Selina Kyle spends her days pickpocketing and Oswald Cobblepot has slowly been rising through the ranks of Gotham City’s underworld, but when it comes to Gotham’s other important future Batman adversary, Edward Nygma hasn’t had a chance to explore his bad side. As one of the show’s more humorous characters, most of his scenes revolve around his social awkwardness and his pathological need to tell riddles. As the show progresses, viewers will see Edward moving closer to becoming the green-suited, question-mark emblazoned Riddler, and that first step towards the dark side will be happening quite soon.
While chatting with E!, series star Ben McKenzie mentioned that in contrast with his lighter scenes, Edward will start to move down a darker path this season on Gotham. Said McKenzie:
“You’re going to start seeing Nygma, who has heretofore been sort of more comic relief, sort of sweetness, you’ll start to see him turn a bit, and that’ll be fun. And Corey Michael Smith, who plays him, is a terrific actor, and he’ll delight in that I’m sure."
Although Edward has dealt with a lot negative reactions over his eccentricities (especially from Harvey Bullock) he’s mostly been good-spirited about the team's quips and annoyance. That wasn’t the case in last week’s episode “What The Little Bird Told Him.” Trying once again to woo GCPD colleague Kristen Kringle (who we met in “The Spirit of the Goat”), he delivered her a riddle in the form of a red velvet cupcake with a bullet lodged on top, meant to represent that “a beautiful woman is a dangerous thing.” Not only did she not understand the symbolism, but after Edward was chased away by a cop who thought he was bugging her, he overheard her saying she was creeped out by the gift. His expression as he rounded the corner showed that he was genuinely hurt by her response. Poor Edward. No one understands how much time he puts into his bizarre clues and conundrums.
Riddler is one of Batman’s more insane enemies from the comics, so if there’s anyone on the show that’s likely to snap on Gotham, Edward ranks high on the list. How he’ll start to turn is unclear, although with all the people who give him grief about his riddles, he may end up exploding when someone insults him one too many times. I also fear that Ms. Kringle might be the target of his wrath due to the many times she spurned his affection. If and when the show features him harming or killing someone, it’s a guarantee that he’ll leave behind a riddle for the GCPD. Maybe then they’ll start to care about his puzzles.
Gotham airs on Fox Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
