Butch Gilzean

"I'm smarter than I look."

- Butch Gilzean

"They don't know Gotham like I do. I got brains, you ask anyone."

- Butch Gilzean to Theo Galavan Butch Gilzean is a major antagonist in the DC show Gotham.

Initially, Butch was the second-in-command to Fish Mooney in the Falcone crime family, before being brainwashed to serve her former umbrella boy Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin. However he was reconditioned by Theo and Tabitha Galavan to betray Penguin in the second season. Butch becomes crime boss and goes into partnership with Tabitha following her brother's death. Near the end of the second season, he forms an alliance with Penguin after they kill a resurrected Theo Galavan for stabbing Tabitha and putting her into a coma.

In the third season, Butch eventually joins up with Edward Nygma, Barbara Kean and Tabitha and becomes the quaternary antagonist in Penguin's storyline in the Mad City arc.

He is portrayed by Drew Powell.

Working for Fish Mooney
Butch Gilzean works for Fish Mooney under Carmine Falcone and is loyal to her. He is first seen when Fish is beating someone up accused of stealing from her, but stops to tend to Harvey Bullock and detective James Gordon. Butch encourages her umbrella boy Oswald Cobblepot to give the man a beating, however tells him to calm down when he gets too over excited with the torture. It is eventually broken up by James Gordon who checks in on them and he gets Oswald to drop the bat.

When James turns up at the club to question Fish over the Wayne murders and the fact the wrong man is set up, he is knocked out and taken to a warehouse to be gutted. When Harvey attempts to save him and threatens Fish that if she kills him he will be forced to take her out, she orders Butch over the phone to hang Harvey up next to Jim and have him gutted, which Butch does. However Don Falcone arrives and shoots down Butch's men, and tells him that if Fish wants to kill police she has to come straight to him first. Falcone then leaves Butch alive and takes James away for a talk.

Brainwashed to serve Cobblepot
When Oswald reveals Fish's plans to takeover the crime family, her and Butch are taken away to be taught a lesson. Butch escapes and rescues Fish and they head back to the club to confront Oswald. But Carmine's hitman Victor Zsasz arrives with his henchwomen and chases down the pair of them. Butch helps Fish escape through a window but is captured by Victor. Over the next week he is taken to Victor's basement, tortured and brainwashed to serve Oswald. Butch is returned to Oswald in order to help run the night club.

Sometime later Fish returns to Gotham and makes an alliance with Don Sal Maroni to kill Carmine Falcone so they can rule Gotham. Carmine is strung up along with Gordon and Cobblepot to be killed and Butch is happy to reunite with Fish, although he is confused due to his conditioning and goes to lie down, which makes Fish angrier at Cobblepot for Butch being hurt. When a bloody war breaks out after Fish kills Maroni, she faces off with Cobblepot on the warehouse roof. Butch arrives armed, but conflicted over who to shoot he ends up shooting both Fish and Cobblepot. Butch collapses and an injured Fish comforts him, but she ends up being pushed from the roof by Cobblepot and presumably killed.

A month after Mooney's death Butch continues to serve Cobblepot in his crime family after Falcone left town after the mob war.

Failed Undercover
When Cobblepot's mother is kidnapped by the corrupt Theo Galavan in order to make him carry out hits on his competitors wanting to run for mayor, Butch assists Cobblepot in wiping out one of the candidates. When Cobblepot worries over his mother, Butch assures him they will get her back. However, despite killing off Theo's competitors, Butch breaks it to Oswald that they still haven't got her back, causing Oswald to go into a rage.

Cobblepot comes up with the idea to put Butch undercover into Theo's organisation. Cobblepot chops off Butch's hand to try and make it look like Butch will genuinely betray Cobblepot. Although Theo apparently hires him, he later reveals to Butch he knows he is still loyal to Penguin. Theo calls in his sister Tabitha who gets into a fight with Butch and later overpowers him. On Theo's orders she then gets to work to "fix" the conditioning. Later on a scraped and hurt Butch returns to Cobblepot, revealing his mother is located at the waterfront.

