Gotham Review: The Last Laugh

Warning: this review contains spoilers for the Gotham episode titled The Last Laugh, if you have yet to see the episode you may not want to read this review yet!

Greetings Batman fans and welcome to another Gotham episode review! I apologize for being a day late with my review but as Monday was my birthday my week was thrown off course a little bit! I also want to go ahead and apologize in advance as I am likely to go on a rant at some point during my review as I am really unhappy with one of the major events of this episode! As always my review is basically just my thoughts as I watch the episode.

So Gordon is bending a lot of his own rules these days, I think that makes sense given what he’s been going through, but it does make me wonder what event the writers are going to come up with that puts him back on the straight and narrow since we know that by the time Bruce becomes Batman Gordon is the head of a small contingent of honest cops in an otherwise crooked GCPD.

Tabitha and Barbara certainly make sense as a couple, they’re both plenty crazy. Although I have heard rumors of a kind of three way relationship between Barbara and the Galavan siblings, and Tabitha does make that comment about how amazing Theo is in bed, hinting at some incest.

You know it’s sad but what Barbara says to Leslie Thompkins later, her little prediction, might actually be where they are planning to take the show, considering that in canon Barbara is the mother of Jim’s children. It even makes sense, as I’ve said before, that Barbara would be criminally insane given that their son Jim is a serial killer.

More from Bam Smack Pow

I just realized, Edward Nygma isn’t in The Last Laugh at all! So much happened in this episode that I didn’t notice until now when I’m watching it for the third time.

Okay so I doubt that Jerome’s father could have prevented his son from becoming a killer, but why the hell didn’t he claim custody and keep the kid’s mother from beating on him?! It’s no wonder the kid hates his dad given that on Jerome’s 9th birthday he said that the world doesn’t care about him and he should just accept it, and then went ahead and let Jerome’s mother and her man keep abusing his only son.

I’m quite sad to realize that Jerome was as naive as he was, trusting Galavan, in the end I guess that is why he can’t be the Joker, because Mr. J never would have fallen for the act. He’d have made Theo believe that he trusted him, but he’d have seen the knife to the throat coming and wouldn’t have gotten himself killed.

So I’m sensing a theme here, I think one of the writers is really not a fan of magicians, given the tone used every time someone mentions that there will be a magician at this Children’s Hospital charity event. Everyone is trying to use it as a conversation starter but it’s pretty obvious that none of our main characters actually care that there will be a magician.

It looks like Alfred is the one who convinced Bruce to keep up appearances by showing up to all the necessary charity events that we know adult Bruce Wayne is forever attending and hosting. It makes sense, if Bruce became a recluse at this young age people would start to worry, wondering if Alfred isn’t up to the task of raising the boy, and reporters might start creeping onto the Wayne Manor property to get a glimpse of what the elusive child billionaire does with his days. This way, if he continues to make public appearances he will likely be left alone at home and at school, allowing him to train as hard as he wants while at home, and the press need only attend some galla event to catch a glimpse or try to get an interview. This is of course, also the origin of Bruce’s public face, the persona he uses to fool the public so no one ever suspects that he could be the Batman.

It’s nice to see the developing friendship between Bruce and Jim, that he would go see him right after the attack at the GCPD, and then Lee saying that Jim would appreciate a call from Bruce. Of course for Gordon it’s less of a friendship and more of a reminder of why he does what he does, why he is so committed to the GCPD and Gotham.

Wow, on the one hand it’s really weird to see Alfred flirting with Lee, with their age differences and because she is with Jim, but on the onther hand it makes perfect sense. Traditionally in canon I believe they are around the same age when Bruce is Batman, and the two are his pseudo parents, the parents he adopted for himself after Thomas and Martha die. Leslie is the doctor who patches Batman up when he’s hurt worse than Alfred’s first aid training can handle and she has always known Bruce since he was a kid, and known he was Batman. I think they actually may have dated at some point in the comics.

It’s going to take some practice for Bruce to perfect his public persona, when he will be able to fake interest in whatever entertainment he’s attending. I also think that Alfred might be a bit more cautious about letting Bruce volunteer for magicians and such in the future. It seems that Selina was worried about the magician being a danger to Bruce, it was pretty obvious that she was tensing for trouble as she watched him go up on stage. As much as she may fain indifference to the well being of others, it’s clear that Selina can’t help but care about Bruce. He might just be the only person in Gotham she’d risk her neck for.

I had been planning on going on a long rant about the unfairness and injustice of killing off Jerome, who to me was perfectly primed to turn into the Joker, but like I said earlier about his naivete, it means he’s clearly not the one, no matter how perfect I or other fans think he is. It’s still a shame to kill him off so soon into the season, but I’m over most of my anger about it.

You know, it should be obvious now, at least to Gordon, that this whole scene between Theo and Jerome is an act, and not a very good one. We know Theo Galavan is a decent actor, since he’s been fooling the people he interacts with so far, but his heroics were very over the top and super cliched. I hope Gordon figures it out quick, because otherwise I’m going to be annoyed watching a supposedly intelligent detective flounder when the truth is obvious.

I love how protective Bullock has gotten of Gordon, going to see Penguin to threaten him, even though he’s now “the king of Gotham”. In the past Bullock tried to get Gordon on board with being slightly crooked, as that is the way things work in Gotham, but now I think he would do just about anything to keep Gordon on the straight and narrow. I think Bullock believes that it’s important for Gordon and for Gotham that Jim stay true to his straight laced hard ass cop routine. Maybe that is why Bullock has always hated the Batman, because Jim working with a vigilante is the one thing that prevents Gordon from being the perfect example of a straight cop.

I don’t know what to make of the last scene, where the fortune teller’s prediction about Jerome comes true. It seems very like something that would happen if he were in fact the Joker, although Mr. J always needed a gas or chemical of some kind to have that effect on people, he didn’t have the technical chops for brain washing or hypnotizing people through the television.

We want to hear from you! Leave us your thoughts and opinions in the comments! Want more Batman? Download the Fansided app for more Batman news! Don’t forget to like Caped Crusades on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Really love Batman? Caped Crusades is always looking for volunteer writers! Leave us a comment, email an editor at chrisman_eric30@yahoo.com, and apply on Fansided.com

Home/TV