Gotham: Easter Eggs and DC Comics References in "Harvey Dent"

This week, Selina Kyle came back into the picture -- and in a big way.

The future Catwoman is now crashing at Wayne Manor, taking up a lot of Bruce's time and attention -- something that is a bit of a mixed bag, as far as Alfred's concerned.

We also saw the creation of Arkham Asylum as fans will come to know it, with criminally-insane prisoners from the nearby Blackgate Penetentiary shuttled into the "newly-renovated" treatment center to avoid them having to go offsite for treatment.

So...what'd we catch? What'd we miss? Who will be the first to freak out in the comments? Read on to find out.

Blackgate

It seems as though we've touched on this one, so we'll keep it brief. Blackgate Penetentiary is a prison in the DC Comics Universe. It's also appeared in the Batman: Gotham Knight direct-to-DVD animated feature, which waas released around the time of The Dark Knight, as well as a  number of animated series and video games.

Perhaps most interestingly, in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises, Blackgate makes an appearance as the prison into which most of Arkham's violent inmates are forced as a repercussion of "The Dent Act," named for Harvey Dent, who died in The Dark Knight. This is somewhat ironic, since Dent's first appearance on Gotham was today.

Meet Selina Kyle

We get to see the first time Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle lay eyes on one another this week.

First of all, the romantic chemistry between Bruce and Selina starts right up in this episode, as does her "people call me Cat." Aside from being her nickname on Gotham, "The Cat" was the name Catwoman used in her first comic book appearance in Batman #1 in 1940.

Harvey Dent

Of course, the title character in this week's episode is Harvey Dent, the hotshot Assistant District Attorney with a heart of gold and some anger management issues -- as well as an unsettling connection to a coin he likes to flip all the time, an odd affectation that would become a trademark part of his persona as Two-Face, the scarred villain obsessed with duality.

Dr. Lovecraft

It's a longshot, but Dick Lovecraft may have been a reference to Dr. Lovecraft, part of a group of villains who battled the Justice League with ties to a corrupt and failing company called Repli-Tech Industries in the '80s.

It's more likely that it's just a nod to H.P. Lovecraft, whose particular brand of horror storytelling has certainly inspired its fair share of writers, but if we didn't mention Dr. Lovecraft, somebody would have in the comments...so there you go.

HMX - While there doesn't appear to be any significant history for HMX in the DC Universe, it is indeed a real explosive, used mostly by the military, and it is as described, very potent.

Gregor

While there are a couple of Gregors in the Batman mythology -- including a Russian gangster and assassin associated with the KGBeast -- neither of them share anything resembling the last name of the Russian mobster who appeared and died in today's episode.

We're simply mentioning this since we couldn't spell the last name either, but no Gregor in the DC Wiki is close enough to feel like a winner.