Mark Seliger/FOX
Bonding over murdering parents while in Arkham is the ultimate meet cute.
Just when Gotham's Jim Gordon thought that things couldn't get worse for his ex-fiance after she murdered her parents, it turns out she has a new admirer: the man who'll grow up to become the Joker. A sneak peak at the return of Fox's comic book crime drama pairs up Barbara Kean and Jerome Valeska for the first time.
After failing to bond over the fact that they share an interest in matricide, the clip from "Damned If You Do," the first episode of the DC Entertainment show's second season, demonstrates that Barbara (Erin Richards) might have already passed the point of redemption — a fact that only makes Jerome (Cameron Monaghan) more interested in getting to know her. "You're bad," he tells her, smiling.
Fans of the Batman mythos might find Barbara changed from her earlier appearances in the new clip. So much so, in fact, that she almost seems reminiscent of the Joker's main squeeze, Harley Quinn — which might be a foreshadowing of what will happen as she and Jerome get to know each other in future weeks.
The second season of the show, subtitled "Rise of the Villains," won't just focus on Barbara and the future Joker's burgeoning relationship, however — there also are the newly powerful Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), newly murderous Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) and new arrivals Tabitha and Theo Galavan (Jessica Lucas and James Frain) for the already stretched GCPD, led by Ben McKenzie's Jim Gordon, to deal with.
In addition to the new clip, Fox released a "Rise of the Villains" teaser for the show's return. See both below. Gotham returns to Fox on Sept. 21 at 8 p.m.
