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 and antagonist in the television series, Gotham. She is the series' version of the Batman supervillain Poison Ivy. Ivy has now became an ally to the Penguin and is assisting him in creating an army. She is a supporting protagonist in seasons 1 and 2, a minor antagonist/antiheroine in the Mad City arc, and a supporting antagonist in the Heroes Rise arc.

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

Biography
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 cuts her wrists 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.

Becoming an Orphan
Ivy resides in Gotham City with her parents Mario and Alice Pepper, the former whom is a criminal, mentally unstable and abusive. Ivy answered the door one day to a detective Jim Gordon whom arrived with his partner Harvey Bullock as they were looking for her father in relation to his possible involvement in the killings of Thomas and Martha Wayne. When Ivy answered the door to the detectives she is visibly scared, and when Gordon asks her about her father she says that he is mean. Mario comes to the door and allows the detectives in. Ivy strokes her plants while Mario is being questioned, and he later makes a run for it by escaping out the window when the two detectives wish to search the premises for any evidence. He is subsequently shot dead by Bullock after attempting to kill Gordon with a knife. What appeared to be Martha Wayne's necklace is recovered, which leads to Mario being framed for the murders and the case closed. Despite his abusiveness, Ivy and her mother resent the police for his murder and set up. When Gordon begins to suspect Mario isn't the killer he arrives at the home where Ivy angrily refers to the police as "bastards". During this visit Gordon is informed by Alice that despite Mario being a violent person, he never killed anyone.

Ivy becomes orphaned when her mother commits suicide following the death of her father. She is taken into care and fostered in which her new parents rename her Pamela. She eventually runs away from them, choosing to live on the streets.

Life on the Streets
Ivy is at The Flea when Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne arrive, with the latter and Ivy being introduced for the first time. Bruce apologises for what happened to her father, but Ivy (appearing to be losing it) says it isn't his fault her father is dead and begins acting strange, even causing Selina to be unnerved. Despite her father being killed and set up for killing Bruce's parents, she doesn't show any contempt towards him, and even notes that Bruce is cute. Selina quickly ushers Bruce away from Ivy, advising him not to look back.

Ivy falls sick and is found sleeping in a box in the rain by Selina. Selina takes her to Barbara Kean's penthouse as Barbara is gone and Gordon has moved out. Ivy answers the phone when Barbara calls, and when she asks about Gordon Ivy lies saying that she is a friend of him. Believing that the girl on the other end is a lover of Gordon's, Barbara angrily hangs up the phone, much to the amusement of Ivy.

Ivy encounters Bruce and his guardian Alfred Pennyworth as they search the streets for Selina. Bruce requests Ivy to send a message to Selina for her, which she agrees to for a payment, which Bruce orders Alfred to do.

Ivy and Selina are later discovered by Barbara, and after overcoming her own surprise, Barbara eventually sits with the two in the living room. Ivy and Selina later have outfits modeled by Barbara, while they judge them.

Ivy is questioned by Harvey Bullock on the location of Selina, who was committing robberies with Bridgit Pike.

Ivy was later employed by Butch Gilzean's nephew Sonny Gilzean to grow his "magic mushrooms." She puts the mushrooms into the gang's lunch so that Selina and Bruce could steal their money.

While waiting for Selina at the pigeon coop where Bridgit Pike feeds them, Bruce thought Selina was returning only to encounter Ivy who was surprised that Bruce is living at Wayne Manor again. This causes Bruce to suspect that Selina Kyle hasn't returned from Arkham Asylum yet.

6 months later, Ivy questioned Selina about the type of people she was being involved with. Selina told her that they were scary people and won't let her come along for her own good. Selina orders Ivy to look after the pigeon coop while she is gone, and departs leaving Ivy on her own. Just thereafter. Ivy is approached by what appears to be Bruce Wayne. However, he acts weird and questions Ivy about Selina. Believing this boy is Bruce, she asks him what has happened to him (due to his unkempt appearance and long hair). When the confused boy asks that if she knows him, she says she knows Bruce Wayne, leading to the boy to forcefully grab her demanding who he is. Terrified, Ivy shakes him off and makes a run for it. She arrives at a location where Selina is hanging out and discovers she is afflicted with a resurrected Fish Mooney who has gathered the escapees from the research facility Indian Hill to create a new incarnation of her gang. Nancy brings Ivy to Fish who wants to know who else Ivy has told about them. Selina tries to defuse the situation by saying Ivy is with her and doesn't know anything or has told anyone, but Ivy causes more harm than good by threatening to tell on Fish. Fish orders one of her underlings Marv to use his ability of aging people to death to kill Ivy. Ivy manages to get away from Nancy and runs off where she is pursued. She comes across a hole in the ground leading to a water drain. Selina tries to help her, but is held back. Marv sneaks up on Ivy and briefly grabs her, before she falls down the hole and is swept away by the water's current, much to the distress of Selina.

Reincarnation
An unspecified amount of time later, Ivy emerges from the river. Upon making her way to a truck, Ivy sees her reflection in the mirror realizing that she is now a fully grown woman and has outgrown her clothes. When a construction worker named Nick comes across the barefoot girl, he invites Ivy home to help her out. At Nick's house, Ivy drinks some water and then give the rest on a dying plant. While stating her history and how she "grew", Ivy was displeased that Nick threw out one of his plants. Later that night, Ivy changes into the clothes of Nick's ex-wife and had knocked Nick out using the plant he threw in the trash.

