Fish's Plan Continues On 'Gotham'

Fish Mooney's ongoing plan to fix her powers and become the most powerful person on Gotham continues in the second episode of Season 3, "Burn The Witch." And within the span of just this one episode, Fish kidnaps Hugo Strange and makes a successful exit from Gotham City. Even though Strange claims he can't do anything to help the experiments, he's now forced to be in their clutches, and I don't think they have very nice thoughts about their creator. And as per usual, Gordon and Bullock fold quickly to Fish's pressure. Jim does it to protect Harvey, who folds because he never really seems capable of standing up to Fish (let's not forget that those two seem to have a romantic history).

Surprisingly, the person who's caused the most anti-"monster" furor is actually Oswald Cobblepot, who incited a mob outside of Strange's police hideout. However, that all changes when Cobblepot, who's been called a "monster" plenty of times himself, seems moved by meeting Fish and finding out that she feels maternal towards him. While this about face might seem abrupt or unmotivated, remember that both of Penguin's parents died last season, and he's been feeling the vacuum of their absence. So I can totally buy that when Fish went for a hard emotional manipulation, he simply crumbled and let her escape.

What's not clear is where Fish is planning to go with Strange, and what her plan for eventual domination entails. Obviously, she's going to need to survive in order to take power, and being despised by huge mobs of people stands in the way of that. But even after that, it's still not totally clear what the mutants want. Only the rest of Gotham Season 3 will tell if Fish is going to go after her former nightclub, now owned by Barbara and Tabitha; the criminal underworld, owned by Penguin; or legitimate power — maybe she'll run for mayor. Whatever Fish wants, first she'll need Hugo Strange to figure out how to save these powered people so that she and her minions can live long enough to stage their takeover.

Images: Jeff Neumann/FOX (2)