‘Gotham’ episode 8 preview: Bruce Wayne’s troubles at school

For most of “Gotham” so far, the problems that Bruce Wayne has faced are ones that the majority of children cannot relate to: Losing his parents in brutal murders, struggling to conquer fear by being on top of buildings, and trying to figure out why a powerful corporation bearing his last name is spending money on just about all of the wrong things.

In the sneak peek below, though, you can see the character deal with something that is a little more common for kids: Bullying, in particular by bigger kids who feel like the have the upper hand. Specifically, Bruce says in the sneak-peek video that he is having a hard time with a kid who was making fun of his late parents, but there wasn’t a whole lot that he could do about it. (There’s a part of us wanting to mentally flash-forward a couple of decades here, where Bruce is suddenly Batman and this bully is probably just some fat loser somewhere.)

Will something be done about this bully? We cannot imagine Alfred just sending a strongly-worded letter to the school getting them to do something about it. Most likely, he will be a little more proactive than that. As for whether or not something other than violence would actually work, though, that is an entirely different debate.

In the end, the one thing we really hope for from the Bruce storyline is that they continue to take things slowly. Right now, they are giving us enough of the character so that we can acknowledge his importance, but at the same time, we’re not experiencing so much overload that it takes away from something else.