‘Gotham’ Pushes Selina Kyle Toward Her Fate As Catwoman

This article may contain spoilers for Gotham.

Gotham has really gone through a metamorphosis between its freshman season and this new installment with one of the changes being a greater focus on the origins of certain villains, which have always been fan favorites across all mediums from the comic book source material through television and film adaptations. Now, Gotham is turning that microscope on Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova), giving fans of Gotham a glimpse into what turned Selina into Catwoman.

Gotham Brings Catwoman And Firefly Together

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While the focus of recent Gotham episodes has been on Bridgit Pike, aka Firefly (Michelle Veintimilla), a big part of that subplot has been dealing with the friendship between Bridgit and Selina Kyle. As a consequence, Gotham has delved into Selina’s past to explore her friendship with Bridgit, which Ms. Bicondova suggests is vital to present day Selina. Gotham‘s Ms. Kyle is more alone than ever, following her recent run-in with Bruce Wayne’s butler (Sean Pertwee), which ended with Selina being run off, chased away from Bruce seemingly forever.

Concerned for Bridgit and not wanting to lose her friend so soon after reuniting with her, Selina points out that “no one’s ever gone after me or hurt me” in the hopes that her friend will choose to follow her instead of continuing to do her brothers’ bidding. As Ms. Bicondova suggested to Variety, Selina may have been looking out for her friend, but she’s also covering up her own pains and the loneliness of living on the streets of Gotham.

“It’s definitely a cover-up. She not only tells herself that to survive but she’s telling Bridgit that to stop Bridgit doing what she’s about to do… That’s the complex part of what she’s saying, but it’s a cover-up, definitely, because her mom hurt her; her mom left her,” the Gotham actress said. “She’s been growing up on her own — a teenage girl with no mom, that’s not a positive subject.”

Selina Kyle Begins To Embrace The Darkness On Gotham

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Camren freely admits that people need relationships, even if they’re unhealthy relationships, but Selina doesn’t have any of that with Alfred prohibiting her from seeing Bruce again, so Bridgit comes along just in the nick of time. Selina and Bridgit rekindle their past friendship out of necessity with each of them getting whatever help they need from the other, but it isn’t long before other forces at work on Gotham push Selina further away from the positive light that friendship can offer.

A run-in with Detective Gordon in which he gives Selina some bad news leaves Ms. Kyle feeling that much more alienated and angry. As TV Line reports, Selina is angry at Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), but she’s equally angry with herself. It may seem like Selina is taking the wrong path to Gotham fans, but Bicondova says that things may not be as bad as they seem at first.

“She definitely goes into a dark space, because at the end of the episode she… feels like she doesn’t have anybody to turn to. But I dont think she’ll go in a necessarily “evil” direction,” Gotham‘s Camren Bicondova said. “I think she just needs to figure herself out again and remember what she taught Bridgit about being independent.”

Another scene that has the potential to drive Selina toward an evil life involved that harsh interaction with Alfred in which Camren’s Gotham character was either slapped or punched by the Wayne butler, depending on one’s interpretation. Ms. Bicondova says that fans should give Pertwee a break; no physical contact was made in that sequence.

“No actresses were hurt in the making of that scene. It’s all good!”

The Gotham actress added that, as far as the plot goes, she doesn’t think Alfred and Selina will be at odds forever, because they both want what’s best for Bruce.

“Like, with my cats, if I forget to feed them one time, they’ll be mad at me. But the moment I feed them they come around and they love me. I feel like it’s the same thing.”

A purrfect response from the future Catwoman.

[Featured image courtesy of FOX/Gotham]