Gotham Season 3 Episode 9: Every DC Comics and Batman Reference in Executioner

Every week, we'll be breaking down the Gothameaster eggs that you might have missed, whether it was a Batman reference or something dealing with the wider DC Universe. The newest episode will always be at the top (and you can click the blue episode title headlines to get taken to a full review), with previous episodes appearing in the dropdown menu in the order in which they appeared.

You can use the dropdown menu at the top and bottom of the article to navigate to specific episodes you want to check out. But weare of spoilers!

Let's get started!

Watch Gotham Season 3 on Amazon

Gotham Season 3 Episode 9: Mad City - Executioner"

- “Mad City: Executioner” is really the first time we get to see Maggie Geha go full Poison Ivy. There was the slinky green dress, the mind manipulation of a rich patsy, and most importantly- the perfume. For decades now, Ivy’s pheromone controlling perfume has been a staple of the character. All we need now is the poison lipstick and we will have the full Ivy package. And I’ll say this for Geha, she looks like she walked off a comic book page because this fatale is every inch the perfect Pamela Isley.

- And what was with that antiquities dealer that Ivy robs? He was like a chimera of Terrence Stamp, Ra’s Al Ghul, and Gomez Addams.

- In the comics, Edward Nygma never really had an inciting incident that made him the Riddler. The Riddler always kind of just...was. Adding the death of Isabela to the Riddler’s past is an interesting layer to the origin, but one wonders why she had to look exactly like Miss Kringle? Ah Gotham, always needlessly convoluted. But having the Penguin be the responsible party for Ed’s descent into madness is a cunning way to link up the histories of two of Batman’s most enduring rogues.

- These past few weeks, we’ve been speculating on what classic DC villain Barnes could be becoming. Now, I guess that answer is...nobody? We’ve guessed Solomon Grundy; we’ve guessed Lock Up, but it looks like Barnes is just Barnes. Or perhaps the not-so-good Captain’s identity lies in a very deep layer of Bat lore.

This week’s episode of Gotham is called Executioner, and there is in fact an Executioner in Batman’s rogues gallery. DC’s Executioner first appeared in Detective Comics #191 (1953). This Executioner was a carnival worker named Willy Hooker (how many carnivals were there in olde time Gotham City anyway) that would help criminals escape jail. Hooker would then don the guise of the Executioner to murder the crooks and claim the reward for capturing the convicts dead or alive. Yeah, there is no connection to Barnes whatsoever except the self-administered justice business, but it’s interesting that Gotham would dredge up this almost forgotten Bat villain moniker. How’s that for a deep cut?

- Yeah, we like Judge Dredd, too, but having Barnes constantly spout “I am the law!” is a bit on the nose. But hey, Batman has teamed with Judge Dredd in a couple of inter-company crossovers so I guess there’s a Bat connection there.

- I so need to own that portrait of Cobblepot and Nygma. It would look great hanging in my nerd cave.