TV Recap: Gotham, Ep.15 – The Scarecrow”

We’ll get into the much ill-advised teaser for next week’s show soon enough. For now, let’s dive into the second half of the season’s first two-parter.

The show is rolling through Batman’s Rogue gallery as best it can, but it’s really feeling like the showrunners are still trapping themselves by devoting far too much in developing Batman’s future at the expense of ‘Gotham’s’ present.  Tonight puts the finishing touches on The Scarecrow’s origin, which of course, won’t get developed much further.

Gerald Crane is still trying to harness the formula from his procured adrenal glands. Gordon and Bullock learn that Crane’s wife died in a car crash and he’s working on this formula to become Daredevil, sorry just a regular man without fear. Once he’s perfected it, his son, Jonathan, gets the next dose.

Somewhere away from Gotham, Fish wakes up in some prison of sorts. She’s befriended by a guy in a suit who knows the way of the prison and tells her about the leader, Mace. Fish immediately starts working on the angles and puts herself in position to take out Mace, which she does with the tease of sex and a knife to the throat. Fish then begins her inaugural address when another prisoner is brought in in shock that “they” took her eyes. That was a good reminder for Fish that she is finally in a situation she decidedly does not have under her control.

Falcone meets with Maroni in a peaceful discussion about the fate of The Penguin. Maroni doesn’t want money in exchange for Penguin’s life. It’s personal. Falcone has another option for him — a judge who sentenced some of Maroni’s pals can now be used at Maroni’s disposal. Maroni’s cool with that deal provided Falcone throws in $200K as well.

Penguin is completing renovations at Oswald’s, but wants to introduce Gordon personally. At GCPD, Penguin waddles in and in a fittingly awkward exchange, meets Nygma. It was weird as intended, but fun watching two future Batman foes have their first encounter.

Bruce heads off to the woods to continue a tradition he had with his father and stacks a rock atop the piles etched ‘BW’ and ‘TW’ for his dad, Thomas. But we get a rare display of emotions and Bruce throws the rocks. As he storms off, he slips and sprains his ankle forcing him to fend for himself. When he finally climbs back up the hill, Alfred greets him and promptly chews him out for taking so long. The show’s version of Alfred is certainly encouraging the anti-social behavior the longstanding take of Alfred will come to find a major problem as he tries to help Bruce retain some semblance of a social life once he becomes Batman.

Eventually, Gordon does wander in and Penguin invites him to the big bash. Still ashamed for seeking Penguin’s help earlier, Gordon blows him off, but it seems like just a matter of time before Gordon will regret both actions.

Gordon and Bullock track down Crane, who manages to escape just long enough to run into the backyard overlooking a scarecrow (subtle) and inject Jonathan with the formula. Crane learns his fearlessness has consequences as he doesn’t back down when Bullock and Gordon aim at him and once he starts shooting, they kill him.

With one bad guy down, Gordon shares a brief moment with the new GCPD medical examiner, Leslie. Adding Morena Baccarin to the cast has not only provided a welcome strong female character besides Fish, but also made Gordon more interesting. Who knew he could actually be funny about PDA? Although, Jimbo, NO ONE questions your professionalism. Making out with your hot girlfriend would probably get you invited out for a little after-hours hangouts with the same corrupt cops you’re worrying about.

Maroni comes to Oswald’s to tell him he has no beef with Penguin … as long as Falcone is alive. The moment he’s dead, so is Penguin.

Gordon visits Jonathan in the hospital and his doctor says Jonathan is seeing that which he fears most over and over. ‘Jupiter Ascending’ on a repeated loop? Yikes. Oh, wait, it’s a scarecrow.

Not a bad show, but not especially happy with killing off Crane Sr. since The Scarecrow can’t really surface until Batman arrives. ‘Gotham’ needs to work on building up recurring villains for Gordon and Bullock to tangle with beyond the vague threat of Falcone and Maroni.

Next week’s teaser strongly hints at the arrival of The Joker? Why? Why? Why? There’s no need to tease him at all. Batman creates The Joker so unless Gordon and Bullock are gonna start dealing with The Red Hood, there’s nothing to be gained from this besides reminding the viewers this Batman show will continue to not deliver what it teases.