Is ‘Gotham’ Bringing Back Bruce Wayne’s Parents?

Spoilers for Gotham Season 5, Episode 5 “Pena Dura” past this point.

Are you ready for the most messed up villain plot of all time? With FOX’s Gotham, that’s certainly saying something, because particularly in the show’s final season it’s been pulling out all the stops. But in the cliffhanger to this week’s episode, “Pena Dura,” it certainly looks like the show’s proto-Joker Jeremiah Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) is about to do the worst thing you can do to Batman: bring back Thomas and Martha Wayne, his parents.

As always with the Batman prequel, there are a lot of caveats here. Valeska technically isn’t Batman arch-enemy The Joker, he’s just a guy who looks and talks and acts exactly like The Joker, yet due to legalities too complicated to discuss here, is not called The Joker. Along with his partner Ecco, who is also not Harley Quinn despite looking and acting like her, they’ve been torturing Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), who is not Batman yet, all season long. Yet we haven’t seen the full scope of their master plan… At least, not until the end of this week’s episode.

See, Jeremiah’s minions have been tunneling under Gotham in order to break through into the pseudo-Batcave that was created by Thomas Wayne prior to Bruce’s birth. That leads them into Wayne Manor (don’t know why they had to tunnel because Jeremiah has kind of just shown up there before, but moving on), where we see two figures wrapped in bandages. Their heads are unwrapped, and we see them from the back as Jeremiah laughs the classic Jeremiah NOT JOKER, OKAY laugh.

“I love family reunions,” says Jeremiah.

So why are two folks sitting in the study at Wayne Manor a big deal? That’s because these are two characters mostly famous for being seen from the back. Specifically, face down lying dead in an alley, shot by a random criminal on the fateful night that led Bruce down the road to becoming Batman. On Gotham, Thomas and Martha Wayne were previously played by Grayson McCouch and Brette Taylor respectively, and have shown up past the pilot episode in flashbacks over the years. However, the folks seated in Wayne Manor have the distinctive haircuts worn by McCouch and Taylor back in that pilot episode, and it’s clear what Jeremiah has done… He’s used plastic surgery to transform two of his minions into the mirror images of Bruce’s deceased parents.

That’s messed up, yo.

A brief look at IMDB confirms that at least Taylor will be back for the next episode, titled “13 Stitches,” though it doesn’t note whether McCouch will return as well. The episode will air on February 14 (happy Valentine’s Day, Bruce Wayne!), and from there leads directly into a showdown on the next episode at the location that made The Joker in the comics, “Ace Chemicals.” Chances are, Baby Bruce ain’t gonna be too happy to see his parents “alive” again, and will be aching for vengeance on the man who brought them back.

Good luck, Mr. Wayne. You’re going to need it.

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