Bruce Wayne Kills [Spoiler] on 'Gotham'

On tonight's episode of Gotham, Bruce Wayne did the unthinkable -- he went someplace hoping to murder someone...and ultimately he succeeded.

The experience seems to have been designed to set up his life-long dedication to never killing another person, as Bruce afterwards told James Gordon that he had betrayed himself and his parents' memories. Gordon told him that just becuase he knows he is capable of killing a person, does not mean that he will do it again.

The victim: Ra's al Ghul, the immortal supervillain who appeared at the end of last season and nearly forced Bruce to kill Alfred.

Ra's knew Bruce was coming, though, and kidnapped him. Hiding him away under Blackgate, Ra's had his men impersonate guards upstairs to keep Alfred and Gordon busy when they came looking for Bruce.

Beneath Blackgate, Ra's told Bruce the truth: he had seen in a dream that Bruce was to be his heir -- and the only one who could free him from the curse of immortality.

With the blade Bruce had planned on using to kill him, Ra's begged Bruce to end his suffering -- and when Bruce told him he would not, Ra's berated and harassed him until he cracked and lashed out with the knife.

Once his skin was pierced by the blade, Ra's withered away into nearly-skeletal remains...just in time for Alfred and Gordon to arrive and see Bruce standing over the body.

While Bruce turned over his costume to Alfred after the fact, saying that he was not the hero Gotham needs, Alfred assured him that someday he would be ready — and when he was, both Alfred and the costume would be there for him.

The implication, of course, is that while Bruce assumed his costumed identity was not meant to be as a result of his killing Ra's, it actually shaped Batman's ethic going forward.

This is, interestingly, the same logic Zack Snyder has used to justify Superman's killing of General Zod in Man of Steel.

Gotham airs on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.