Arriving at the waterfront they discover his mother behind bars. Theo and Tabitha appeared and Cobblepot ordered Butch to shoot them dead, however due to him being reconditioned to now be loyal to them Butch guns down two bodyguards working for Cobblepot. Although Tabitha unlocks the door to let Gertrud out, she stabs her in the back when she embraces Cobblepot, killing her much to the shock of Butch. Theo orders Butch to kill Cobblepot and dump both their bodies, but Cobblepot taunts Theo that he won't do the dirty work himself. Theo decides to execute Cobblepot himself, but he stabs Theo in the neck and escapes.

Butch is later visited by Gordon and Bullock who want to know where Penguin is. Butch tells them that is isn't Penguin's lap dog anymore and asks them to leave if they do not have a warrant. They are interrupted when Zsasz arrives with a horde of killers to kill Butch. Zsasz, waiting outside of the dinner Butch is in, states that everyone who leaves now will not be harmed whereas everyone who stays will die. This leads to Butch's men deserting, leaving their boss and friend alone. Gordon than ties Butch to the heater, stating that they will leave Butch here for Zsasz if he does not talk. Butch reveals that Galavan orchestrated Penguins attacks and forced him by threatening his mother. Before Butch can reveal more, Zsasz starts his attack. While Bullock and Gordon fight off the attackers, Butch escapes.

King of Gotham
After the death of Theo Galavan and the manhunt for Cobblepot, Butch takes over control over Gotham's criminal underworld. After killing a rival with a device newly strapped to his arm, a drill, he is visited by Tabitha Galavan who tries to seduce him to become her partner in crime. Although Butch at first manages to fend her off, he eventually succumbs to her seducing. While they kiss, they are spied on by Selina.

Butch is eventually, much to his astonishment, visited by Penguin. He is immediately taken by Butch's men and Tabitha jumps up to kill him but Butch stops her. Penguin claims that Arkham changed him and that he came to visit because he wanted to meet an old friend. Tabitha and Butch are awed, considering that Penguin brainwashed Butch, cut off his hand and murdered Theo. However, they find out that Penguin genuinely means it and is not even provoked after Tabitha insults his mother. Butch then orders his men to release Penguin, claiming that they were because they all lost something important to them. Tabitha claims that she won't allow Penguin to leave without some punishment so Butch allows her to tar and feather him. Penguin sees this as a joke and leaves Butch's place in high spirits.

Butch's nephew Sonny is later robbed by Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. Both are captured and Sonny calls Butch to come immediately. Butch is busy however, and both children escape after beating up Sonny and his gang.

Deal with Penguin
After finding out that Theo is still around, Tabitha leaves Butch and after some convincing decides to join Gordon. During this partnership Tabitha is stabbed by Theo and delivered to a hospital where she is visited by a grieving Butch. In the hospital, Butch spots Penguin and despite them parting on good terms, Butch sees that his former master's intentions are far from good. Butch warns Penguin not to lay a hand on her, but Penguin admits that although Tabitha stabbed his mother in the back, he doesn't have plans to kill her because he sees Theo as the real issue. Penguin convinces Butch to help him make Theo pay since they've all suffered because of him. Butch agrees, but makes Penguin promise to leave both him and Tabitha alone afterwards.

Penguin and Butch find Theo at Wayne Manor where he's trying to achieve his original goal to kill Bruce Wayne. Gordon defends Bruce by shooting Galavan, but his armor is able to shield him from harm. Penguin approaches Jim and tells the latter that bullets won't be able to kill monsters such as Galavan and that for next time, bring the right "tools" for the job if he plans to deal with foes that come back. Butch pulls out an RPG Launcher over his shoulders and fires a rocket at Galavan, killing him instantly, ending him for good. With Theo killed once again, Penguin and Butch depart into the night.

When Penguin finds out that Hugo Strange is most likely fleeing Arkham, Penguin, Butch and henchmen await the truck. Butch shoots at the truck with a minigun, effectively crashing it, but is horrified when not Hugo Strange but Fish Mooney steps out of the cabin. With a ushered "No" Butch turns around and leaves the scene along with Oswald's remaining henchmen.

Hunt for Fish
Penguin's henchman once more, Butch accompanies him to the GCPD where a press conference is held. Penguin warns the citizens of Gotham that no one is safe while Fish Mooney is still at large. While leaving, Oswald stops to talk to Jim, revealing his surprise that Jim has not already tracked down Mooney. Gordon tells Oswald that he has not made it worth his while and leaves. Butch jokes about Gordon playing the hard man, but Oswald says that Jim had a point.

The two then head to the nightclub owned by Barbara and Tabitha, who broke up with Butch. As he is still in love with her, Butch acts foolish when Tabitha greets him, to the point that Oswald sends him to the bar while he talks to Tabitha and Barbara. Oswald silently tells Tabitha that he offered Butch to kill Tabitha in order to raise his spirits and that he still would gladly do so, given that Tabitha killed his mother. However, he does not as Butch is still hoping that the two would somehow get back together.

At the bar, Selina Kyle sits next to Butch. Butch sends her away, as she is too young to be in a nightclub. After Selina is gone, Penguin sits next to Butch. He tells him that Butch should get over Tabitha and that Selina just stole his wallet.

Later, Penguin and Butch are called back to the nightclub where Tabitha and Barbara were attacked by three gangsters. These gangsters had only held back because they thought Penguin was protecting Tabitha and Barbara, as the deal did not come to pass they thought the protection was over. The only surviving mobstewr. Penguin brokers a deal between the women and the mobster, as the club is indeed on his territory. It is revealed that Butch hired the mobster in the hopes that Tabitha would come back to him for protection. A deeply annoyed Penguin shoots the mobster with Butch's gun and tells the two women to keep their club. However, before leaving he makes it clear that Tabitha is only alive because of Butch and the moment Butch gives the word, Tabitha will be killed.

The nightclub is later attacked by three mobsters who claim that the club is on their territory. Tabitha sneaks in and slices the throats of two of the men while Barbara beats one unconscious with his own gun. The two call Oswald, who arrives with Butch. The remaining mobster claims that they attacked because they though Oswald was not protecting the club anymore. Barbara however realises that the man was sent by Butch, who had hoped that the threat would bring Tabitha back to him. Annoyed, Oswald shoots the mobster. He also tells Tabitha that she is only alive because Butch has not given him permission to kill her yet.

Penguin's Candidacy
After Penguin decides to run for mayor, he orders Butch to bribe certain city officials. When Edward Nygma grows suspicious about Butch's actions, he eventually uncovers this truth. He attempts to convince Oswald that he can win fairly, but Oswald refuses to listen. Afraid that Nygma might do something stupid, Butch sends a henchman to follow Nygma but Nygma is able to loose the man. Nygma visits each official Butch bribed and demands the money back. After he finds out, a furious Butch starts to throttle Nygma, exclaiming that Nygma's actions ruined Cobblepot's candidacy. Oswald is severely disappointed and is about to order Butch to kill Nygma, but immediately stops when the TV news reveal that Oswald has won. Oswald's mood than swiftly changes from anger to happiness. He apologizes to Nygma but then turns to Butch, blaiming him for not having faith in him. This upsets Butch, who is angered even more when Oswald announces that Nygma will be his Chief of Staff, a position that Butch presumably wanted for himself.

Red Hood Gang
Similar to his plans to better his appearance in the eyes of Tabitha, Butch hires the Red Hood gang, planning to take them down himself to regain Penguin's trust. The gang attack a presentation in which Penguin reveals a statue of his dead mother. Butch draws his gun but, due to the overwhelming numbers of the attackers, is seemingly forced to surrender. After the gang has defiled the statue of Penguin's mother, an enraged Cobblepot vows revenge.

Butch later provides the Red Hood gang with suits, planning to have them infiltrate Cobblepot's victory party at the Sirens. Although he plans to take down the gang that night, this doesn't come to pass as Tabitha and Barbara, who have followed one of the gang members, appear and call him out on his bluff. They bring him to the Sirens where he admits his plans to them. Knowing that ratting Butch out to Penguin would allow them to ask Penguin to spare Tabitha's life, Barbara leaves the choice to Tabitha. Tabitha decides not to reveal Butch's involvement but tells Butch that he now owes her. Butch is then called by Penguin. Penguin tells him that hey have found the lair of the gang and are heading there now.

Before Penguin and the gang can arrive at the warehouse, Butch heads there and attempts to convince the gang to flee. When he hears Penguin and his gang approaching, Butch murders the entire Red Hood Gang instead, successfully reinstating him in the eyes of Cobblepot. In a press conference, Penguin later gives all credit to Butch. However, Nygma remains suspicious and continues his own investigation and is eventually able to link the suits of the Red Hood Gang and Butch's suits to the same tailor. He visits the tailor and finds out that the suits of the Red Hood Gang were bought by a big man with a metal hand.

Having enough evidence, Nygma confronts Butch at Oswald's victory party. To Butch's surprise, Nygma offers Butch that he will remain silent and also reveals to Butch that he wants to kill Penguin as well, stating that he was not made to be number two. Nygma offers Butch to run Gotham together with him, hands Butch one of the hoods and tells him to kill Penguin, claiming that he will help Butch escape afterwards. Butch, however, declines, as he never wanted to harm Penguin in the first place. Nygma then brings Butch to the club's kitchens, revealing that some of Penguin's henchmen, including Zsasz, are on his side now and have also captured Tabitha. Once more, Nygma makes the offer to Butch. After Butch has agreed to kill Oswald, Zsasz provides him with a gun and Nygma heads to the stage where Oswald is about to give his victory speech. When Butch, now wearing the red hood, appears, Nygma grabs Oswald. However, when Butch shoots at Oswald, the gun he got from Zsasz is revealed to be filled with blanks. Nygma then loudly claims that the last member of the Red Hood gang has been caught red-handed, revealing that he only feigned his treason to manipulate Butch. Butch is shot down by Zsasz instead. While Butch is on his knees, Nygma approached him, calls him an idiot for believing Nygma and removes the hood. An outraged Penguin calls for the death of Butch.

However, Tabitha managed to kill one of the henchmen, Butch managed to overthrow Zsasz and began to strangle Nygma. He almost successfully killed Nygma since he was going unconscious but Penguin smashed a glass bottle over Butch's head knocking him out and saving Nygma.

On the run
Butch is later picked up by an ambulance and is to be imprisoned until he can be prosecuted. However, the ambulance is attacked by Tabitha who saves Butch. Tabitha brings Butch out of the city but the two are later hunted down by Edward Nygma. Nygma, whose girlfriend, Isabella, was killed by Oswald out of jealousy, was told by Oswald that Butch was behind the murder. Nygma successfully captures both Butch and Tabitha by poisoning their food. Once both are unconscious, Nygma brings him to an abandoned house where he demands a confession from Butch. As Butch has never met Isabella he cannot confess but Nygma, believing that Butch is merely lying, starts torturing him with electro shocks. As Butch does not yield up any information, Nygma turns to Tabitha instead but Butch manages to get Nygma's intention again by insulting Isabella, claiming that she most likely did not even exist. When Butch, who has passed out due to the torture, regains consciousness, Nygma reveals to both him and Tabitha that he has created an elaborate death-trap. A guillotine is placed over Tabitha's hand, with a timer ticking down. Tabitha can prevent losing her hand by pressing a button which would in turn send a fatal dose of electricity into Butch's head. Nygma swears on Isabella's memory that he will release both of them if Tabitha sacrifices her hand. Nygma then sadistically watches when Butch pleads for his life, claiming that the last weeks were the best weeks of his life. Accepting his demise, Butch then turns to Nygma, telling Nygma that he murdered Isabella to hurt him. However, as Butch claims to have shot Isabella in the head whereas Isabella died because her car was rigged, Nygma realizes that Butch is not responsible for Isabella's death. Telling Butch that he is sweet, Tabitha then drops the trigger, sacrificing her chance to save her hand. Before anyone can do anything, the guillotine comes down, severing Tabitha's arm, to the shock of both Butch and Nygma. Tabitha passes out and the horrified Butch pleads to Nygma to untie him so that Butch can bring Tabitha to a hospital. Moments later, Barbara storms into the room but Nygma, still shocked about what he found out, just walks past her and out of the building.

Butch and Barbara bring Tabitha to a hospital where she is immediately taken in by doctors. While Tabitha is being brought away, Barbara correctly deduces that Oswald is behind the death of Isabella and tells Butch. Nygma, Barbara, Tabitha and Butch decide to work together to bring down Penguin. After Nygma's plan has come to fruition, Butch and Tabitha await Oswald in his mansion, take him down and bring him to Barbara.

Doubts about Barbara
Much later, Butch and Tabitha are approached by Gordon who is hunting Nygma. However, as Nygma is working together with Barbara, Tabitha is reluctant to give him up even when Butch urges him to. Nonetheless, she ultimately gives Gordon important information that leads to Gordon capturing Nygma. When a furious Barbara finds out, she screams at Butch and Tabitha, hysterically claiming that Nygma was her only way to take down the Court of Owls, claiming that she can never be the most powerful person in Gotham while the Court exists. When Barbara has stormed off, Butch tries to convince Tabitha that Barbara ultimately only cares about herself and might throw both of them under the bus eventually.

Personality
Although somewhat brutish, Butch Gilzean's tough exterior hides a sentimental and emotional side. This side is revealed when he breaks down in tears over Fish Mooney's death and Tabitha Galavan's sustained injuries and hospitalisation. Gilzean was deeply loyal to Fish, demonstrating more loyalty than usual for a mobster. Even after being kidnapped and tortured into the servitude of Oswald Cobblepot, his sense of loyalty is hard to surpess as he was seen apologising to Fish after previously shooting her and crying after she was (seemingly) killed by Penguin. Despite being loyal to Penguin, this was only due to the traumatic mental torture he suffered from Zsasz and when Tabitha reversed this process, he betrayed Cobblepot.

With Fish dead and no longer under the control of Penguin, Gilzean became his own man as he was no longer anyone's stooge and opportunistically took full control of Cobblepot's assets when the latter was incarcerated within Arkham Asylum, becoming the new "King of Gotham." Filling the power vacuum that Penguin left in the criminal underworld. Even with this new and slightly ruthless personality, he showed genuine care regarding Tabitha and allowed her to share his power and was even willing to work with Cobblepot to avenge her when she was injured by her resurrected brother. Gilzean is commonly underestimated by many people who see him as a thoughtless toady due to his large and violent frame. Though sometimes appearing thuggish dim-witted, he also has a good deal of street smarts and knows Gotham better than most. Part of this may stem from always being a henchman and not needing to use his brains or the mental torture he suffered at the hands of Zsasz. In any case he was intelligent enough to fool Penguin and betray him when he went to save his mother from Theo Galavan.

Unlike many mobsters, Gilzean is not a vengeful individual as he seemed consent enough that Penguin lost a mother and was broken down enough by Strange's doctors in Arkham Asylum when he entered his house, chose not to kill him but instead tar and feather for cutting off Gilzean's hand, claiming he believed in "an eye for an eye."

Other than Mooney, the one person who Butch truly cares for is Tabitha. Even when she attempted to push him away, he still insists that he loves her and is even willing to put his life on the line to protect her. She eventually reciprocates his feelings.

Episode appearances
{| class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed wikitable" width="100%" ! Appearances for Butch Gilzean

Season One

 * "Pilot"
 * "Selina Kyle"
 * "Arkham"
 * "Penguin's Umbrella"
 * "Harvey Dent"
 * "Lovecraft"
 * "Rogues' Gallery"
 * "What The Little Bird Told Him"
 * "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon"
 * "The Blind Fortune Teller"
 * "Red Hood"
 * "Under the Knife"
 * "The Anvil or the Hammer"
 * "All Happy Families Are Alike"

Season Two

 * "Rise of the Villains: Damned If You Do..."
 * "Rise of the Villains: Strike Force"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Scarification"
 * "Rise of the Villains: By Fire"
 * "Rise of the Villains: Mommy's Little Monster"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Mr. Freeze"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Mad Grey Dawn"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Pinewood"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Azrael"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Unleashed"
 * "Wrath of the Villains: Transference"

Season Three

 * "Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell…"
 * "Mad City: Burn the Witch"
 * "Mad City: Look Into My Eyes"
 * "Mad City: Anything For You"
 * }

Trivia

 * Drew Powell was promoted to regular for season 2.
 * Butch having a weapon attached to his stump appears to be a reference to Ash Williams from The Evil Dead franchise, who had lost his hand and uses the stump to attach weapons. This appears to be supported as Barbara Kean suggests attaching a chainsaw, Ash's most iconic weapon of choice.
 * Despite disliking Penguin for killing Fish and being brainwashed to work for him, Butch is still clearly shocked when Theo has his mother killed.
 * Butch later seems to forgive Penguin for his past actions and makes a deal for them to work together.