Vengeance and Resurrection Rule the Day in Third Season of GOTHAM, now on Blu-ray and DVD

Life in the big city of pre-Batman GOTHAM continues to get crazier -- literally -- in this third season of the DC Universe series as the Mad Hatter, Jervis Tetch (BENEDICT SAMUEL) comes to town. He's using his hypnotic skills to help track down his runaway sister, Alice (NAIAN GONZALEZ NORVIND), who was locked up in Indian Hill due to a virus carried in her blood -- a virus that induced mania in anyone with whom it comes into contact.

As life continues to come unraveled for bounty hunter James Gordon (BEN MCKENZIE), the virus finds its way into GCPD Captain Nathaniel Barnes (MICHAEL CHIKLIS), unveiling the darkness within him, which manifests as a bloodthirsty desire for justice against the guilty, turning him into The Executioner. Tragically, the virus also infects the fiance of Gordon's former lover, Lee Thompkins (MORENA BACCARIN), who has returned as the GCPD Medical Examiner. The darkness revealed in her husband-to-be, Mario (JAMES CARPINELLO) is his jealousy of James Gordon, and he believes that Lee still carries a torch for him. On their wedding night, as he is about to kill Lee, Gordon shows up (having learned that he is infected) and shoots him just in time -- something for which Lee cannot forgive him, nor can Mario's father, who turns out to be someone else from Jim's past: Carmine Falcone (JOHN DOMAN)!

With all the metahuman freaks released from the Indian Hill research facility, run by mad-scientist Hugo Strange (played to creepy perfection by B.D. Wong), the citizenry is in a panic. Ever the opportunist, crime boss Oswald Cobblepot (ROBIN LORD TAYLOR), aka The Penguin, rallies the people behind him and turns the crisis into a mayoral campaign. He gets an assist from Edward Nygma (CORY MICHAEL SMITH), and the two have a total bonding moment. In fact, it's a little too much bonding, as Penguin develops feelings for Edward that can only be described as romantic. But Ed has feelings for another -- a lookalike of Kristen Kringle, the woman he killed earlier in the series. Isabella (CHELSEA SPACK) creates jealousy within Oswald, just as Edward creates jealousy in Oswald's former right hand man, Butch (DREW POWELL). Jealousy seems to be the running theme this season, as it also serves as a minor motivation between young Bruce Wayne (DAVID MAZOUZ) and his Indian Hill-created clone for the affections of Selina Kyle (CAMREN BICONDOVA). But it's the Cobblepot/Nygma relationship that takes center stage, as their friendship turns into a murderous cycle of vengeance, driving Nygma to become The Riddler.

Other elements of the Batman universe find their way into the series this season, as we see a lot of the Court of Owls, a secret society of Gotham's ruling class that has charted the course of the city for almost 200 years. Gordon learns his father was a member, and is recruited into the organization by a woman named Kathryn (LESLIE HENDRIX). But Gordon only accepts to find out information on the group that killed his father, and ends up unearthing a plot to bring the city to its knees so that it can be rebuilt -- by deploying the Alice Tetch virus on a massive scale! It will take assistance from acting captain Harvey Bullock (DONAL LOGUE) and resident scientist Lucius Fox (CHRIS CHALK) to put a halt to it -- something easier said than done when the virus infects both Lee and Jim!

The season ends with a hint of a new villain entering GOTHAM's roster -- Solomon Grundy! And if you missed that, I'll save the related revelations on that for you to discover watching this set. Because you'll probably forget all about it when you see the final scene, which takes us one very large step closer to the advent of The Batman!

GOTHAM is a crime-noir thriller that isn't afraid to face, embrace, and acknowledge the absurdities inherent in super-villainy, from the powers and pseudo-science. Even resurrections from the dead are all in a day's work, as Fish Mooney (JADA PINKETT SMITH) and proto-Joker Jerome (CAMERON MONAGHAN) all come back to life to plague the city, and it just gets shrugged off as, "Well, that's life in Gotham."