Edward Nygma (Gotham)

"Remember I mentioned fate? Recently, I've going through a sort of change... "What kind of change?" you ask....I started murdering people!"

- Edward Nygma to Oswald Cobblepot. "You let me know? I bet you will, acting like you forgot all about Kristin Kringle. Sure you forgot! Suspecting somehow there must be a...You're trying to lure me into a false sense of security while the claws of your investigation close around me, eh? Is that it, my little man? You take me to be a fool? We'll see about your litle plan Jim Gordon, we'll see. I can make plans on my own..."

- Nygma starts planning against Gordon.

Edward "Ed" Nygma is a character in the DC Comics Television Show Gotham, in which he appears as the supporting protagonist in the first season, a protagonist villain in the Rise of the Villains arc and the secondary antagonist in the Wrath of the Villains arc of the second season. He is portrayed by Cory Michael Smith. He is the show's version of the supervillain Riddler.

In the first season he is a supporting character and works as a police forensics investigator for the Gotham City Police Department, who normally gives Harvey Bullock and James Gordon results of crime scenes. He is also shown for having a love for puzzles, and despite lacking empathy does not act as a villain for a majority of the first season. A subplot involving Edward shows his interest in colleague Kristin Kringle. His start of darkness occurs when he murders her abusive boyfriend Tom Dougherty, which shows him having a breakdown and in the last episode of season 1, having an argument with himself.

In second 2, which is dubbed "Rise of the Villains", Edward begins his journey to villainy when he is shown to have developed a split personality/schizophrenia and accidentally kills Kristin when confessing that he murdered Tom. His darker side soon takes over when Edward soon realizes he takes pleasure in getting off with his crimes. In the second half of the season's story arc "Wrath of the Villains", Edward develops into one of the antagonists as he begins plotting against Jim Gordon, who he wrongfully believes is suspecting him of Kringle's disappearance.

Start of Darkness
Possessing a crush on his co-worker Kristen Kringle, towards the end of the season he discovers that her boyfriend, Tom Dougherty, is abusive. Confronting him to stop him from seeing her again, he ends up stabbing Dougherty multiple times. This event causes him to have a simultaneous remorse and breakdown. Using his position he manages to destroy Tom's body before anyone can find out that he is dead and creates his first ever Riddle, a forged note from Tom claiming he had just left town. However, if only the first letter of every line is read it spells out "NYGMA".

After Kristen solves the riddle and asks Edward if he knows anything about it Edward realizes that he has almost been discovered.

Breakdown
At the beginning of the season it appears he has a split personality and has conversations with a darker version of himself in the mirror. Ed gets upset by his alter egos presence and warns him to leave Kringle alone.

When Jerome Valeska and his teammates attack the Police Department, Ed saves Kringle by tackling her to the ground out of the way of the gunfire and ends up taking a bullet. Kringle appears to show appreciation to end and is later seen giving him medication after the bloody incident is over.

To confess his love to her, he practices his speech in the police archives. However, due to his split personality his evil part gains more and more influence over him. When telling Nygma that she owes him for saving her life, Edward walks to Kringle while she speaks to three other officers. He invites her to dinner and she agrees, saying that she would like that, much to the astonishment of the other cops.

When Kristen arrives at Nygma's house, she tells Edward that when his invite said "chez moi" she expected a restaurant. Edward apologized for being so unclear and tells her that he loves to cook. While inviting her in, she tells him to call her Kristen. While their dates continues, Kristen apologizes to Edward for being mean to him the whole time to which Edward replies by apologizing for annoying her for so long. Kirsten does not accept the apology, saying that she was mean while all he was was sweet. She also apologizes for implying that he wrote Dougherty's goodbye letter to her. While Kristen talks about Dougherty, Edward accidentally says that he is glad that Dougherty is dead. A confused Kristen replies that he only left town. Edward saves himself by stating that it was only a figure of speech, meaning that he is "dead to her". While Kristen apologizes and goes to the bathroom, the evil Edward congratulates Nygma for blowing it up. Edward tells his evil self to leave him alone, which Kristen hears and thinks that he meant her. She prepares to leave, but Edward admits that he is talking to himself and that the stronger version of himself inside his head prevents him from botching up everything. Kristen answers that she can understand that and tells him that they all have a voice like that. When Edward tells her that his inner voice was angry for spoiling the mood, she kisses him.

