This week's highly anticipated episode of Gotham had quite a bit of an uphill battle to scale considering it's spotlight villain arc. With the promise of Jerome's return, the series had a huge fan base to appeal to with the now considered "official pre-Joker" character in this universe. So, how did this episode do as far as not only resurrecting a fan favorite from previous seasons, but also fully embracing the direction of bringing forth arguably the biggest Batman/Comic Book villain to its rogues gallery? Well, let's dive into what worked and didn't work as far as execution goes.
First, let's talk about what was by far my biggest nitpick of the previous episode as well as a minor concern that I had during Season 2. The whole "Joker cult" component introduced in this iteration of Gotham city has been interesting conceptually speaking, but there still lies an issue that I have with its forced sense of execution. Is the Joker imagery beautifully showcased throughout the world of Gotham? Yes. Does the visuals of clown fashioned lunatics carrying weapons invoke a powerful and looming villainous presence? Yes. Does the overall idea of people coming together to manically laugh alongside an over the top fanboy character giving orders and speaking about Jerome as a prophet convey well? Well, this is where things get a bit shaky for me.
Almost every single scene during the majority of this episode that focused on the character of Dwight or the members of his group of constantly laughing and "extreme" personalities felt like a bit too much performance-wise. Yes, I do understand that these individuals are meant to be followers of the most insane individual of this universe, but the acting itself always came across as cringeworthy and excessive instead of feeling genuinely animated. I did kinda like the idea of Dwight using Jerome's face as a desperate act to keep leadership over the cult as well as the news station take over scene feeling right out of a Joker comic. Unfortunately, the performance by David Dastmalchian never truly sold me on being either entertained or interested in this character in the end. As a result, The Joker cult concept felt flat alongside its leader.
However, there is a huge silver lining to this "Rise of the Joker" arc after all as not only does Jerome make a legitimately entertaining return, but he actually feels like a noteworthy villain for the show to explore. This was by far the greatest comeback that this series has ever accomplished for me personally as I was always on the fence about Cameron Monaghan's performance as the titular character. In previous episodes, I remembered constantly jumping back and forth between liking and feeling a tad bit off putted by some of his overly animated sensibilities. With Jerome's resurrection however, we get a pretty consistent and satisfying presentation with both subtle and rightfully cartoony moments. Jerome not only came across as a captivating enough villain to look forward to, but a truly dangerous obstacle for the GCPD.
The crazy laugh, the completely out of his mind dialogue, and the bizarre sense of humor of what we know the Joker to have can all be seen here with Jerome. Aside from the gory facial imagery, one of my favorite things about this episode is the fact that he actually calls out Dwight on being a low rank villain by commenting on his screen presence. There's also a few scenes of him reacting to his outlandish situation in a very nonchalant and humorous manner. This is exactly the type of character traits that fans of the Joker should expect and is well executed here. Although I can't speak for the future of this character, I can definitely say that my past worries of whether or not Gotham would give us a great interpretation of one of comic book's greatest villains is currently put to rest.
Now, let's talk about what is by far this season's most emotional character moment yet. In a tragic turn of events, we learn that Maria was faking the whole mother-daughter reunion just as a means to get to Bruce Wayne's money. During Season 2, it was during Bruce's confrontation with Matches Malone that we saw a powerful and dramatic moment in his life eventually leading to his evolution into the criminal world of Gotham. Here we have Selena's "big moment" revolving around trust and opening herself up emotionally to others. I honestly felt a bit betrayed myself as I thought we were actually witnessing a heartfelt family moment during last week's episode at the Wayne mansion. Not only was this a great twist storytelling-wise, but arguably the best performance and character driven episode regarding Selena Kyle.
Showing signs of progression alongside Selena is also Bruce who was revealed to have figured out Maria's shadowy intent earlier. The scene where Selena confronts Bruce about him knowing and still paying off Maria in the end was not only a beautifully handled scene generally speaking with its character drama, but also another look at how much Bruce is slowly developing into the character that we know him to be in the future. The fact that he easily deducted Maria's scheme to use her own daughter for financial benefit as well as the way in which he effortlessly handles Selena's physical attacks truly invoked the Cape Crusader in many ways.
During this emotional scene between the two, we can see traits of both Batman and Catwoman through the visual storytelling of their physical and non physical interactions. As I've praised several times in the past, Gotham continues to highly succeed with its use of imagery to coincide with its characters. I'm curious to see where this relationship goes in the future similiar to Gordon and Lee's currently rocky association. I never thought I'd say this about a comic book TV series, but I'm actually highly interested in the romantic relationship angles of the story. For that, I give major props to the writers for delivering a truly interesting love dynamic between its key characters.
Overall, this week's episode of Gotham was a success with some of its performances and character presentations yet dropped down to an undesired level of campiness with its minor villains. There's also still a looming feeling of concern for the Joker cult concept being fully realized as well as whether or not the show can stay consistent quality-wise with the Jerome character. With all things considered, some of Gotham's highlight accomplishments can be seen here making this episode a pretty significant one to remember. With a citywide blackout and a highly anticipated maniac on the loose, I simply cannot wait to see what next week's episode will bring.
Bonus Content
1. Tribute To The New 52 Joker Design
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| One of the most surprising artistic choices given to the Jerome character now is his facial design tributing the New 52 DC Comics iteration of the Joker which shows him having his own face sliced off and woven back on. |
2. The Rise of Barbara/The End of The Penguin
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| One of the easily forgettable yet very significant portions of this episode shows Oswald falling to the schemes of Ed and Barbara. As Penguin's power in Gotham begins to fall, it's interesting to see what the end result will be with everyone else moving in for the throne. |
3. Joker Imagery
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| Despite my nitpicks regarding the Joker cult's poor execution, I absolutely loved the Joker invoked imagery scattered throughout the city in various ways. One of the coolest artistic directions on the show so far. |
5. Jerome's Mannerisms
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| Performance is key in deciding how audiences react to a character. With Cameron's return as Jerome, we now have random choking sounds, a less forced "Joker laugh", and a continuation of what people consider to be an homage to Heath Ledger's Joker. Should be interesting. |
4. Gotham Logo Story Arc Transition
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| One of the most unique things about Gotham is the way in which it uses its ending logo transition to visually represent whatever new story arc is taking place. Here we have a blackout city as the background to represent the episode's cliffhanger. |
Episode Rating: 8/10
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