Fish Mooney

Fish Mooney
General Information
Portrayed by:	Jada Pinkett Smith
Appearances:	Gotham (TV series)

Fish Mooney is a former nightclub owner and mobster who led a gang under Don Falcone and was the former boss of Oswald Cobblepot.

History

She operated in Gotham City's red-light district despite the heavy presence of the Italian Mafia. Mooney sometimes provides information to Detective Bullock, who has a sweet spot for her. Mooney has secret plans to overthrow Falcone, whom she hates for his otherwise unspecified role in Fish's own mother's death, makes her as the main antagonist of season 1. Her plan involved hiring a girl named Liza to seduce Falcone and secretly blowing up Falcone's money supply. After her plans to overthrow Falcone are exposed by Oswald Cobblepot, who has been blackmailing Liza to get information about both Falcone and Mooney, Don Falcone strangles Liza to death and has Mooney and Butch Gilzean was taken prisoner while the remnants ended up on Oswald Cobblepot's side. After escaping from Falcone's men, Mooney tries to leave Gotham City by water and is captured by the minions of the Dollmaker. Mooney was eventually able to escape with some of her fellow prisoners. She returned to Gotham City during the gang war between Falcone and Maroni and formed her gang from street children, including Selina Kyle. Mooney was pushed off of a building into the ocean in a battle with the Penguin, which seemingly killed her.

In the second season's fall finale, Fish's body is seen at Indian Hill, a scientific division of Wayne Enterprises that secretly performs illegal experiments. Fish is eventually revived in the second season finale while augmented with the help of cuttlefish DNA, being the only one of Hugo Strange's patients have her memories intact for unknown reasons. The side-effects of the revival gave Mooney the ability to take control of anyone that comes in contact with her. She manages to escape from Arkham and knocks out a shocked Penguin on the street.

With some of the Indian Hill escapees on her side as members of her latest gang and even realigning herself with Selina Kyle, Fish Mooney begins raiding every pharmacy for drugs. After learning from Ethel Peabody about the new cells being rejected by her body and that Hugo Strange would fix her, Fish Mooney has her fellow escapee Marv steal her youth. Then Fish Mooney plans to find Hugo Strange in order to get him to make more monsters for her gang. When Fish Mooney's follower Nancy catches Ivy Pepper, Selina tries to vouch for her only for Fish Mooney to sic Marv on her.

Fish Mooney was successful at freeing Hugo Strange. Because of what Mooney said to him, Cobblepot decides not to kill her and allows her to leave with Hugo Strange while telling her not to return.

Fish Mooney later returned to Gotham City with some armed men where she saves Cobblepot from Riddler, Barbara Kean, Tabitha Galavan, and Butch Gilzean. She then makes off with Cobblepot where she forgives him and mends her relationship with Cobblepot.

After obtaining a fleeing Hugo Strange, Fish Mooney has him take her, Oswald Cobblepot, Victor Fries, and Bridgit Pike to the slaughterhouse where the antidotes to Alice Tetch's blood is. During a fight between Fish Mooney's followers, James Gordon, and the League of Assassins' ninjas, Fish Mooney is accidentally stabbed by James Gordon. When Cobblepot tells Mooney that they'll get her some help, Mooney turns him down stating that this would happen and for Cobblepot to either take control of Gotham City or burn it to the ground as she dies again.

Appearances

Season 1

• "Pilot"
• "Selina Kyle"
• "The Balloonman"
• "Arkham"
• "Viper"
• "Penguin's Umbrella"
• "The Mask"
• "Harvey Dent"
• "Lovecraft"
• "Rogues' Gallery"
• "What The Little Bird Told Him"
• "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon"
• "The Fearsome Dr. Crane"
• "The Scarecrow"
• "The Blind Fortune Teller"
• "Red Hood"
• "Everyone Has a Cobblepot"
• "Beasts of Prey"
• "All Happy Families Are Alike"

Season 2

• "Rise of the Villains: The Last Laugh" (mentioned)
• "Rise of the Villains: Strike Force" (mentioned)
• "Rise of the Villains: Scarification" (mentioned)
• "Wrath of the Villains: Prisoners" (flashback)
• "Wrath of the Villains: A Legion of Horribles"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Transference"

Season 3

• "Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell..."
• "Mad City: Burn the Witch..."
• "Mad City: Look Into My Eyes" (mentioned)
• "Mad City: Smile Like You Mean It" (mentioned)
• "Heroes Rise: How the Riddler Got His Name" (mentioned)
• "Heroes Rise: Light The Wick" (mentioned)
• "Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine"
• "Heroes Rise: Destiny Calling"

Season 4

• "A Dark Knight: Things That Go Boom" (mentioned)

Season 5

• "Legend of the Dark Knight: They Did What?" (mentioned)

Novels

• Gotham: Dawn of Darkness
• Gotham: City of Monsters

Trivia

• She is a major recurring antagonist throughout the series. She appears as the main antagonist for the first half of Season 1, and the secondary antagonist overall. After her resurrection, she becomes a minor antagonist of the Wrath of the Villains arc of Season 2 and Season 3 overall.
• Pinkett-Smith is married to Will Smith, an actor who played the character of Deadshot in the 2016 film Suicide Squad, a character who just like Fish Mooney, is considered a villain and a criminal who often resides in Gotham City as well. Another similarity is that both Fish Mooney and Smith's version of Deadshot are presumed to be of African descent.
• Pinkett-Smith drew inspiration from various different individuals; the fictional character, Norma Desmond, a faded silent movie star from the 1950's film, Sunset Boulevard, played by Gloria Swanson, and Griselda Blanco, a real-life drug lord of the Medellín Cartel.
• In the tv tie-in novel Gotham: Dawn of Darkness, Fish reveals that the name 'Fish' refers to the idea that she can see everything in every direction in the same way that a fish supposedly can.
• Fish shares some similarities with Barbara Kean.
  • Both women attempted to overthrow the crime boss running Gotham at the time as Barbara wanted to overthrow Oswald Cobblepot and Fish wanted to overthrow Carmine Falcone.
  • Both women were killed by people they worked with and both were later resurrected, with Barbara being killed by Tabitha Galavan and Fish being killed by Oswald.
  • Both women became friends again with the people who killed them, with Tabitha and Barbara teaming up again with Selina Kyle and Fish teaming up with Oswald Cobblepot, Bridgit Pike and Victor Fries.
  • Both women owned nightclubs that were taken over by Oswald Cobblepot, as Fish lost the Mooney's and Barbara the The Sirens Club to him.
  • Both women are also mortal enemies of Cobblepot, although Fish Mooney later became Penguin's ally again.
  • Both women had powers involving glowing hands, with Fish Mooney's mind-control powers and Barbara's Demon's Head powers. Also, both gave up their power in order to save their life, Fish Mooney's powers slowly killed her while Barbara and Tabitha Galavan would have been killed by Ra's al Ghul.