After dinner with Edward and Kristen, Leslie tells Gordon that strangely Nygma seems to maintains a sense of coolness, which Gordon cannot believe.

Killing Kringle
Edward later overhears Kristen talking to Leslie saying she wished he would be more open. Later that evening after having sex, Edward ends up confessing that he was responsible for killing Dougherty. Kristin gets angry and sees Edward as a sicko, however he insists he did it for her and didn't want her to be abused by him. When she tries to escape, he covers her mouth to stop her screaming in order to explain himself, however ends up strangling her to death unintentionally when holding her by the neck. Edward breaks down and cradles her body and screams in anguish.

The New Nygma
Edward awakens the next morning to discover Kringle's body gone. His split personality appears again via hallucination, where it is now revealed it is able to take over his body. The alternative personality took over Edward's body when he was unconscious and has now hidden Kringle's body, and gives Edward the task of finding it at the G.C.P.D. Edward heads over there and follows the clues and discovers Kringle's severed hand inside a vending machine.

Edward heads to the morgue, where he discovers her corpse. He attempts to remove it however Leslie walks in on him. Edward quickly explains he was trying to look for her, and claims that Kringle left him after an argument and he wants relationship advice over coffee. Leslie, taking sympathy, agrees and they both leave.

Later on Edward returns to the morgue alone. His hallucination appears and Edward asks him why he is doing this. The hallucination asks him how he felt about Leslie walking in and Edward admits he was terrified as she could have discovered the body. The hallucination continues on, telling Edward about how much a rush it was and tells him how it feels. Although previously conflicted, Edward replies "beautiful". Embracing his darker side, he begins to smile and proceeds to cut up Kringle's corpse.

Edward took her remains to a remote woodland and put the body in a type of coffin and dug a grave. He had prepared sandwiches and drinks in order to say a proper goodbye to Kringle. When a hunter came across him, Edward killed the man with a spade. Edward then noticed someone had taken his sandwiches and followed a blood trail. A while passes and Edward comes across a caravan in the woods, and when he approaches it the door flings open and he falls to the ground. Edward puts his glasses back on and is surprised to see it is Oswald Cobblepot (who he had briefly met some months prior at the GCPD headquarters) and is badly injured. Oswald begs Edward for help, before collapsing.

Teaming up with Penguin
Edward brings Penguin to his home and nurses him back to health. When Penguin wakes up, he at first thinks that Nygma wants to kill him, but Edward assures that he has no ill will towards him. He tells Penguin that he has recently started murdering people, three in total. He asks Penguin, whom he sees as one of the best killers in town. However Penguin does not plan to stay because he sees his empire in ruins. While walking towards the door, Penguin faints.

When Penguin wakes up again, he sees that Edward has kidnapped a man. Nygma tells him that this man, named Mr. Leonard, worked for Theo Galavan before the latter was sent to prison. He tells Penguin that he kidnapped him as a gift for Penguin, as a kind of revenge. However, Penguin tells Nygma that he's "done" and will leave Gotham after a nap. After Penguin has gone to bed, Edward addresses Leonard, telling him that he really expected Penguin to like him. He then drags the tied up Leonard out of the room while humming.

Later, when Penguin awakens once again Nygma plays the piano and sings a song which he thinks has meaning for Penguin as he was humming it under his sheets. Penguin admits that his mother sang this song for him when he was small. Nygma then shows him the glasses of Kristen Kringle and says that these are the only things he has left of her. Penguin once again plans to leave but is stopped by Nygma who coldly tells him that his mother died because of his weakness because he did not realize his weakness was her. Penguin grabs a knife and puts it at Nygma's throat, tearfully exclaiming that his mother was a saint and was the only person who truly cared about him and she was everything he had. Nygma replies that a man who has nothing to lose can not be betrayed and will answer to no one but himself. He says that this man, a free man, is whom he sees before him. Penguin then sobbingly hands him the knife.

