Gotham: Easter Eggs and References in “Tonight’s the Night”

We saw a whole lot of story going on in tonight’s episode of Gotham, as the story races to its episode 11 break point. SPOILERS follow.

The series saw major moments for Barbara Kean, as her current arc hit a bit of a snag – to the tune of a two story drop out a window. Galavan was caught with the previous Mayor and arrested. Bruce had his parents’ killer in his grasp and it went up in smoke.

Oh, and there were some easter eggs, too. Here’s what we saw.

The Cave

The Cave gets a surprisingly rare appearance tonight. After it was revealed in the season finale and the subsequent season premiere, we haven’t seen much of it. For a decision as momentous as the one Bruce tried to make, the future of his company, it was a fitting place for that to take place.

“It’ll take much longer than that.”

When Bruce asks Alfred how long his training will take, to become the hero he so desperately wants to be (though right now his focus is only on Wayne Enterprises), he asks if it’ll be weeks, months, five years, and Alfred says it’ll be “much longer.”

It’s a two-fold nod: one, it’s a nod to the comic book history of Batman, who took years of training to become what he eventually achieved. In Batman Begins, for example, he starts training in earnest way later, and even then is gone long enough to be declared legally dead.

Two, it’s telling viewers that yeah, they have a long wait to see Batman on this show. Sorry, folks.

Nygma’s Riddle

“I take you by night, by day take you back.
None suffer to have me, but do from my lack.
What am I?”

Well this one is probably pretty easy, and the answer is: Sleep. The riddle is a fairly well-known and traditional one, and it usually includes the following stanza at the beginning:

“I weaken all men for hours each day.
I show you strange visions while you are away.”

It’s an especially appropriate riddle for an episode that starts with a dream, and also makes reference to the fact that in sleep, Nygma became whole in the prior episode.

About That Dream…

In Barbara’s opening dream scene, she has a black bird fly out of her mouth. That is a bad omen, to say the least. A dark or black bird in a dream generally signifies death, evil, or defeat. Your mouth being bound (which hers is here as well) means helplessness and again – defeat. And something bad coming out of your mouth in a dream? Yup, it means you’ve done something to others you’re not okay with – so hey, maybe there’s a little hope for Barbara after all?

Jim and Barbara’s Wedding

This was a direct shout-out, and probably the only time we’ll see it, to an event in the comic books. In the comic book world, Jim Gordon and Barbara Kean did in fact get married, and even had children. Their son, James Jr wound up being a bit of a psychopath himself. He likes killing people; it’s in the family?

We probably won’t see them get actually married in this world, especially if a certain line and a certain theory are true…

“I’ll carve your face off”

Oh, Barbara, why are you doing this to me? If you’re a regular reader of the site, you’ll know that I have a bit of a theory: that Barbara will become the Joker of the Gotham universe. It’s something I’ve talked to the showrunner about, I’ve talked to Erin Richards about, and pretty much every other person involved with the show that I can.

In the New 52 relaunch of DC Comics, the Joker carved his own face off, then threatened to (and pretended to) do the same for all the Bat family. So when Barbara made that particular threat to Lee, it certainly set my Joker Theory Alarm Bell off.