This Week’s Gotham Will Echo The Killing Joke, Says David Mazouz

Gotham season 4 is considered by just about every fan to be the greatest run yet of FOX’s Batman prequel. A big reason why is because the show is embracing its comic book roots like never before. Case in point: before the season finale adapts the “No Man’s Land” storyline and likely devastates Bruce Wayne’s home city, this week’s installment – titled “One Bad Day” – promises to focus on a psychological showdown between Bruce and Jeremiah Valeska AKA the Proto-Joker.

As that title suggests, the outing will be influenced by seminal graphic novel The Killing Joke. While we’re not yet sure whether it’ll see Jeremiah fully become the Joker, just as the comic depicts Mr J.’s origins, it’ll definitely borrow the central plot, which has the Clown Prince of Crime attempt to drive one of Gotham’s heroes insane.

Star David Mazouz revealed as much while talking on the latest episode of DC All Access, where he teased the following:

“It definitely mirrors The Killing Joke in a lot of ways. You know, The Killing Joke kind of follows the Joker’s process of driving Gordon insane, and that is going to be mirrored with another character, and that character is really going to be tested to his limits, psychologically and physically. We’re not gonna know fully, whether or not everything is going to be okay with those characters.”

Though Mazouz refrained from naming the character that Jeremiah will torment in “One Bad Day,” the promos for the episode have given us a solid idea of who it’ll be: Bruce Wayne. Jeremiah’s fixated on Bruce, who he believes is his best friend, and looks to want to push him over the edge, too. In the teaser for the upcoming installment, he tells the boy who will be Batman that he’s about to undergo a “very transformative experience.”

Could this be hinting that whatever happens here will transform Bruce into the Dark Knight? Evidence has suggested that this might occur before the season is out, but we won’t know for sure until Gotham‘s next episode, “One Bad Day,” airs on FOX this Thursday, May 10th.