If any character is proof positive of viewers’ abilities to affect the course of a TV show, it’s most certainly Jerome Valeksa. Played by Cameron Monaghan, this young man first appeared back in Gotham‘s first season as a nod to the Joker. Then, no doubt due to the actor’s chilling performance, he was brought back for a brief stretch at the start of season 2 before unfortunately being killed off.
By now, we’re all aware of how his death pissed off a large portion of the fanbase, for Monaghan was seemingly a perfect fit for the Joker. As such, he was resurrected midway through season 3, and is now playing an even larger part this year.
Circling back to the show’s freshman run though, series lead Ben McKenzie had this to offer during a recent Q&A, touching on the snowball effect that we spoke of:
“Well, you know Cameron came in the middle of season one, as a what we kind of all originally thought might just be a one-off, you know the precursor to a Joker but not necessarily the Joker. He was so magnetic and so unbelievably committed that we just felt like we had to go further, there was more that he could do certainly and much more we could get out of the character. Now we are in the end of the season is, this just sort of kicks it off, but it becomes even more a story of his Machiavellian plans to either take over Gotham or destroy it trying.”
Had another actor been cast in the role of Jerome, one has to think that history would’ve played out much differently. But now, Monaghan is poised to emerge as the Joker himself at some point before the current season expires. Granted, it remains to be seen if it’ll be Jerome or a surprise twin that’ll assume the mantle of the Clown Prince of Crime, so we’ll just have to enjoy the ride.
That said, we highly recommend that you tune in for this week’s episode, “A Dark Knight: Mandatory Brunch Meeting,” because the network is teasing some kind of Joker reveal. Our original assumption was that it not go down for at least several more weeks, but one can never be too sure.
Gotham airs on Thursday nights on Fox.
