Fish Mooney was a major antagonist in the TV series Gotham. She was one of Carmine Falcone's top lieutenants and the owner of Mooney's Nightclub. She was also the boss of Oswald Cobblepot, who would become the notorious criminal mastermind known as the Penguin. She was portrayed by Jada Pinkett Smith.
Overview[]
Maria Mercedes Mooney was a self-made woman, building her way up in the Gotham underworld from nothing. Why she took on the nickname "Fish" is something only she knows. For years, she served Carmine Falcone faithfully, but always desired greater things and would use and manipulate anyone in order to get what she wanted, and what she wanted most was to get rid of Falcone and take over his criminal cartel herself.
While scheming and treacherous, Mooney is not entirely without compassion; she is a calm woman with a level-headed attitude and a nurturing, almost motherly aura which she treats with her loyal henchmen, such as Butch Gilzean and close friends, allowing them to call her by her first name. However, Fish has demonstrated a vicious and uncontrollable temper when provoked. In these instances she is even more violent and sadistic, like a mother whose children betray her.
History[]
Season 1[]
While investigating Thomas and Martha Wayne's murder, GCPD detectives Harvey Bullock and his new partner, James Gordon, come to her nightclub to ask if she had heard anything as the crime had happened in her area. When they arrive, Mooney is in the middle of beating a man who had been stealing from her. Upon meeting, she warmly greets Harvey, they being good friends.
After initially denying any knowledge on the identity of the Waynes' murderer, she promises to help in any way she can, while showing a cold interest in Gordon due to his straightforwardness and interest in the case.
Later, she calls Bullock to tell him one of her men had received a pearl necklace, whose description matched the one stolen from Martha Wayne, from a career criminal named Mario Pepper. Bullock and Gordon visit Pepper at his home, who denies any involvement in the Waynes' case. After Pepper is shot to death by Bullock while saving Gordon when the former flees, the pearl necklace is indeed found in his apartment, seemingly proving Pepper's guilt.
However, Mooney is soon visited by Gordon alone, who alleges her of framing Pepper by planting a replica of Martha Wayne's necklace on him. He also questions Bullock's involvement in this frame-up with Mooney. As Gordon is about to leave after trading words, Mooney has her men attack him, and then she herself strikes the telling blow from behind, knocking him unconscious.
Mooney is then seen watching an auditioning comedian for her club, finding him very amusing for his dark humour. She receives a call from her right-hand man, Butch, informing her of Bullock coming to save Gordon at her isolated plant. Bullock attempts to persuade Mooney to let Gordon go, going so far as to threaten to "go after her" if she kills his partner. Seeing this as disrespect and insult to her, she orders Gilzean on phone to hang and kill Bullock along with Gordon too. But the two detectives are saved by Mooney's superior, Carmine Falcone and his men's timely intervention.
Keeping Bullock's words in mind of how "somebody talked" from her gang to the GCPD Major Crimes Unit leading to Gordon blaming her, Mooney asks her lackey, Oswald Cobblepot, to massage her foot as she voices her ambitions to take Gotham from Falcone, whom she now considers has gotten "old and soft". After verbally comforting Cobblepot, she confidently blames him for tipping off the Major Crimes Unit, as only he had seen with the fake pearl necklace. When he protests, stating that he would "open a vein" for her as a show of loyalty, she immediately suggests he do so while handing him a knife. When Cobblepot tries to back out, she turns her back, while mockingly calling him "[my] little penguin". Enraged by this name-calling and seeing this as his chance, Cobblepot tries to attack Mooney with the knife, only to be brutally beaten by her with a chair, whilst breaking his leg, and giving him his distinctive limp. Later, Falcone orders Bullock to have Gordon kill Cobblepot for snitching against Mooney, but Gordon fakes his death by letting him swim away, telling Cobblepot never to return to Gotham City.
Despite Penguin's "death", he left trouble for Mooney. The next day, Falcone visited Mooney at her nightclub for a chat, and tells her that Cobblepot had revealed to him of her plans to take him out soon. After Mooney squarely denies it, Falcone gives the impression of believing her, and starts asking about her lover. When Mooney denies having one, only a "boy [she keeps] around for exercise" named Lazlo, Falcone implacably has the latter beaten by his men as a show of Mooney's place in his mob, much to her emotional distraught.
He kisses Fish's hand and thanks her being honest. She aggressively orders everyone to leave her club soon after Falcone exits. Later, Fish's head thug Butch is telling her it was too early now to make a move on Falcone. She knows and voices her desire to amass more money and men to Gilzean, so that one day, she can personally kill Falcone with her "bare hands and teeth". Butch offers to hold her shoes. She also sadistically wishes for Cobblepot to still have been alive, so that she could have made him suffer more for talking to Falcone about her plans against him.
When Gordon and Bullock return to her nightclub to ask her of the disappearance of street children from around her locality, Mooney shows little interest in the case, only revealing that there's an unknown "international buyer" who has able and healthy children kidnapped from Gotham's streets and shipped to him.
