Beloved series Gotham was all about the journeys different Batman characters took before settling into their comic book personas. Rogues like Riddler and Penguin weren’t always master criminals, and Batman wasn’t always a superhero. Before they could get to those places, they were just regular citizens of Gotham making really bad decisions.
Gotham was certainly a dangerous town to live in. Everyone got to play the hero at least once, but they also all did very bad things — even the future heroes.
Jim Gordon: Made A Promise
The events of Gotham really kicked off when Jim Gordon decided to make a promise to a kid. After being assigned to the Wayne murder case, Jim Gordon promised Bruce Wayne he’d bring the person who killed Bruce’s parents to justice. That seems like a good thing, but really, that promise ends up causing Jim, Bruce, and Gotham as a whole, a ton of trouble.
Jim’s other cases were frequently derailed because he decided to take advice from a teenager and his butler. He got sidetracked and caught up in conspiracies because his promise to Bruce weighed on him. Jim Gordon was a great detective, but he put a lot of effort into helping a single rich kid.
Harvey Bullock: Played Dirty
Harvey Bullock was a great police officer — when he wanted to be. Unfortunately, even before the events of the series, Harvey learned to play the game with members of the Gotham underworld. There wasn’t just once instance in the show where he bent the rules or sided with the bad guys, but several.
Eventually, Harvey was inspired by Jim Gordon to do the right thing and turn his career around while so many other detectives were still dirty. Just think of how many people in Gotham he could have helped if he’d never gotten into bed with the criminals.
Barbara Kean: Killed Her Parents
Barbara Kean was one of the most malleable characters in the series. The writers often treated her like a blank slate as the character struggled to find just where she fit into Gotham’s society. Her repeated attempts to take over were the direct result of her first horrible action.
Barbara, after being kidnapped by The Ogre, was goaded into killing her parents to “set herself free.” Eventually, Barbara’s seeming freedom led her to become a successful businesswoman and someone who made it her priority to protect other women, but it took her a whole lot of growing to get there. In the beginning, her decision to murder her parents left her unhinged and ready to destroy anything and everything in her path.
Edward Nygma: Took His Anger Out On Kristin
Before Edward Nygma’s Riddler personality truly emerged, he was a mild-mannered scientist working for the Gotham Police Department and nursing an unhealthy crush on Kristin Kringle. He finally got his chance with Kristin, but he made a huge mistake — he killed her.
Kristin Kringle was a great woman with terrible taste in men. Ed killed her abusive boyfriend when he found Kristin repeatedly hurt. When Kristin discovered the truth, she became scared and angry, causing Ed and his Riddler personality to lash out. Killing Kristin sent Ed over the edge, causing the Riddler to emerge for longer periods of time and turning Ed into a true criminal.
Oswald Cobblepot: Tried To Take Over
Oswald began as simply the man who held Fish Mooney’s umbrella. He wasn’t satisfied being a member of her organization, though, repeatedly making attempts to overthrow her. Fans came to realize that no level of power satisfied him.
He attempted to make his way to the top of any organization he became a part of. Oswald couldn't maintain a partnership with anyone — not even his dear friend, Ed. Every time Oswald decided to make a power play, he messed up the dynamic of the city and put everyone’s lives at risk. The worst thing he did wasn’t just something that happened once in Gotham, but a few times each season.
Leslie Thompkins: Used Ed For Her Own Means
Dr. Thompkins was supposed to be one of the good guys. She just wanted to help. Unfortunately, there were times when she went a little too far. When she ran a clinic in the Narrows, she went as far as she could go and even accidentally became a gang leader when she tried to better her little pocket of the city.
While living in the Narrows, she had Edward Nygma by her side. Ed had a bit of a crush on her, though he didn’t like to admit it. Lee used him to help her maintain control of the Narrows, trying to keep his Riddler side at bay, fully knowing how he felt about her.
Alfred Pennyworth: Treated Children Like Adults
Alfred Pennyworth is such a popular character in the Batman mythos that even he has his own series these days. The Alfred of Gotham was a little different than the Alfred of past incarnations. This version of the character was a former military men who seemed to forget he was taking care of a child.
Alfred treated Bruce like an adult most of the time — and a soldier at that. When Bruce made mistakes, Alfred laid the guilt on thick, like when he berated him for getting Selina involved in a break-in at Arkham Asylum. Of course, Alfred also slapped 13-year-old Selina when she made a mistake with Bruce. This version of Alfred wasn’t exactly the nicest guy, even if he did care for the Wayne family.
Ivy Pepper: Chose Rebirth
This character that went through the most literal changes in the series had to be Ivy Pepper. Gotham aged her up twice, casting a new actress in the role each time. The first time, Ivy was a victim of circumstance, as someone used their ability to advance her age when they were actually trying to kill her. But the second time, Ivy made a choice.
She went to a shop in Gotham known for its rare herbs. Fed up with being pushed around, Ivy used her pheromone perfume to get the shopkeeper to tell her where his most dangers items were. She proceeded to ingest them all, causing her body to cocoon itself and transform. While that transformation gave her the powers she had in the comics, it also drastically changed her personality. Instead of a teenager trying to figure herself out, Ivy was unhinged and obsessed, turning her back completely on those she once called friends.
Selina Kyle: Shut People Out
Selina thought of herself as a lone wolf. She preferred to do things on her own, and that frequently got her into trouble. Specifically, she shut Bruce out, the one person she appeared to actually care.
Bruce wanted to help Selina. He frequently went about it in ways that made her angry, but he also teamed up with her when she needed help taking down a bad guy. She did the same for him. If Selina hadn’t shut him out so completely so often, the two might have ended up having a much better partnership than they did by the time the series came to an end. Selina’s frequent dismissal of Bruce made him confused about how she felt towards him and whether he could trust her to have his back.
Bruce Wayne: Abandoned Selina To Gotham
The boy who grew up to be Batman had a pretty complicated childhood. Though Bruce Wayne wanted to do the right thing, he often went about it in exactly the wrong ways. He liked to throw his money around to solve his problems, but that didn’t work when it came to his friendships.
Over the course of the series, Bruce and Selina grew closer. It was obvious how much they cared about one another, but those feelings got them in trouble when it came to his vigilante lifestyle. When Selina became seriously injured, Bruce paid for her medical care and he made a promise not to leave her behind. At the end of the series, however, that’s exactly what he did. He left Gotham for five years, abandoning her to the city that had treated her so badly. Knowing Bruce, he probably expected allies like Jim and Alfred would look after her, but he should have known Selina better than that.