The Maniax Are Planning Something On 'Gotham'

Wow. The ending of Gotham Season 2's second episode, "Knock, Knock," made it clear: the "Maniax," Theo Galavan's collection of Arkham escapees, are not to be messed with. Less clear is what the Maniax are planning to do once they take over Gotham City, which seems a lot closer now that they've eliminated nearly the entire police force — except for, of course, Jim Gordon. As the protagonist of the series, there was no doubt that Jim was going to make it, but I'm more curious why he lived. It could be that Barbara chose to lure Jim away because she's still in love with him. Equally possible, though, is that Galavan used Barbara's skills in order to trick Jim, whom he wanted to survive, into leaving the precinct at the key moments. But Galavan's whole plan seems a bit sketchy so far.

While it seems obvious why villains would want to kill the police force, perhaps there's a more sinister motive here. The goal could have been to destroy Essen to bring back Loeb, now backed by Galavan completely. Or, if Jim somehow becomes Commissioner or Captain, that might also be part of Galavan's plan somehow, if he hopes to manipulate or blackmail Gordon for trying to get rid of Loeb with help from Penguin.

But even though Jim asked Penguin to scare Loeb off, remember who gave the speech at the corrupt cop's resignation/retirement party — that's right, it was none other than Maniax benefactor Theo Galavan. Could Loeb be back already?! Last time these two were in a room together, Jim quit the force rather than be thrown out by Commissioner Loeb, who'd already demoted the detective to traffic duty.

Also a strange part of Galavan's plan — eliminating the mayor. Seems like with Commissioner, Captain, and mayor out of the picture, not to mention dozens of innocent cheerleaders in jeopardy, the city is going to be looking for someone to blame and someone to help them out of this crisis. Theo Galavan is a billionaire with a chip on his shoulder, so he could easily run for mayor, choose the next commissioner, or even pull a future Bruce Wayne and adopt a second identity. I doubt he'd want to take on his villainous team in a fight, because so far, they're kicking some serious butt, but maybe Theo and the Maniax have a plot so tough to figure out, only more episodes of Gotham can explain it.

Image: Nicole Rivelli/FOX