Josh recaps Season 1 Episode 15 of Gotham, titled The Scarecrow, where Jim and Harvey continue their pursuit of Gerald Crane, who we learn is trying to “conquer” fear! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
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Episode Recap of Gotham, Season 1 Episode 15: The Scarecrow
This episode of Gotham continues the pursuit of Gerald Crane, who we learn is trying to “conquer” fear. But before I get into all that, Detective Gordon has a new coworker! Dr. Thompkins has joined the staff as the new medical examiner. Gordon seems less than excited to hear the news, and the Doc recognizes this. Gordon urges her to keep the workplace professional, but she gives him a hard time about it.
So back with Crane, we see that he is trying to “conquer” fear. Through mixing some chemicals along with the Cortisol that Crane has harvested from his victims. He has begun a “clinical trial” on himself, with injections, which cause him to hallucinate the death of his wife, who died in a fiery accident in their house. He seems to be attempting to become immune to fear associated with either fire or the death of his wife.
After he feels sufficiently “immune” to fear, he decides it is Jonathan Crane’s turn, who is his son (and eventually becomes the Scarecrow in the Batman universe). But this is where things get a little precarious for him.
Back at the precinct, Gordon and the team have been trying to figure out how to track down Crane. Finally, they realize that Crane must have some sort of phobia, and look for tragedies in his life. They discover the fire that happened, and head out to Crane’s old house. This turns out to be exactly where Jonathan is hiding.
Gerald Crane is in the midst of his son’s injection on Jonathan when they notice that the cops have arrived. Jonathan urges his father to flee with him, but Gerald is worried that not completing the process could be detrimental to Jonathan. Having no choice, they do flee, but Gerald brings a syringe with him.
The Cranes hide in a haystack that has a looming scarecrow nearby. Gerald plunges what seems to be an overdose of his drug into Jonathan, as he says there is no other way they will be able to finish the procedure. Jonathan screams in pain and fear, as he begins hallucinating the scarecrow attacking him. This alerts the cops, and supposedly without fear, Gerald Crane confronts the cops. He is shot dead.
Jonathan is taken to the hospital, where the cops tell Gordon he is in a perpetual state of fear. And what is worse, they don’t know how to fix it since they aren’t familiar at all with what elder Crane injected him with.
Back with Gordon, he returns to the station for another talk with Thompkins. He still tries to insist work is separate from personal life, and Thompkins compromises saying that she will be “discreet”.
That finishes out the main storyline, but what about the rest of our favorite characters this episode? Well, Falcone has decided to give Cobblepot Fish Mooney’s club. Cobblepot isn’t too excited though, as he is concerned that Maroni will be coming for him. Falcone reassures him that his most important mission is to get this club up and running, and Maroni is not to be worried about.
Turns out that this is for the most part true. Falcone makes a deal with Maroni to leave Penguin alone. The deal is in exchange for $200,000 and a certain judge being taken out of the picture, Maroni will leave Cobblepot alone—to which Maroni does in fact agree.
But later in the episode, Maroni pays a visit to the club that is supposed to be having a grand re-opening party. Unfortunately, the club is pretty empty, and Cobblepot isn’t having a good time. Maroni shows up, making matters worse, and lets Cobblepot know that when Falcone is dead, Cobblepot will be too.
So what happened with the cliffhanger with fish Mooney? Well, we aren’t entirely sure. When we see her again, she is in some sort of prison area that is in pretty bad shape, and contains even worse looking criminals. Mooney is quick to make a friend, a nice-ish looking guy in a dirty suit. Some men approach her with less than noble intents, but Mooney is able to stand up to them pretty well. She begins learning the lay of the land, and finds out who is leading this shindig. But by the episode, she has assassinated this leader, and claimed the prison under her control.
Then we have our buddy Bruce Wayne, the budding Caped Crusader. He has decided that he wants to go on a hike. Alfred seems a little concerned, but Bruce says that he has done the hike several times. Bruce heads out, and we see him pick up some stones on the way. At the top of a mountain, Bruce places his newly found stones on what looks to be a memorial for his slain mother and father. But soon, rage kicks in, and Bruce begins throwing rocks erratically. He begins to calm down, but he takes a tumble down the side of the hill he is on. At the bottom, he has injured his leg pretty badly, and night has begun to fall.
