Gotham S4 Ep. 18 Thoughts & Easter Eggs

"That's Entertainment"

This week's spectacularly entertaining episode of Gotham is, without a doubt, one of my top favorites of the entire series. Following up on what has so far been a series of highly geek out worthy episodes presenting Jerome and his legion of horribles, we're given the peak of fan service here as the spotlight shines brightly on the maniac mastermind. With various character and story twists taking place, this was a rare case in television where mostly every single scene felt necessary, well thought out, and executed. Leaving many fans with their jaws dropped to the floor at a particularly highly anticipated and theorized cliffhanger, let's dive into what makes this week's Gotham a priority watch for fans.

Crazy Cold Opening

Before we get to the obvious elephant in the room plot twist, I'd like to acknowledge the solid episode opening that we get which Gotham has been doing a fantastic job with as of late. Setting up the tone of the episode whilst selling the idea that we are given a legitimate team of villains on the show, we see the beginnings of Jerome's master plan take form. During an assemble of the city's high ranked officials, the council speaks of the current chaotic state and the GCPD's struggle to handle things. It is during this time that Mr. Freeze shows up alongside Tetch killing people offscreen prior to kidnapping them. It's a great opening villain(s) scene with the highlight being the unnerving end tag where Jerome shows off his laugh toxin. After exposing one of the council members to the toxin, we witness as she psychotically laughs herself to death. The imagery of her face looked like something right out of a Blumhouse produced supernatural horror film. Yikes!

To The Batmobile!

Just when I thought this season has given us more than enough awesome Batman allusions with vigilante Bruce suiting up (now recently without a mask?), the writers have decided to toss in one last insert that would make any comic book fan leap out of their seat in excitement. After sharing a heart warming father-son moment with Alfred reminiscing about one of Bruce's past birthday wishes, Alfred gifts him with the key to his first car. Now, this of course isn't any average car as Alfred immediately starts breaking down the special features such as its top notch engine, anti-reflective stealth capability, and as icing on the cake, it's bullet proof! With Bruce Wayne's smile and hug of approval, I myself couldn't stop smiling as I was witnessing the birth of the prototype Batmobile. It's an iconic and beautifully directed scene that plays out as both an emotionally touching moment between the two while also being a naturally woven in feast of fan service.

Legacy of The Demon's Head

Note to self: Purchase Ra's Al Ghul's theme from the Gotham Season 4 OST. It's absolutely magnificent!

Following up on the recent eye opening twist surrounding Barbara's position as the new Demon's Head, this episode does a fantastic job at introducing her newfound power in the role. As a rival gang leader speaks to Tabitha about the Siren's club's disrespectful mishandling of his brother, Barbara shows up with her female led faction of the League to counter them. What follows is one of my new favorite action scenes on the show as the gang makes an attempt to gun down the villainous vixens only to be swiftly taken out by a swarm of throwing stars. It's a cinematically incredible sequence showing Barbara calmly standing grinning as the blades are shown flying and curving around her in slow motion effortlessly slaying each gang member. This brilliant piece of visual storytelling shows us the League's deadly capabilities while also showing Barbara's confidence as the new Ra's.

After finishing off the rival gang leader, the League faction speaker (as I'll call her for now) tells Barbara that she was chosen for a reason to continue Ra's Al Ghul's legacy going beyond running a club setting the stage for Barbara's turning point in the episode. During this moment, Tabitha begins to show a bit of resistance to the League by immediately questioning Barbara's supposed purpose. This bit of skepticism flows through the rest of the episode as shown by her snarky comments at Barbara's journey to becoming Ra's Al Ghul. Countering Tabitha's "grounded" sense of logic having only dealt with gangs, being connected to a secret cult herself via the Galavant name, seen metahumans, and have been surrounded by chaos reigning psychopaths (maybe not so grounded?), we have the fantastical elements at play as Barbara's magical hand is able to unlock Ra's's secret room. The visuals here, and it bears noting, are outstanding.

Gotham has been known in the past for crafting and presenting incredible sets for their villains' lairs, and for the more lore hungry viewers like myself, Ra's Al Ghul's secret room may just be one of the best settings yet. The moment Barbara opens the door, we are greeted to individually interesting historical memorabilia surrounding the room. Each item shown feels as though they're accompanied by a fascinating story worth diving into with Ra's Al Ghul's timeline as an immortal figure. This gives the setting an intriguing museum-like atmosphere for the character all leading towards the center piece of attraction being a 400 year old painting of what appears to be Ra's Al Ghul and a woman resembling Barbara. Whether this is an ancestor or something else entirely, I loved the idea of Barbara immediately getting entranced by the image claiming it as her confirmation of being meant for something more and finally being "home".

