Gotham’s 16th episode, “The Blind Fortune Teller,†hit us with a knockout punch, one which we’ve seen a mile away. Of course, you all know with the vast amount of commercials for the show, that the Joker was revealed in this episode. Supposedly…Probably….Maybe? Everything leads us to believe that we finally met The Joker himself, but that question wasn’t definitively answered. The show’s deliberate adverts about him almost make it feel like a red herring, mainly since it would be a great cliffhanger for the end of an episode. They could have easily ended last weeks episode with The Joker’s sinister laugh and a fade to black, which would have been quite more effective than a media blitz.
While the whole Joker origin story is still up in the air, it shouldn’t come as a surprise since we don’t really know which origin story they are going to use. For all we know, they could create their own origin story with the infamous character. Having just about no knowledge of any of the Joker’s origin stories, it will be nice to see where this goes as the actor playing him, Cameron Monaghan, did a fantastic job of portraying a very creepy character with a hair trigger for emotions and that sinister laugh that can make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Also, we have to remember that currently this character is just simply, Jerome, as the time he would actually turn into The Joker (if that be the case), wouldn’t be for quite a few years.
The episode unfolds with Thompkins and Gordon having a date at the circus, The Grayson’s aerial act, of course. It’s nice to see that, throughout the episode, Thompkins and Gordon are finally getting cozied up. Her enthusiasm with his work, especially when they are starting to get leads on who it was that killed Jerome’s mom, was fun to see. We are finally getting to see what Thompkins is all about outside of work. She seems to have more dimension than the shining knight of Gotham, Jim Gordon. Quite possibly the best scene was when they are making out in GCPD, after last episode when he would hardly even touch her due to being perceived differently from fellow detectives, and Barbara just happened to see all of this.
Barbara’s return trip, after she was kicked out of her parents’ house in a previous episode surprisingly didn’t bother me that much. With the way she dressed, and she did look stunning, it was clear she wanted to get Gordon back and, had Thompkins not been part of the picture, I am sure she would have. But instead, she played dress-up with her fashion advisors Selina Kyle and Ivy. I am quite confident my fashion advice is far superior to theirs. The scene was just pretty out of place in general, but I feel that this whole Barbara having an axe to grind after she lost her love will leave us with an interesting conflict between Leslie Thompkins and herself.
The rest of the episode was filled out with the usual Fish Mooney oddities and a pretty weird couple scenes with Cobblepot. Fish is still in the prison thing, which hasn’t really been elaborated to any extent as of yet. It has only become stranger as we’ve learned of “The manager,†that wants them all alive. So, Fish being Fish, she rallies the troops and makes demands of “The Manager.†Somehow, instead of killing her, Fish commands them to kill the one patient for whom they were asking. So, instead of quelling an uprising by killing Fish, their worry about needing them alive, resulted in Fish having all the cards in her hand and someone still dying. The Manager must not be smart, but Fish does show her ingenuity. I just wish that her imprisonment was a bit more explored, because as of right now we have absolutely no idea what’s going on with her or why she’s even there.
As for Cobblepot, his fledgling club is taking a nose dive, quite obviously because his mother is an awful singer. A person in the crowd booed and got smashed with a bottle compliments of Cobblepot. Maybe the person he slashes will become The Joker…Just kidding, probably. His next scenes deal with being bullied by Zsasz, and learning that Butch is essentially a lap dog, after Zsasz fixed him for a few weeks. There was nothing too interesting on Cobblepot’s side, overall quite bland.
Ending out the episode was some great and equally awkward Bruce Wayne scenes. He is sitting with the board of Wayne Enterprises and pointed out that he wants to turn the company into a strictly legitimate company. Obviously, he gets laughed at, but his persistence to overcome their mocking is pretty great. Pulling out his mead notebook was a comic detail, being a stark juxtaposition to his overall presence. It’s doubtful they will follow through with his wishes, but I loved the interest he has in Wayne Enterprise.