When departing Gotham, the boat Fish is on is attacked. She is kidnapped and awakens in an underground prison. She begins her takeover and demands her abductors that she meets the man in charge. Fish is brought to the associate of the man in charge, who reveals the man behind it is Dr. Francis Dulmacher. Fish is given the option of having her eyes removed or death. As a third option, she takes a spoon and gouges out one of her eyes and crushes it, and later collapses.
Fish later awakens to find herself being examined by Dollmaker, who has replaced her eye with a new one (although it is blue and not matching). Fish cuts him a deal to become his new assistant, in exchange for supplies to be sent to the basement, which Dollmaker complies. However she still plans to escape the prison and scouts out a way to escape.
Fish plans to fly a helicopter off the island and return to Gotham. After using some prisoners as bait by sending them to the boat, she escapes with other ones by helicopter.
Returning to Gotham, she forms a gang of the survivors from Dulmacher's island and street kids (including Selina Kyle). After making a deal with Maroni she is able to catch Falcone and Penguin.
After Penguin, Falcone, Gordon and Bullock have been caught, Penguin addresses Fish. He tells her that he knows that his life is forfeit but she should keep Falcone alive because after Falcone's death, Sal Maroni would have no use for her anymore. Maroni dements that, telling Penguin that he is no threat to her because she is no boss but an underboss. Fish replies that a underboss takes orders and that she does not take orders. Maroni tells her to calm down and calls her "Babes".
She shivers and tells him not to call her that. Maroni tells her that it is a term of endearment but accepts that he misspoke and that she is neither underboss nor babe. Fish tells him that they are partners, to which he replies that he is Partner 1 and she is Partner 2. Fish seemingly agrees. When Maroni calls her "Babes" again, he apologizes, swearing that this was the last time. He then addresses his men, telling them that with Falcone's death he will rule Gotham and establish a dynasty. When asking Fish if she agrees, he calls her "Babes" once again. He then laughs, telling Fish that he is joking with her. When he turns to his laughing men, telling them to not call her "Babes" Fish shoots him in the head.
In the ensuing chaos, Penguin is able to get a gun and shoots Fish's remaining men although Fish is able to run to cover. Penguin follows her, chasing her to the rooftop of the warehouse. On the roof Fish attacks Penguin with a pipe, causing him to drop his gun. Their fight brings them to the corner of the roof, where they are disturbed when Butch appears with Penguin's gun.
Both order him to kill the other. Between his loyalty to Fish and his brainwashing by Zsasz, Butch resolves his inner conflict by shooting both of them in the stomach, killing none of them. He then realizes what he has done and heads to Fish, apologizing.
Fish tells him that it is not his fault and that they messed with his mind. She tells Butch that she is going to be okay. At that moment Cobblepot knocks out Butch and attacks Fish, driving her to the rooftop corner and ramming her off the roof. Butch is only able to watch as Fish screams and falls into the sea below.
Season 2[]
In the second arc of Season 2, it is revealed that Mooney's body was recovered and placed in stasis at Hugo Strange's research facility at Indian Hill. There, Strange conducted inhumane genetic experiments, whether they be on Arkham Asylum inmates or lost souls taken off the streets. Mooney was not the only deceased patient of Indian Hill, either; Theo Galavan and Jerome Valeska were also interred there, waiting to be resurrected.
Mooney, Indian Hill patient 13, was later revived and infused with cuttlefish DNA by Strange. Mooney seemingly had all of her memories intact, prompting Strange to deliver this news to the Court of Owls when they contacted him asking about his progress reanimating the dead. They then ordered him to move everything to a facility upstate and destroy Indian Hill. When served her food by an orderly, Mooney grabbed him and demanded that the orderly bring her a grilled cheese sandwich. As she made physical contact with him, she somehow influenced him into doing as she asked with a mysterious new power, seemingly unbeknownst to either of them. When the orderly returned with the sandwich, Mooney was surprised at how the orderly obeyed her.
After this, Mooney fully turned her attention towards escaping from the facility. To this end, she commandeered a bus containing several unknown Indian Hill inmates and escaped. The bus was later derailed in the street by Butch and Penguin. Fish surprised Oswald, who was mortified at the revelation that Mooney was alive. Fish rendered Oswald unconscious, and Butch retreated with their men at the sight of her. She then fled from the scene, leaving a homeless woman to unwittingly unleash the monstrosities inside the bus into the world.
Season 3[]
After her escape, Fish went into hiding for six months. She reconciled with Selina Kyle and created a new incarnation of her gang, this time consisting of the escaped test subjects from Indian Hill. The mutants soon realised that using their powers drained their life force, and began to seek a drug hoping to help them. They went to raid a drug factory, in which Gordon (now operating as a bounty hunter) attempted to arrest Fish and bring her into custody, but ended up being attacked by the other experiments which allowed her time to escape. Wanting to collect a bounty of Fish's head, Gordon tracked down the location of Strange's assistant Ethel Peabody to lure Fish there, knowing she would be seeking her, and also used journalist Valerie Vale knowing Fish would be watching her. Indeed Fish's crew arrived at Peabody's location and managed to capture her, with Gordon losing sight, although he managed to capture one of the monsters. Ethel was brought before Fish, who demanded that she give her the location of Strange in hopes he can fix the side effects of her revival, as well as creating an army like her to help take over Gotham. When Ethel is unable to provide information on Strange's location, Fish ordered one of her gang members Marv who used his ability to drain people's youth and age them until death to kill Peabody. A young girl named Ivy Pepper (a friend of Selina's) was brought to Fish after being caught snooping around. Selina tried to assure Fish that Ivy is with her, but Ivy started threatening that she would tell on Fish. Fish ordered the girl to be killed, in which Ivy escaped only to be briefly grabbed by Marv and fall down a drain.