Later, while having dinner, Penguin asks Edward where he kept the lackey of Galavan he kidnapped. Edward smiles and pulls Leonard out of the cupboard.

Planning against Gordon
After some time, Leslie finds out that Kristin's last paychecks haven't been cashed in. Gordon promises to investigate and visits Nygma in the GCPD morgue. Nygma claims that he hasn't heard from Kristin in a while and that while she left him a goodbye note, he did not keep it. Gordon accepts this, but Nygma grows paranoid, believing that Gordon is on to him.

After the Malone case, Gordon returns to the GCPD. He is greeted by Nygma who asks if there are any news about Kristin. Gordon says that he was busy but will look into it. While Gordon returns to his office, Nygma viciously looks at him, saying to himself that Gordon surely must think that Nygma is a fool and tries to lure him into a false sense of security. He claims that while Gordon may plan against him, he can also make plans of his own. The same night, Nygma heads home to his flat and paints a green questionmark on a newspaper article about Gordon.

Attack on Gordon
Nygma carries out his plans the next day. After forcing the evacuation of a museum due to a bomb threat, Nygma steals the painting "Mad Grey Dawn". When the police arrive they find a question mark sprayed to the wall in green paint. They also find that two much more valuable paintings were sprayed with the same paint. Once the police is alerted, Gordon and Bullock are sent to investigate. While the two policemen are leaving the precinct, they are approached by Edward who claims that he is ready to be interviewed by Gordon about Kringle's disappearance. Once more, Gordon brushes him off and heads to the museum with Bullock.From the names of the artists who painted the two defiled painings, Gordon gets the name "Market Street". As the stolen painting depicted a railway explosion, Gordon is worried that the culprit might blow up Union Station, which is located at Market Street. Indeed, Nygma is at the station and has placed a bomb in a locker. When Gordon and Bullock arrive they do not see him and walk right past him. Watching them from some distance, he sees Gordon find a locker sprayed with another questionmark. He activates the bomb inside manually and watches Gordon break open the locker, grab the bomb and throw it inside an opening in a marble statue. The blast is reduced by the statue and while knocking down Gordon, does not deal too much damage. After Comissioner Barnes arrives, Gordon tells him that he thinks that the bomber is playing a game and wanted them to find the bomb. Meanwhile, Nygma has a GCPD officer sign a custody form. He walks towards Gordon, congratulating him for saving the day. Gordon reveals to him that he is worried because he has no idea what the bomber might attempt next, much to the amusement of Nygma. Back at his apartment, Nygma is visited by Penguin who has been declared sane and released from Arkham Asylum. Nygma swiftly finds out that the doctors at Arkham did a good job on Penguin. While Penguin appeals to Nygma to change, Nygma reveals that he is thankful for everything Penguin taught him about Jim Gordon. At night, Nygma visits the police officer whose signature he took earlier, claiming that Gordon will arrive soon and explain everything. After the policemen has invited him in, Nygma beats him to death with a crowbar. Gordon indeed arrives at the flat, having been told that the call activating the bomb at Union Station came from there. He finds his dead colleague and is faced by Comissioner Barnes, who had also been alerted by Nygma. Barnes, whom Nygma send a message from the officers phone, arrests Gordon believing him to be the murderer of Officer Pinkney. While Barnes interrogates Gordon, it is revealed how Nygma set up the trap from Gordon: He used the crowbar Gordon used to break up the locker at Union Station to kill Pinkney, thus securing Gordon's fingerprints on the murder weapon. He also stole the file about the phone call from the flat from Bullock's desk, thus erasing any reason for Gordon to be there. It is revealed that the form Nygma had Pinkey sign was a witness statement, claiming that Pinkney saw Gordon kill Theo Galavan.

