Penguin Meets The Court Of Owls On 'Gotham'

Gotham has been toying with fans by teasing the Court of Owls, a famous DC Comics group, for almost two seasons now. But so far, the hints have been confined to one storyline — young Bruce Wayne's investigations into his parents' deaths. But in the Oct. 31 episode of Gotham, Penguin met Kathryn, the white-haired woman who usually wears a mask, at a dinner party for "Gotham's oldest families." It marked the first time she'd met with a character besides Bruce, and the first time she'd done something besides threaten someone. Instead, she took a little time to get to know the mayor, which seemed odd, since from her earlier scenes she suggested that no matter what is going on in the city, she has power.

But that just makes you wonder who exactly she could be. In the comics, there is no single character named "Kathryn" who controls or even gathers information for the Court. However, she does resemble Maria Powers, an older woman who is a member of the court. The original Batwoman in DC Comics is named Kathy Kane and was the head of "Spyral," the Court's espionage organization, though turning Kathryn into this character would require some mind-bending twists of continuity. Regardless of who exactly Kathryn is and whether she has a comic book counterpart, the court clearly operates as a shady cabal of Gotham City's oldest, richest families. That could actually mean that that dinner Penguin attended was not a real event, but a ploy so the court could get to know him a little better.

In Season 2, Penguin found out that he was actually related to Elijah van Dahl, who seemed pretty wealthy — maybe they let him become the mayor because, in some ways, he's one of them. And of course, when Jervis Tetch broke in to poison them, they must have been a little distracted by that and thus couldn't really execute any plans at all. They all managed to escape without being poisoned by Alice's blood, so for now, they're safe to continue developing their evil plans.

But in the episode's final scene, when Kathryn talks to another shady, mysterious figure, she suggests that because Penguin is a former (and secretly, current) criminal, she has modified her expectations about how much he can help them. It's a little hard to read — is she excited at the prospect of having a bad guy as mayor, or thrilled by how easy it will be to overthrow him? — but either way, it feels like Gotham Season 3 is really heating up by making this character a tiny bit less mysterious.

Images: Jeff Nuemann/FOX (2)