"Gotham" pulled the curtain back on Batman's most notable villain on Monday night, and his name was Jerome.
No, seriously.
It started with Detective Jim Gordon and his girlfriend Dr. Lee Thompkins at the circus on a date, a brawl broke out between the circus members and Gordon was forced to intervene. It wasn't until later it was learned that there was a snake dancer who was missing from her trailer. The snake dancer's son, Jerome, was left confused and fearful of what had happened to his mother.
Detective Gordon, being one to always use his resources at hand, released the woman's snake and was led directly to her...she was dead, on the back of a truck. Gordon hauled in a whole crew of circus folks and questioned them tirelessly, looking for answers. All he got was a story of feuding families, holding grudges because someone’s great uncle stole a horse.
Gordon is faced with relationship troubles throughout the episode as well. His girlfriend Dr. Thompkins exposes him multiple times of having an old mindset and wanting the woman to stay home instead of helping out on cases and challenging him. It's an important character flaw of Gordon's that helps along his development. A blind man comes to Gordon with a message from the "other side," and Thompson convinces Gordon to go snooping around at night for clues.
Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne has made up his mind to address the Wayne Industries brass in a conference, much to his butler's chagrin. Bruce is looked at as a complete child by those at Wayne Industries, but he tells his employees that he will not tolerate corruption, and will seek to take legal action if things do not change, refreshing to see Wayne in a business role and finally taking charge of his company, age aside.
Back at the precinct, it comes to Gordon's attention to bring Jerome back into the interoggation room along with the older blind man. Gordon exposes the older man to be Jerome's father and that is met with a spine tingling laugh by the young man, claiming his mother was a "dirty whore" and she wouldn't touch a man like him. Jerome indeed had killed his mother and didn't show any remorse whatsoever.
It is the beginning of the Joker.
"Gotham" airs on FOX every Monday at 8/7c.
