[Header Image: Cameron Monaghan as Jeremiah Valeska | Fox]
This episode takes place immediately after the previous episode with the chaos at Haven after the explosion. We find out a little into the episode that more than 300 people are dead with several seriously injured and some missing. Tensions are naturally high and Lucius sets to work to find out what happened and why.
I really enjoyed seeing him work with Ed during this episode. They’ve had some pretty great scenes together in the past and I forgot how entertaining it is to watch the two of them share screen time. It’s not long before we find out that an RPG was used to blow up the building and that Ed was actually responsible for it. Now, we know that someone in Gotham is selling said weapons so perhaps it was two different people but there is the possibility that Ed also blew up the helicopter. Regardless, a few hits to the head made him remember what happened so I’m curious if the other blank spots in his memory will begin to come back too. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding what Ed is doing and it would be nice to actually get some kind of answer and direction to his storyline this season.
While Ed and Lucius investigate, witnesses mention seeing Zsasaz near Haven when the explosion happened. The evidence ultimately proves that he didn’t do it but that doesn’t seem to matter. Oswald still holds a grudge over Zsasz leaving him for Sofia and he declares a trial in which the people can determine whether or not Zsasz is guilty of the explosion. He gets the people riled up and even manages to turn a few people against Jim. Luckily, Zsasz is helped before he can be killed which I’m grateful for. He’s such a fantastic character who has been grossly underused in the past and I definitely want to see more of him before the end of the season. He was particularly charismatic and hilarious in this episode so hopefully, this is just a taste of what is to come.
All of this puts Jim under a lot of pressure and by the end of the episode, we find him drinking alone in his office. Barbara, who has also been through quite a bit, shows up. She had her chance to kill Oswald but chose not to. Instead, she decided to direct her efforts toward finding out who blew up Haven. We see the two of them somewhat reconnect. They kiss and we can presume that it’s going to lead to more. With their more recent history and this season being shorter I doubt they’ll end up in an actual relationship. It’ll probably just be a one night stand or something casual, regardless, it’s bound to end up with Barbara Gordon who we’ll probably see during the ten-year time jump. Most likely, if the season was longer or there were more seasons to come, the build-up to Jim and Barbara reuniting would have been a little more gradual but I think it’s unsurprising at this point that they would want to set about the possibility of Batgirl in the future.
While all of this is going on we also see the Church of Jeremiah. Bruce is still handcuffed to that gate but even so, he still manages to a win a fight despite being outnumbered. I love the little moments like this that we’ve had so far in season 5 because it really highlights how far Bruce has come. That being said, he does get a little help from Alfred who shows up just in time. The two of them go in search of Selina and we see that she has followed Ecco to Jeremiah.
His followers appear to be digging a tunnel and that seems to be what he’s been working toward during all of these months that he’s been off the radar. He and Ecco share some scenes that just scream the Joker and Harley. Even if we never hear those actual names, it’s clear that Jeremiah and Ecco are Gotham‘s version of the iconic DC/Batman characters and it would be a shame if they try to deny it and take it in a different direction.
We did see Selina stab Jeremiah several times and there was definitely blood on the blade but we all know he’s not dead. Firstly, there are scenes in trailers that haven’t been shown in episodes yet and those scenes (like Bruce and Jeremiah fighting at what looks like Ace Chemicals) seem to be too elaborate to be used purely to throw us off and make his death a shock. Secondly, it would just seem like a complete and utter waste to kill Jeremiah and I highly doubt they’ll pull what they did before and reveal the Valeska twins are actually triplets. So we can assume that he’s still alive or will be brought back, episode 7 is reportedly called “Ace Chemicals” so we can assume he’s going to be back by that episode.
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