When Gotham returns for Season 3 on Monday night, bisexual characters Barbara (Erin Richards) and Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) are back in a big way.
“Tabitha and Barbara are back together again,” Jessica told us at TCA. “They teamed up and they own a nightclub in Gotham called the Sirens, and it’s the new hangout for all the criminal baddies.”
But their relationship is not just professional.
“Not really defined, either,” Jessica said. “They just love to have a good time. They’re both out of their minds, so it’s sexual but it’s also-there’s like a sadistic element to it as well. And I love their relationship. Like [Barbara] is kind of a kooky crazy out there one, and Tabitha’s much more quietly dominating, more of a planner. It’s a great push-pull relationship.”
And yet, in true Gotham fashion, Barbara and Tabitha will be dealing with a third party.
“Butch is actually a part of a love triangle between the three of us,” Jessica said. “He’s still very much in love with Tabitha and I don’t know if she has feelings for him-she has fond feelings for him but she’s also using him as a tool to have in her back pocket to help her get out of some sticky situations with Penguin.”
While Jessica hadn’t shared any scenes with the returning Jada Pinkett Smith‘s Fish Mooney as of the time of our interview, she did say the villains are working together more in Season 3.
“There’s a bigger power at play with the court of owls and they’re manipulating and pulling all the strings in Gotham so it’s cause for the villains to come together and fight against this other bigger power that’s even greater than them,” she said.
Jessica is excited about the action she got to be a part of this year, too, taking the driver’s seat of a motorcycle for the first time but with the help of some stunt people.
“I don’t think they want me to crash and burn,” she joked. “Not this early in the season!”
She’s also loving how fans are so taken by Gotham‘s villains, who she sees as anti-heroes.
“What I love about our show is they’re not these one-note evil people,” Jessica said. “They do a really good job of showing their backstory and their humanity and why they are the way they are, and I think that’s why you end up loving them.”
Jessica says playing Tabitha is exciting for her because she couldn’t be more opposite from her character in real life.
“I mean I’m not like her in any way, really, honestly,” she said. “But I actually love that because playing the opposite of yourself is way more fun than playing something close to you. And her strength and power, her confidence, her irreverence is something that I wish I had more of. So it’s really fun to play.”
Gotham Season 3 premieres on Monday, September 19 on Fox.
