Kyle Massey's 'Gotham' Character May Be Important

Sure, it was a little weird seeing the younger brother from That's So Raven show up in a comic book adaptation when Kyle Massey briefly appeared on Gotham this season, especially when we were only two episodes in. And he disappeared so quickly, it was hard to tell if his character was going to be important, or was just a throwaway exposition device. But Selina Kyle's friend Mackey will return to Gotham 's fall finale, even though we haven't seen him since the episode about the "Dollmaker," a crook who employed a few square-seeming associates to kidnap abandoned children for him.

Like Selina, Mackey is a street kid, and maybe they'll clash over her new place in Wayne Manor, spending time with Bruce and even flirting with him. If they're reunited, maybe Selina will realize just how much she's changed since meeting Bruce, and will think she's losing her edge. Might we see Catwoman pull her very first heist on Wayne Manor? Maybe Massey's character and a few others will offer their help.

In different comics or movies, Selina's had a few backstories. In this one, she's basically an orphan (or at least both parents seem to be absent). And the show has already established that there's not much in place for these kids, since they've been abandoned and left to live on the streets. We could meet an evil orphanage owner who's using children for cheap labor, or a detention center where kids are hypnotized into selling drugs once they get out.

Or, we could find out just what happened to those kids who were shipped off to juvenile correctional facilities upstate at the end of the Dollmaker saga. The rampant corruption in Gotham City led the Mayor to send the kids out of town and hopefully, out of reach. Mackey could be one of them. But these kids are Gothamites too, and they'll be back.

A lot in Gotham's first season so far seems to be building towards a point where Jim Gordon realizes that these villains are actually being created by the corrupt system in place to take care of troubled citizens, be they low-income families, or orphans, or criminals, or mentally ill, or some combination of those. His relationship with Selina could be one of many factors that makes him worry about reforming children's conditions in Gotham City or even making moves to help Selina find a home. Adding Mackey to that story, another kid that Gordon has seen before, even if he's not one that the audience has connected to, will only add more pathos.

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