‘Gotham’ Season 4 Spoilers: Barbara Kean’s Return Explained

Everybody was shocked to see Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) alive and kicking in “Gotham” Season 4. After all, wasn’t she electrocuted to death by her ex-friend Tabitha Galavan (Jessica Lucas) last season?

However, executive producer John Stephens said Ra’s al Ghul (Alexander Siddig) has big plans for Babs, so he trained her and supplied her with a lot of guns.

Before everybody panics, Stephens assured fans that Babs won’t go on a killing spree with her newly-purchased guns because she’s now a whole different person. “Again, this year, it’ll be a different version of Barbara once again that will be informed by her return to the world of the living at the hands of Ra's al Ghul,” Stephens told Comic Book. “There will be elements of that connection to Ra’s al Ghul that will inform her personality going forward in her arc.”

Their partnership will prove a real threat to Gotham City, but Stephens said Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) will eventually find out about it. “Though he’s not going to be full-tilt aware of it for a while,” he added.

Richards earlier told Bustle what a “joy” it is to play Babs, since she got to embrace different facets of her personality since Season 1. “I think that’s the joy of the character of Barbara,” she said. “She was a thing that was supposed to be a light for Jim (Ben McKenzie), or a way for Jim to maybe be safe in Gotham and we quickly realized that that wasn’t the case.”

She is also happy that Babs got to improve her fighting skills this season, since her catfight with Dr. Leslie “Lee” Thompkins back in Season 1 was “scrappy” at best.

When asked if Babs could go back to being good, Richards said it’s definitely a possibility. “It’s been so interesting, and I feel like she has so much potential, as in she could end anywhere,” Richards said. “She could go back to good, she could go back to bad. I think the great thing about a character like Barbara is that we actually don’t know the end of her.”

“Gotham” Season 4 airs every Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.