Dwight Pollard was a former Indian Hill employee and part of a movement who are fanatic followers of Jerome Valeska.
Biography[]
Dwight Pollard was employed at the Indian Hill facility prior to it closing down where he partially learned how to resurrect the dead, something which Hugo Strange was able to perfect. One of his projects was Melanie Blake who was previously stabbed to death by her boyfriend three days ago and got loose. She was found wandering beneath the train bridge and collapsed where she died in the ambulance from coronary failure. His other job is working at the Gotham City Morgue.
Dwight became part of an underground movement which was dedicated to the late Jerome Valeska who had caused chaos upon Gotham City the year prior. Dwight came under possession of Jerome's corpse and kept it frozen in a container with the plan to resurrect him from the dead.
Dwight got a job at a morgue where he used the corpses as experiments to test how to bring back the dead. The experiment worked on a female who had been stabbed to death by her boyfriend a few days prior, but she ended up walking out of the morgue and later collapsed dead, with her corpse being found and delivered to the Gotham City Police Department.
Detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock arrive at the morgue to try and find out what happened, and Dwight feigns surprise that the corpse is missing. He later leaves the morgues and heads to an abandoned cinema where the Jerome followers are waiting, and presents a video to them of Jerome's attack on the GPPD. It is interrupted by the arrival of Gordon and Bullock who followed Dwight to the cinema, which causes the followers to scurry and some to attack the two detectives. During the chaos, Dwight manages to escape but is followed. The pursuit is interrupted by the arrival of Victor Zsasz, who attempted to kill Gordon in an unrelated matter.
At a secret lab, Dwight meets with Gus where he scolds him for letting a revived Melanie Blake get loose and be found dead. Gus claimed that Melanie stumbled out while he wasn't looking and died again when her body couldn't take the electrical currents that were placed into her which proved to be too strong. The pair of them come to the conclusion that it is time to resurrect Jerome.[1]
While working to revive Jerome, it appeared to be a failure. Gus tells Dwight about Officer Andrew Dove tipping them off about Gordon and the police converging on the power station and suggest they abandon the project. Dwight uses an electrical wire to zap Gus and then proceeds to cut off Jerome's face to wear as a mask for his Plan B. Persuading Jerome's Followers that they are Jerome, Dwight leads them into taking Channel 9 hostage as he broadcasts his message. This attracts the attention of a revived Jerome who makes his way towards Channel 9 station. Gordon and the police raid the building where most of Dwight's followers are either killed or arrested. Despite Dwight being apprehended, Jerome kills the police officer with him and makes off with Dwight. After Jerome staples his face back on, he doesn't seem to be mad at Dwight and thanks the nervous man for bringing him back. During Jerome's broadcast, Dwight is shown beaten and strapped to some explosives. Before leaving the power company, Jerome states to Dwight that he wasn't pleased with his face being cut off. Before Gordon can arrange for a helicopter transport, the explosives go off killing Dwight and plunging Gotham City into a blackout.[2]
Appearances[]
Season 3[]
Personality[]
Dwight was an extremely diabolical, megalomaniacal, egotistic, sociopathic and utterly ruthless psychopathic man with zero recognition to society or to sympathy. He mostly enjoyed leading Jerome's followers and wreaking anarchy and havoc across the city.
He was less charismatic than Jerome Valeska himself, with the latter commenting that he has "No charisma", but still, Dwight was also an intelligent and sophisticated person, and managed to maintain his power and his stand as the leader all the times he appeared. When meeting Jerome himself after reviving him, Dwight seemed to be afraid very much from the psychopath he worshipped, and was meek in talking to him (since he cut off his face). Even before his death by Jerome, he still had sophistication and wisdom and a twisted mind as he took Jerome's face from him.
Trivia[]
- David Dastmalchian had appeared in Christopher Nolan's Batman movie The Dark Knight, in which he appeared as a follower of the Joker (whom Jerome Valeska is based off). The follower's name is Thomas Schiff.
- David Dastmalchian has also appeared in The CW's The Flash, where he played Abra Kadabra, making him the second actor to appear in both Gotham and The Flash, the other being Anthony Carrigan, who appeared in the latter as Kyle Nimbus (The Mist).
- He also portrayed Polka Dot Man in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad film and voiced Calendar Man and Penguin in the Batman: The Long Halloween animated films.
- Besides of various film and TV adaptations of DC Comics, David also appeared in rival Marvel Comics film adaptations, Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp as Kurt, also voicing him in the animated series What If...?.
- Dwight cutting off Jerome's face is a potential nod to the comic books, when The Joker had his own face consensually removed by The Dollmaker before subsequently putting it back on as a flesh mask in Batman: Death of the Family.
- In the episode "Strike Force", Captain Barnes fires a GCPD officer named Pollard for corruption. The two characters could possibly be related.
References[]
- ↑ Cannon, Danny (writer) & Egilsson, Eagle (director) (January 16, 2017). "Mad City: Ghosts". Gotham. Season 3. Episode 12. FOX.
- ↑ Lilien, Steven & Wynbrandt, Bryan (writer) & Osunsanmi, Olatunde (director) (January 23, 2017). "Mad City: Smile Like You Mean It". Gotham. Season 3. Episode 13. FOX.