Gotham S1E14 Review: Scarecrow's Parking Meter & Penguin's Work Troubles

Gotham, Season 1, Episode 14: The Fearsome Dr. Crane

Still not feeling too up to it, so these will probably be shorter than my normal fare. Anyway, Gotham episode 14 stars the Scarecrow, my favourite Batman villain... in a fashion. Like Black Mask, the titular Dr. Crane is the father of the Scarecrow, Jonathan Crane, who makes a cameo as an older kid (relative to Bruce) that runs in to his father tying up his victim and asking for change to feed the parking meter. Because.

Other than that, though, the episode takes the standard Gotham Formula of new-psychopath-killer/investigation/clues/shootout/Penguin-Riddler-and-Bruce-does-something-in-the-meantime. But I thought it was done relatively well, foreshadowing a classic Batman villain with a basic plot without dragging it on too long. A good portion is focused on talking about adrenal glands and fear of heights/pigs/swimming pools and the whole Phobias Anonymous group, and Dr. Crane does get a couple fear rants off, but in my opinion it's relatively well done. Not particularly holy-shit-jaw-dropping, but it's serviceable.

Bullock and Gordon respectively get to show off more than just 'likable jerk' and 'unfaltering justice', though, with their respective love interests. I do like just how bumblingly awkward Gordon is with Leslie, and just how much chemistry the two share as opposed to the lifeless and destructive relationship that Gordon and Barbara had. (Does anyone notice the quality of episodes is in inverse proportion with Barbara's appearances? Or is it just my personal bias? No?) Whatever the case, it's nice to see Bullock and Gordon actually having a life beyond just cop stuff. There's also some fallback from them arresting Flass last episode, lampshaded by Essen and Bullock who are wary of Flass's allies in the force, which I liked.

The big B-plot is Penguin being confronted by Maroni. Egged on by the alive-on-a-boat Fish Mooney, Maroni brings Penguin to a mountain villa and I do like the absolutely tense conversation about secrets between the two. It could've really felt dragged on, but it doesn't. Both Maroni and Penguin's actors are so excellent at playing their respective colourful roles. I do like how Penguin's tracks aren't as cleanly covered up as he thinks he did, and Maroni slowly just unravels everything and Penguin panics. The scene with the car compactor would be horrifying except, y'know, we all know Penguin will survive.

We get a bit on the Wayne front, with an unnecessarily long scene of Selina sneaking around Barbara's apartment and telling Gordon that she doesn't know anything (which is most likely a lie), and Bruce basically thanks Gordon but tells him to back off from his promise... which is not an unexpected development, but I really don't care at all about the whole Wayne murders plotline.

Also, Fish Mooney is hanging out on this cruise boat, calling Maroni and shit, but at the end of the episode, apparently the boat is under attack and the captain is killing, leaving Fish running to tangle with a new arrival who may or may not be working for Falcone.

No particular progress on Butch's fate, or on Penguin torturing cops to get Gordon his evidence, but I suppose we'll see those in time. I guess Fish might be returning to Gotham sooner than anticipated? Overall a pretty solid episode, and I'm pretty sure the Penguin/Maroni scenes steal the show a lot more than the big Scarecrow arcs... though both Gordon and Bullock did get a couple of nice scenes in too with their love interests.