Not necessarily knowing where the story may lead for Barbara and her true connection to Ra's Al Ghul's plans, this twist gives the writers something bold and interesting to work with for the character. Readers of the old Penny For Your TV Thoughts Gotham reviews will know that Barbara was far from being a remotely likable character during the first two seasons, yet the show has been able to evolve her into someone worthy of spotlighting every now and then. If becoming a genuinely threatening crime boss wasn't enough, being deeply rooted into the Ra's Al Ghul story has definitely ranked her up as one of the more eagerly anticipated character journeys of the season.

Through Barbara's character, surprisingly enough, not only are we enriching her development, but also Ra's Al Ghul's history and legacy. During readings of the historical texts within Ra's's room, Barbara discovers that the Demon's Head's influence in history dates back 9 centuries infiltrating royal families and overthrowing governments. Again, for the lore hungry fans like myself who eats this type of information up, this new secret room setting is one giant gold mine of intriguing mythology. What's great about Barbara's introduction to her mentor's archives is the ambitious mentality that she now creates claiming this vast knowledge as a means to change history moving forward. We have a character who was once only interested in getting Gordon back in her life, becoming a crime boss, then eventually running a night club, and now affecting the course of history. Again, the evolution of Barbara's arc is positively mind boggling to say the least.

Once her fascination of said vast information leads into ancient formulas and incantations that can somehow curse enemies, raise demons, and contact the dead, Tabitha fully rejects her newfound enthusiasm for the fantastical. This new conflict of interests between them was, for me anyway, the highlight of their entire relationship on the show. Tabitha arguing that the old Barbara would have already sold all of the artifacts while also stating that she begged her to join her club results in Barbara violently throwing her out. It's a classic tale of two closely bonded friends creating an empire together only for one to be given a new and suspicious opportunity causing a tear in their partnership. I gotta say, with this new supernatural element woven in, I'm really digging the new destiny chasing and highly ambitious Barbara Kean.

Barbara the impostor? Hmmm. What is Ra's Al Ghul's ultimate plan?

After the League tosses Tabitha out threatening to kill her if she doesn't leave the city, we get a brief solid fight scene with the whip swinging femme fatale attempting to take out each member only to be overpowered. Again, I love the way in which the series have shown the dangerous capabilities of these assassins especially now that we learn that they've been trained in 90 different forms of martial arts. Spying on Tabitha is a mysterious man who appears in time to help her up on her feet stating that he's been watching her and Barbara while calling Barbara an impostor of the League. Revealing himself to serve the true Demon's Head, we get our big twist cliffhanger that Ra's Al Ghul's death may all be but an illusion. Now, whether you're a huge Batman fan or not understanding the importance of the League and Bruce's destiny, this was a great twist introducing a war of sorts within the League itself. I'm really eager to see where this leads down the line.

The Joker's Ultimate Punchline

After Oswald sneaks behind Jerome seeding information to Gordon about his master plan out of fear (setting the groundwork for his eventual character shift), we're introduced to our main set piece of the episode. During a live music festival, Jerome abruptly shows up completely dominating the scene by savagely beating a singer to death with a mic stand and transforming the event into a hostage situation. After Jerome's goons places the high ranked officials on stage with explosive neck collars, this is where our highly entertaining ticking time bomb crime thriller begins highlighting the rest of the episode.

After a negotiation with Gordon to get Bruce and Jeremiah goes bad, Jerome kills his first victim adding genuine stakes to the situation. What struck me during this entire altercation was how refreshingly public the situation was. Gotham traditionally, give or take a handful of special cases, involves more close quarter conflicts between enemies whether in an enclosed room, back alley, or an open area where not many citizens are involved in the actual confrontations. Here we have an entire crowd of citizens forced into Jerome's plans giving the episode a much more larger scope to the action and situation. Honestly, this had a season finale feel to it which leads me to believe that Gotham is either planning something smaller scale-wise with its finale or the series' production has significantly elevated for them to still go above and beyond as they did with Season 3's finale.

Either way, if this is any indication of the type of episodes that fans will be treated to with future villain arcs, then the series has definitely earned its place as one of the top most entertaining of the genre. This large scope ambition continues on as Mr. Freeze and Scarecrow attacks a Wayne Enterprise lab forcing the chemists to create large batches of the laughing gas toxin for a citywide attack. Planning to make an ambush on Jerome, Gordon pleas with both Bruce and Jeremiah to essentially be bait in order to get close enough to cut Jerome's detonator signal. This is where we get our next few scenes of note for Bruce as he decides to go along with the plan considering his mentality of being somewhat responsible for Jerome now. The highlight for our young hero here is his talk with Jeremiah after discovering his brilliant mind in science convincing him to help be a symbol of hope for the people to never fear criminals.

