When we were first introduced to Barbara Kean in Gotham, she was simply a wealthy art gallery owner and the fiancée of Jim Gordon, a young and naive cop hell bent on cleaning up the corrupt city. But as he began to bend (and sometimes break) his moral code, the ugly-side of Gotham began invading her cushy life and Gordon stopped opening up to her about it, so she left him, began abusing drugs and alcohol again, and slept with her ex-girlfriend Renee Montoya. And then came her descent into madness. After the Ogre abducted her, she became mentally unstable and killed her frigid parents. Then, she tried to kill Dr. Leslie “Lee” Thompkins, Gordon’s new girlfriend at the time, and was sent to Arkham Asylum.
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And all of that was just in the first season. In second season, Babs went full-on crazy, joining up with Theo Galavan and his sister Tabitha, who became her new lover. And while she carried out Theo’s plans, deep-down all she wanted to do is dangerously toy with Gordon and Lee … which she did.
Now in Season 3, Babs is doing a better job of hiding her nutty side, though it’s very much still there. She’s running Gotham’s hot new club (called Sirens) with Tabitha. But does want to be more than just a nightclub owner? Perhaps, Gotham’s next fearsome crime boss?
“She has such high hopes for her and Tabitha. She has this new found power with Sirens and Penguin in the underworld,” Erin Richards said today, during the Gotham panel at New York Comic Con. “So she is seeing the rise within herself. So it is fun to me to play this character. When is she going to be serious Barabara. Or flirty Barbara…. all of those things, I just let them happen.”
And she teased how the Tabitha-Butch relationship have an effect on her storyline. “Barbara is a modern woman in that respect; she isnt tying Tabitha to herself,” she offered. “If Tabitha wants to go off and be with Butch that is okay. Barbara isnt going to try and hold anyone back so she can let anyone go. “The thing about Tabitha is that Babs needs her ’cause she is crazy. She is the face of the Sirens but Tabitha is the muscle. Later in the season there is a risk that she is going to lose Tabitha and so Barbara goes all guns blazing to get her back.”
For more details from the Gotham panel, click here.
Penguin gains power as he narrows in on the nomination for Mayor of Gotham. Meanwhile, Gordon turns Alice (guest star Naian Gonzalez Norvind) into the GCPD for the bounty. Also, Bruce and Alfred race to find Bruce’s doppleganger after learning he’s assumed Bruce’s identity.
The show stars Ben McKenzie as Detective James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Morena Baccarin as Leslie Thompkins, Sean Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle/the future Catwoman, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma/the future Riddler, Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan, Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox, Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Maggie Geha as the future Poison Ivy, and Michael Chiklis as Detective Nathaniel Barnes.
The guest cast includes Naian Gonzalez Norvind as Alice Tetch and Leslie Hendrix as Kathryn.
The all-new “Mad City: New Day Rising” episode of Gotham will air Monday, October 10 at 8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
