Stan Potolsky was a minor antagonist in Season 1 of Gotham. Appearing in the episode "Viper", he embarked on a mission of revenge against his former employers by using a drug he had developed for them to kill Gotham citizens. He was portrayed by Daniel London.
History[]
Stan Potolsky was formerly an employee of WellZyn Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises. While in their employ, he worked as a biochemist and developed a revolutionary new drug called Viper, as well as its successor Venom. The substance was essentially a pharmaceutical weapon, capable of increasing a person's strength to superhuman levels. However, the drug had extreme side effects: it rapidly consumed calcium, causing the user's bones to quickly decay and crumble, resulting in their excruciating deaths. Potolsky had attempted to get the project shut down, going directly to Thomas and Martha Wayne. After the Waynes were murdered, however, WellZyn immediately reopened the program and Potolsky was fired.
After his dismissal, Potolsky took matters into his own hands. He began distributing vials of Viper on the streets of Gotham, thinking that if enough people died then WellZyn would be forced to close the project again. His efforts went largely unnoticed by the board of Wayne Enterprises until he attempted to kill several employees at a Wayne Charity Ball by flooding the ballroom with Viper gas pumped through the air conditioning vents.
Death[]
Jim Gordon confronted Potolsky on the balcony of the ball building and shot the barrel containing the Viper gas, stopping it from leaking into the hall. When the barrel ruptured, Potolsky inhaled the vapours himself. He told Gordon that he had done what he had set out to do and told him to investigate Warehouse 39. He then proceeded to kill himself by jumping off the balcony.