In the past few episodes Gotham seems to be dead set on revealing the origins of some of the Batman universe's most well known characters. But where the Scarecrow two episode arc succeeded in telling a meaningful and natural origin, "The Blind Fortune Teller" felt like a cobbled together tease.
There is nothing wrong with introducing first glimpses into the stories of characters still to come, which has been done to great effect with Harvey Dent, Roman Sionis, and Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow. But when Gotham's sole focus of an episode is introducing a future character the show feels more contrived and less enjoyable.
"The Blind Fortune Teller" was a hodge podge of plot lines as the additions to a fairly underwhelming origin sandwich. The main plot featured Jim and an enthusiastic Leslie investigating a murder at the circus. Here the audience is first introduced to The Flying Graysons, well before Dick's time. The Graysons have been embroiled in a century's old feud with the Lloyds, who are the clowns of this circus. And if that isn't enough it seems the patriarch elders of the family both were vying for the affections of Lila, a snake charmer who is found dead once her snake sniffs her body lying in the back of a truck. As ridiculous as all that sounds it was actually kind of charming. Gotham sometimes attempts some comic book beats but usually ends up on the more serious side but this was the first attempt at a main plot trying for comedy. It was nice to see some of the odder, lighter parts of the world highlighted for a change.
The most important thing to come out of the main plot for this episode, besides John Grayson and Mary Lloyd getting married after Gordon solves the case (yup, the future Dick Grayson's parents), was Jerome. Jerome is Lila's son who, by the end of the episode, is revealed to be quite a psychopath. This is the much ballyhooed Joker tease. But who knows if Jerome is the Joker or not?
So far very few of the Batman supervillains have been clearly identified from the get go. Only the Penguin, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, and Roman Sionis were introduced as the people in the profession they will eventually become. Even though we know Edward Nygma becomes the Riddler, he seems quite a ways off to realizing that role. This is important when trying to make the Jerome connection to the Joker. Yes, Jerome is criminally insane. Yes, he lives in a circus next to a bunch of clowns. Yes, he has red hair and his first name begins with a "J". But this does not a Joker make.
Gotham creator, Bruno Heller, has been more than coy with how the events of "The Blind Fortune Teller" ultimately play into the Joker's origins but has said they play an integral part. Heller has also said that Cameron Monaghan (the actor who played Jerome) will show up again in the show. So the points are being connected between Jerome becoming the Joker but I don't necessarily think that's the case. At the beginning of the show Heller said there would be multiple Joker teases throughout the season. How do we know Jerome isn't just another tease? I think Jerome will play a big part in the Joker's origin, I'm just not sure if he ends up becoming the Joker or somehow influences the Joker in another way.
"The Blind Fortune Teller" also saw a lot of subplots turn but, unfortunately, none of them are that interesting. There is the relationship between Gordon and Leslie, which is quite cute but this episode seemed to be the first signs of it eventually fraying. Gordon becomes easily annoyed with Leslie's desire to believe the psychic and her desire to help him solve the case. And even though Gordon apologizes by the end the episode and they make up (and out) it doesn't seem like this relationship has much of a future. Barbara returns to find not just Ivy and Selina living in her apartment but also, quite coincidentally, Gordon and Leslie making out. This will end up being explored in the near future.
Meanwhile Penguin's new club is floundering because his taste in music seems a tad on the morose side. It also doesn't help that he's letting his mother entertain his guests. This causes Falcone to send in Butch, Fish's former right hand man, to help Penguin run the club. But this isn't the same Butch. After weeks of torture via Victor Zsasz, Butch takes any order given to him and his loyalties to Fish have vanished, apparently. This could have interesting results but that is yet to be seen.
Luckily for Fish she has a whole new group of followers. Her fellow inmates, who are being as organ donors, and her take a stand against management as the organize. This whole storyline is kind of dull. While it is somewhat interesting to see how Fish ever moved up so far in the ranks of the Falcone family by using her leadership skills, the whole storyline is fairly boring and lacks intrigue. Even though Fish has gotten a meeting with the supposed boss of this jail the lack of clarity of how and why Fish is there, as well as what the prisoners were being used for (until this week) has made this subplot easily replaceable.
The same can be said for Bruce's speech to the board of Wayne Enterprises. While it should have been a big payoff to show Bruce's disjointed investigative subplot finally reach some sort of climax, the handling and lack of focus on his investigating made his speech fairly anticlimactic. Sure, his calling the board out for some nefarious business deals will end up stoking the fires and shifting this subplot into a different direction but it doesn't seem nearly as important as it should be. We also don't know what proof, aside from the one time Bruce actually saw the chemical weapons manufacturing on the docks, Bruce has that he hints at during his speech and is trying to use as leverage. We shall see how it all plays out. It would be nice to see a young Lucious Fox help Bruce investigate these dealings, however.
"The Blind Fortune Teller" was less of a stand alone episode and more of an episode that forced many of the plots to take a turn. Unfortunately none of these climaxes resonated. The episode certainly sets the table for the final five episodes of what has been a pretty good freshman season for Gotham but on its own it was not too exciting, even with the Joker origin hints/teases.
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