"Mandatory Brunch Meeting"
This week's episode of Gotham was absolutely insane...in all the best ways possible. With the exception of one particular subplot that I'll get to later, this may just be one of the most geek out worthy episodes of the entire series yet. If last week's entry made your inner nerd cheer at the sight of just a couple known villains pairing up together, this episode will place a giant Joker size smile on your face by the amount of Batman's rogues sharing the screen together. Not only do we essentially get a live action version of the classic legion of rogues idea utilized throughout comics, cartoons, and video games, but we're also given quite the interesting spotlight and twist with our fellow Joker prototype. So, let's dive into this week's mind blowing episode in all of its entertaining madness.
First, let's start off with what was quite the thrilling opening sequence with Bruce chasing down the Xander Wilde lead left by Jerome. I'm still having trouble figuring out what the rules are with "vigilante Bruce" now going about things without a mask as it's clearly linking him to a pre-Batman trail of investigations and crime fighting work. The fact that Gordon can clearly see that Bruce and Alfred are hiding something while throwing themselves into dangerous scenarios, I'm not sure how to feel about him not being able to connect the dots when Bruce eventually dons the cape and cowl. Either way, what we are given here with Bruce and Gordon in the episode's opening sequence is pretty entertaining and may lead to a much more careful approach for the vigilante.
Bruce encounters what I assume to be the principal of the university that Xander Wilde graduated from only to find him completely under Tetch's influence (as nicely foreshadowed by a ticking clock). What I particularly liked about this scene is the way in which Jerome's partnership with his Arkham loonies are shown before we actually get to see them onscreen through this human bomb trap set by Jervis. Jim and Bullock reaches the scene as Bruce attempts to save the principal by revealing Jervis's ticking clock. Unfortunately, after Gordon destroys the clock, a pocket watch is revealed resulting in the bomb still being triggered in the end. Some of my favorite opening scenes within superhero stories are the brief but impactful missions that sets the tone for the upcoming giant conflict ahead. This entire sequence felt exactly like that giving audiences a nice appetizer of the dominating villainous presence that would later be this episode's major highlight.
Speaking of which, getting pass Bruce and Alfred's "we just so happen to be coincidentally chasing after criminals for no reason officer" talk with Gordon, we get our first big comic book panel worthy moment of the episode. Acting as our first big Legion of Doom-like assembling of villains, or as Jerome calls it, "Legion of Horribles" (which references Episode 21's title from Season 2), we get quite the assortment of villainy interacting in one room. The imagery of characters such as Scarecrow, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Firefly, the Mad Hatter, and of course Jerome sitting around a table discussing criminal schemes felt a scene torn right out of the comics or a cut scene from a Batman Arkham video game. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to see these villains teaming up visually giving us fans a geek out worthy gift that was four seasons in the making. We've definitely come a long way.
After stating that he's not exactly interested in controlling Gotham's criminal underworld but simply wanting to turn the entire city into a madhouse (Arkham City?), our Joker episode officially begins its highly entertaining train of insanity. With the mysterious Xander Wilde being a giant blip on everyone's radar, Jerome invades an engineering consulting company building hunting for said target. This entire scene felt like a fantastic homage to The Dark Knight's famous party crashing scene where the Joker searches for Harvey Dent teasingly yet intimidatingly waving around a shotgun. This is where Cameron Monaghan completely shines in the role as the scene stealing criminal maniac. The talented actor clearly shows his performance influences to Heath Ledger while adding in his own unique flavor to the mix.
I absolutely loved the way in which Jerome tips over a miniature building model right before ambushing a meeting as a show of his desire to tip over the foundation of the city. Everything from his mannerisms jokingly threatening and mercilessly shooting his way to getting answers felt like the unpredictably dangerous Batman villain that we know and love. After getting the location to Xander, Gordon and Bullock attempts to intervene only to be ambushed by Firefly resulting in Jerome's escape. Again, I can't emphasize enough how great it is to have these colorful crooks finally join forces as you get to see a variety of spectacles given each character's abilities. I said it before this episode, but it bares repeating here, Season 4 of Gotham is most definitely the Batman prequel series that fans have been eagerly awaiting. The wait is now officially over.
After getting reverse ambushed by Xander's proxy, Jerome wakes up in a secret underground hi-tech base being watched by Wilde himself. With Gordon tracking down the base with the help of Bruce and Alfred's records of his connection to Wayne Plaza, this is where we get our big twist reveal. Xander unveils his identity as being Jeremiah Valeska (Jerome's twin!) who was hidden away by his mother for his safety from Jerome. I can't say that I saw this twist coming whatsoever making it twice as intriguing given the Joker's famously unknown backstory in the comics. This is one of those situations where the Gotham writing staff can go as off the wall as they want without jeopardizing a character's known details from the source material.
Jeremiah tells Jim and Harvey about how evil minded Jerome was as a child giving us a more in-depth look at the villain while also nicely fleshing out the tragic story of a new character entirely. Cameron does an incredible job at playing the two roles delivering something that is drastically different personality and presentation-wise between them. It's honestly mind blowing how profoundly opposing these two individuals are, so kudos to Cameron for being able to pull off the twin act. Deciding that only he himself can hold Jerome due to the GCPD and Arkham's failure to keep him on a leash, this causes conflict between him and Gordon which only escalates further once Tetch and Scarecrow intervenes. We're then given a thrilling chase inside of Jeremiah's labyrinth (which perhaps teases a bit of mental instability with the character) as they attempt to escape from Jerome and his new assets.
