‘Gotham’: Poison Ivy Debuts With Lethal New Powers

Well, Ivy has gone through some changes, hasn’t she?

In just the second episode of Gotham this season, Ivy (Maggie Geha) drank some dangerous substances and began transforming into something else. Not long after that event, it was announced that Ivy had been recast once again, and that Peyton List would be portraying a new, more dangerous version of the character.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the midseason premiere of Gotham! Continue reading at your own risk…

That new Ivy debuted in tonight’s premiere and she is A LOT more like the villainous character has been featured in the pages of DC Comics for decades. Not only does this Ivy have a lot more attitude, and a much colder heart than the version before, but she has the poisonous powers that the comic character has long been known for.

In the beginning of the episode, a couple of junkies found Ivy in an overgrown apartment, emerging from some kind of cocoon. When one of the men approached her, she scratched him with one of her fingernails, causing him to writhe on the ground in pain while turning a nice shade of green.

She definitely couldn’t do that when she was last seen on the show.

When Lucius Fox and the Gotham coroner examine the man’s body later in the episode, there is a strange kind of moss growing all over him. A cut down his chest reveals that plants have taken root inside his body and are growing outward.

Ivy can now turn human beings into plant hosts. She explains this power later when she scratches Selina Kyle and lets her suffer for a minute, before gifting her with an antidote.

Earlier in the season, Gotham co-executive producer Bryan Wynbrandt spoke with us about Ivy’s newly-discovered gifts.

“Without saying specifically which ones, I would say it’s fair to say that her powers are going to increase and gain in their canonical way,” Wynbrand said. “We are going to transform Ivy in a way that we think the audience won’t expect, but that is pushing her along her development to becoming the Ivy that everyone knows from the comic book. Staying true to our origin storytelling, we’re not going to get quite that far with her where she’s the green ivy, but she’s definitely going to change.”

And change she certainly did.

New episodes of Gotham air on Thursday nights at 8pm ET on FOX.

Are you a fan of the new Ivy? Did Peyton List nail her Gotham debut? Let us know in the comments below!