Gotham started with the question of how Bruce Wayne will become Batman, but nowadays the thing fans most want the series to reveal is just how Jerome Valeska ties into the Joker. It’s all a mystery at the moment as it’s been seemingly confirmed that Jerome is definitely not the Clown Prince of Crime – even though Cameron Monaghan has delivered such a spot-on performance as a proto-Joker.
Thankfully, it looks like we’ll get an answer to this enigma quite soon, as Jerome is set to return to the show next week. On that topic, Gotham star David Mazouz – who plays the teenage Dark Knight – teased that the Joker revelation will be one of the series’ “biggest shocks.”
“It really is one of the biggest shocks. I think it’s safe to say that this kind of transition is not only the smartest thing, but the biggest kind of surprise that Gotham has thrown at its audience. Gotham loves to kind of have a shocker moment. I mean, I’m sure we’d love to have crazy cliff hangers, but this is one that is not even on the same level as anything we’ve done before. I mean, the second I read that in the script, I was like, ‘Oh my God. Yes. That is perfect.’”
Mazouz went on to reiterate that Jerome is 100% not the Joker but that the show will provide a “perfect way to answer” the mystery surrounding the connection between the two cackling super-criminals. He also went on to hint that Jerome will somehow be “involved in the creation” of Bruce Wayne’s future nemesis.
“This is a perfect way to answer that, because we don’t want to say yes, but we don’t want to say no. We don’t want to say no because Jerome is so much like the Joker, so what they end up doing is kind of a great balanced way to answer that question and to have Jerome maybe be involved in the creation of the Joker but have him not be the Joker.”
Just in case you were still in doubt as to whether Jerome actually could be the Joker, Mazouz’s last comment made it as clear as can be that this isn’t the case:
“He [Jerome] is not the man that will have green hair and a pale face. He’s not that man.”
So, who is the Joker if Jerome really isn’t destined to fall into a vat of gunk at Ace Chemicals? And how will Gotham handle this in a way that will please fans? Could our theory that the Joker’s another personality of Jerome’s still hold up? So many questions, so few answers…