Jeremiah Valeska is a major antagonist in the superhero crime drama Gotham. He is the final antagonist of Season 4, being the secondary antagonist of the second half, and the main antagonist of the first half of Season 5, as well as the main antagonist of the series finale. He is Jerome Valeska's twin brother who was driven insane after exposure to his brother's smile gas. He views himself as bound to Bruce Wayne, and aims to be either his "brother" or mortal enemy.
He is played by Cameron Monoghan, who also played his brother.
Origins[]
Jeremiah was the son of Lila Valeska and Paul Cicero and was born as the twin brother of Jerome Valeska. The twins got along at first until several events occurred that led to them clashing.
According to Jeremiah, Jerome was abusive to him and would often scare him when they were little, so he knew Jerome was dangerous and needed to get away from him at all costs so he snuck away one night from Haley's Circus (where he and Jerome grew up) and had his uncle Zachary place him at St. Ignatius. Jeremiah eventually took on the alias of "Xander Wilde." He said that this was to make it difficult for Jerome to track him down, but Jerome's story was a bit different. He claimed that Jeremiah made his mother believe that Jerome tried to kill him and made up stories about him holding a knife to his throat or trying to light him on fire all because he feared that Jerome would do these things. Jeremiah would later say that some of these things didn't happen as he said indicating that he was at the very least lying about some of his past. Jerome said that Jeremiah was the one who was responsible for his madness by turning him against his family. He also claimed that Jeremiah got adopted by rich people after Lila had sent him away. Given that he admitted that he made up some of the things that Jerome did, it is possible that both tormented each other.
He started studying at school at the age of 8 and would become an engineer at 13 years old. He stared to create an underground maze bunker in a forest on the outskirts of Gotham City, He completed it 6 years before Jerome find him, at 17 years old. He created it, so Jerome would never find him, fearing the possibility that one day, the world would find out the madness that Jerome knows he's hiding.
At some point in his life, he met a woman named Ecco who he hired as his assistant and proxy in case Jerome hunted him down.
Resisting his nature[]
At his 23 years old, Jeremiah is prepared for Jerome to find him, giving him crumbs, to guide him to his publication, sacrifices his coworkers and his boss, who was the only one who knew where Jeremiah's proxy was. Jeremiah ordered her to wait for Jerome, and to capture him and lock him in a special room where he would eventually starve to death, no longer being a threat to Jeremiah's fragile sanity. James Gordon and Harvey Bullock asked him to hand Jerome to the GCPD, but Jeremiah refuses since he would escape and come back. Jerome, however, has the proxy hypnotized by Tetch and sends her to kill James Gordon and Harvey and to bring Jeremiah to him. Jeremiah is taken to his brother, who confronts him with Jervis Tetch and Jonathan Crane and tells him that he will turn insane and then die. James Gordon, however, starts shooting at Jerome, thus chasing him away and saving Jeremiah. Jerome still promises to come back after him and get revenge before fleeing.
Insanity Unleashed[]
Jerome later kidnaps Jeremiah and tries again to convince him that he is mad, claiming that it's in their blood. He gives Jeremiah a knife and dares Jeremiah to kill him. Jeremiah looks like he wanted to do so , then he try to stab Jerome, but thanks of the disadvantageous position he was in, Jerome was able to beat Jeremiah first, and kicked him onto the stage. During the beating, Jerome is mocking on him, distracted of the police who were getting closer, as Jeremiah probably wanted to.
Later, Jerome dies and Jeremiah thanks Bruce Wayne, Jim and Harvey for helping him save the city. He gets a gift from the Wayne Enterprises, which contains one of Jerome's traps. The trap sprays laughing gas on Jeremiah, who has his apparent hidden insanity and psychopatic tendencies unleashed by Jerome. As Jeremiah's skin becomes white and his lips become red, Jerome via audio recording tells his brother to continue his legacy and go have some "fun."
Jeremiah, after embracing his madness, sends Ecco to Jerome's grave, where his brother's followers were mourning his death. Ecco plays them a fake message from Jerome, telling them to dig up his body and throw a wake at the GCPD. Jeremiah later reveals to Bruce that he was building a new generator, able to control all of Gotham's sources of electricity. Arkham gave him Jerome's diary, he reads every one of his plans to cause mayhem in Gotham. He also revealed Bruce that Jerome had used the laughing gas on him and that he now sees Jerome everywhere. Bruce offers to take Jeremiah to the graveyard, to show him that Jerome is dead.
Meanwhile, a video message is sent to the GCPD, supposedly featuring Jerome announcing his plans for his wake. The cult members storm the precinct, but the police soon take back control. Gordon travels to Jeremiah's bunker where he finds another recording and is held at gunpoint by Ecco.
Bruce and Jeremiah arrive at the graveyard, only to find Jerome's grave dug up. Jeremiah flees, screaming that Jerome is still alive. He then questions Bruce's loyalty to him as a true friend. He then takes Bruce as a hostage, claiming to think that Bruce is Jerome himself. He starts fighting Bruce in the cemetery.
