Will Jack Gruber Return To 'Gotham' Anytime Soon?

At the conclusion of last week's eventful episode of Gotham, it looked like James Gordon had successfully defeated Jack Gruber, "The Electrocutioner." But as the most entertaining villain of the week so far, it's a little disappointing to see Gruber go so soon. So will Jack Gruber return to Gotham , or will Arkham Asylum finally realize that they need to hire some real staff to prevent prisoners from constantly escaping? The answer seems to be neither. In every comic, movie, and TV series, Arkham Asylum has the worst staff in the world, and Dr. Leslie Thompkins aside, I don't think anyone is patrolling the halls at the moment (administrator Gerry Lang is dead, Nurse Dorothy Duncan is insane and dead, pretty sure that other guard lost his job for letting an inmate have his keys, and Jim Gordon is a police detective again).

But in the last episode, "What the Little Bird Told Him," we found out that who we thought was Jack Gruber was actually a criminal named Jack Buchinsky. Now I thought that was a bit of a cheap trick, to give this new character a fake name just so eagle-eyed comic fans didn't spoil Gruber's identity. But it did lead to one of the best storylines of the season, so I guess I can't complain.

They didn't show Gruber/Buchinsky being carted off in handcuffs, but since Gordon was reinstated as a cop, he must be in custody of some kind. However, we didn't see all of his electrical equipment being taken in either, so it's possible that the Electrocutioner name could live on with another criminal. In the comics, it was passed down to three different men. Two were in the Buchinsky family.

Lester Buchinsky is the best known Electrocutioner, and he could be Jack's nephew, son, or much younger brother. He's young enough to spar with Batman, so he has to be a kid right now. Maybe, like Ivy, he'll be scarred for life from watching his father (or father figure?) get carted off to prison and it will break up his family, turning him into a villain.

On the other hand, Gruber did seem like something of a loner, and his only associate that he wasn't trying to kill was Danzig, who was turned into a murderous lackey by the Electrocutioner's twisted electroshock therapy. And while it's totally understandable if they just didn't have the screen time to spend on Danzig's apprehension, it could be possible that in all the commotion around Gruber, he slipped through the cracks. And since his brain was rewired by an electrical madman, he'd still be obsessed with getting revenge and he may have enough super strength to help assist him with breaking out of jail — Danzig might become the next Electrocutionier.

So if the Gotham producers just can't get enough Electro-inspiration, they have a few different ways to bring back the Electrocutioner, but I think for now Jack Gruber will remain behind bars. But maybe Christopher Heyerdahl can come back to play Gruber as a Hannibal Lecter-esque evil genius who helps Gordon solve crimes from his prison cell.

Images: Jessica Miglio/FOX; Giphy (2)