Jeremiah Valeska

"Don't compare me to that short-sighted psychopath. He just wanted to destroy things. Me... I'm a builder. I'm gonna create a new Gotham in my image, but every artist needs a blank canvas... so all of this has to go."

- Jeremiah to Harvey Bullock. "My brother once said, All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy."

- Jeremiah, quoting "The Killing Joke".

Jeremiah Valeska, also known as Xander Wilde, is the main antagonist for the last three episodes of the fourth season on the TV series Gotham, and is therefore the final antagonist of the season. He is Jerome Valeska's twin brother and is the show's version of The Joker.

He is portrayed by Cameron Monaghan, who also portrayed Jerome.

Origins
Jeremiah and Jerome were identical twins, and one day, their mom sent them both away, knowing that Jerome will be evil. Jeremiah becomes a very high skilled engineer during life, and he has a proxy working for him. However, he secretly plots revenge on Jerome, and he reads Jerome's lost diary, including every one of his plans to cause mayhem in Gotham. He also changes his identity to Xander Wilde, and wears a mask, in order to get his revenge on Jerome.

Escaping Jerome Valeska
Jeremiah later sends his proxy Ecco to capture Jerome so he can be held inside a cage. Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock ask him to hand Jerome to the GCPD, but Jeremiah refuses. Jerome however hypnotizes the proxy and sends her to kill Jim Gordon and Harvey and to bring Jeremiah to Jerome. 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. Jim Gordon however starts shooting Jerome, thus chasing him away, and saving Jeremiah.

Turn to Insanity
Jerome later kidnaps Jeremiah and tries again to convince him that he is mad. Jerome, however, claims that Jeremiah is just as crazy and always has been, and that it's in their blood. He gives Jeremiah a knife and dares Jeremiah to kill him. Jeremiah tries to do so, but is kicked on the head by Jerome, who then tries to kill him.

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 actually contains one of Jerome's traps. The trap sprays laughing gas on Jeremiah, who has his apparent hidden insanity and psychopathic 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".

New Plans for Gotham
As Jerome's followers gather up, Ecco brings a TV screen to the cemetry in which they are all gathered, and on the TV screen, Jeremiah pretends to be Jerome and gains the followers' trust.

Jeremiah later reveals to Bruce that he was building a new generator, able to control all of Gotham's sources of electricity. 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.

Jeremiah, however, runs back to his lair, and pretends to be afraid of Jerome. He also questions Bruce's loyalty to him as a true friend. He then takes Bruce as a hostage, pretending to think that Bruce is actually Jerome himself. He starts fighting Bruce in the cemetry. Jim however finds out about Jeremiah's plans as he goes to the lair to save Bruce and he watches one of Jeremiah's lives in which he imposes Jerome. After a rough battle between Bruce and Jeremiah, the followers arive, 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 actually his true face, as his skin was very pale (like Jerome). He revealed that he pretended to be "sane" just so he could gain Bruce's trust. He then bombed a building in the middle of town, and told Bruce that he killed Jim Gordon by doing so. He then sarcastically called Bruce "his very best friend", and ordered the followers to dump him into the grave. He and Ecco then entered The Wayne Enterprises and stole a package of generators.

Personality
Even before becoming the Joker, Jeremiah was quite the suspicious individual. Aside from being the brother of one of Gotham's most notorious criminals, even in his younger days he had a unique interest in designing plans for mazes and traps, and even Jerome claims that Jeremiah is actually crazy like himself, just too afraid to let it show. It is shown that Jeremiah had been dishonest about his brother's attempts to murder him, although he claimed that everyone knew Jerome certainly wanted to do it. He also displays a disturbingly calm manner when held at gunpoint by Gordon and lies about his past with his brother as well as keeps him contained without caring about the GCPD's consent.

If Jeremiah was psychopathic before being exposed to toxin, he did everything he could to hide it in comparison to his brother, who felt as though his revenge on Jeremiah should be to forcefully expose his psychosis by means of laughing gas.

Trivia

 * Jeremiah Valeska is the fifth incarnation of Joker (sixth if you count Jerome Valeska, who is heavily influenced by the character) to have an established backstory and identity, with the first one being Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 Batman film, the second in The Killing Joke, the third the Martha Wayne version of the Joker from the 2011 "Flashpoint" crossover story arc, in which she was Joker in an alternative universe where Bruce Wayne was dead (having been killed by the mugger) and Thomas Wayne as Batman, and the fourth being Lovers and Madmen, a Joker comic origin story.
 * Jeremiah's transformation and breaking into laughter is similar to The Joker's breakdown in The Killing Joke following his transformation.
 * He also clutches his head in a very similar way.
 * This version of Joker in the fourth version to appear on television: the first was in the campy 1960s Adam West Batman television series in which he was played by Cesar Romero; the second was in one of the six Batman OnStar commercials which ran from 2000 to 2002, in which he was played by Curtis Armstrong; and the third was a cameo appearance in the 2002-2003 series Birds of Prey, in which he was played physically by Roger Stoneburner and voiced by Mark Hamill.
 * Jeremiah's motive to drive Bruce Wayne insane is similar to how Joker tried to drive Commisioner Gordon insane after crippling his daughter.
 * Jeremiah is similar to Tim Drake from Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, who was transformed into the new Clown Prince of Crime following the original Joker's demise in order to continue his legacy.
 * He is the youngest version of "The Joker", being around 21-22 years old at the time of his transformation. Also this version comes before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.
 * Jeremiah's Joker outfit shown by the promotional pictures bears a great resemblence to the outfit of Jack Nicholson's Joker in the 1989 Batman film.
 * Jeremiah is the second Joker without a scar of Glasgow Smile on his face, following Jared Leto's Joker from DC Extended Universe.
 * Whilst he is the show's version of the Joker, he won't yet be undertaking the name.

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