Gotham 2.03 “The Last Laugh”

And the killing spree continues! This season, there’s no Gotham episode that doesn’t see the death of a character from the Batman mythos, and that’s part of the charm of this series; that you really don’t know which way it’s going to go; who’s going to fall next.

In the first episode we saw Richard Sionis, aka Black Mask (Todd Stashwick), get executed. In the second one lots of nameless people were murdered by Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) and his maniac friends, and Jerome himself shot Commissioner Essen (Zabryna Guevara) dead, in a bold move that introduced the maniac crew to all of Gotham, thanks to the wonders of TV.

However, “The Last Laugh” gave us the most shocking death yet, and that’s the one of Jerome himself, who had been the absolute star of the show, in front of a huge audience, just like he would’ve liked.

The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) had been the best character Gotham had to offer in the first season, and his very presence on screen guaranteed a great sequence, embodying the cold blooded, treacherous villain that will do anything to get to the top of the mob chain. This season, however, Jerome had completely stolen the focus while in the meantime doing justice, with amazing performances, to the character he was supposedly going to turn into in a few years: Batman’s arch-nemesis the Joker.

However, it is nice that Jerome’s death has a strength and a weight on the show’s overall plot and its characters that maybe other deaths didn’t.

It is worth noting that he gets killed after performing his own twisted show at a benefit gala for the Children’s Hospital; of which Bruce Wayne’s parents were fundraisers – in a scene echoing the recent “Court of Owls” storyline in Scott Snyder’s Batman comics. Taking into account that the mysterious Court of Owls is said to appear in Gotham, this could be a nice, subtle hint – with the attendance of all the show’s main characters:

Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), gets tipped by his girlfriend Lee Thompkins (Morena Baccarin), who this time around has a more important role, and also a very fun interaction with Alfred (Sean Pertwee), trying to set up an elegant date with the doctor, unaware that she’s in a relationship with Jim.

Also, we get to see a twisted Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) helping Jerome perform his show, and all the time they’re on-stage – he as the false magician to entertain the guests, and she as his false hostess – the viewer knows something terrible is about to happen; even fearing for the safety of Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) when the reluctant young playboy-to-be, has to take part in the show as his most dangerous PR feat as of yet, and almost gets himself killed.

As planned, there is one clear winner of the whole ordeal, and that’s the one we’ve seen pulling the strings of the villains, Theo Galavan (James Frain). He emerges as a figure who has confronted Jerome’s madness and violence because he’s sick of the reign of terror the maniacs have created. Create terror to abruptly help stop it. An old trick, but one that still works in all the good guys eyes; even if it was thanks to the very cool team-up of Jim, Alfred, and young Bruce that the armed thugs were taken down, preventing a further loss of innocent lives.

There’s a great subplot building, as well, where Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue), now back on the force, confronts Penguin in his own turf, trying to lend his pal Jim a hand. He tells the new King of Gotham that Jim owes him no favors, and that whatever happened between the two of them, it’s over. I hope this won’t backfire on Harvey in a bloody way.

The ending of the episode, with random people adopting a Joker-like smile and attitude, and engaging in brutal beatdowns or killings after seeing a now-deceased Jerome laughing on TV, is a clear nod to the latest Joker arc on the Batman comics, where Joker’s poison was spread through laughter all over Gotham like wildfire, turning people into crazy, murderous copies of themselves.

Whether this is something that’ll be followed or not, we still have to see.

The person we thought would become the Joker is now dead, with a smile on his face.

But at least he stole the show.