Merton

Merton is a villain in the fourth season of Gotham. He is a gangster who plans to use Jonathan Crane's fear gas in order to commit robberies. By doing so, he is inadvertedly responsible for the creation of the supervillain Scarecrow.

He is portrayed by Michael Buscemi.

Biography
Together with his gang, Merton storms a wedding where he and the other gangsters demand any valuables they can find. While robbing the guests, Merton and his men are surprised when Victor Zsasz turns up. Zsasz smugly reveals to the gangsters that from now on, every criminal in Gotham needs a license from the Penguin in order to be allowed to commit crimes. Merton is outraged and claims that they will not hand off half of their profits to Penguin. He reminds Zsasz that Zsasz is alone and that there are four of the gangsters. However, Zsasz swiftly draws his gun and shoots off one of Merton's fingers as a warning. He orders the gangsters to leave, which they reluctantly do.

However, back at their headquarter Merton decides that they will not abide to Penguin's rules. To find a means to protect them against Penguin, Merton listens to the advice of one of his henchmen, who was formerly an orderly at Arkham Asylum. He reveals that one of the inmates - Jonathan Crane - knows something about a fear serum. In order to obtain the serum, Merton and the former orderly head to Arkham where they meet with the corrupt warden who allows them to take Jonathan with them after they pay him off.

Using Crane's former home as their hideout, the gangsters force Jonathan to produce more of his father's fear gas. They ignore the paranoid boy's fears and use Crane's fear of scarecrows to keep him compliant. After Crane has created enough gas for them, Merton and his men set out and rob a bank with their fear gas. However, the incident puts them on the radar of GCPD detective Jim Gordon. By investigating Crane and the warden, Gordon eventually follows a lead to the home of the former orderly where he and his partner Bullock are ambushed by Merton and the orderly. The two gangsters knock out the policemen, while claiming that they are in the right to fight against Cobblepot's licensed crime.

To get rid off Merton and his men, Gordon provokes Cobblepot into openly declaring war against them. This, in turn, provokes Merton into planning to disrupt the grand opening of Cobblepot's newest club with his fear gas. On the night of the big event, the gansters lock in Jonathan in a small room with the scarecrow and set out to attack the opening. There, however, they are ambushed by Penguin and his men and are captured. Penguin has them brought down into the main room, where he uses them as an example to show the people of Gotham that he is cleaning up the city. Bruce Wayne alone speaks up in favor of the gangsters, asking that they are turned over to the GCPD. Penguin refuses and plans to kill them, however, at that point the lights in the club go off. The gangsters use the opportunity to free themselves and it comes to a struggle in Merton gets hold of his canister of fear gas. He sprays it into Penguin's face, causing him to panick. Watching the frightened Penguin, Merton cackles in glee but is then hit in the face by Gordon and handcuffed and arrested by the GCPD.