Gotham S04E02 Review: Rise of the Scarecrow

Gotham, Season 4, Episode 2: The Fear Reaper

The Scarecrow makes his full-episode debut in here, and he even has a scythe! The Penguin-vs-GCPD dick-waving-show is still part of the main plot of the episode, althought a bit less prominent compared to the previous episode. Penguin kind of gets the victory this time, because even with Gordon averting the crisis that Scarecrow is about to unleash, he still manages to get a good chunk of the GCPD on his side. And honestly, Gordon doesn't really make that good of an argument.

After three seasons of the GCPD being fucked over and over and over by so many different threats, it's honestly no wonder that the officers of the GCPD are sick and tired of it, and would willingly jump to allowing someone else take the brunt of the maniacs and monsters that Gotham City breeds. It's hard to even get on Bullock's case, because his argument -- better to have him as commissioner rather than someone straight-up loyal to Penguin -- isn't hard to argue against. But the other police officers are not having any of Gordon's shit, and some even come after Gordon in the locker room. Penguin's systematic verbal dismantlement of the GCPD in this episode, putting up even more arguments than the previous episode, definitely hits home because, yes, the whole license-to-do-crime thing is still evil, but he's at least getting shit done. 

Mind you, Gordon got shit done in this episode, too, going headlong into the asylum, where Scarecrow dosed everyone there with his fear gas and told them to 'face your fears!' (we got an absolutely creepy scene with the warden facing a monster clown that'd make Pennywise proud), and Gordon has to face his own fear -- seeing Lee slit her wrist to get away from him. Gordon got out of it with the power of love (which is a bit of a weak scene IMO) and managed to stop Crane's fear toxin with... water? Huh. Yeah, the way he stopped Crane wasn't super-great.

Scarecrow himself is... okay. He's obviously still a novice at this whole supervillain thing and spends so much of his time screaming about fear and "how did you conquer your fear? You lie!" instead of being a proper master of fear, but it's Jonathan's first outing as the Scarecrow and he's entertaining enough. Besides, that scene of him fucking over the asylum warden is definitely well done. It's not a badly-written character, but I really hope he  gets to become more fleshed out like Jerome and Penguin and Riddler as opposed to a one-trick pony like the show's version of Mr. Freeze or Firebug. 

The B-plots in this episode is a bit more disjointed, but still relatively fun. Bruce accidentally being arrested and getting out with the excuse of looking for Selina Kyle is actually very believable and builds up on three seasons' worth of the intertwining relationships between Bruce, Gordon, Alfred and Selina; Lucius meeting Bruce in the GCPD and giving him rock-climbing suit (that was an amazing scene and Lucius needs to show up more) is awesome.

Ivy, meanwhile, searches for her place in the world. Rejected by Penguin and rejected by Tabitha (and Selina, sort-of), she... er... doses herself with... shaman steroids or some shit like that? It's weird.

Tabitha and Selina find that Barbara is alive and well, for no goddamn reason beyond 'eh, comic book rules', and Barbara wants to bury the hatchet and basically run a weapon shop for Penguin's new unionized crime deal. Tabitha is angry at Barbara, but after seeing that Barbara is willing to let Tabitha slice off her arm, apparently they're buddies now. Of course, Penguin and Barbara are at each other's neck as rivals again, and Zsasz hilariously acts like a kid in a candy store with all the guns at Barbara's place.

While the Tabitha/Selina stuff is well done, I honestly can't get behind the Barbara-being-revived-for-no-goddamn-reason thing. Although her actress is entertainingly hammy, so I'll let it slide. Hopefully there's some bigger mystery with how Penguin notes that she has way too many resources to set up an arms shop for someone back from the dead. I just hope it's a good mystery. 

Oh, and there's the hint that Gordon wants to go to Falcone for help, after Bullock notes how the pre-season-1 city, under Falcone, was a lot more stable. But Bullock raises a valid point in that Falcone truly hates Gordon for his murder of Mario, and honestly... would Falcone mind this whole Penguin operation that much? 

It's not as solid an episode as the season premiere, thanks to how abruptly and how silly Gordon actually defeats the Scarecrow, but it's still definitely enjoyable to watch. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Lucius Fox giving Bruce a highly-advanced Batman suit and gadgets to suit his strange 'hobby' of rock climbing, with both of them deadpanning about how yes, all of these will definitely be required for a hobby like rock climbing, is definitely a homage to how Lucius interacted with Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, supplying him with WayneTech gadgets for his own 'hobbies', basically knowing that Bruce is Batman without coming outright and saying it.