Ivy Pepper

"Just a girl. Cops killed my dad, my mom left. I was alone, abandoned. But then... something happened. I changed, grew! I'm different, inside and out..."

- Ivy to Nick about her transformation

Ivy Pepper is a major character in the television series, Gotham, in which she appears as a recurring character during the first and second season, and then as a regular for third season in which she also acts as a villain. She is the series' version of the Batman supervillain Poison Ivy and acts as a re-telling/origin to the character prior to Batman's arrival in Gotham City.

Ivy is introduced in the first episode "Pilot", living with her parents Mario and Alice Pepper. After Mario, a criminal who is set up for the Wayne murders, is shot by GCPD Detective Bullock and her mother hangs herself, Ivy becomes an orphan and is forced to live on the street - becoming one of the many street urchins of Gotham City. She befriends another homeless girl, Selina Kyle, but after following Selina one day, she is captured by the monster group of Fish Mooney. One of the monsters attempts to kill her by using his ability of aging people to death but Ivy escapes. Despite surviving, the contact with the monster aged her into a 19-year old woman and changed her behavior and attitude in general.

As a child, Ivy is portrayed by Clare Foley. After her aging, she is portrayed by Maggie Geha.

Orphaned
When her father, Mario Pepper, becomes a suspect in the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, the Peppers are visited by GCPD officers James Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Ivy opens the door for them and is behaving timid and frightened. She then lets the police officers in and tends to her plants while Gordon and Bullock talk to her father. While he is interrogated, Pepper attempts to escape through the window and over the fire ladder. He is pursued by Gordon and shot by Bullock when he attempts to murder Gordon with a knife. After Martha Wayne's necklace is found in the apartment, Pepper is blamed for the murders.

When Gordon, who starts to doubt that Pepper is the killer of the Waynes, returns to the Pepper apartment he is greeted with hostility from both Ivy and her mother. Eventually, her mother kills herself and Ivy is orphaned. She is taken in by a foster family who rename her Pamela but runs away from them after a short time. She then starts living on the streets and befriends fellow orphan Selina Kyle.

Homeless
During her time on the street, Selina introduces Ivy to her friend Bruce Wayne. Bruce apologizes to Ivy about the death of her father but Ivy shrugs it off, claiming that it was not Bruce's fault. However, she then starts acting very weird, making both Bruce and Selina uncomfortable.

After Ivy falls sick, Selina brings her to the penthouse of Gordon's ex-girlfriend Barbara Kean, which is temporarily unoccupied. When Barbara calls the place, believing Gordon to be there, Ivy takes the call and acts like she is Gordon's new girlfriend. Eventually, Barbara angrily hangs up. Ivy and Selina are later taken in by Barbara Kean after she surprisingly returns to her apartment and finds the two girls.

While on the streets, she meets Bruce Wayne who is searching for Selina. He recognizes Ivy as an associate of Selina and asks her whether she can bring a message to Selina. Ivy agrees but demands payment. Ivy is eventually employed by small time mobster Sonny Gilzean, the nephew of Butch. She is tasked with growing "magic mushrooms" for him. She does so but ultimately puts them into the food of Sonny and his gang. While the mobsters are out cold, Selina and Bruce Wayne steal from the gangsters. After Selina has entered Arkham Asylum to investigate for Bruce, Bruce learns from Ivy that Selina has not returned yet, alerting Bruce that something went wrong.

Turned
After the return of Fish Mooney, Selina joins Fish's group. She keeps this as a secret from Ivy, who wants to know what Selina is doing. Ivy offers to help Selina but Selina brushes her off, telling her that the people she's meeting are dangerous and that it is for Ivy's own good. After Selina is gone, Ivy is approached by a look-alike of young billionaire Bruce Wayne, who has an unkempt appearance, long hair and acts strangely. When he confronts her, begging to know who Bruce is, Ivy gets spooked and runs away.

Unhappy with how she is treated by Selina, Ivy follows her to an abandoned warehouse. She is however captured by a guard who drags Ivy inside and brings her before Fish Mooney. Ivy is unaware of who is standing before her and upon spotting Selina, asks Selina to tell these people to let her go. Selina speaks to Fish on Ivy's behalf, telling her that Ivy is her friend. Selina, who is worried about Ivy's safety, acts as if Ivy is a child who did not know what she was doing. Ivy tells Selina that the person she thought was Bruce Wayne had approached her but is interrupted by Fish, who bluntly asks Ivy who she has told about them. Selina once again tries to help Ivy by telling Fish that Ivy told no one, but Ivy recognizes Fish and her group as the monsters the city is searching. Panicking, Ivy tells Fish to let her go, else she will tell about the monsters.

Fish then orders Marv, one of her monsters who can age people to death by touching them, to eliminate Ivy. Ivy however wrenches free from her captor and runs into the cellar of the warehouse. There, she is eventually cornered on an edge, a broken water pipe underneath. Marv appears behind her and grabs her but Ivy stumbles backwards, falls into the pipe and is immediately swept away by the water masses. Despite Marv being unable to kill her as he did not touch her long enough, his touch aged Ivy into her late teens.

Ivy regains consciousness on the shores of Gotham's harbor, where she sees her new appearance in the side mirror of a car. She is approached by a man who is worried about her state as she seems confused. He brings her to his nearby home, where he offers her some water to drink and clothes to change. Ivy immediately notices the dried plants in the man's kitchen.

Later that night, Ivy dresses in one of the dresses of Nick's ex-wife. She leaves the house and it is revealed she has knocked Nick unconscious in retaliation for him dumping one of the plants.

Days later, Ivy attends Oswald Cobblepot's victory party at the Sirens. She sees Selina Kyle and approaches her, grabbing her arm after Selina stole a wallet from a party guest. She comments on how she never realised how short Selina were. Selina does not recognize Ivy and asks her who she is but Ivy decides not to reveal it yet, finding the situation too amusing.

Season 1

 * Pilot
 * Lovecraft
 * Rogues' Gallery
 * Welcome Back, Jim Gordon
 * The Blind Fortune Teller
 * Red Hood

Season 2

 * Rise of the : By Fire
 * Wrath of the : Mad Grey Dawn
 * Wrath of the : A Legion of Horribles

Season 3

 * Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell
 * Mad City: Burn the Witch
 * Mad City: Anything For You
 * Mad City: The Executioer

Trivia

 * The character is the show's version of the character Poison Ivy, however unlike her comic counterpart her real name is given as Ivy Pepper rather than Pamela Isley like in the comics. However in the episode "Lovecraft", she reveals her foster family changed her name to Pamela, although she still goes by the name Ivy.
 * The first episode "Pilot" foreshadows her future of Poison Ivy by showing her tending to plants.
 * She is a vegan.