Dr. Mario Calvi was a supporting character in the third season of Gotham. Originally born Mario Falcone, he was the eldest son of Carmine Falcone, the infamous boss of Gotham City's underworld. Instead of becoming involved in his father's criminal empire, Mario took on the Calvi alias and took up a medical profession, becoming a highly skilled and trusted doctor.
History[]
Early life[]
Mario was born to Carmine Falcone and Louisa Falcone as Mario Falcone and later used the name Mario Calvi as an alias. After Mario's mother passed away, Carmine had previously promised his wife that he wouldn't drag Mario into the family business. While Mario was a disappointment to the family business, he did bring honour to the Falcone name through his profession as a doctor.
Meeting Lee Thompkins[]
In Atlanta, Mario met Dr. Lee Thompkins and eventually got into a relationship with her. When Jim Gordon decided to leave Gotham City in order to find her, he tracked down her address and arrived with flowers in hand. But while peering through the window, he saw Mario and Lee together. Heartbroken, Jim departed without letting her know about his visit and returned to Gotham City.
Moving to Gotham[]
Upon moving to Gotham and getting a job at Gotham General Hospital, Mario tended to Jim's injuries following his fight with some men at the Narrow's Bar. He mentioned how Lee had talked about him. At a restaurant, Mario later told Lee about his encounter with Gordon. They were then visited by Mario's father Carmine, who talked to Lee about his son's history. He then toasted to their relationship.
After Lee was abducted by a deranged Jervis Tetch as part of his revenge game against Gordon, Mario arrived at the precinct where he crossed paths with Gordon about to leave. Gordon received a clue about Lee and Valerie Vale's whereabouts from the "White Rabbit", which was Mario and Lee's own home. Although Mario felt Gordon should get backup, he eventually joined him so the both of them could rescue the two women without police interference which would possibly drive Tetch into killing them.
As Gordon went inside to join Tetch, Leslie and Valerie at his "tea party", Mario snuck into the cellar to retrieve his gun. He arrived at the tea party where Gordon was forced to choose to let either Leslie or Valerie live, and pointed the gun at Tetch's head. But Tetch informed Mario that he anticipated this, and took the liberty of removing the bullets from the gun. Tetch then got his henchmen, the Tweeds, to escort Mario to the bathroom and chain him up. When the ordeal came to an end, which resulted in Valerie being shot in the stomach, Mario got to work in the emergency theatre to perform surgery and save her life. While Gordon and Lee waited, Lee assured Gordon that Mario was a good surgeon and would save her.
Lee told Mario that Jim told Jervis to kill her because he knew that Valerie would get shot instead, meaning that he actually saved her life that day. Mario told Lee that he wanted Jim out of their lives. Later, Mario found Jim unconscious in the basement of the hospital, and successfully revived him before he succumbed to the fatal effects of the Red Queen toxin that Tetch had exposed him to. During a conversation, Lee told Mario that Jim was returning to work at the GCPD, much to Mario's dismay. Later, at the engagement party, Jim showed up uninvited, looking for a suspect. Mario angrily confronted Jim about his feelings for Lee. Jim told him to lose the jealousy, telling him that it was a sign of weakness and it would only push Lee away. In a fit of rage, Mario punched Jim in the face. Although Jim chose not to arrest Mario for physically assaulting him due to his respect for Lee, he made it very clear that the next time that he physically assaulted him, he would promptly arrest Mario without any hesitation.
Infected with the Alice Tetch virus[]
The Court of Owls later made multiple attempts on Mario's life. The first attempt with a car bomb and the second with two assassins trying to attack him. When it came to the third attempt at a jewelry store, Jim took out one of the assassins while Mario brutally killed the second in self-defense. Carmine Falcone later had a discussion with Kathryn about the attacks on his son. Kathryn withheld any important information on the Court's motives for the attempt on Mario's life. After seeing Lee leaving Gordon's apartment, two punks came up behind him and started messing with him only to be brutally taken down by Mario. It is then shown that Mario was infected by Alice Tetch's blood, which carried a virus that caused its victims to go insane as the virus brought out the darker aspects of the victim's personality. Mario had been infected intentionally by Jervis during his "tea party" with Gordon, Lee and Vale.
Under the influence of the Tetch virus, Mario visited a Gotham Bio-Lab worker named Ryan Pfeffer at a bar. Mario killed Pfeffer and took his keycard to gain access to the lab. Upon Gordon entering Gotham Bio-Lab and finding that Pfeffer's keycard had been used, he was ambushed by Mario, who knocked him out. Deciding not to kill Gordon, Mario wrote his location on Gordon's hand and dared him to come look for him. The location was Arkham Asylum.
After visiting Jervis Tetch in Arkham, Gordon had Mario brought to the GCPD where Lucius Fox tested him for the Tetch virus. Lucius later informed Jim that they found no sign of the virus in him. Confused, Jim told them that the test was wrong and that Mario must have found a way to cheat it. When Gordon later visited Lee, he found Mario waiting for him. Mario warned Jim that if anything happened to him, his father would make him pay. Mario then called in Victor Zsasz who held Gordon at gunpoint. Zsasz only held Gordon for a few minutes, just long enough that he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop Mario and Lee's wedding, after which he let Gordon go without incident.
Gordon managed to reach the church where the wedding was taking place and caught up to Lee, warning her that Mario was infected with the Tetch virus and that he had somehow beaten the test. Lee refused to believe Gordon and became angry at him, slapping him across the face and demanding that he leave. Gordon realized that this had been Mario's plan all along: Mario wanted Lee to hate him and ensure that she'd never go back to him. As Gordon was escorted out by Falcone's henchmen, Lee went on to the wedding ceremony.
Death[]
Following the wedding, Mario and Lee left for a lakeside cabin owned by Carmine just outside of Gotham where they intended to enjoy their honeymoon. Shortly after arriving, Mario and Lee enjoyed a tender moment by the dock and Mario asked Lee if she had truly cut Jim Gordon out of her life forever. Lee assured Mario that he was the man she loved and wanted to spend her life with, though she admitted that some part of her would always care about Jim. Unfortunately, that was enough to drive Mario towards murderous intent. With the Tetch virus amplifying his jealousy, Mario became convinced that Lee still loved Gordon, reaching the conclusion that the only way to stop her from going back to him was to kill her.
Fortunately for Lee, Gordon had managed to convince Carmine to tell him where Lee and Mario had gone. Although he had promised Carmine that he would bring in his son alive, Gordon was unable to keep that promise. When he arrived at the lakeside cabin, Gordon saw Mario walking up behind Lee while brandishing a kitchen knife, ready to stab her in the back. Acting swiftly to save Lee, Gordon drew his revolver and shot Mario dead, much to Lee's shock and horror.
Legacy[]
Because of Mario's death, Lee would come to hate Jim and would pursue a vendetta against him. At first, she tried to have Gordon arrested, but due to the circumstances behind Mario's shooting, no arrest happened. She even tried going to Mario's father Carmine and putting a hit on Gordon, but would later call it off after discovering the extent of the virus' effects when she visited Nathaniel Barnes in Arkham Asylum. Due to her conflicting feelings over Gordon, Lee became unstable and she resorted to infecting herself with the virus in order to rid herself of whatever love she had for Gordon to become strong-willed enough to kill him herself.