc.”

  • Even though viewers have only caught a glimpse of Lucius Fox, rest assured that he will play a role in Season 2. Said Stephens, “He’s going to become a part of the show. He becomes another person who’s going to help Bruce Wayne on his journey to find out what happened to his parents and what his parents were doing, and also his journey to manhood and Batman-hood. When you think about the different poles of who Batman is, he’s a great fighter, which he gets that from Alfred, he’s the world’s greatest detective, which he probably gets from Gordon, and he’s a science genius, and some of that’s going to come from Lucius Fox.”

The season finale of Gotham airs on Fox on Monday, May 4th.

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Image via Fox