The love story between Lee Tompkins and Jim Gordon on Gotham feels far from over, especially after his new relationship with Valerie Vale was destroyed by the revelation that he's still in love with his old flame. For right now, the good doctor is currently engaged — but who is Mario, Lee's future husband? He's a new character, and one who seems somewhat suspicious, since rarely does a new character debut on Gotham without having some kind of twist along the way.
Here's what Gotham has revealed so far: Mario is the son of Carmine Falcone, who, in both the show as well as DC Comics history, is a mobster and villain. On Gotham, the character has been softened considerably, to the point where he's practically pals with Jim and Harvey, regardless of his ties to the city's biggest organized crime rackets. But his son has been a little more mysterious so far. It makes sense that Lee's new fiancé isn't interested in hanging out with her ex. But it makes a little less sense that he's got a serious, almost threatening vibe. And Gotham focused on the fact that he had a Band-Aid on his neck while he was saving Jim from the Red Queen hallucinations.
Even though Mario's motives still feel mysterious after sticking around for a few episodes so far, the DC canon doesn't do much to help explain him either. Mario was a canonical name of one of Don Falcone's sons, but the mafioso was known to have multiple children in the comics. As a powerful figure in the Gotham City underworld, the elder Falcone had connections to a lot of people, including other mobsters and Batman's foes.
In the famed comic The Long Halloween , a masked killer starts picking off Mafia henchmen one by one on holidays. Mario, the eldest son with a history of involvement in the family business, succeeds his father in the business after his death. Of course, on Gotham, Mario claims to have no connection to his father's work, and doesn't even share his dad's name in order to become a successful doctor on his own.
In the comic, on Halloween night, Batman finally uncovers that the culprit is Alberto Falcone, Carmine's younger son. Instrumental in the creation of Harvey Dent's villainous persona "Two-Face," the Holiday Killer is a memorable and disturbed villain... but he doesn't bear too much similarity to Mario so far either, aside from being a Falcone. I suppose it could be revealed that Mario has a younger brother, thus suggesting that they're destined for their future roles as depicted in the comics.
But at least based on what's been shown so far, Gotham has introduced a character who is keeping all of the cards he may or may not have very, very close to the chest. Aside from getting Lee's approval, there's not too much that audiences even know about Mario just yet.
Images: Nicole Rivelli/FOX (2); DC Comics
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