Gotham is giving viewers a lot of new players for Season 2. Theo Galavan and his sister Tabitha will attempt to bring Gotham City to its knees, Bruce Wayne will find a kindred spirit in fellow orphan Silver St. Cloud and Nathaniel Barnes will he brought on as the new GCPD captain. However, they’re not the only characters who will have an important presence in the fall. Several existing characters from Season 1 will be playing bigger roles when the show returns for its sophomore season, including Fish Mooney’s former chief underling Butch Gilzean.
According to Deadline, actor Drew Powell has been promoted to series regular for Gotham Season 2. When we see Butch next, he will be “tested” while serving as a boss under Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. The Penguin, who is now the leading criminal figure in Gotham City since Carmine Falcone has retired and Sal Maroni is dead. Powell is the fourth actor to be upgraded from recurring to main character for Season 2, following Morena Baccarin (Leslie Tompkins), Nicholas D’Agosto (Harvey Dent) and Chris Chalk (Lucius Fox).
Butch was introduced in the Gotham pilot as Fish’s Mooney second-in-command, and frequently carried out her dirty work. Unlike most of her subordinates, Butch was the only one that Fish really trusted and cared for. Later in the season, Butch helped Fish escape from Falcone’s forces after her betrayal to the old man was discovered, but he was subsequently caught by deranged hitman Victor Zsasz, who decided to keep Butch alive for his own amusement. It was never revealed what horrors Butch was put through behind closed doors, but they resulted in some kind of brainwashing that made him follow every command from Penguin, thus making him the tuxedoed villain’s #2.
During the Season 1 finale’s battle, Butch accidentally shot Fish while she and Penguin were fighting, but once he saw what he had done, he broke free from Zsasz’s mental control. Unfortunately, it was too late, as Penguin then pushed Fish off the building and into Gotham City’s river. Now that Fish is dead (or missing), Butch has nowhere else to go, and with Penguin the self-proclaimed King of Gotham, it’s better that he side with the big boss rather than try to start fresh. However, that doesn’t mean that he will be 100% loyal to Penguin, and like every other big criminal in Gotham City, he may attempt to seize more power for himself.
Gotham Season 2 will premiere on Monday, September 21 at 8/7c on Fox.
