Entertainment

'Gotham' Is Pairing Up Selina Kyle & Poison Ivy

by Kayla Hawkins

The next episode of Gotham is finally on its way, and after such a long hiatus over the holidays, there's more and more questions that keep popping up — like what the hell is Jim Gordon going to be doing at Arkham Asylum? Where did Barbara Kean go? Now that FOX has released a couple of trailers for the next episode of Gotham , titled "Rouge's Gallery," and a clue for the second half of Season 1 has emerged, namely the new relationship between Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper. In the trailer, which is just a clip from "Rogues Gallery," we see Selina Kyle taking the young Ivy Pepper (who will become Poison Ivy) under her wing. Ivy isn't looking too hot, and seems to be afraid to go to the doctor.

Usually, Poison Ivy gets her powers from a poisonous plant toxin engineered by a rival, usually a man, while she's a young botanical scientist. But they could be changing her origin story so that she's poisoned, somehow, as a child. That would make her the very first super powered villain in… the world? Or at least the world of Gotham. That's an interesting choice. Now I'm hoping they make Ivy the first real Big Bad in the Gotham universe.

Selina breaks into what used to be Barbara and Jim's apartment, but there's "dust" on everything, implying that neither one of them is living there at the moment. That could mean that Barbara is still out of town and recuperating, but it also sounds like she could have officially broken up with Jim — whose demotion probably means he has to move to a much worse neighborhood. We also see that when she's breaking into Jim's place rather than returning to Wayne Manor — so is her temporary friendship with Bruce Wayne over? And whatever happened to those crazy assassins who were after Selina in the midseason finale? I guess even this clip, with all of it's new information, actually just raises even more questions about the new episodes. Ugh!

Well, we can look to the comics for answers, though I'm sure the Gotham writers are tired of us viewers constantly trying to scoop their storylines. But Catwoman and Poison Ivy have been allies before, as adult supervillains. In the comics series Gotham City Sirens, they team up with fellow villain Harley Quinn to cause some trouble for Batman. They might be three of his biggest challenges when put together. Think about it: Poison Ivy is a scientist, Harley is a psychiatrist, and Catwoman is basically Batman.

Now I'm hoping that when the show introduces Harley Quinn, she's a dyed-hair punk teen with 11 earrings, wearing combat boots, and planning on going to medical school as a "screw you" to Gotham's terrible public school education. If these three get together now, even as teens they'll easily terrorize Gotham City.

Image: Jessica Miglio/FOX