If there is a word that can sum up the entire third episode of the second season of Gotham, that word is madness.

The Last Laugh is one of the best and positive overwhelmingly episodes of the whole season so far. Not because Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock are back together and angrier than ever after the killing of half the GCPD (Gotham City Police Department) in the previous episode; not because both Bruce and Alfred seriously risk their lives, but because ‘Gotham’ loses one of its best villains and greatest nemesis in the whole Batman universe.

We have been living with the idea of meeting a younger version of The Joker, the Dark-Knight’s most iconic villain. We have done it since the first season, when we briefly met Jerome: he is a disturbed and evil-inclined guy who, as soon as the second season started, revealed himself to be the best guess for the role of a younger version of The Joker.

We saw him starting to embrace his role as his madness was silently creeping out from his personality. We dreamt, thanks to a really convincing actor (Cameron Monaghan) who was giving a solid characterisation of the historic villain. We saw him building an infant version of the Suicide Squad (in the series called The Maniax) — that never happened eventually.

But in the end, we saw him cruelly murdered, stabbed in the throat, just to ensure the plot of Gotham will work out.

There was a chance we could understand what was going on, though. ‘Gotham’ executive producer Bruno Heller, before the episode was aired, said: “That story [of Jerome] is going to come to a huge and shocking resolution, which will explain the whole Joker myth and how it began and how the Joker came to be.”

And we could have understood it even better when, in the first half of the episode, Jerome’s father, Cicero, told him how he would be “a curse upon Gotham”, and how “children will wake up screaming at the thought of him and his legacy will be death and madness.”

Death and madness. Madness, again. Maybe madness can really sum up the entire episode thanks to everything that goes on throughout the episode and especially thanks to the explosive and unexpected finale that left most of who didn’t get the clues breathless.

But maybe there is something more than using Jerome’s death as a simple plot device.

As pointed out on Variety, ‘the joke’s on us’. The Joker might be dead, ‘but his bloodthirsty legacy will live on’.

Just before the end, we see his dead body, preserving a creepy smile on his face. His last laugh, is it just a mere resemblance of the title?

Maybe that will eventually turn to be Jerome’s last laugh, but Gotham has other plans for him.

At the end of the episode, we are introduced in a suburban world, colourised with a grey/bluish palette in which the spirit of The Joker has been hanging around, corrupting whoever it meets. ‘Gotham’ shows us many examples of young men who seemed ‘inspired’ by the legend of Jerome and his actions to the point they are led to commit homicidal acts.

At San Diego Comic-Con, Gotham’s executive producers explained how in the world where the legend of Batman isn’t born yet, The Joker is ‘less of a he and more of an idea. It’s not about a man. It’s about the ideology of a man and what that represents and how it affects other people’.

Jerome may not be the real Joker, but he certainly contributed in building the character’s portrait we have come to know today.

And while we assist, in the last scene, at the dead body of Jerome still crazily smiling, we can hear maniacal laughs echoing all over the place. And maybe Jerome’s father’s prediction did eventually come true: “You will be a curse upon Gotham, children will wake up screaming at the thought of you and your legacy will be death and madness.”