With all odds against him, Gordon is arrested for killing Officer Pinkney in the intention to get rid of a witness. Gleefully, Nygma watches as Gordon is led out of the Police Precinct and brought to prison. Gordon is later found guilty and sentenced to forty years at Blackgate.

After Gordon has been imprisoned, Bullock desperately tries to find a way to get him back. After another failed attempt to schedule a retrial, Bullock talks to Nygma, revealing that he thinks that Gordon was set up. Nygma asks what Bullock intends to do but Bullock says that he wished he would know.

Caught out
"A nightmare for some. For others, as a savior I come. My hands, cold and bleak, it's the warm hearts they seek."

- Nygma's riddle with death as the answer

After Gordon manages to escape from Blackgate in order to clear his name, he returns to Gotham where he manages to acquire a tape which recorded the person who had made the call saying Gordon was responsible for killing Theo. The tape is distorted but Gordon is able to filter out a chirping sound. He heads to Nygma's apartment, hoping that Nygma is able to clear the tape and identify the culprit. Although Nygma is horrified to see Gordon in his apartment, he agreees to help after he realises that Gordon is still oblivious to his involvement. However, Nygma begins to get agitated and flustered, especially when Gordon refers to the suspect who killed Pinkney a "psychopath". When the tape is cleared Gordon realises that the chirping sound is in truth a cuckoo clock. From the sound and Nygma's odd behaviour Gordon deduces that Nygma was the one to frame him. Having foreseen that Gordon would come to this conclusion, Nygma activates a trap he set beforehand and electrocutes the chair Gordon, thereby knocking him out. He drags Gordon towards his car, intending on taking him to the woods and burying him, but Gordon managed to escape. Nygma manages to shoot him in the leg and track him down to a warehouse. There Nygma tries to locate Gordon by revealing that he killed Kristen, hoping for a response. However, Gordon escapes and furthermore is now aware that Nygma killed Kristen.

Knowing that no one at GCPD would believe Gordon's story, Nygma returns to work. He watches when Selina Kyle arrives, claiming she has information that Jim is going to look for Penguin, who had information on the location of Kringle's body. Nygma heads to the wash room, beginning talking to himself in the mirror, and calculates there is an 80% chance Gordon will find Penguin, an 80% chance Penguin will blab about the location of Kringle's body, and a 60% chance that Gordon will find the corpse. Nygma heads to the woods intending on digging up the body and moving it before Gordon can find it. Gordon arrives and an amused Nygma believes Penguin had indeed told on him. But Gordon reveals that he had in fact tailed him, and Nygma realizes that the whole thing with Selina was a set up to make Nygma rush to the body's location. Nygma points his gun at Jim and reveals there is a monster in all of them, and that Jim wasn't truly his friend but only pitied him. Before Nygma can shoot Gordon however, Captain Nathaniel Barnes and the police arrive from their hideout behind the trees. They order Nygma to put the gun down. Nygma tries to fool them into thinking that he caught Jim but Barnes reveals that they overheard his entire confession. Nygma tries to run away but he trips on the snow and the officers surround Nygma and take him into custody.

Nygma is tried for the murders of Kristen Kringle and Carl Pickney, but because he shows obvious signs of insanity he is sent to Arkham Asylum.

Arkham
"But not for long, my friend. I'll find my way out, cause this place is but one big puzzle and puzzles are my forté. Nobody beats me!"

