Gotham Thoughts#2: long-term redemption

It’s no secret that I have been excited about the Gotham series. If I have officially ruined it for anyone, sorry about that. But it gave me another thought that I really liked. Let me give you the setup. If this winds up sounding super-vague, it’s on purpose to avoid spoilers. Feel free to reach out if this was straight-up unclear.

So during one of the seasons, one of the characters abandons their previously-established role. It’s a few seasons in, so it feels like a pretty drastic change. They’re just fed up with where they’re at and they decide enough is enough. This change lasts an entire season, so it really sinks in as a permanent change. It’s pretty clear that the character is lost, (they even change the character’s apparel to reflect this change. It’s pretty nifty!) But this long-term shift makes the character’s development feel weighty. It’s very interesting to see how their path unfolds and helps paint a different “bird’s-eye view” of their story. But it got me thinking about how we typically see a redemption story.

It’s different when we see a redemption story in a two-hour film. Sure, it has its impact, but not as much as seeing a character change over the course of a few seasons. I often wonder if this has affected our expectations for others. I often wonder if it has changed how much patience we have for their development. I think sometimes we get impatient, and expect people to change overnight. Sometimes that happens, sure. I’m not going to deny that sometimes you are the person that happens to cultivate their changes, but I think that’s actually a pretty small number of people. Many of us are just stepping stones along the way. We are one of the many pushes needed to get people going in the right direction. Sometimes the seeds we plant don’t grow until years later. Often we are one of many reasons for someone to hope, to dream, and achieve. Sometimes we have to learn to give without receiving so that we can have a long-term impact. 

But there’s something else that it got me thinking about in the redemption story. We often see the theme of resilience, with quotes like “why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves back up!” Our stories tell us to keep at it and never give up. Make no mistake, I’m not here to criticize that mantra. I love it! It never gets old seeing a hero rise to the occasion when they should have given up. But it hits differently when this message is done in a series over a longer period of time. When an entire season of a change has gone by, giving you just enough time to get used to this new version of the character, and then they dig deep into themselves and get back on their feet, it feels different. 

It’s interesting to take a moment to focus on the period before redemption because I feel like that’s what our lives can be like sometimes. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has lived several years with certain conclusions, only to have them be turned on their heads one day. It’s so much time that you almost forget the day you started down that road. Redemption sometimes takes years when we expect it to take days. We often find ourselves in certain pits for a while and it feels like that’s just the new normal. It can take time to sort through some of those wounds and to truly bounce back from them. 

I have always had a fascination with the negative. Sad songs, dark moments, they have something to say that often goes overlooked. I have always felt like we should spend a split second in that spot because it will develop us in a different sort of way. I still believe that. I really liked how it was done in Gotham, because it just made the redemption all the sweeter. When you come back with an even stronger motive, it really packs a punch, both on the screen and in real life. 

So here’s my action step for today. Take a second to look at the big picture of your life. Examine the bad times and what conclusions you drew from it. Did a scar turn into a negative belief about something? Did a bad experience make you pessimistic about something as a whole? Where are you now because of some of those bad experiences? Have you declared anything to be impossible because of something you went through? Are you willing to challenge that idea in some way? Let me know if you have any insights you’d like to share. I’ll be here. 

Until next time

May Peace be your guide.