For a moment, and this will play out even further towards to the end of the episode, it felt as though Bruce was realizing Jeremiah's potential for positively affecting the city and perhaps even considering him as a new asset to the vigilante team. It's a nice exchange giving off that sensibility that Batman would have every now and then whenever he'd encounter someone with a bright future ahead that can save the city. He'd encourage them with a powerful motivational speech stating that they can help the city just as much, if not, more than he ever could ushering in their very own heroic side. These are the types of dialogue exchanges that I can easily foresee with Bruce in the future and we know the wise mentor/father figure/butler that he gets it all from.

With the plan to take down Jerome officially engaged, the two slowly make their walk towards the stage with Bruce showing no fear whatsoever in confronting the psychotic criminal. Things start to heat up unfortunately for the GCPD as Jerome had a counter plan all along taking out the police snipers which raises tension even higher. However, and this is one of those small but crucial details that I enjoy picking out, where everyone else looks concerned and frightened, Bruce immediately goes back to looking fearless as he continues his walk to the stage. You gotta admire how much this character has evolved over the years facing life threatening obstacles now with a much more focused and determined demeanor. Yep, sounds like Batman alright.

Speaking of heroes facing crazy situations, a more unlikely hero makes his stamp during this episode as Oswald realizes and is opposed to Jerome's laugh toxin blimp plan (which is a classic Joker scheme). After Scarecrow and Jervis kills and manipulates the blimp pilots, Crane reveals that Jerome anticipated Oswald's betrayal leading him to being knocked out and placed onboard the blimp. Much like the Mr. Freeze opening scene and the Wayne Enterprise lab attack, it's been an absolute blast watching these once solo villains of previous arcs join forces. Seeing Scarecrow use a special toxin to melt off one of the pilot's face as Tetch uses his hypnotism to completely manipulate the other truly gave off that feeling of an unstoppable antagonist in the form of powerful character pairings.

With the blimp now heading towards the city, Jerome publicly speaks about Jeremiah onstage calling him the "favorite child" in the family going off to do great things while Jerome was left to deal with the circus life. This leads to our first big foreshadowing of the episode with Jeremiah's twist as Jerome claims that he knows his twin to be secretely just as crazy as him. Proving his point a little bit further, he gives him a knife which Jeremiah hesitates first then leaps out of his chair to attack Jerome only to be knocked down. I loved the little detail of him having a frustrated, scared, and yet guilty expression on his face during the whole speech about him being secretely crazy. We still haven't been given a 100% reliable telling of their story which is fantastic considering the Joker's famously mysterious origins.

After Gordon manages to get rid of Jerome's henchmen while also getting a shot on Jerome himself, all hell breaks loose with the hostage situation. Being that both Bruce and Jeremiah are jamming the signal to the bomb, Jerome's attempts to quickly kill the mayor fails. This leads to him escaping the scene barely as Bruce swiftly breaks out of his ties and takes down Firefly. That's right, Bruce manages to single handedly take down one of Gotham's rogues gallery villains. Keep in mind that Jim sees this act and has caught Bruce during some of these heroic situations. I know it's a bit too far to speculate, but I'm starting to wonder if the writers might pull off a bold comic book twist by having Gordon actually know Batman's identity in the future. Scenes like these stick out to me when Bruce's vigilante secret is in question. Still, it's a fun, and again, pretty brief scene simply showing our hero-in-training in action.

WIth Jerome's blimp on a set course for pouring down its mist of mayhem, our unlikely hero of the episode, Oswald, wakes up on the aircraft scared for his life. One of my favorite moments here is his little exchange with Gordon frantically reacting to the idea that he himself will have to stop the blimp. I loved the idea of Gordon motivating him by telling him that he can't run an empire of crazy people which would be the result of the blimp's success. Eventually Oswald is able to knock out the hypnotized pilot thereby redirecting the blimp from the blast zone. That's the thing about Jim's character that I enjoy watching over the course of the show. Much like the cape crusader, Jim is able to adapt to and exploit his enemy's passions and sensibilities using it either against them or for some greater cause. Perhaps the two can share notes in the future.

However, Jerome being someone with a flare for unpredictability, we get our big climactic discussion between him and Gordon as he dangles from a pipe hanging for his life. Giving Jim a choice to choose between letting him die or rescuing him, Jim decides to stretch out his hand only for Jerome to intentionally sink down further on the pipe. He tells Gordon that he'll outlive him due to being "an idea" as opposed to just being a man and that the people love him for his lack of caring for the rules. It's a very popular Joker characteristic as the villain is famously known to consider himself as a visual representation of an appealing philosophy that people desire deep down. With a nice drop of foreshadowing, Jerome claims that his legacy will live on prior to willfully dropping to his death delivering one final laugh on the way down. Talk about a powerful exit.