Much like the circus setting during Season 3's "Joker" arc, Jerome is given yet another fascinating set piece that perfectly compliments the character's chaotic personality. The way in which the camera follows our characters shifting and turning from corner to corner never quite revealing what they'll find before they do was brilliant from a tension delivering perspective as well as a genius piece of visual storytelling for the overall madhouse theme. Having Ecco (Jeremiah's devoted bodyguard) as a now hypnotized robot-like force of nature was a nice touch giving Gordon and Bullock a physical threat to overcome as the much more psychological conflict took place further down the maze. Altogether, this was by far one of the most well directed scenes of the series succeeding in both its entertainment component and storytelling element.
The psychological conflict that I refer to is the questionable story being shared between Jeremiah and Jerome. We learn that the story of Jeremiah being tortured as a child and leaving for safety may not have went down as told previously, yet he does bring up the fact that Jerome is indeed a murderer. This is where things got even more intriguing. Who exactly is the reliable source of information here? We know from past events that, yes, Jerome is a maniac hellbent on creating chaos, yet their conversation reveals that he may have also been part of one big delusion created by his brother's false stories. The "Who's the real monster here?" idea is very interesting and I cannot wait to see how this twist gets expanded upon.
With Bullock hilariously finding a way to battle Tetch's mind control by simply yelling and chasing him and Scarecrow (both funny and ridiculous), the cop duo manages to rescue Jeremiah from his brother's clutches eventually placing him into police custody. We then end things off on a pretty horrific note as Jerome reveals his twisted plans for the city. After Grundy gets recruited in via Oswald's promise to him, Scarecrow brings forth a test subject to try out his new formula. Fans of the Joker character will recognize the nightmarish imagery that follows as the victim is shown, after being sprayed with the formula, laughing uncontrollably as his mouth inhumanly bends into a smile. This is one of the Joker's more famous weapons known as the "laughing gas" chemical attack that literally forces you to laugh yourself into a painful death. Yikes!
I never would have imagined seeing this weapon take center stage in an episode of Gotham as I was actually expecting Scarecrow's fear toxin to be this season's big evil spectacle. The fact that we're getting the laughing gas toxin on Gotham leads me to believe that the producers are holding absolutely nothing back in delivering on its more fantastical "comic booky" elements. The visuals are striking showing the victim's eyes bleed as he cries out in laughter, but what's also important to note here is Oswald's fearful reaction. We're given hints of Penguin's plan to take over once Jerome supposedly fades away, so fans might be treated to one giant criminal domination led by Oswald and his personal metahuman henchmen. Although, I'm not entirely sure that the writers would treat Jerome as some temporary fad now all things considered.
Giving lots to look forward to with the upcoming episode, Gotham delivers quite the extravaganza for fans of both the Joker character and Batman's rogues gallery. I look forward to seeing where our league of horribles end up down the line as we still have other villains possibly making big moves on the outskirts. This is looking to be a good time more than ever for a certain vigilante to fall into a bat cave, face his fear at the sight of bats swirling around him, and become a symbol of justice to an entire city. Just saying...
Bonus Thoughts
Easter Eggs
1. The Ultimate Riddle That Is "Love"
During the opening of the review, I hinted at one particular subplot that I found to be a little on the weak side. This story point circles around the Riddler's romantic conflict with Lee. Now, I did enjoy seeing the giant neon green question mark glowing behind of Ed fully embracing the character's persona as well as the game of riddles itself. However, I can't say that I'm enjoying the idea of the Riddler being caught up in yet another conflicting love story. With the character essentially undergoing a rebirth of sorts for the 100th time, I was sure that we'd finally see him completely unleashed as his own villain much like Jerome and his legion. It would appear that the writers find him more interesting when caught up in some romantic entanglement instead of wreaking genius level havoc on the GCPD while experiencing split personality syndrome (which has proven to be 10 times more entertaining).
2. Ecco's Possible Comic Counterpart
There are several characters within the DC Comics realm going by the name "Echo" in some shape or form. With one of those selections even being a henchwoman to the Riddler, I decided to instead choose Isabelle Cheranova as a possibility here with Gotham's bodyguard to Jeremiah. Isabelle a Russian spy/assassin highly trained in weaponry and hand to hand combat which is clearly shown with Ecco during this episode. It is possible that Jeremiah hired her as protection given his paranoid lifestyle constantly having to look over his shoulders. Considering that she was merely knocked unconscious, there is a possibility that we see her show up in the future as an even more interesting and developed new character. Perhaps Tetch or someone else manipulates her into embarking on a mission to kill Gordon. I smell a potential side villain of the week story in the future.
3. "One Bad Day": A Questionable Origin Story
The Jerome/Jeremiah story was quite the twist reveal for our fan favorite Joker prototype, but what does this say about the future of the character exactly? We learn that Jerome was supposedly driven over the edge after Jeremiah left and apparently poisoned their mother with twisted stories about his brother. Were they just stories? I'm not entirely sure if I missed something, but it seemed as though both characters are coming across as unreliable narrators to their own backstory which, in essence, perfectly displays one of the Joker's most popular traits. If Jerome manages to turn Jeremiah insane via the laughing gas toxin, what then?
What if we're gearing up for an even bigger twist where Jeremiah kills Jerome (officially dead this time) while being drowned in the laughing gas toxin to which he gets affected differently from the others while losing his mind. He then decides to take on the role as "The Joker" himself looking at his brother as a has been of sorts. We then have a genius intellect Joker given Jeremiah's engineering skill with an insane and murderous mentality. Sounds legit? This would then perfectly go along the whole "Jerome is just a prototype Joker" concept that the producers' been dancing around for years now. Just a theory.
Episode Rating: 9/10
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