Jeriah Valeska

**Jeriah Valeska** is the female version of Jeremiah Valeska. She is a notorious criminal mastermind in Gotham City and the identical twin sister of the psychopathic anarchist Jenrietta Valeska, the female version of Jerome Valeska.

Jeriah Valeska is the former leader of the Church of Jeriah. She is a main antagonist in Season 4 & 5 of *Gotham*.

## Biography

**Early Life**

Jeriah Valeska was born and raised in Haly's Circus. Jeriah and her twin sister, Jenrietta Valeska, were born to Lila Valeska and Paul Cicero, the snake dancer and the blind fortune teller at the circus. Jenrietta and Jeriah were both raised by their mother, Lila Valeska. Jenrietta and Jemima never knew about their father. Jenrietta was told by her mother that her father was a sea captain named Sven Karlsen, who died while at sea. Their mother was cold-hearted and never loved anyone, not even her daughters. She was abusive, alcoholic and very promiscuous and would constantly abuse Jenrietta and force Jeriah into watching the abuse take place, sometimes even having her lovers abuse Jenrietta.

Growing up, Jeriah was a prodigy child. She got good grades and excelled in her studies, particularly math and science, her favorite school subjects. Jeriah also had an obsession and a fascination with mazes. When Jeriah was younger, she drew blueprints for mazes, not unnoticed by Jenrietta. Jeriah was favored by Lila and treated better than Jenrietta when they were younger. Jeriah took advantage of this and would get Jenrietta into trouble for the fun of it which usually resulted in Jenrietta getting beaten. Jeriah never felt empathy or compassion for anyone, not even her own family. She hated her family, especially her twin sister, Jenrietta. Jeriah hated living at the circus and dreamed of moving out of the circus one day and starting a new life.

Jeriah felt afraid of Jenrietta and began fearing for her safety. According to Jeriah, Jenrietta would abuse and scare her when they were younger, and allegedly tried to kill her on several occasions. On their 10th birthday, Jenrietta held a cake knife to Jeriah's throat and then later lit her bed on fire while she was sleeping a few nights later. described her childhood growing up with Jenrietta as a living nightmare. She was in constantly afraid for her safety, and she tried to tell their mother so many times that Jenrietta was insane and a psychopath.

One night, Jeriah left the circus in the middle of the night with their uncle, Zachary, with their mother's knowledge. Jeriah was sent to live at St. Ignatius for her own safety from the abuse and got adopted by The Wildes, a wealthy rich family in New York. Shortly afterward, Jeriah took on the alias of "Alexandra Wilde". She herself later explained that she did this in the hope of making it more difficult for Jenrietta to track her down. She excelled in her studies even more and later attended engineering school and became a very successful engineer. After graduating from school, Jeriah constructed her secret hideout, an underground maze bunker in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of Gotham City. During her time at St. Ignatius, Jeriah met a girl her age named and hired her as her proxy and assistant. They eventually became girlfriends and lovers. Jeriah is bisexual.

Jenrietta claimed that Jeriah only made their mother believe that Jenrietta tried to kill her and the stories about her holding a knife to her sister's throat or trying to light her on fire were made up. Jeriah would later agree that some of these things didn't happen exactly as she said, before admitting that those events never happened at all and they were all made up lies. According to Jenrietta, Jeriah was the one who was responsible for her sister's madness by essentially creating her, giving her her "one bad day." Jenrietta stated that Jeriah is just as crazy as she is.

**Insanity Gas**

That night Jenrietta died, Jeriah returned to her secret office, dejected after her sister's death. After she drank a glass of whiskey, Jeriah discovered a wrapped gift on her desk and unpacked it after reading an enclosed card that claimed it was sent by Wayne Enterprises. After removing the packaging, he opened the strange looking box, revealing it to be a jack-in-the-box in the form of a laughing disfigured clown head that sprays Jeriah with a special mixture of the laughing venom created by Jenrietta. As Jeriah started thrashing around, she began trashing her office while struggling to resist the toxin's disastrous effects, Jenrietta's voice spoke to her in a recording coming out of the gift box, telling her that it takes more to get rid of her, that she knew that her days were numbered and encouraging Jeriah to continue on for her and to be her ultimate revenge. Jenrietta then told her to calm down and to breath in the special mixture she had made just for her and that she can set her free. The gas caused permanent cosmetic changes, turning Jeriah's skin white, her lips red, and her eyes an unnatural bright green. As her skin and her eyes and her lips began changing color, Jeriah started laughing maniacally, clutching her hair while tears streamed down her face. Jenrietta told her that it was time to have some fun and to burn it all down.

Jeriah later claimed that the insanity gas did nothing to her sanity, and the only changes were cosmetic, claiming "she might as well have sprayed me with water." This indicated that Jenrietta was telling the truth about Jeriah's mental state and that she indeed shares her sisters psychopathic nature, something the gas simply set free. However, Jeriah also later admitted that her sister's toxin did indeed transform her mentally in some way since she revealed during her "one bad day speech" that only by losing everything she was able to face what was inside her. This seemed to hint that Jeriah already had some darkness inside of her, but that the laughing gas was the catalyst that reinforced these characteristics. It was however in Jeriah's interests to deny her sister credit, which left the exact degree of the gas' effects upon her unknown.

