If you haven’t caught up on Gotham yet this season, you’ll probably want to stop reading unless you’re into spoilers. The information on the eventual reveal of the Joker on Gotham just keeps coming. They may be finally on the road to revealing him, and Cameron Monaghan might be the one to portray him. When the series began, it was set to focus on the corruption of Gotham City and follow the life of a young James Gordon. The pilot began the day Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered in Crime Alley. This meant that we would see Bruce developing as time went on and he would still be a huge part of the plot. It wasn’t until Season 2 when the show started to embrace the Rogue’s Gallery (a little too quickly if you ask me) and a healthy dose of camp. Alrighty then.
The big names the show have regularly featured, mainly Penguin, Catwoman, and The Riddler, fans have often wondered if the Clown Prince will ever appear. The writers and minds behind the series toyed with us for so long on the subject. They even went so far as to throw in references to Joker with incorporeal laughter, “HAHAHA” graffiti, and even the Red Hood gang. But things changed with Jerome Valeska was introduced and had us believing Joker wasn’t even in town all along.
Jerome’s appearance had fans scared as Gotham didn’t handle big-name villains very well and it wouldn’t do to shame the biggest of them all. Just as the rest evolved, Jerome went from a meek circus boy into a notorious villain that has fans crazy for him. It’s been said from the show’s producers time and time again that Jerome is NOT the Joker, everything about him says otherwise.
Jerome was resurrected from the dead in Season 3 after he was murdered by Theo Galavan and he took on the look of our Clown Prince even more. He gained the scarred face in some comic versions and even had a homage to the New-52 version where his face was cut off by the Dollmaker. He’s even started to wear some white face paint and red lips to accent his features. All he’s missing is that beautiful purple suit and the dazzling green hair. Fans are scratching their heads and are determined to figure out how anyone can roll into Gotham and steal Jerome’s image eventually culminating into the real Joker.
Spoiler alert! This week’s episode may have just revealed that for us. Hello Jeremiah! The episode entitled ‘Mandatory Brunch Meeting’ does it for us. It’s been said Gotham will have a homage to The Long Halloween and this certainly seems to have done it. The episode included Solomon Grundy, Scarecrow, and Penguin. But the episode also nodded to The Killing Joke, the book that gave us the first glimpse of Joker’s origin in the 80s. Pretty sure we’re all familiar with the story, if not, take a look.
Recent set photos show Cameron Monaghan as a cross between Jack Nicholson and the Killing Joke cover, and it was pretty awesome. But the character was missing the scars, and it remained a mystery until this episode. We meet Xander Wilde, formerly known as Jeremiah Valeska. It turns out Jerome had a twin brother who was hidden away at a young age to protect him. But Jerome hints his history of abuse wasn’t all he says it was. So naturally, Jerome is going to expose him to a new Scarecrow concoction, which works much like Joker’s toxic laughing gas.
Now we have to wait and see what the gas might do to Jeremiah. Either way, Gotham is having way to much fun with its liberties.