Selina mentioned to Bruce and Gordon about what happened to Ivy and states that she is still "missing".

Some time later, she attended the Sirens nightclub party to celebrate Oswald Cobblepot winning the election for mayor. She grabbed Selina by the hand when she caught her stealing and laughed at the fact that Selina did not recognize her. As Ivy Pepper didn't want to reveal her identity yet, she told Selina to continue taking wallets. Selina did get suspicious about her. Ivy later witnessed the fight at the club between Butch and Cobblepot and began smiling when things became violent.

Ivy later seduces a rich man named Anton where she uses a special perfume to control him into opening the vault. Upon knocking out Anton with a vase, Ivy enter the vault where she steals a green necklace. Anton recovers and tries to choke Ivy only for her to break free and get away as he asked if she is with "them." Ivy later reveals herself to Selina at her squat while she was feeding her cats. Bruce was later called in as Selina told him that she should've suspected that Marv did that to her. Ivy apologizes for not telling Selina that she is alive. Selina is told by Ivy that she has a way to get people to give her what she want. Ivy then comes clean stating that she had stolen from a rich man. Bruce breaks up the conversation stating that he hears something. The three of them start making a run from their attackers led by Luka Volk. Selina, Bruce, and Ivy go on the run as Ivy claims that claimed it. Bruce offers to buy the necklace from Ivy for a reward. Ivy accompanies Bruce and Selina to Anton's house and finds him dead. The three of them find a hidden key in the necklace. Bruce suggests to Selina and Ivy that they retreat to his house. At Wayne Manor, Bruce tells Ivy and Selina that he will have Alfred make up beds for both of them. When Ivy states that she doesn't want to come between Selina and her boyfriend, Selina states that she is not his girlfriend.

Ivy uses her perfume to manipulate Alfred into giving her the security code to Wayne Manor. She is later captured by Luka, Jacob, and Dmitry of the Whisper Gang to use as leverage to get the key back from Bruce and Selina. She is released when Bruce gives them the key and learns that it is used to unlock a weapon Luka believes can help destroy the Court of Owls. Bruce then agrees to help them secure the second key they require.

Teaming up with Penguin
After Mayor Oswald Cobblepot was shot and thrown off a pier into the harbor by his former friend Edward Nygma, Ivy retrieved him and brought him back to her plant filled home, unknown to the citizens of Gotham, the police and even Nygma himself who believed he had truly killed his old ally. After Cobblepot awoke from his sleep Ivy informed him that he had been out for hours. Cobblepot informs her that he has someone to kill.

Personality
Not much is known about her personality, however, according to Selina, Ivy is creepy, as nobody would even talk to her, as her only friend is Selina Kyle, when she meets Bruce Wayne, she does not blame his parents death for causing the death of her father, and takes interest in the former, notes that Bruce is cute.

Ivy has a sense of humor; she answers the phone when Barbara calls, and when she asks about Jim Gordon, Ivy lies saying that she is a friend of his, this causes Barbara to incorrectly believing that the girl on the other end is a lover of Jim's, Barbara angrily hangs up the phone, Ivy obviously meant no harm.

Ivy is loyal and cares about friends, as she Ivy questioned Selina about the type of people she was being involved with. However this changes when Ivy is aged into adulthood by Marv, as she takes pleasure in Selina not recognizing her as Ivy during an encounter at The Sirens nightclub, and even mockingly tells Selina to run along and "keep stealing wallets". But she later tells Selina who she is and apologizes to her.

Despite her growth spurt into adulthood, Ivy still showed signs of a childlike nature and immaturity, probably due to not having a natural progression growing up. When she teams up with Oswald Cobblepot to create themselves a gang of "freaks", she sees the union as a big happy family.

On a more comical note, Ivy was shown to be very gluttonous. In the 9th episode of the third season, she ate all of Selina's food and then asking for more food. Even before that, she complained a lot to Selina about "starving".

Powers

 * Plant Communication: After drastically aging, Ivy has seemingly gained the power to communicate with plants or sense what other plants are feeling.

Abilities

 * Botanist: Ivy possesses an advanced knowledge of plant life, identifying and growing different breeds.
 * Toxicologist: By extracting materials from her plants, she is able to create drugs or perfumes that serve as powerful hallucinogenics and mind altering agents.

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 Executioner
 * Mad City: Time Bomb
 * Heroes Rise: How the Riddler Got His Name
 * Heroes Rise: These Delicate and Dark Obsessions
 * Heroes Rise: The Primal Riddle
 * Heroes Rise: Light the Wick
 * Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine
 * Heroes Rise: Heavydirtysoul

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.
 * While Ivy has been villainous throughout the series, the promo for "Heroes Rise: The Primal Riddle" officially gives her her villain status and she is described as supervillain on the backside of the DVD release.
 * Ivy was a recurring character in Season 1 and 2 and a main character in Season 3.
 * Ivy's adoptive parents renamed her Pamela. It is unclear if they were the Isley family or if that surname will come into play later.
 * Ivy is one of the least malicious villains in the series.