 Nonfaithful representations of the infinite dihedral group

Every nonfaithful finite-dimensional complex representation of the infinite dihedral group is a direct sum of subrepresentations of dimension at most two. Its kernel contains a nonzero power of the rotation, so the representation factors through a finite dihedral group. Maschke's theorem makes that quotient representation semisimple, and all irreducible complex representations of a finite dihedral group have dimension at most two.