Gotham’s Cory Michael Smith Says Nygma’s Relationship to Riddles Tormented and Demented

Tonight’s Gotham has major leaps forward for several of its ongoing storylines, but none moreso than that of Edward Nygma, the man who will become the Riddler.

During a phone interview today with ComicBook.com, actor Cory Michael Smith teased the episode, and how it follows up on last week’s surprise death – as Nygma accidentally killed his girlfriend Kristin Kringle.

“I think as he’s hurting her, he’s a guy of words and not actions in a lot of ways,” Smith told us. “He’s not exactly aware of his body so much as his mind. So what it is, he’s trying to get across what he’s saying, which is that he loves her so much, and he did this for her and would do it again.

“That’s what he’s trying to get across – meanwhile, he’s strangling her to death.”

That twisted sense of love, and trying so desperately to express it, is the heart of that whole scene, though.

“So, it’s really coming from trying to make sure that she feels love – and she sure feels it (laughs). So that’s where it’s coming from. He’s unaware of exactly what he’s doing.”

Smith said he knew about Nygma’s storyline for about the first half of the season all in advance. He was glad of that, as it gave him time to “prepare [him]self to get to a place where Chelsea Spack would no longer be around.” But something surprised him about tonight’s episode.

“The thing I didn’t quite know, in the episode that airs tonight, they were very vague with me – and it turned out to be one of my favorite things about character development in the entire series. What we explore tonight with his relationship to riddles, and how it becomes tormented and demented, is so smart. I’m very, very excited about that.”

Check back after the episode airs tonight for Smith’s take on the big revalations of the night.