OK, I will admit I am not happy about the demise of the character of Jerome Valeska from the series GOTHAM, but in a sense I can see one reason why we could not have had him turn onto the Joker (much to my regret). This is what I was thinking…
- Joker is an unknown.
- No one know who Joker is. Part of his mystique was his anonymity, and that gave him power because in true nature…he could be anybody he wants to be and made it very easy to disappear into the multitude of people in the city. When the police knows the identity of a criminal, it gives them a certain power over him, and normally it is a matter of time before he is arrested. I would have to admit that in the Gothamverse having a Joker whose past is known (and it would have been easy to tie Jerome to Joker) will in some way take away from the character. When Joker makes his final appearance in Gotham, he has to come out of nowhere, taking the city by surprise and embarking in a wave of sensational crimes like it has never seen before. A kind of force of nature if you may call him that, that is primal, without ties to a past or a place. Only then he can become the Joker that Batman deserves.
That said….
Certainly anarchy is a very powerful and liberating concept. Joker took it and amplified it in Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT, and in a sense drives the concept of the character even in the comics but not everybody can be the Joker…only the Joker can be the Joker.
It is true that the idea of chaos and mayhem are just concepts, that anybody could embrace to become the ultimate maniac…but Jerome did it so well that is tremendously sad to see such a good actor like Cameron Monaghan that had given so much to the character only to go in such a quick, senseless way. I would have preferred to see Jerome do one of those Joker escapes, where everybody thinks he’s dead only to return later with a vengeance…that in my opinion would have been more deserving of the performance.
The people at FOX have set the standards for their most famous homicidal maniac way up in the sky in my opinion. The new and final Joker, whenever he arrives will have to take Jerome’s ‘insanity virus’ and take it to the extreme. Is that even possible?
Yes, the Joker is definitely above any definition of insanity and goes to any limits he has to go to get his point across, but GOTHAM is a show based in reality. With the limitation of the media to root the characters in a ‘real environment’ how far can they take the Joker? Will they really find someone like Jerome out there?
I found the idea of people just going crazy killing people for fun, after seeing Jerome’s footage on the news a little farfetched. It is not normal human behavior. Just because you see someone killing on TV does not mean you’ll think it is fun and go out to try it yourself, but then , Gotham is a strange city. Maybe there is an underlying low degree of madness in its citizens and they need an inspiration to take it to the highest levels of depravity.
I don’t know…maybe it is just me being a Jokerholic here and adoring Cameron’s performance in the series, but I am divided into deciding if KILLING Jerome was really the best outcome for the character…hope that FOX did not make a mistake here and let go an awesome character that could fill the future clown’s shoes.
For now…Thanks Cameron for an unforgettable performance. Jerome will be missed, but you showed your caliber as an actor. Best wishes in the future…
Please read what Cameron Monaghan has to say about his character on the show on TVLine HERE