Gordon manages to subdue Ecco and watches the end of the video. Jerome peels off his makeup, revealing himself to be Jeremiah in disguise. He explains that the generator is also a bomb and it begins to glow red. Gordon narrowly escapes.
After a rough battle between Bruce and Jeremiah, the followers arrive and Jeremiah reveals to Bruce his true intentions; destroying Gotham in a way that opposes Jerome and is even more insane. Jeremiah reveals that he had just been wearing a mask while his white face was his true face, as his skin was very pale. He revealed that he pretended to lose his mind and be paranoid just so he could gain Bruce's trust. At that moment, the bunker blows up and Jeremiah claims that he just killed Jim Gordon. He then sarcastically called Bruce "his very best friend" and ordered the followers to dump him into the grave. He and Ecco then entered Wayne Enterprises and stole a package of generators.
Gotham Bombings[]
While confronting Bullock near GCPD, Jeremiah announces he has bombs hidden around Gotham City and states if Bullock were to do any harm to Jeremiah, the explosives will trigger. Jeremiah gives Bullock six hours to evacuate the city and destroys the Gotham Clock Tower to show he is telling the truth. Later, when Bruce met with Bullock, Jeremiah calls him and tells him to address Alfred, who Jeremiah had kidnapped and warns Bruce not to tell the police as Jeremiah knows where Bruce is.
As Jeremiah enters his safehouse, he finds the Penguin, Barbara Kean, Tabitha Galavan and Solomon Grundy waiting for him with Jongleur as a hostage. They demand an additional hour to evacuate the city and $50 million. Jeremiah calls the mayor but overhears Oswald's plans to simply kill him and turn Jongleur over to the police, resulting in him in pulling out a bazooka and killing Jongleur. Jeremiah then tells them he has changed his mind and will detonate the bombs once he is a safe distance away. Jeremiah orders them to be killed and escapes. Later when he's in another bunker, Jeremiah prepares to detonate the bombs, but then he finds out that Gordon is still alive, much to his anger and frustration. Jeremiah triggers the explosives but fails, as Bullock had disabled them in time.
The followers get angry at Jeremiah and he ultimately decides to seal them inside a chamber and set them on fire in case they became a problem in the future. Later, Jeremiah plans to start over when he is met by Ra's al Ghul, who explains that his plan on destroying Gotham is not about Gotham, but about Bruce. Later, when Bruce and Selina are talking, Jeremiah unexpectedly shows up and shoots Selina in the stomach. Alfred comes in and takes down Jeremiah with Bruce comforting Selina.
No Man's Land[]
After being beaten to a pulp by Alfred, Jeremiah is turned over to the GCPD. He is locked up but claims that he has other bombs around the city and will only reveal them if permitted to talk to Bruce Wayne. He also tries and fails to get Jim to charge Alfred with assault in an attempt at distraction. After several failed attempts by James Gordon to get him to reveal the location of the bombs by brute force, the military steps in and hands over Bruce Wayne to Jeremiah.
Bruce and Jeremiah chat about the bombs to which Jeremiah declines to reveal their information. He also taunts Bruce about his actions against Selina. During their talk, Jeremiah also reveals that he has a partner helping him carry out his evil deeds. Bruce eventually realizes it is Ra's al Ghul but by then it is too late. The lights flicker on and off and within an instant, Jeremiah and Bruce Wayne are nowhere to be found.
Later that day, Jeremiah, Bruce and Ra's stand inside of a massive skyscraper overlooking Gotham. Ra's and Jeremiah explain their plan to destroy Gotham in hopes of creating a darker version of Bruce. Jeremiah specifically explains that he is aroused by the idea of mentoring Bruce's inner rage like an older brother.
However, their talk is interrupted when a massive firefight between all the main players in Gotham breaks out. Jeremiah is also wounded in this battle but survives. The result involves the demise of Ra's al Ghul and the victory of Barbara Kean. However, Jeremiah's final bombs do blow up and Gotham is cut off of all means in and out of the city thus creating a no man's land. Jeremiah grin and chuckles at his work before fleeing into the dark unknown corners of the city.
Jeremiah remains hidden in the Grandin District while Ecco is sent out to gather followers including the newly established Church of Jeremiah. It turns out that he no longer retains his stoic persona; mostly because he became even more unhinged after the events. He is disappointed by the low number Ecco brings him, though she states that quality is better than the quality that most do not survive the Russian Roulette initiation. He pulls her close to examine the scar from her self inflicted gunshot wound that changed her personality, praises her for setting a high standard for loyalty and pulls her into a dance as Ecco tells him about Bruce and Selina looking for him. Ecco leaves with the recruits, Selina gets her mask and robe and uses it to stab Jeremiah nine times.
