Alice Tetch was a minor supporting character in the third season of Gotham. She was the sister of the villainous Jervis Tetch - the Mad Hatter - and served as the catalyst for a string of disastrous events that would befall Gotham City over the course of the season.
History[]
Early life[]
According to her brother, both Alice and Jervis lost their parents when they were both young and he became her guardian. During that time, Jervis developed a perverse fixation on Alice. While never explicitly stated, she would strongly imply to Jim Gordon that her brother abused her sexually. What is certain is that Jervis practiced his hypnotic talents on her. During their childhood, it was also discovered that Alice's blood was highly toxic; her blood contained a virus that caused infectees to express the darker sides of their natures, usually resulting in violence.
Indian Hill[]
At some point, Alice managed to escape from her brother's clutches and fled to Gotham City. However, she would find herself being taken to the Indian Hill research facility beneath Arkham Asylum where Dr. Hugo Strange would conduct experiments on her. When Fish Mooney staged a breakout from the facility, Alice was among the test subjects to escape with her. She would disappear into the city when the bus carrying the escaped test subjects crashed.
Hiding from Jervis[]
Following her escape from Indian Hill, Alice tried to keep a low profile. She got herself a job working at a bar in the Narrows, but after cutting herself by accident and spilling blood on the counter, she grew scared of the consequences of what her blood could do and proceeded to burn down the bar.
At her apartment, Alice's angry landlord forced his way in and accused her of trying to cheat him and lie to him when it came to paying her rent. The sleazy landlord then began to make a move on Alice, and despite her pleas, he kissed her on the lips. He then began choking and subsequently collapsed, and Alice blamed him due to her warning him.
Jim Gordon, who was working as a bounty hunter at the time, came to Alice's apartment after Jervis had hired him to track her down. Gordon accidentally unleashed the rabid landlord who was 'infected' and began attacking Gordon. Alice shot the landlord dead, and after learning that her brother was searching for her, she set fire to the apartment and escaped, leaving Gordon behind to try and put out the flames.
On the roof of the club known as The Sirens, Jervis was in the process of getting a hypnotized Gordon to commit suicide. As Gordon stood on the edge, Alice confronted her brother with a gun pointed at him. He was delighted to see her, but she angrily told him to leave her alone. When Jervis came too close, she shot him and fired another two shots, but missed, and Jervis fled the scene. The shots fired caused Gordon to 'reawaken' from his hypnotic state. He accidentally fell off the ledge, but managed to hold on and Alice helped him up. Despite this, Gordon cuffed Alice in order to bring her into custody. Captain Nathaniel Barnes allowed Gordon to interview Alice, in which she made clear that her brother had an unhealthy obsession with her, and also gave some insight into her dangerous blood. At that moment, Jervis arrived at the GCPD precinct along with his brainwashed henchmen "The Tweeds" to kidnap her. Although Gordon promised to protect Alice, he was under Jervis' hypnotic spell and was forced to put his gun to his head, with only the intervention of Barnes to knock him out. Jervis managed to make his escape with Alice, who was carried away by one of the Tweeds.
Death[]
Jervis took Alice to his hideout at a disused amusement park where he dressed her up in a blue dress and tied her to a chair. He started removing blood from her system and stored them in needles, and made a threat that if she ever left him again he would put it in the city's water supply and endanger innocent people. Gordon and Harvey Bullock tracked down the hideout and Jervis tried to make his escape with Alice. She tried to get away again, which led to her accidentally falling off a ledge and being impaled on a pole, resulting in instant death.
Post-mortem[]
As a consequence of Alice's death, Jervis' already precarious grip on sanity would slip entirely. He blamed Gordon for Alice's death and enacted a campaign of vengeance against him, using the blood he had taken from Alice as well as his own hypnotic abilities to turn various people against Gordon. GCPD Captain Nathaniel Barnes accidentally became infected with the Tetch virus while he was inspecting the scene of Alice's death and a drop of her blood fell into his eye. In his infected state, he became convinced that Gordon was at the heart of all of Gotham's corruption and launched a murderous crusade against him and all criminals in the city. The Court of Owls would also obtain the Tetch virus and use it as a biological weapon in an attempt to destroy Gotham so that it could be rebuilt in their image.