**The New Jeriah and Plans to Rebuild Gotham**

Ever since being sprayed by Jenrietta's insanity gas, Jeriah has become a completely different person in looks and personality. Like Jenrietta, Jeriah became extremely confident and charismatic. She began acting even more sophiscated and elegant as well as dressing in a more elegant and glamorous fashion, now wearing lots of dark greens, purples, and blue fashionable clothes. Jeriah also began wearing colorful eyeshadow and red and purple lipstick and started dying her ginger hair dark green. Jeriah also became extremely arrogant, selfish, and narcissistic, always wanting to be "the star of the show." Therefore, believing she is better than everyone else and even treating the people in her life as inferiors, even her followers. Jeriah became even more ice cold while also developing a fiery hot temper, though still not quite as hotheaded as Jenrietta was.

After being sprayed, Jeriah made it her goal to take over Gotham City and rebuild it the way she wants for herself, even making Jenrietta's followers to change their style and appearance. Believing that she killed Jim Gordon, Jeriah leads her new followers to the GCPD, where she revealed her success to the GCPD at killing Jim Gordon. As they stood outside of the GCPD headquarters, Jeriah's followers wore identical uniforms to show their new loyalty to Jeriah, chanting her name every time she bragged about her accomplishments to the GCPD.

Once Detective Harvey Bullock was outside, Jeriah announces Jim Gordon is dead and she is responsible for his death and that his generator bombs are hidden all around Gotham City. When Bullock and the GCPD point their guns at her, Jeriah reveals a dead-man's switch and warns that if they kill him, the explosives will trigger. Bullock claims Jeriah is sicker than Jenrietta was, which caused Jeriah to simply laugh, stating, "Don't compare me to that short-sighted psychopath; she 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," she says referring to the city's towers and buildings she plans on destroying.

Jeriah gives the GCPD six hours to evacuate the city and even causes the Gotham Clock Tower to explode to show her threats are serious. Shortly afterward, her followers are shown knocking out and capturing Alfred Pennyworth at Wayne Manor.

Later, when Brooke meets with Bullock, Jeriah calls her and tells her the address Alfred is at and warns Brooke not to tell the police as Jeriah knows where Brooke is. Allying with Scarecrow, Jeriah later watches Brooke via CCTV as she is sprayed with Scarecrow's fear toxin and forced to witness Alfred being tortured in an attempt to drive him mad. Jeriah remarks that she "envies" Brooke having a "transformative experience" and that she wants her to be able to embrace her true, darker nature after being forced to lose everything and everyone she loves.

As Jeriah enters her safehouse, she finds The Penguin, Barbara Kean, Tabitha Galavan, and Butch Gilzean waiting for her with one of her followers, Jongleur, hostage; they have also located and taken the core relay that allows her to detonate all her bombs at once. They demand an additional hour to evacuate the city and $50 million. Jeriah, knowing they will double-cross her anyway, pretends to agree to their demands and calls the mayor, but then claims she was put on hold, pulls out a bazooka and blows up Jongleur and the core relay. Furious at Penguin's assertion that she is "out of her mind", Jeriah remarks that she has always had a backup plan and can simply detonate the bombs in sequence instead. She then tells them she has changed her mind about the deadline due to their interference, and will detonate the bombs as soon as she's a safe distance away. Jeriah orders her followers to "kill these idiots" and escapes during the subsequent firefight. Arriving at another bunker where the Cult of Jenrietta are gathered, Jeriah prepares to detonate the bombs, but it's suddenly revealed that Gordon is still alive, much to her fury. Jeriah triggers the detonator for the first generator, but it doesn't explode as Bullock found and disabled it just in time. The Cult of Jenrietta gets angry at Jeremiah, calling her a liar and a fake and a "pale imitation of Jenrietta." She reacts by furiously shoving them inside the bunker and incinerating them, saying she anticipated their betrayal. All but one of Jeriah's generator bombs are retrieved by the GCPD, while Brooke is able to rescue Alfred and overcome Scarecrow's fear gas with the help of Selina Kyle.

Later, hiding out alone at an abandoned theater, Jeriah wonders aloud how she was defeated; she concludes Gordon must have found her maze blueprints and sabotaged the sequence by finding and disarming the first bomb (which is almost correct, except for Harvey Bullock being the one who disarmed the bomb). As Jeriah decides she must start over, she is interrupted by the appearance of Ra's al Ghul, who compliments her on her tenacity and suggests they can cause the destruction of Gotham together. Jeriah sarcastically replies that "recent events have convinced me of the benefits of working alone" and tries to shoot Ra's, who easily evades her bullets. Realizing that her attempts to kill the Master of the League of Shadows are futile, Jeriah reluctantly hears her out. Ra's explains that Jeriah's plan for a "new Gotham" can still come to be with the help of the League of Shadows, and both their plans are not just about Gotham, but about Brooke Wayne, which draws Jeriah's interest.

Later at Wayne Manor, Brooke and Selina are talking about Jeriah's obsession with Brooke. Brooke explains that Jeriah was working on the premise that "one bad day" can drive someone insane. She wonders if the trauma of her own parents' deaths "made her a little insane", and if Jeriah had sensed that and was trying to bring it to the surface. As Selina replies that Brooke proved her wrong, Jeriah suddenly enters the room and holds a pistol to her abdomen, remarking that the day's not over yet. She shoots Selina in the stomach, knocking her backward, then smiles and throws her gun away. As Brooke desperately tries to keep Selina alive, Alfred rushes in, knocks Jeriah down and begins pummeling her repeatedly in the face.

## Personality

Jeriah Valeska is very cold, lacking empathy, compassion, sympathy, and remorse. Jeriah is also very arrogant, overconfident, selfish, and narcissistic, and can also be very aggressive at times.