Haley’s Circus, the traveling carnival that the Flying Graysons famously work for, could have been nothing more than a fun Easter Egg for diehard DC Comics fans, but it instead serves as the scene of the crime for this week’s murder mystery. After a brawl between clowns and trapeze artists break out during a performance, circus attendees Jim Gordon and Leslie Thompkins (played with great energy, once again, by the series’ best cast addition Morena Baccarin) break up the fight and uncover the murder of a snake charmer at its epicenter. That snake charmer is the mother of a boy named Jerome, played by Shameless‘ Cameron Monaghan.
What follows is a well-paced and well balanced bit of detective work from Jim and Leslie, who solve the case over the course of several botched dates. The chemistry between Ben McKenzie and Baccarin is great, and I find their pairing to be the second-best realized on the series, preceded of course by that of David Mazouz’ Bruce Wayne and Sean Pertwee’s Alfred. Baccarin injects the show with some much-needed levity and humanity, and brings out a softer side of Jim that was missing from the season’s first half.
Gotham often struggles to find a good balance between humor and comedy, but found such an equilibrium this week. Perhaps it’s just because of the inherently fun atmosphere of the circus, but the show truly found its groove and didn’t stumble into camp. Let’s hope that it finds the same stride in the weeks to come.