Following a fight with the Gotham City Police Department, Mooney's crew met with Harvey Bullock. After Harvey mentioned that a lot of people are after her, Fish kissed Bullock to control him so that they could find Hugo Strange. Upon arriving at the location, Fish told Strange that she wanted him to fix her and make an army. With the police approaching, Fish suggested that Strange rethink his answer. When calling up Nathaniel Barnes, Mooney stated that she will kill Harvey if anyone comes within 20 ft. of her, turning the situation into a hostage crisis. Strange informed her that she is the first of a new generation. Their discussion was interrupted when Penguin and Butch lead an angry mob to the hostage crisis. When Gordon was caught by Nancy and Sid, Fish told them to bring Gordon in. Gordon stated he only came for Harvey as Fish stated that she has two hostages. When Gordon stated that he could get her out, Mooney gave him two minutes.
When the angry mob broke through, Fish and Marv escaped out the back with Strange while Nancy and Sid hold off the angry mob. Cobblepot then confronted Mooney and Strange while sending Marv on his way. When asked by Cobblepot why she didn't kill him when he was vulnerable and within reach, Mooney replied that he was her creation, since he was her umbrella boy and that she turned Cobblepot into the Penguin, which she considered the best thing she had ever done with her life and took great pride in Penguin's creation, thus could not bring herself to kill him, since he was a part of her. Cobblepot became emotional and decided not to shoot Mooney and sent the two of them on their way while telling Mooney not to come back.
Professor Strange spent some time playing Mooney's "nurse maid" and eventually found a way of stabilizing Fish's degenerating cell structure, but was summoned back to the Court of Owls before he could finish his work.
Eventually, a rivalry between Edward Nygma and Penguin came to a close when Nygma and his allies Barbara Kean, Butch, and Tabitha Galavan stormed Oswald's last hideout and took him captive. Before they could kill him, however, Fish entered the room accompanied by two heavily armed guards. Fish sarcastically stated that things seemed to be looking up. Ignoring Nygma and his group, Fish took Penguin with her, thus saving him from his execution. As she, Oswald and her men turn to leave, Fish sarcastically told Nygma and his crew to carry on with whatever they were doing.
After taking Oswald, Fish and two of her goons headed to a train station in Gotham where they snatched Hugo Strange, who was planning to leave the city. Fish revealed that she knew that Strange had more of the Alice Tetch virus hidden away and she claimed that Strange would hand it over to her, so that she could finally raise the army of monsters Strange promised her. As they left, the group was ambushed by Bullock and Gordon who demanded Fish release Strange. Fish realized that Strange must have had an antidote to the virus and that he was the only one who knew of it. She refused to give Strange to them, and Gordon, who was secretly infected by the Tetch virus as well, aimed his gun at Fish to kill her. Before he could shoot, a freeze ray from the side blasted his gun out of his hand. Mr. Freeze emerged from the shadows and Fish laughed, asking whether Jim really thought she would head into the city without backup. She ordered Freeze to take down the two but Gordon ripped open a water pipe. Instead of freezing Gordon and Bullock, Freeze's ray hit the water and created a solid ice wall between the two parties. Looking through the ice, Fish stated that the virus had brought out the "real" Jim Gordon and sarcastically stated that it was nice to meet him at last before escaping.
Fish left Oswald to interrogate Strange for the whereabouts of the cure. Once they obtained it, Fish, Oswald and crew accompanied the Professor to one of his secret labs where he had stored the antidote. After Strange handed it to Fish, Fish turned to Oswald and told him that the two of them will rule Gotham together. Oswald confirmed that they will but added that first, he needed to kill Ed Nygma. As they turned to leave, Fish saw that the men she had posted outside the laboratory had been killed. The unknown assailants revealed themselves and demanded the cure. Fish ordered Freeze and Firefly to deal with the men and the two opened fire on the ninjas.
While Fish watched her men dealing with the ninjas, Gordon and Bullock suddenly turned up as well. Fueled by the hate the Tetch virus unleashed inside him, Gordon joined the fight and viciously attacked and killed many of the ninjas. However, once the ninjas were finished, Gordon did not stop and turned around to stab Fish, who dropped the antidote in pain. While Gordon slowly realized what he has done, the shocked Fish fell to the ground. Oswald rushed to her side and claimed that he will get help but Fish told him that she had died often enough to know when she was finished. With her dying breath, Fish urged Oswald to make the city his or burn it to the ground. Fish then died in Oswald's arms, this time for good.