Gotham S02E02 Review: All Hail the Clown Prince

Gotham, Season 2, Episode 2: Knock Knock

I admit, I was honestly not looking forward to continuing Gotham as a series to review. Or even watching it, period. The first episode of this season certainly doesn't do it any favours, being so utterly bad that it's actually hilarious to watch. But this episode? This could be one of the strongest episodes in Gotham even compared to those of the first season. We ignore some of the stupidity from the first episode and instead we allow Jerome Valeska, a.k.a. Proto-Joker, to steal the show.

And boy, does he steal the show! He channels Mark Hamill and Heath Ledger so brilliantly, with the sudden mood changes and the laughter of the former, and the psychosis of the latter. And we even get a Dark Knight reference with how Jerome shows the shaky-cam video to Gotham City near the end of the episode! There's really not much to praise in this episode beyond how absolutely awesome Jerome is. The idea that the Joker has a definite origin makes me angry a lot, but Jerome's situation is ambiguous enough at the moment that he may or may not be the Joker. He definitely embodies everything that the Joker is, though, from the voice to the mannerisms, even down to the insanity like when he played that Russian Roulette game with Mook #2, and killed that same dude because he spoke his line when they assaulted the police station. He's just absolutely grand, from delivering a deep, disturbing speech to just mucking around with katanas and chainsaws.

Also, the criminals broken out of Arkham Asylum announced themselves as the Maniax!, and that exclamation point is crucial, what with that opening scene with Jerome and Amygdala throwing hostages spraypainted with the letters off the building. The Maniax! feature, well, Proto-Joker, Barbara, Amygdala (who remembers him from the Electrocutioner episode?), and, uh, Mook #1 and Mook #2, both of which die at the end of the episode because who gives a fuck.

They actually do feel like a threat too, with that horrifying will-they-or-won't-they as they sprayed a bus full of cheerleaders with gasoline, ready to set it on fire. And at the end of the episode, after Gordon is distracted by Barbara showing up, in comes Jerome and his gang of Maniax!, shooting everyone up brutally. Basically the ones to escape being killed are the named characters -- Leslie hides under the autopsy table, Nygma pushes Kringle out of the way.

And, well, that conversation between Jerome and Sarah Essen was absolutely brilliant. And, well, Jerome ends up killing poor Essen at the end of the episode, a dark echo to how her comic-book counterpart met her demise -- shot in the stomach by the Joker. Though the mood between these two scenes are absolutely different. Jerome's using this as a big warning and a big 'fuck you' to Gotham City, promising that the city, well, will burn.

The rest of the chapter is weak, though. Theo Galavan still fails to impress, though his plan to be a hero for the city by beating the 'bad guys' makes... well, it makes as much sense as anything else that happens in this show, really. I'm honestly surprised that during the Russian Roulette game Jerome doesn't unload the loaded gun onto Galavan. Barbara is apparently banging the Tigress, and is reduced to a generic insane jealous psychopath. It is hilarious to see Barbara whenever she shows up, though, due to how she has embraced her role and is absolutely over-the-top. Nygma arguing with himself is still dumb and the sooner we get some payoff to this, the better. Bullock is odd, because they go nowhere with his retirement thing and now he's back um okay what was the point of all that

The Wayne stuff... we all know Bruce is not going to permanently fire Alfred and it's honestly a bit of an eye-rolling 'okay stop delaying the bullshit' moment as once more just what is inside Thomas Wayne's proto-batcave is delayed because Alfred axed the computers. It's implied that Thomas has been going around being a vigilante, though, which is something that I don't like. Lucius and Alfred's scene is awesome, though. There's no denying that.

But all the weaker scenes are absolutely eclipsed by the Joker, er, sorry, Jerome. He does have a way with words and charisma and holy shit, he is awesome.