- Nygma to Gordon

At Arkham, Nygma deescalates a fight between Aaron Helzinger and another inmate. After having done so, he sees Jim Gordon who has just finished a meeting with Hugo Strange. Nygma approaches the fence, much to Jim's disgust. Although Jim is confident that Nygma will rot in prison, Nygma reveals to him that he will be back soon as the prison is just a giant riddle - Nygma's speciality. After Gordon walks of, Nygma hears Strange and Peabody walking past and talking about Gordon. Nygma interrupts the discussion and Strange tells him that eavesdropping is unwise. Nygma immediately realises that the conversation about Gordon has something to do with the release of Cobbleopt and Barbara Kean. He offers Strange help in taking down Gordon but Strange refuses. Before Strange can walk of, Nygma reveals that he could be an asset as he can manipulate people, demonstrating it on various inmates including Helzinger. Listening to Nygma's explanations Strange eventually realises how he can solve another problem. He storms off, leaving a baffled Nygma behind.

Nygma is indeed able to escape the group cell mere hours later by putting his newspaper between the closing doors. He decides to find out what Strange is hiding and follows Ms. Peabody down the hallway leading to Indian Hills. He realises that there is a hidden elevator and plans to use it to break out of Arkham. With help from the inmates he manipulated, Nygma manages to break into the elevator and enters Indian Hills, being utterly overwhelmed with his discovery.

Personality
Edward is normally cheerful and friendly; however, he came off as weird and outright irritating towards his work colleagues. They specifically found this for his love of riddles, and his continued use of them while explaining what he had discovered during his work. Edward is also very knowledgeable about factual trivia which he thinks is a helpful matter, however it is actually another source of why his colleagues find him annoying. He has shown to be a genius-level intellect although his unorthodox methods of finding clues has led to him being questioned by his superiors. However, he still remains loyal and a very necessary element for the police service.

Edward appears desperate for a friend or even the slightest hint of companionship, possibly due to his childhood of neglect and insecurities, which was shown as he took an instant shine to the new cop, Jim Gordon, simply because he solved his riddle while meeting the first time as most of his colleagues don't even let him finish, let alone answer one of his "brain-teasers."However Edward does have a reputation amongst the GCPD for misbehaving equipment. Cases of this are pretending to be a coroner while "dissecting" a watermelon for Kringle and using the same room to "surgically remove onions from (his) takeout." Once the actual coroner, Doctor Guerra, discovered him examining a murder victims body without clearance, he had him suspended. Edward appears to suffer from OCD such as organizing Kringle's Evidence Room in the way he wanted after being left in charge. An example of Edward's most immoral rule-breaking deed was when he framed Doctor Guerra for hoarding body parts out of revenge for getting him suspended. Edward does express a more altruistic side however. When he had discovered that his crush, Kristin Kringle was being abused by her boyfriend, Officer Tom Dougherty he went over to defend her despite Kringle's objections and ignoring the fact that Dougherty exceeded him physically. Another example was when he saved Kringle from being shot when the Maniacs invaded the GCPD and when he nursed an injured Penguin back to health.

His attempts at romance are feeble at best. Although Edward does constantly try to impress Kringle, it never pans his way, such as writing a love letter for her which is discovered by her then-boyfriend Arnold Flass, which was used to humiliate him and planting a bullet inside a cupcake which was an attempt at a romantic metaphor. Edward was eternally optimistic; he had hope that he and Kringle would still be a couple despite her outright rejecting him multiple times, ironically this determination was a factor of why Kringle found him unlikable.

However, as the series continued, something began to affect Edward's psyche. Because of the humiliation and abuse he has suffered all of his life and in his work place he slowly suffers from a breakdown until he actually had a mental collapse when confronting Dougherty at Kringle's home and ends up stabbing him multiple times which resulted in a magnitude of emotions: shock at what he had done and hysterical laughter while all the while muttering to himself "Oh, dear" at the sight of Dougherty's corpse. After murdering Dougherty, Edward tries to resist his new persona but was seen arguing with himself and his "dark side" in the evidence room when he had discovered that the letter he had forged told Dougherty leaving Gotham left a clue that he was the one who actually killed him. Edward's schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder became all too clear; he had no capacity for remorse or mercy even taking some joy in murdering people, developing a much darker and sadistic personality and becoming a shameless serial killer and psychopath. What is shown from this "Evil Ed" persona (a name given by many fans) is that he was reckless and arrogant, he had hidden clues in his forged Dougherty letter by spelling out his name NYGMA at the beginning of every sentence and nearly admitting to Kringle that he had killed Dougherty during their dinner. Eventually after accidentally murdering Kringle while trying to subdue her, then later hiding her body in GCPD, he discovered that he enjoyed getting away with murder and embraced his darkness, which was proven when he remorselessly killed a hunter while he was discarding Kringle's body in the forest.

