WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Gotham's Season 4 finale, "No Man's Land."

Gotham has never been the place to look to if you wanted to see Bruce Wayne's definitive origin story. From the very start, it was clear that the series was charting its own path, borrowing elements from comic books, cartoons, video games and previous movies to create one unique, over-the-top and somehow satisfying new tapestry. The series reared the usual notion that Batman created the city's most notorious and colorful criminals on its head, choosing instead to plunge viewers into a story where Gotham and its crazed lunatics are leading to the creation of Batman.

It's a different approach to a story most people are familiar with, and the series is made all the more unpredictable for it. Over the course of four seasons, Bruce Wayne has been inching his way closer and closer to becoming the caped crusader, the Season 4 finale taking the character closer to the mantle than ever before.

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Now, we already know that Season 5 will be the Fox series' last. On top of that, it's already been confirmed that, among other comic book stories, The New 52's Batman origin story Zero Year will serve as inspiration for the show's final season.

Given where Season 4 left us, it seems like that is the perfect story to adapt for this version of Bruce Wayne's transformation into Batman. Dare we say, it was the only possible choice.

"No Man's Land" ended with Gotham in the most precarious of situations. Jeremiah Valeska detonated bombs on every one of the bridges leading in and out of the city, closing it off from the main land. Now, the city is left without power, and its residents are stuck in a lawless land where every super-criminal rules over a portion of the territory. It's up to Jim Gordon, the GCPD and Bruce Wayne to find a way to instill order back in a broken city without any. Before the episode ended, Bruce had a choice: to leave with Alfred, or stay behind and make Gotham City his responsibility. By deciding to remain in the city and help, Bruce took perhaps the biggest leap towards his transformation into the Dark Knight.

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Heading into Season 5, every episode where Bruce fights in a desperate Gotham City will lead him closer to the mantle. This is why choosing to base some of the upcoming season's story on Zero Year is perfect.

The third arc of the year-long comic book story, subtitled "Savage City," saw The Riddler unleash a cataclysm upon Gotham by blowing up the city's reservoir and flooding its streets. In the following months, the question mark-covered villain ruled the barren city, as Gordon and the authorities tried to restore order in the streets. This event took place shortly after Bruce had become the Batman, and it was his first real, massive mission to save Gotham.

While some of the beats are different, there are actually many similarities between "Savage City" and what we know of Gotham's fifth season. The city is now left on its own, powerless and cut off from the rest of the country, and it will be these next few weeks that will shape Bruce into the hero that he needs to be. Unlike in the comic book storyarc, Bruce isn't Batman yet -- but he's close. He already tried his hand at vigilante crime-fighting, and he has already put on a mask. Now, all that's left for him to do is realize what he must do to save his city, and become a symbol of strength.

When you add in the fact that Edward Nygma, who has been a part of the series ever since its pilot, has now embraced villainy as the Riddler, it's also possible that the character will have an even bigger presence in the lawless city. In the New 52 continuity, Nygma was the first real supervillain Batman faced. Perhaps this means that, in retrospect, Nygma was always the ultimate villain of the television series, an overarching presence that, like Bruce, had a 5-year origin story that would culminate with him becoming the fan-favorite Riddler we all know.

Over five years, Bruce prepared to become Batman, and Nygma prepared to become the Riddler. Now the two are all but set to face each other in a battle for the fate of Gotham's citizens, and for the soul of the city itself. Now that we think about it, it looks like Zero Year was where Gotham was always headed, right from the start.

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Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth. The series will return next season.