Spoilers ahead for the February 14 episode of Gotham, called "13 Stitches."
The end is nigh for Gotham as the fifth and final season charges on, and the next episode looks like it could be one of the most game-changing of the series. The trailer for next week's episode reveals Jeremiah raising the crazy stakes as high as they've ever been, and the action will take him and Bruce Wayne to Ace Chemicals for a showdown. Take a look!
Ever since Jeremiah was seemingly murdered due to a stab-happy Selina earlier in Season 5, he's been quietly plotting to do something to Bruce Wayne, and that plotting will ultimately take him to Ace Chemicals. Here's why this could be such a big deal.
In "13 Stitches," Jeremiah made a big move by attacking and kidnapping Alfred, ultimately bringing him to Wayne Manor to do some "butlering."The trailer footage indicates that Jeremiah will find a variety of ways to taunt Bruce about his dead parents, and I'm beginning to suspect that my crackpot theory about those two people Jeremiah was inspecting a couple weeks ago wasn't so crackpot after all.
Are those people going to be wearing the faces of Thomas and Martha Wayne? Or Thomas and Martha resurrected? If Jeremiah could pull it off, I wouldn't put it past him, and bringing Bruce's parents into the mix could definitely make the showdown between Bruce and Jeremiah their most charged yet.
The end of the trailer sees Bruce chase Jeremiah into Ace Chemicals, and they can be seen fighting on a catwalk that just so happens to overlook several vats of glowing green chemicals. Why is this so significant? Well, according to one version of how the Joker became the Joker, he can trace his roots as a bad guy back to Ace Chemicals.
According to The Killing Joke, the man who would become the Joker was a failed comedian who became involved with a gang of thieves. This gang would always dress one of their own in a red helmet and become known as the Red Hood, which would be a name later adopted by somebody who fell victim to the Joker.
The story follows that a young Batman learned of the planned robbery of Ace Chemicals and went after them. Most of the criminals escaped, but the failed comedian as the Red Hood fell into a vat of chemicals that should have killed him. Instead, the chemicals turned his hair green, his skin white, and his mind completely mad.
Now, Gotham's Jeremiah already has the white skin, green hair, and madness, so there's not that much more that could happen to him if he falls into a vat of chemicals... or is there? One of the biggest issues about Jeremiah becoming Batman's future nemesis on Gotham has been that Bruce Wayne and Jeremiah already know each other and are semi-obsessed with each other. How could Jeremiah be the Joker if the Joker would have reason to suspect Bruce Wayne is Batman?
Well, it stands to reason that a fall in a vat of chemicals could be enough to alter Jeremiah's mind to the point that he forgets a great deal about Bruce Wayne. In fact, perhaps Gotham could go the DC Comics route of even the Joker not being entirely sure which version of his backstory is true. The Joker's past in the comics is often portrayed as multiple choice; perhaps Jeremiah's memories of before his fall into the chemicals will seem multiple choice to what's left of his mind.
Of course, this is all speculation at this point, but would Gotham really feature Bruce Wayne fighting the show's current version of the Joker at Ace Chemicals if the intent wasn't for Jeremiah to fall into one of the vats? The episode isn't going to just briefly visit the factory, after all. The title of the episode is "Ace Chemicals." This has to be a big deal, right?
We'll see. Tune in to Fox on Thursday, February 21 at 8 p.m. ET to see the "Ace Chemicals" episode of Gotham. The episode looks to be quite Jeremiah heavy, so it's possible that it won't spend much or any time on Barbara's big reveal or what's going to go down with the newly-masked Bane this midseason.