Edward's serial killer identity has shown to be aggressive, an example was when he slammed a drawer, angry at himself for leaving a clue about his involvement in Dougherty's demise and telling Penguin that his mother dying was because of his own weakness. However he was also able to project a calmness and confidence in his movements and words, something which surprised Gordon, for as long as he had known Edward he had always appeared shy and insecure. Edward still kept his powerful intelligence, able to cleverly hide the remains of his victims and could recognize it would be beneficial for him if he struck a partnership with Penguin after he had saved his life.

In spite of Edward's intelligence, he is shown to be quite paranoid, especially when he thinks someone is on to him, like when he believed Jim was close to the sudden disappearance of Kristen or when he fell for Gordon's trap when he thought the latter was going to find Kristen.

Victims
On-screen kill count: 4
 * Tom Dougherty - Stabbed to death
 * Kristin Kringle - Choked to death (Accident)
 * Unnamed Hunter - Hit in the head with a shovel
 * Leonard - Killed together with Oswald Cobblepot
 * Carl Pinkney - Bludgeoned to death with a crowbar
 * Jim Gordon - Shot in the leg (Survived)

Episode appearances
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" ! Appearances for Edward Nygma

Season 1

 * "Pilot"
 * "Selina Kyle"
 * "Arkham"
 * "Viper"
 * "Spirit of the Goat"
 * "The Mask"
 * "Harvey Dent"
 * "Lovecraft"
 * "What The Little Bird Told Him"
 * "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon"
 * "The Fearsome Dr. Crane"
 * "The Scarecrow"
 * "The Blind Fortune Teller"
 * "Everyone Has a Cobblepot"
 * "Beasts of Prey"
 * "Under the Knife"
 * "The Anvil or the Hammer"
 * "All Happy Families Are Alike"

Season 2

 * "Rise of the Villains: Damned If You Do..."
 * "Rise of the Villains: Knock, Knock"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Strike Force"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Scarification"
 * "Rise of the Villains: By Fire"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Mommy's Little Monster"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Tonight’s the Night"
 * "Rise of the Villains: A Bitter Pill to Swallow"
 * "Rise of the Villains: The Son of Gotham"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Worse Than A Crime"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Mr. Freeze"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Mad Grey Dawn"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Prisoners"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Into the Woods"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Azrael"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Unleashed"
 * }

Trivia

 * Edward working for the Gotham City Police Department is probably taken from the Arkham video game series Riddler, who was shown working for the G.C.P.D in the prequel game Batman: Arkham Origins.
 * Also, when Edward's "dark side" speaks to him, it distorts, similar to how Riddler's voice does when he speaks to Batman in the Arkham games.
 * Edward's relationship with his alternative personality is similar to the relationship between the unnamed Narrator and Tyler Durden in the 1999 film Fight Club.
 * In some versions of the character he has the surname "Nashton", where he ends up taking the name Nygma (sometimes spelled Nygma depending on the writers).


 * Like most of his DC incarnations, Nygma always has an inability to tell a permanent lie. Even if he manages to get away with a lie like how he murdered Tom, he always leaves a clue about what actually happened, similar to how he made sure in each left margin, it spelled out "NYGMA".
 * He may also tell half truths. One instance is how he told Leslie Thompkins about his fight with Kristen, but leaves out the part where he killed her. Another occurrence is when he admits that Kristen "left" Gotham to be with Tom Dougherty (Via afterlife).


 * His license plate is "RIDL LVR."