Why 'Gotham' Threw That Jerome Cameo Into Season 2's Finale

Mileage may vary on whether Gotham does an effective job of setting up Batman’s beginnings, though most grew to embrace the bizarre proto-Joker of Cameron Monaghan’s Jerome. It may take until Season 4 before we finally see the character again, but producers at least explain how that Season 2 finale cameo came about.

You’re warned of Gotham Season 2 spoilers from here on out, but where Season 2 dispatched pre-Joker “Jerome” fairly early on, the May finale clearly inserted the character’s distinct cackle into a montage of escaping villains to tease Jerome’s return. Producers have recently spoken to the possibility of Season 4 picking up with a “cult” of Jerome’s followers as a precursor to the Joker, but why the Season 3 tease?

Says executive producer Ken Woodruff to TVGuide:

[The laugh] was really to keep [the Joker] alive, to keep Jerome and that threat of the Joker alive. We wanted to make sure fans don’t feel that we’re completely done with [the mythology of the Joker] because are 100 percent, absolutely not. [But,] it’s not going to be something we delve into right away at the top of the season.

Elsewhere, Season 3 will also introduce us to Benedict Samuel’s Mad Hatter, the Tweedle brothers, the Court of Owls, Maggie Geha’s aged-up Poison Ivy, Jamie Chung’s Valerie Vale, a returning Fish Mooney, other monsters and potentially Solomon Grundy.

We’ll learn more of Gotham Season 3 in the coming weeks, but what do we make of the latest? Check out the first trailers below.

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