On this week's episode of Gotham, Gordon and Bullock are teamed up back again and trying to find Jerome and who broke him out. At the GCPD, Gordon is still on a rampage after Captain Essen and 9 officers were killed. Leslie Thompkins comes in and says there's a children's hospital gala that evening and they should go.
Jerome meets up with his father. It's not a typical reunion though. He holds his father hostage. Of course, he ends up killing off his father, but Gordon and Bullock are there, but only make it in time to get knocked out by some gas.
Throughout the first 20 minutes, folks say there's going to be a magician at the gala. It's no shock that Jerome takes the place of he magician. Seriously, the cast of characters is obsessed with magicians. Anyway, Bruce is chosen to be the Great Rodolfo's (Jerome's) volunteer. As it goes on, Leslie discovers that Jerome is the magician and Barbara is the assistant. Jerome brings up the deputy mayor and throws a knife at him, but the audience can't leave. They're trapped.
Theo Gallavan waltzes in to tell Jerome he needs to stop. What's happening to them is being broadcast to everyone in Gotham. Jerome wants Bruce to come on stage, and Gordon comes in. It's a standoff, but Theo sneaks up and stabs Jerome in the neck. Wha? Regardless, Theo looks like the hero, so why put any eyes on him for breaking the crazies out?
Bullock pays Penguin a visit. He puts his foot down and lets Penguin know that Bullock is in charge.
Awesome opening this week as Bullock and Gordon throw some criminals out some windows in order to get more info about Jerome.
Cameron Monaghan's performance of Jerome is the highlight of the past two episodes as well as this one. Monaghan is intense and incredibly creepy and steals the show. Does he end up becoming the Joker? (No, duh!) Who cares? He's just doing such an awesome job in this role. It doesn't matter anymore. What does matter is the fact he was killed off, since he was the best part of this season thus far. He's what really helped the tone feel like a live-action cartoon. That moment was extremely shocking though, as Jerome felt like someone who would have lasted longer on the show.
What really worked about Jerome's story is that his personality is strangely infectious. It's a bit silly that seeing a dude of tv like that would cause numerous other people to head out and starting acting out, violently. Either way, the idea of that Jerome has infected those around him is a cool idea, as long as they keep rolling with it.
I found it pretty silly that over and over again someone kept saying "there's going to be a magician here." It's the most obvious use of foreshadowing. We get it. There's going to be something special or awful or important about the upcoming magician, like Jerome taking the place of said magician. That whole part of the story was good but it did drag a little bit. It didn't feel like there was as much suspense as their should have been.
I found it kinda silly and pretty funny that the whole cast of Gotham was at this gala. It seemed like the weirdest way to get the whole cast into the same room, except for Bullock and Gordon. It was some weird writing as all these characters did serve a purpose at one point, for the plot.
The speech Barbara gives to Leslie really takes away from her character. Her whole motive behind all of this is to get back with Jim? Boo. I liked her better when she was doing her own thing and just being nutty. We've seen the obsession she's had with Jim in the past two episodes, but her flatout telling Leslie she's doing all this to get with Jim ruins the character. Could she be lying? Sure. But it was such a weird moment.
Overall, this was another solid episode of Gotham for the season. It wasn't as great as last week's episode and there were a few huge bummer moments, like with what happened to Jerome, but this season is still playing out like a live action cartoon and it's working extremely well.