Full name Maria Mercedes Mooney Gender Female Played by Jada Pinkett Smith | Nickname(s) Fish Nationality American TV show Gotham | |
First appearance Gotham Ep. 1 (September 2014) Similar Harvey Bullock, Penguin, Barbara Kean‑Gordon, Carmine Falcone, James Gordon | ||
Maria Mercedes "Fish" Mooney is a fictional character created by producer and screenwriter Bruno Heller exclusively for the television series Gotham, and played by actress Jada Pinkett Smith. She serves as one of the main characters of the plot throughout the first season, until her death at the hands of Oswald Cobblepot in the final episode of the season. Mooney is resurrected in season 2 by Hugo Strange. As a result of the methods Strange used to bring back Mooney, she has the ability to control people by touching them. Mooney is an imposing, impulsive, perceptive and notoriously sadistic mob boss and owner of a nightclub in the city of Gotham.
Contents
Development
Pinkett-Smith drew inspiration from various different individuals for taking on the role of Mooney; the fictional character, Norma Desmond, a faded silent film star from the 1950s film Sunset Boulevard, played by Gloria Swanson, and Griselda Blanco, a real-life drug lord of the Medellín Cartel.
Season 1
Fish Mooney began as the owner of a renowned nightclub in Gotham and one of the lieutenants of capo Carmine Falcone. Possessing good relations with the Gotham City Police Department, she decided to help the detective Harvey Bullock with investigating the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. But when Oswald Cobblepot gave her away as part of the crime, detective James Gordon began to investigate so she ended up ordering the murder of Gordon, Bullock and Cobblepot. However the first two survived thanks to the intervention of Falcone. Without anyone knowing, she was secretly planning to take the place of the mobster.
In the last chapter of the first season of the series, Fish and her people get back to healthy and safe Gotham and she begins to recruit more people, including the young Selina Kyle, to regain her lost power. With the city involved in a gang war, Fish manages to capture both Falcone, the Penguin, James Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Knowing the value of the first two, Fish tries to give them to Salvatore Maroni in exchange for an agreement to divide the city between them. That idea completely displeases Maroni because did not want his position equated with a simple lieutenant. Given the stress of the situation, Maroni taunts Fish calling her "babe" (which she hated). When their taunts reach the limit of what is tolerable, Maroni comes to draw his weapon and is shot in the head.
After the ensuing firefight triggered the death of the mafioso, Penguin is released from his bonds and attacks Fish with a gun. She escapes to a roof where the two intersect in a melee. But she is thrown from the ledge into Gotham River, sending her to a hypothetical death.
Season 2
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 Episode 21 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 Asylum and knocks out a shocked Penguin on the street.
Season 3
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 Strange's assistant Ethel Peabody about the new cells being rejected by her body and that 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 succeeds at freeing Strange. Because of what Mooney said to him, Cobblepot decides not to kill her and allows her to leave with Strange while telling her not to return.
Character
Fish is a short woman, with a spiky pixie cut black hair and hot pink-dyed tips at the front. She wears very high heels or boots that make her appear taller, along with dangling earrings and expensive clothing and eyeshadow, usually golden in color, and has very long and thick eyelashes. After gouging out her left eyeball, it was replaced with a blue one by Francis Dulmacher, giving her two distinctive eye colors.
Powers and abilities
After her resurrection by Hugo Strange near the end of season 2 of Gotham, Fish developed the ability to control people and make them do things against their will with just a touch of her hand.