Gotham: New Mysteries In Post-Winter Hiatus Episode “Mad City: Ghosts”

Gotham’s post-winter hiatus premiere injected some new story arcs that will lead it through to the end of the season.

Gotham‘s Season 3 post-winter hiatus episode—“Mad City: Ghosts“—introduced a few new story arcs on Monday night: a strange cult seeking to resurrect the murderous Jerome; the Court of Owls’ crystal sculpture revealing something hidden; and Selina’s mother, Maria, dealing with a figure from her past.

Franken-Jerome?

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Jim and Harvey stumbled onto something pretty disturbing. Or, in Harvey’s words, “Weird.” A secret cult of twisted individuals are worshiping Jerome, and their love for the maniacal murderer has led them to seek his resurrection.

It might sound completely ludicrous, but multiple bodies beg to differ. As Lucius pointed out in the episode, these dead bodies seem to have died before. I guess these followers aren’t that crazy after all. They even have a mad scientist on their team to help pull it off.

Those who watched the episode until the end most certainly saw the promo for next week. A stitched up Jerome with a visage similar to Mary Shelley’s famous creature bursts onto the scene. Forgive me if I found that to be completely silly and hackneyed. I mean, they even use electricity as the main resurrection ingredient.

Raiders of the Lost Owl

As if stealing the plot from a monster story wasn’t enough, the show uses an old trope to show that something is up with the crystal owl. As Bruce places it in a safe place, a beam of sunlight hits it—allowing the owl’s crystalline structure to reveal some secret information. To make it more frustrating, Bruce isn’t there to witness it.

I’m okay with the owl being a key or device, but the writers need to come up with something much more creative. Or maybe even have the crystal owl be a decoy. The show needs to start circumventing some expectations, which brings us to …

Catmother

The introduction of Selina’s mother, Maria, before the winter hiatus was a nice move. However, Gotham‘s marketing and promo department should really work on their sizzle. The tease for the episode—“Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster“—basically gave away the whole surprise.

Nonetheless, the addition of Maria is a nice touch. I did a bit of research and discovered that Maria Kyle actually did appear in the comics—Catwoman Secret Files and Origins Vol. 1 #1 (November 2002) and Gotham City Sirens Vol. 1 #22 “Judgement on Gotham, Part Three: Family Matters” (June 2011).

In Catwoman Vol. 2 #69, Selina mentions her mother having been a distant parent who preferred the company of cats more than humans. In this story, Maria committed suicide when Selina was still very young.

Though the introduction of Maria in Gotham is great, I had a problem in how “Mad City: Ghosts” resolved the rift between Selina and her mother. It was all done a bit too quickly—which caused it to go into cheese territory. The writers may have needed a quick way to team up mother and daughter for the new story arc that was introduced at the end of the episode.

Maria finds an intruder in her apartment—one who Selina learns is from her mother’s past. Hoping to aid her mother in getting out of owing this person money, Selina blurts out Bruce’s ability to help. Bad move. Now that a billionaire is involved, the price has gone up. This will most likely complicate the relationship between Selina and Bruce. Not that Bruce will be reluctant to help, but he’ll think that she’s now taking advantage of him.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Maria. And I have an inkling that her story of why she left Gotham City is another lie. Could she be part of a bigger conspiracy? It was also rather convenient how she was able to suddenly find and save Selina, Bruce, and Alfred in the winter finale.

Next: Catch up with a recap of 'Mad City: Ghosts'

Gotham will have to cover quite a bit of ground, as it’s going on another hiatus in two more weeks. Yep, it won’t be addressed here, but other outlets have mentioned the show’s wacky schedule for 2017. Jerome’s return is a bit out of the blue, but it’s probably the cliffhanger-type material the show needs to keep viewers coming back. And the drama with the Court of Owls will need to be continued in the upcoming two episodes—or else the audience will lose a lot of the season’s narrative flow.

Gotham airs on Fox on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. EST.