With Jerome's death being confirmed by his smiling corpse on top of a broken car (although they should probably burn the body being that this is Gotham and all), we get the cliffhangers of all cliffhangers on the show. But first, I do want to point out the scene to where Bruce tells Jeremiah that Wayne Enterprises will fund his projects to help the city move forward. It's a nice storytelling seed to plant as it'll definitely stir things up for future Batman/Joker stories I'd imagine.

Now, for the big twist ending that will conjure up 100s of discussions within the fandom. We see Jeremiah opening up a gift box with a "Wayne Enterprises" tag only to be fooled by a toxin spraying jack-in-the-box. With Jerome's recorded voice stating that the toxin is a special blend made just for him to help set him free, we see Jeremiah's face turn pale, lips turn red, and the inhumanly warped smile shown with other victims of the toxin. As he begins to laugh maniacally, Jerome's recorded voice repeatedly tells him to burn everything down. As predictable as this shift may seem considering the amount of implications given since the character's "innocent twin" introduction, I absolutely love this concept. With Gotham having the freedom to adapt these characters however they'd like, I find this take on the iconic villain to be a refreshingly bold and interesting choice.

We're, in a sense, given two Jokers with Jerome setting the stage for what may be a much more traditional version of the character given his chemically created clown-like face. Now, I'm still not 100% sold on the visual FX with the laugh toxin results, but I am getting the feeling that we've seen the last of this stylistic choice as Jeremiah will most likely have a permanent and practically presented smile. Given that he's been set up as being an engineering genius obsessed with labyrinths, you've already laid the foundation for a much more higher intellect Joker first and foremost who can also build his own torturous devices. This will make this new iteration of the character theoretically being twice as dangerous being able to outsmart everyone much more effectively than Jerome. I'm now more excited than ever to see where this character and the rest of the season goes as we only have a few episodes left. The hype is real!

Bonus Thoughts

Easter Eggs

1. Series Fun Fact

If they continue forward with putting this character in the forefront, this will be the first time in the series that the Joker arc was the major story highlight for more than two episodes in a row. Whether this is due to popularity of the character and the fact that he brings high ratings for the show or that the writers had perhaps planned this all along, it's always great to see Gotham diving into Batman's greatest villains. Let's hope that with the Jeremiah twist taking effect, the series have even bigger and better plans moving forward for how exactly they'll utilize him. Sometimes great villain beginnings can lead to anti-climactic follow ups. Just look at Mr. Freeze and Hugo Strange's past to their current character directions. We can only hope for the best.

2. Gotham's Happier Times

It's easy to forget about this scene with everything else taking place, but we do have two emotionally heart warming scenes during this episode. The first being Alfred gifting Bruce with a car (Batmobile!) and the 2nd being that charmingly sweet interaction scene between Bruce and Selena during his birthday. It's moments like these to where I have to highly praise the writing staff of Gotham for including little scenes to remind the audience that, realistically, not every second spent in these fantastically dark universes may be as grim and bleak. There is happiness and peace at some point in time considering that these are still human beings simply trying to live out their lives at the end of the day.

3. 60's Batman Theme?

As Jerome waits for his final 2 hostages to arrive, you can briefly hear what sounds like the 60's Adam West Batman theme playing onstage. If this is in fact a rendition of the theme then Gotham just got 100 times more awesome than it already was.

4. Hilarious Character Book End

Nothing major to point out here necessarily as I simply just wanted to note how hilarious it was to end off Oswald's part of the story by having him frantically yell out Gordon's name from a blimp. More endings like these please.

5. Tattooed Man Cameo? Probably Not.

Alright, this one's a bit of a huge long shot, but as with any live action comic book property, one of the more fun things to do is to pick out possible cameos and easter eggs from the source material. During Jerome's hostage situation, we see a heavily tattooed henchman which may or may not be a tiny nod to the DC Comics villain known as Tattooed Man. Now, there are various individuals that takes on that name in the comics, and there aren't any of them that I'd personally single out here, but if this is a nice easter egg then kudos to the writers for inserting it. If it's just a heavily tattooed goon? Well...that's fine too I guess.

6. It's The Little Things

Not entirely sure if I've noticed this before, but during Oswald's heroic scene attempting to steer the blimp away, you can clearly see the Iceberg Lounge logo on his sleeves. It's details like these that I enjoy catching as it shows that the production/costume department goes above and beyond with its world building and presentation.

Episode Rating: 10/10