Jeremiah survives the stabbing and is stitched up. He lays resting while Ecco takes over his digging operation. Ecco wakes him up when they reach their destination which looks to be Wayne Manor. He enters Wayne Manor and asks his doctor if he has good news, who takes bandages off of two people who were given plastic surgery to look like Bruce Wayne's parents. Jeremiah chuckles at the result, claiming he loves family reunions and smiles wickedly. He also reveals that he faked his death to catch Bruce off guard and possibly turn Selina against him.
Jeremiah later takes Alfred by surprise and kidnaps him as part of his plan. He has Jervis Tetch hypnotize Alfred and he and Ecco make a Zorro-styled movie where she helps him kill various people and then they are dumped in the Narrows. A few days later, Bruce arrives at the mansion where Jeremiah re-enacts the night Bruce’s parents were murdered. He forces Bruce to leave the manor by setting bombs that destroy it. He also recruited Tetch who mind controls Alfred and tries to get him to kill himself, so Bruce would have no one left.
Jeremiah plays his Zorro film for Bruce at the theater and plans to shoot the fake parents in the ally. However, he gets word from Ecco about James Gordon and Leslie Thompkins, so he kills the lookalikes and replaces them with James and Lee, so he can kill someone close to Bruce and be bonded by hatred forever. He also plans to unleash toxic chemicals into the sky to prevent the reunification of Gotham from the mainland. Tetch, despite proving to be a useful ally at first, ends up getting defeated after Jim and Lee exploit his ego.
As Jeremiah is about to shoot Jim and Lee, Selina uses her whip to knock the gun from Jeremiah’s hand and Bruce tackles him. Jeremiah gets away and yells at Ecco to activate the chemicals as they both flee. Selina and Bruce chase after them and Jeremiah lures Bruce to Ace Chemicals where they have a brief skirmish on the walkway above a vat of chemicals. Jeremiah gets increasingly more desperate and pushes Bruce against an unstable railing, ranting about how Bruce needs him. Bruce then disowns him entirely resulting in Jeremiah to attack him out of anger.
Bruce slips away and the railing breaks, causing Jeremiah to fall into a vat of acidic chemicals, which severely disfigures him. He survives but is reported to have no brain activity when hospitalized; and therefore, no longer a threat.
10 Years Later[]
At some point, Jeremiah does awaken from his catatonic state but chooses to remain in Arkham and fake being catatonic since Bruce has left Gotham. During this time, he faces heavy abuse from the other inmates for his role in No Man’s Land with Edward stabbing him in the leg. Ecco infiltrates Arkham as a nurse and takes care of Jeremiah. Ten years later, Bruce is set to return to Gotham, Jeremiah arranges for the newly built Wayne Enterprises to be destroyed by having bombs planted all over inside. As a corrupt orderly is negotiating payment for assaulting Jeremiah, Ecco enters and kills them, telling Jeremiah that their cover is blown. Jeremiah laughs and grabs Ecco’s face.
Jeremiah and Ecco show up at the Siren’s Club where they attack Barbara together. Jeremiah pushes Barbara into Ecco, who holds a knife to her throat. As Jeremiah monologues to Barbara about who she used to be and who he used to be. Barbara Lee Gordon throws a glass at Ecco’s head and starts beating Jeremiah. Jeremiah casually shoots Barbara in the leg and picks up Barbara Lee. He turns towards Ecco and sees her bleeding profusely after being stabbed by Barbara. Jeremiah stares in shock and even anger, before saying goodbye to Ecco in his own twisted way, claiming “there will never be one like her.” He then shoots her dead and adds that he “supposes that there are other fish in the sea”; showing that whatever affection for Ecco he had is gone. He tells Barbara to give Jim a message before knocking her out with his gun and taking Barbara Lee who he plans on using as a hostage.
Jeremiah takes Barbara Lee to Ace Chemicals where he holds her on a rope above a vat of acid. Jim approaches him and asks Jeremiah what he wants. Jeremiah refuses to be acknowledged by that name and Jim asks what he should call him. Jeremiah says that he doesn’t know, but feels something different. Jim asks how long he has been pretending to be brain dead and why he is now making his move. Jeremiah says he was waiting for Bruce to come home and asks if Jim knows what it is like to lose the only thing you love before dropping Barbara Lee into the chemicals. Jim catches the rope before Barbara Lee could fall into the chemicals and Jeremiah stabs him in the side. Suddenly, before he could finish Jim off, the knife is knocked out of his hand and Jeremiah pulls out a gun demanding that the attacker shows himself. He sees the intruder dressed like a bat and recognizes him as Bruce, laughing maniacally while shooting at him. Another bat-shaped boomerang impales Jeremiah’s hand and he laughs ecstatically before being struck in the head with another bat-shaped boomerang and falling to the floor unconscious. It is unknown what happened to him afterwards, but it is likely that he was eventually arrested and sent back to Arkham. However, one could assume that he started playing a more active role as well once he realized his and Ra's vision became true.