'Gotham' Could Be Setting Up A Huge Villain's Arrival

Gotham is pretty much always shrouded in mystery, and the May 1 episode has added another big question to the DC show: Who is the leader of the Court of Owls? The idea of a single person pulling the strings of the secret society comes up, and it's pretty clear that it's not a character fans have met yet.

As it turns out, it seems that Frank Gordon was triple-crossing the Court by telling them he was tricking Jim into joining while secretly sharing a desire to destroy it in order to make up for the organization killing his brother decades ago. And whoever it is that is running the Court of Owls, they must be very persuasive to have convinced an unwilling man to orchestrate the murder of his own brother. Whenever Gotham introduces this person, they're bound to be pretty intimidating.

Here's what's known about the leader of the Court so far: they have total control, suggesting that they are a powerful. They're also wealthy, since the Court is ruled by Gotham's richest families, aside from the Waynes. Given that even the disgraced Galavan family had a bloodline that went back centuries, the Court leadership must be a pretty high-status person. Beyond that, it's revealed that the leader of the Court is behind the plan to destroy the city of Gotham because it's devolved into a criminal wasteland. And since it's true true, as Harvey says, this means the Court of Owls isn't quite as in control as it probably wants to be.

Here are some other clues as to the identity of the Court Of Owls leader: This person is in the practice of hiring assassins who wear masks and use swords, not unlike the League Of Assassins, a brotherhood of formidable villains from DC Comics. And, most importantly, this leader believes that the best way to deal with a crime-ridden city is to burn it to the ground — possibly metaphorically, since the mysterious "weapon" that will do it hasn't been revealed yet.

Looked at together, these qualities seem to herald the arrival of Ra's al Ghul, the head of the League Of Assassins and a famous Batman villain. Ra's also believes that the best way to deal with humanity's problems is to murder huge swathes of the world's population, and Variety reported that in March that Alexander Siddig (Game Of Thrones) was cast to play the character on Gotham. So is Ra's the person behind the Court Of Owls' underground activities? Nothing's certain yet. But Gotham certainly seems to be hinting that he's the prime suspect.