Grace van Dahl

Grace van Dahl is an antagonist in the second season of Gotham. She is the wife of Elijah van Dahl, but has only married him for his money. Because of that, she is more than unhappy with Oswald Cobblepot coming to the mansion to live with them.

She is portrayed by Melinda Clarke.

Past
Grace was a waitress in a diner that Elijah frequented after the death of his mother. Sensing Elijah's weakness, Grace manipulated him into falling in love with her and she and her two children went to live with Elijah at his mansion. Eventually, Grace and Elijah married.

Cobblepot arrives
Seeing him as a competitor to the vast Van Dahl fortune, Grace and her children are more than unhappy when Elijah brings Oswald Cobblepot, his son and only blood-relative, to the mansion. Although they hate Oswald, they feign acceptance.

While Oswald and Elijah talk, Grace overhears them. She hears Cobblepot confessing that he has done bad things and then interrupts the two, giving Elijah what is supposed to be medicine for his heart. However, she is later shown to swap Elijah's medicine with peppermints, most likely in the intention to kill him in what seems to be an accident to inherit his fortune. Grace and her children approach Elijah and Oswald the next day, having researched Cobblepot and found out about his criminal past. Grace reveals this to Elijah, hoping that he would throw Oswald out of the house. Unbeknownst to her, Oswald had already confessed this to his father and Elijah ahd forgiven him for all his sins, so Elijah's reaction is not at all what she expected. After their plan has failed, Grace sends her daughter to seduce Oswald to find out what he has planned for the "Old Man", but that too fails.

After Elijah has a heart attack due to Grace's botching with the medicine, Grace sends her children to "clean up the mess" and to call for an ambulance. The doctor reveals to the family that Elijah does not have long, but Elijah disagrees. Nontheless he tells his wife to call for their lawyer to get his affairs in order. After she has done this, Grace tells her children about Elijah's intention to change his will and tells them that they have to get rid of Oswald. She later poisons Oswald's drink but Elijah drinks it and dies, much to the shock of Grace. To get rid of the evidence, Grace's son spills the rest of the drink.

Downfall
After Elijah's funeral Grace at first tries to throw Oswald out of the house but decides to keep him as a servant until they will ultimately kill him, making it look like a suicide. Although her children are more than unhappy, Grace tells they need to keep Oswald close because with the right lawyer he might cause them trouble. Indeed, the family holds Oswald as a slavelike servant, misusing him on every oppurtunity. During his work for Grace, Oswald finds the flask used by Grace to murder Elijah. Having grown suspicious, he smells at it and uses it to pour some water to Grace's dog. After seeing the dog dying with the same symptoms Elijah showed, Oswald realises what Grace did and laughs manically.

While Oswald serves Grace her dinner, she finds fault in the consisty of the meat and tells Oswald to ring the bell again, as her children have not yet joined her for dinner. Oswald reveals to her that he knows about the poison and that Grace killed Elijah. He also reveals that he killed Grace's children and that she is actually eating them. He then brutally stabs her to death.

Penguin later uses Grace's severed head as decoration.