Selina's Mom Joins 'Gotham' & Is Still Mysterious

I thought Gotham was out of surprises, since it had returned to the incrementally revealed non-mystery about who the Court of Owls are and what exactly they want. But then, in the Nov. 28 episode, Gotham introduced Selina Kyle's mother, Maria Kyle, and revealed that she is some kind of anti-Court of Owls operative, which came as a legitimate shock. It wasn't the same kind of of joyous surprise as the Penguin-Riddler love triangle development this season, but still, pretty darn intriguing. There was only one problem with the reveal: it stopped too soon after the news! Luckily, there is a little bit of information out there: a few weeks ago news of Ivana Milicevic joining the Gotham cast was reported by TVLine. Her recurring character is reportedly "a tough-as-nails operator with an arsenal of street smarts" and a love of adopting false identities.

It was implied that Bruce, Selina, and Alfred managed to escape, but Selina's mom didn't get the chance to introduce herself, explain who she is, or even why she's been stalking the trio throughout their journey. The plot stopped so short, I almost forgot about the reveal by the end of the episode. Certainly, it would have been more fun to find out more about Selina's past than to see Bruce constantly bring up whether or not Selina is really his girlfriend for the fifteenth time. But hopefully, with the introduction of her mother, this story will shift gears.

The other news in the episode was that they discovered what the Court has been hiding in their secret safe — a giant glass owl. The kids don't have much time to react, but it doesn't really give them very many answers, and only prompts more questions. How will Selina's mother play into all of this? The character has never appeared before, because, as Selina said in some of the series' very first episodes, her mom was in show business and couldn't take care of her daughter because she became a secret government agent. What TVLine reported on the character doesn't seem to go with that, but it's possible that Maria lied to her daughter and even made her a victim of her cons.

Gotham always implied that Selina was just coping with the loss of her parents by crafting these stories, but based on what we've seen of her mother, Selina was clearly right to give her family an elaborate history.

Images: Jeff Neumann/FOX; Giphy