'Gotham' Created A Crucial Role For Alice Tetch

We're just a handful of episodes into Gotham Season 3, and it has already cooked up a half-dozen new plotlines. Occasionally, it can feel like the show may have bitten off more than it can chew, but it always has plenty of comic book history to support its large roster of characters. Take, for example, new Gotham character Jarvis Tetch's sister, Alice, who will be introduced in the season's third episode, airing on Oct. 3. Though she might be brand new and unfamiliar to even avid comic book readers, she may become one of the most important characters of the new season and has some DC connections. As Variety revealed, Alice is the Mad Hatter's sister (the Mad Hatter being Jarvis' secret, villainous identity) and she's on the run from her brother, who desires access to some kind of secret power she possesses.

So far, Alice, like Valerie Vale, appears to be a brand new character added to established Batman mythology. The same way Batman journalist Vicki Vale never had an aunt in DC Comics, Mad Hatter never had a sister, and the show has also drastically altered the characters' ages. In the comics, the Mad Hatter is a neuroscientist, while on Gotham he's a young hypnotist.

The Mad Hatter, as you may be able to guess from his name, was canonically obsessed with Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , and even kidnapped a girl and pretended she was Alice. In this version, it's unclear if the show will be incorporating Alice references, if the Mad Hatter will build his persona around his obsession with his sister, or if her name is simply a nod to the original comics. But already, photos of the Mad Hatter show that he's outfitted in a hat that seems befitting of someone who wishes that he lived in Wonderland.

Still, Jarvis' motivation doesn't seem to be Wonderland-centric in Gotham. Instead, what he does want is to find and exploit his sister. Alice has some kind of superpower, and so far, Gotham has one man who's been creating mutated "monsters" with powers of their own: Hugo Strange. Fish Mooney, another of Strange's creations, was facing death every time she used her power, so that could be one reason why Alice doesn't want Jervis to catch up with her.

But another might be that she doesn't want any power to fall into the hands of her brother, the burgeoning villain. And given that in this version, the Mad Hatter is a hypnotist, rather than a neuroscientist, it's possible that whatever her powers are — whether they're from Hugo Strange or not — will somehow allow him to control more people and expand his reach beyond simple hypnotism. If Jervis succeeds in this mission, Gotham just may have another supervillain on its hands.

Images: Jessica Miglio/FOX (2)