Gotham, Season 1, Episode 15: The Scarecrow
Despite the heavier focus on Scarecrow, there's so many things going on in this episode. There's Penguin renovating Fish's nightclub and turning it into the Iceberg Lounge. There's Maroni and Falcone doing their little negotiation talk. There's little Bruce Wayne heading off into the forest for this... weird pilgrimage thing that has more than a little Batman Begins vibe to it. There's Fish Mooney and the whole weird thing regarding what the fuck has gone on with her.The Scarecrow stuff is definitely the most engaging of the many subplots running throughout the episode, though I may be biased for being a big Scarecrow fan. Basically it's still a big investigative thing on the part of Gordon and Bullock, and we learn more about Gerald Crane, or Scarecrow Sr. He's apparently harvesting those adrenal glands from people with intense terror in order to get enough concentrated cortisols and adrenalins and all the juicy fear hormones (this being based on a comic book, the doctors said Crane Sr added in an extra chemical they can't identify) in order to create a human being without fear, and Gordon finds out the motivation that Gerald Crane let his wife die in a fire because he's too afraid to save her.
It's mostly formulaic, though at the end it kind of takes a nasty turn as Gerald Crane gets more obsessed with completing the 'procedure' of injecting his little fear cocktail into himself and his son Jonathan Crane, who, of course, comic-book fans will know as the Scarecrow. He's still a kid in this show, though, and thanks to Gordon's arrival, Daddy Crane panics and injects Jonathan with too high a dose... right underneath this fucking creepy scarecrow that I thought wasn't going to be any more than just a hint-hint background fixture. And holy shit, the CGI of the scarecrow moving with glowing eyes looks downright fucking demonic.
We see a bit of the rather common sci-fi trope of 'someone without fear doesn't know when they're mortally hurt', and while Gerald Crane indeed doesn't fear guns and is extremely triggerhappy, he is still extremely vulnerable to them and the fact that he doesn't dodge them or care about his wounds, well... long story short, Bullock and Gordon put down Gerald Crane like a rabid dog, while Jonathan Crane, the man who will be the Scarecrow, ends up convulsing because despite the hormones having worn off, his brain is in a constant state of terror and all he can see is the scarecrow reaching out towards him.
Which is interesting, because Scarecrow's classic origins basically involves him being afraid of bullies (and his psychotic grandmother, depending on who's telling the origin story) and reveling in the fear he can inflict on crows. This new addition to his backstory is a welcome one for me, and actually makes him a slightly more tragic and less 'ooh he's obsessed'. Both Cranes get some actual story and development, and it's awesome that way.
So he probably conquered his fear and dons the Scarecrow mask, the symbol of his greatest fear, as an adult... and is either gassing people out of fascination or simply to 'cure' them? I dunno. I don't know if we'll see more of Scarecrow in this show, but I sincerely hope so. Not anytime soon, but, I dunno, maybe in season two or something? Because as far as these 'early years' villains go, Scarecrow is giving the Penguin a run for his money as my favourite origin so far.
There's a couple of added intrigue to the 'main' Scarecrow plotline on the side of Gordon, the biggest of it being Leslie Thompkins being transferred into GCPD to replace that medical examiner that Riddler so hilariously and inappropriately drove out of a job. There's a bit of them squibbling over displays of affection in work, and I thought those were sweet enough and didn't take up too much of the screentime and were nice little distractions from the overall crime plot. There's also both Penguin and Bullock coming in at different points asking Gordon to get Penguin's resources to find out where Crane is, and while thankfully they manage to track Crane down fast enough, Bullock's argument that there might be another dead body while they dilly-dally and grasp at straws is a fair one.
There's a bit more of Riddler in this episode, and other than the expected 'Nygma has no social skills' and 'Nygma keeps asking riddles' and 'Nygma is unhealthily fascinated by horrific science stuff', he actually gets some great screentime that doesn't involve creeping up on Ms. Kringle. Edward Nygma confronts Penguin as he goes into the GCPD to give Gordon his invite, and there's a tense yet absolutely fucking hilarious exchange between the two of them. Emperor penguins! I'm not quite sure that the point of Riddler's possible threat to Penguin is, but I guess these two freaks are going to fight over who gets to be Jim Gordon's friend? Or something? Or is there something in their backstories that intersected?
Gordon definitely is distancing himself from Penguin, despite Penguin really wanting to make a friend to cope with his fucked-up, crazy life. It's kind of like... Londo Mollari from the later seasons of Babylon 5, not at all helped by the fact that other than his hair, Londo is kind of a dead ringer for the comic-book Penguin appearance-wise.
I also do like how Penguin is just so fucking flustered about Maroni early on in the episode, while Falcone gives him Fish's lounge and tells him to run it... which practically everyone had called out. There's really not much difference visually other than tearing down all the fishy fixtures and replacing the lamps and drapes, but Penguin's installed this neon umbrella and it's basically the Iceberg Lounge in all but name.
Meanwhile, Maroni is still out for Penguin's blood, but Don Falcone manage to somehow get him to show up for this little negotiation... and it seems to be an overly-convenient excuse that Maroni really wants to get to this judge we never heard of before and Falcone has captured in a room with a dominatrix. Which is just a weird scene all around. I do like how Maroni, while not gunning for Penguin, isn't afraid to quickly tell Penguin that he's not about to let Penguin off the hook, and the moment Falcone is out of the picture, he'll be gunning for Penguin.
Both the Gordon and Penguin sub-plots in this episode were great, but the other two were... just gigantic distractions that in my opinion takes up too much space and time. Granted, there's this poetic juxtaposition about how both Bruce Wayne and the Cranes are facing their fears, how both Penguin and Fish are taking over their respective establishment... but the B-plots just take way too much time.
Bruce Wayne is basically going off on a hike and gets to show his... perseverance, I guess? Embracing his fear and grief by destroying that stone memento that he made with his father, which is another weird scene? Of course, Alfred is just sitting, drinking tea nearby without Bruce knowing, making sure that if the situation really calls for help, he can show up. (Note to parents: not good parenting. If your kid isn't Batman, he'd be scarred for life) It's a bit of a harsh-love variant of Michael Caine's Alfred's "why do we fall, Master Bruce?" and the little heartwarming moment with the sunrise... it's a lot less obvious than the previous Bruce scenes of boxing and mock-fencing and balancing on stairways and jumping across buildings and stuff, but I liked it. It just took too much time is all.
Apparently the people who abducted Fish Mooney wasn't working for Falcone! She finds herself in this fucking weird little prison or Battle Royale style facility where she basically throws her weight around as a named character and scares the fuck out of the random thugs and makes a friend and kills the top dog. I don't... I just don't fucking care, really. It's not that I don't care about Fish Mooney, because the past few episodes have made me grown to not dislike her, but this random plot change seems to happen just to give Fish Mooney screentime in the episode, and unlike Bruce, where we actually get character growth, absolutely none of these distractions needed to happen. I just don't care.
But still, can't complain. I was so happy with the Scarecrow and Penguin business, and it's in my opinion one of the more solid episodes in Gotham.
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