Alfred, meanwhile, back at the mansion, seems to be getting worried and looks like he might head out to look for Master B. Bruce has fashioned a splint for his leg and tries crawling up the mountain he tumbled down. After quite a bit of time, he reaches the top to see a campfire. Alfred has been sitting there watching him struggle up, and Bruce isn’t too happy at first, learning that Alfred just sat back and watched him suffer. But in the end, Bruce realizes what Alfred was doing, and they have a bonding moment by the campfire—despite the most assured pain that Bruce must be in.
Josh’s Thoughts: Gotham, Season 1 Episode 15: The Scarecrow
So this episode as you can probably guess, is a continuation from last week’s episode. It was interesting to see how Dr. Crane was actually using the adrenal glands, and certainly made for a creepy episode of a mad scientist trying his hand at fringe medical work. I have to say the special effects used on the scarecrow were pretty cool.
It also looks like we have the origin story for the Scarecrow DC villain. I am curious to see when he winds up getting out the hospital, and if we will see that in the show or not. I did think it was a little too easy for Gordon to find Crane. I wish there was a little more investigation going on for that to happen. I also had a hard time buying the removal of fear that Crane seemed to think he provided. He seemed to fear for himself and his son to be captured by the cops, or he wouldn’t have fled in the first place. I could accept that he had conquered a specific fear, but he makes the claim near the end of the episode that he wasn’t afraid of everything, which I just could buy fully.
As for Fish, I was pretty bored with her scene. She is probably one of my least favorite characters in the show. I find Butch more compelling than her. When he scenes come on, I find myself just hoping they end soon enough. I was a little curious to know what happened between her charging the guy who raided her boat last week, and her ending up in this prison. I don;t really under why that was all skipped.
Unfortunately the same feeling for Fish, I have for Bruce Wayne. He just isn’t a compelling story I feel. I guess the show this episode was trying to show Bruce’s resourcefulness and toughness, while at the same time showing that Alfred provided “tough love”. I understand that, but how the story is going is not making me overly excited to see Bruce’s scenes.
So far, I find the episode most compelling from Gordon;s point of view, and Falcone’s point of view. Those two, along with Butch are the shows strongest characters I feel. Maroni is pretty interesting too, although I am unsure how it took so long for him to realize what Cobblepot was doing for him. Hopefully we can get some good stories the next few episodes.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 15 of Gotham: The Scarecrow
As expected, Dr. Thompkins got the job as medical examiner at GCPD. Yay, right? Maybe not so much for Gordon. For some reason, he doesn’t seem very happy about it – which confused me because he was the one who suggested the job to her in the first place. She was confused for the same reason. So it’s okay for him to make out with her in front of the whole police station if she doesn’t work there, but now that she works there, he doesn’t want to show any affection whatsoever? Makes sense, that he would want to keep up a level of professionalism. But it almost seemed like he was giving her the cold shoulder. I really like the chemistry between Gordon and Dr. Thompkins, especially since there was none whatsoever between him and Barbara. But I have a feeling that the show is just trying to introduce this early on as something that will eventually come between Gordon and Dr. Thompkins to justify their breakup later on, since we know he eventually gets back together with Barbara.
This was an interesting origin story for the Scarecrow, which I do not know the actual origin story of from the comics, if there is one. I am only familiar with him from the Christopher Nolan movies. Whereas I don’t like the show making up background stories for certain characters that don’t work at all, like Selina Kyle, I was fine with this explanation of how Scarecrow got to be the way that he is in the movies. The question is whether we’ll see him pop up and interact with Bruce Wayne and the other Gotham characters in the near future, or if he’ll be locked away for awhile as he learns to overcome his fears.
So, did Fish Mooney not know that guy who rushed toward her on the boat? It seemed like they knew each other, but I’m not sure sure now. I guess it just could have been pirates, and she was trying to defend herself, knowing that she was in danger. What happens now? Fish gets all the prisoners together and they all break out, then she has a new army to bring back to Gotham with her to challenge Falcone? That’s what it’s seeming like right now. Could be interesting.
Scenes from Gotham, Season 1 Episode 16: The Blind Fortune Teller
Here are scenes from the next episode of Gotham, titled The Blind Fortune Teller:
