Nathaniel Barnes

Nathaniel Barnes, or the Executioner is a character in the DC Comics television show, Gotham, in which he appears as the supporting protagonist in the second season and the quaternary antagonist in the third season. He is portrayed by Michael Chiklis.

In the Second season, he is a supporting character and replaces Sarah Essen as the Gotham City Police Department's commanding officer after she was killed by Maniax leader Jerome Valeska.

In Season three, Nathaniel becomes infected with the blood of Alice Tetch which causes him to become insane and release his inner hatred on criminals of Gotham. Upon realizing how good it felt to punish criminals he decided to become a serial killer to rid Gotham of it's evil. He was eventually subdued by the GCPD and placed inside Arkham Asylum.

Early Life
Before Barnes becomes Captain of the GCPD, he was originally part of the marines. During a mission in the desert, Barnes and his colleagues captured three insurgents when caught in a sandstorm. Without visibility they were involved in a shootout, simultaneously, one of their prisoners, a child with his hands tied, tried to escape. Barnes immediately jumped on him, putting his gun in his mouth and shot without thinking. For years he was tormented by the memory until it made peace with him and he came to accept that it was just a man who acted unpredictably to the situation.

After hearing of Sarah Essen's unfortunate demise, Nathaniel took the stand to become the new commanding officer. Barnes' first order of business was to fire every cop with known corrupted histories. Barnes took a liking to Detective Jim Gordon's moral compass and recruited him to be part of a Strike force team, with police officers who've just graduated from the academy since they're minds haven't been corrupted by Gotham's corruption.

Conflict with Gordon
While both Barnes and Gordon had similar views in making Gotham safe again, Gordon's methods were questionable in Barnes' opinion. Barnes believed that criminals should be properly put away by the book, but Gordon believed that one could bend the law as criminals have now manipulated the system to their advantage and was legally untouchable. Barnes and Gordon's Father-son relationship was greatly compromised when trying to stop Mayor Theo Galavan. Jim realized how corrupt Galavan was after Oswald Cobblepot tried to kill him for killing his mother. Barnes admitted that although Galavan was guilty, it would be impossible to prove it as they had no solid leads.

The GCPD finally covered a solid lead when they found previous mayor, Aubrey James who claims that Galavan had kidnapped him to take his spot as mayor. Unfortunately, upon Galavan's prosecution, Aubrey recanted his statement and claimed it was Cobblepot that kidnapped him and told him to blame it on Galavan. Upon hearing Galavan's release, Gordon became infuriated and yelled that he would get the former, casing two police officers to escort Gordon out of the courtroom. When the two cops are found dead and Jim is no-where to be found, Barnes places a wanted list out on Gordon. Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox arrive to the GCPD to report that Bruce Wane is missing and Galavan is the obvious person to kidnap him as he wants Wayne Enterprises. Despite knowing that Galavan is dirty he refuses to try to prosecute him again without solid proof as they were unsuccessful the first time they tried to put Galavan away. Fox returns to the GCPD to tell Barnes that Gordon is at Galavan's residence. Upon finding a handcuffed Galavan with Gordon holding his Gun to Galavan's head, Barnes and officer Vargas step into the room and tell Gordon to put his gun down. As Jim lowers his gun, Cobblepot and his associates step into the room and knock both Vargas and Barnes out. Hours later Galavan is found dead and Barnes is now left unclear about whether or not the person he treated like a son has killed a person in cold blood.

A month later, appears to give his testimony to led by Harvey Dent and Captain Barnes to clarify his actions on the night Galavan was killed. Gordon Claims that he wasn't involved in Galavan's killing and Cobblepot probably murdered him stating that after he knocked Barnes out he took Galavan and outran Gordon. Although doubtful of Gordon's testimony, Barnes decides to go against his better judgement and chooses to believe that Gordon is innocent. Barnes becomes more suspicious of Jim when an eye witness steps forward claiming that he saw Gordon kill Galavan. After receiving a message from Officer Pinkney that Gordon may be a threat, he enters Pinkney's apartment with the first thing he sees is Pinkney's corpse being stood over by Gordon. Barnes finds a form revealing that Pinkney was the eye-witness and Jim killed the former to stay out of jail and sends him to black gate penitentiary. Gordon is layer found innocent when it was proven that Pinkney's murder was a set up by Edward Nygma. Although free Jim decides not to return to the GCPD just yet and slowly turns into more of a disappointment in Barnes eyes

Birth of the Executioner
Gordon brings in Alice Tetch, a woman whose blood will corrupt the mental stability of a human being to the GCPD. She is the sister of an unstable hypnotist known as Jervis Tetch who wanted his hands on Alice. In Barnes' office Barnes shows genuine concern for Gordon who appears not to be in the right place and asks him to open up. Gordon admits that Tetch put him under a hypnotic spell during a confrontation, and that he has been feeling suicidal tenancies. Barnes decides to allow Gordon to speak with Alice and get information on her brother. But during this Tetch launches an assault on the precinct with the help of luchador wrestlers, The terrible Tweeds in a bid to abduct her. This ends up being successful as Tetch escapes with two of the Tweeds and his sister. Gordon attempts to stop them, but Tetch uses the hypnotic spell to force Gordon to place a gun to his head, which forces Barnes to knock him unconscious with his cane. Barnes has Gordon placed on suicide watch and gets him transferred to another facility, but Bullock helps him escape by bribing the driver so they can go after Tetch and rescue Alice. Despite Gordon managing to break the spell during their confrontation with Tetch at an abandoned amusement park, Alice ends up dead during a struggle with her brother after being impaled on a spike. When Barnes investigates the crime scene, a drop of Alice's blood drips and falls into his eye, infecting him.