‘Gotham’ Season 3 Spoilers: Why Does Barbara Kean Look So Serious In This Teaser Photo?

Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) from “Gotham” always has a sinister grin on her face, and she laughs at trouble like no one else. But in the teaser photo shared by the actress on her Instagram page, her character Babs has a grim expression.

Has Babs run into some trouble? She’s currently helping Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) get his revenge on Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), after the latter killed off his lady love Isabella (Chelsea Spack) out of jealousy.

Maybe producers are also building up Babs’ arc as Harley Quinn. Rumor has it that Babs will transition into Harley this season, and executive producer John Stephens even said that fans will be meeting the character soon. “We might see [her] in Episode 22,” he revealed to Cinema Blend.

Stephens and his co-executive producer Ken Woodruff earlier told IGN that “Gotham” fans had already seen Harley in past episodes, they just didn’t know it was her. “You may have already seen Harley as a person that you thought you had met and known for a long time. So we always reserve the right to sort of do that as well,” said Woodruff.

Stephens added that “the Harley Quinn of it all is a bit more of a sticky wicket but it’s one we’ve already thought about for the character. We don’t want to give too much away, but it will definitely be someone connected to the Joker cult world that we have set up. But it’s down the road, later in Season 3 right now.”

Should this happen, how would Babs’ partner Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) feel about this? The two share the nightclub The Sirens together, and should Babs run off with the Joker (Cameron Monaghan), their business, not to mention friendship, might be in jeopardy.

"Gotham" airs every Monday at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.