Gotham EP Teases Jeremiah & Ra's al Ghul's First Meeting

WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for the May 10 episode of Gotham.

Jeremiah delivers “One Bad Day” tonight in the penultimate episode of Gotham's fourth season. Driven insane by a chemical concoction commissioned by his psychotic twin brother, the fan-favorite Jerome (Cameron Monaghan), last week Jeremiah attempted in to blow up Jim Gordon. Worse, after obtaining multiple generators from Wayne Enterprises, he's now poised to level much of the city.

Ahead of the series' pre-season finale episode, executive producer John Stephens spoke with CBR about Jeremiah’s mad scheme, and putting Gotham's twist on the Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's classic graphic novel The Killing Joke. We also discussed and Penguin’s big power grab.

CBR: Gotham City has always teetered on the brink of anarchy. How close is it to being pushed over the edge?

John Stephens: Oh, it’s pretty close. Its toes are dangling over the edge. At a certain point, we kept driving up to the edge and saying, “How close can we get to anarchy without going over the edge?” This year, we made the decision to just go over the edge. Let’s see what happens to the characters when they are in a much crazier universe than they are now.

Jeremiah obviously has grander ambitions than simply murdering Jim Gordon. Now that he has multiple generators in his possession, what is Jeremiah’s endgame?

There’s the endgame that he has in his mind, and then there’s another that evolves at the end of tonight’s episode. The one he has in his mind that plays out stems from a plan he came up with in his bunker. We wanted to be true to the idea of who his character was, one who is driven by paranoia and agoraphobia – where he doesn’t want to be outside – but, also someone who is an engineer and obsessed with mazes. We said, “How can we have that work out on a megalomaniacal scale?” He is going to blow up a variety of buildings in Gotham in order to have them fall, almost like trees in a forest, to create his own maze inside the city. Then, that plan evolves when he crosses with Ra’s al Ghul at the end of [the episode]. Their plans sort of come together.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Gotham%27s%20Killing%20Joke%20Moment%2C%20and%20Lee%20%26%20Nygma%20%20Are%20Set%20to%20Explode']

In what ways will Bruce be tested during this ordeal?

In different ways. Jeremiah is going to kidnap Alfred, and then torture him in a sense to drive Bruce insane. The new episode really plays out in many ways like our version of The Killing Joke. It really keys into the idea that all it takes is one bad day to drive somebody insane. Where Jeremiah is driven by this idea that he and Bruce are connected in a way, that they are two halves of the same coin. Again, we are trying to articulate our version of that psychology of the Joker and Batman in the comics. In 21, he is going to be trying to drive Bruce insane. Where he himself was driven insane by his brother, Jerome, Jeremiah is first trying to do it by torturing Alfred.

What’s the deal with Lee and Nygma? What kind of fallout can viewers expect when things go south in their budding romance?

The fallout is extreme; it goes to 11. In our mind, Lee started off using him and it morphed. At the beginning, she was approaching him from a very Machiavellian sense of, “How can I make use of this individual?” Ed’s stalwartness in the face of all his adversity, especially when he turns on Penguin in order to help Lee, caused her to see him in a different light. Also, we’ve been approaching all this from the idea that this is not the Lee that we saw in previous years, that when she took the Tetch Virus last year, it opened something in her that was never fully closed. She’s a much darker person than she would have been in previous seasons. So, Lee started off using Ed, and then she actually did develop feelings for him.

Oswald is an opportunist. At this point, what is he waiting for?

I feel Oswald, as a strategist, is someone who waits for the decisive moment. Because he was someone who came up through the ranks in Gotham, who was overlooked, who was considered weaker than everyone else, he always knew you wait for that moment where the large person is slightly imbalanced. Then, a slight push is going to bowl them over. In his world, he is seeing all these strong forces around him.

He is seeing Lee in the Narrows. He’s seeing Ra’s al Ghul and Jeremiah causing all this chaos. He sees Jim is leading the GCPD. Oswald is like, “Rather than throwing myself into the ring. in terms of having a heavyweight contest, I’m going to let them all create enough chaos that at the right moment, I can step forward and knock them over,” which is what he does in tonight’s episode. The moment where Jeremiah creates so much chaos that he goes, “This is a moment where there is enough opportunity for me to step in and re-assume my place as the King of the Underworld of Gotham.”

Airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox, Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, Robin Lord Taylor as Penguin, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Erin Richards as Barbara Kean and Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth.

KEEP READING: Gotham Just Can’t Stop Trolling Harley Quinn Fans