Selina Is Going Through Some Traumatic Changes On 'Gotham'

So far, Gotham hasn't deviated too majorly from the DC canon. Outside of turning Barbara into an evil, campy mastermind and making Jim Gordon a borderline Dirty Harry type, it's largely recognizable as a prequel to the saga of Batman. But in its third season, the show may have changed everything by killing off a major character. Did Selina Kyle die on Gotham? It certainly seems that way in the May 8 episode when Not-Bruce Wayne, the clone, pushes her out of her window and watches her fall several stories.

Now, back in the first season, Selina was nicknamed "Cat," presumably for her cat burgling skills and the way she uses her super quick reflexes to steal from people and run around the city doing parkour moves. Her mystery has faded somewhat as Selina has opened up to some other characters. But it still seemed as if this version of Catwoman was going to eventually get her alias from her robbery skills, not any supernatural connection to the city's cats.

But as Selina lay on the sidewalk, presumably dead, a group of cats started swarming around her, and the whole moment was reminiscent of the scene when Michelle Pfieffer transforms into Catwoman in Batman Returns.

In the film, this is when Selina goes from a mild-mannered, abused, and frumpy assistant to a total badass. But Gotham's version of Selina is already tough and streetwise, so if all those cats manage to bite her back to life, she doesn't need the personality transplant to be a villain. So does this Selina have superpowers or some kind of resurrection ability? It could be exciting to see her from being a lonely kid to the master thief she is in the comics.

But here's the only thing I hope doesn't happen: I hope that Selina doesn't wind up ten years older like Ivy Pepper. Camren Bicondova has been working on making Selina the right mix of prickly on the surface and a total softie on the inside for the last three years, and I'd want to see how the transformation changes her.

Also, the idea of a teenage Batman and Catwoman jumping right in and adopting their comic book aliases before they even finish going through puberty is exactly the type of weird choice that makes Gotham so compelling.