‘Gotham’ season 3 theories: How could Jerome be back?

If the idea with “Gotham” was to have jaws on the floor following Monday night’s fall finale, we certainly think that the show achieved that. Ironically, it was with the promo for the January return of the show more so than the episode itself, given that this tiny clip featured the return of Jerome, somehow, to the series. The last we saw the character, he was pretty clearly dead, and the whole idea of his legacy was that his antics inspired potentially a whole league of future Jokers, and that one of them could be the one who infamously terrorizes Batman as the Clown Prince of Crime.

Here’s where things get tricky in regards to seeing Jerome again — the way the show ended things with him last time was pretty darn perfect, given that it paid almost perfect tribute in our eyes to the character in the way that it kept the mysterious origin story of the Joker still alive, while also creating a guy still who was incredibly compelling / terrifying. Cameron Monaghan was absolutely brilliant in the role.

So while we’re anxious about what the return of Jerome means and if this invalidates much of what we saw before, we’ll give the show a chance to see what they came up with. For the time being, here are some of our theories as to how he could be back.

1. A remnant of Hugo Strange’s experiments – Could he have been at Indian Hill the whole time and we just didn’t see him previously? We certainly cannot rule out such a thing since Strange loved working with the demented.

2. He wasn’t actually dead – We don’t know how that’s possible, since he looked very much dead after what Theo Galavan did to him during “The Last Laugh.” Maybe someone helped him in between the scene and the morgue, the bodies were switched out, or something else crazy took place.

3. Jerome recorded videos of himself before his death – When we do see the character in the promo, it’s in some sort of pre-recorded video. Therefore, it’s perfectly possible that we’re witnessing him pulling a Jigsaw and speaking to everyone from beyond the grave.

4. Something else crazy – Maybe Jerome had a secret / equally evil twin, maybe it’s a copycat who studied him extensively and got surgery to look like him, or may this is some sort of manipulation created by another character. Knowing “Gotham,” you cannot really write anything off.

What do you think is going on with Jerome’s “return” to the show? Share right now in the comments!

If you didn’t get a chance to see the “Gotham” promo last night, we recommend that you head over here and check it out! (Photo: Fox.)