Gotham: 19 Easter Eggs, In-Jokes And References You Totally Missed
13. There's A Reason The Inmates Were Performing The Tempest
Rogues' Gallery was a mid-season highlight for the first season of Gotham. A disgraced Jim Gordon demoted to guard duty at the reopened Arkham Asylum set the stage for first a deliciously dark murder mystery and then a full-blown prison riot, featuring many of the enemies seen throughout the show up to that point and introducing a few more. There's also a bizarre interlude where the inmates are performing a play. Odd, but not unheard of; apparently theatre is one of the many extra-curricular activities prisoners are encouraged to join in with. In this case they're performing Shakespeare's The Tempest; the Bard's plays often have a significance to the imprisoned. In this case The Tempest had a very real significance for the plot of the episode: it involves an evil magician controlling the mind of beast-man Caliban, which mirrors the actions of Jack Gruber disguised as a doctor manipulating inmate Aaron Helzinger to kill Dr Lang and various other people around Arkham.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
