GOTHAM Scares Up Danger

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Episode 115 “Scarecrow”

[Photos: Jessica Miglio/FOX]

Continuing the adventures of Dr. Crane and his son Jonathan, this week’s Gotham gives us the origin of the Bat-villain known as the Scarecrow. Plus: a first meeting between the Penguin and the Riddler! Plus: still no Barbara! And for realz, where are Montoya and Allen?!

Several rites of passage this week, if you look at them just right.

First, Fish Mooney. She wakes up in some kind of underground cave/tunnel affair, and she quickly intuits the “law of the jungle” in these parts. After her initial threat to kill anyone who tries to have his way with her, she quickly learns that there’s a cat named Mace who’s the top dog. And the only reason he’s in charge is because he’s got the knife. Since no one else has a knife, he figures to run things as he sees fit.

Now, we still don’t know anything about where we are, but Fish’s survival instincts are in overdrive, and she soon is negotiating with Mace. Her deal: his protection for her services. He, of course, thinks she’d be more valuable as a girlfriend or eye candy, maybe. A status symbol to go with his self-declared rank. But Fish has other ideas. Which lead to her holding the knife after stabbing Mace in the throat.

“My name is Fish Mooney. And I’m in charge here now.”

Survival of the fittest, indeed.

Bruce gets his own survival test when he tries to carry on the family tradition of the hike in the woods he and his father used to take to watch the sunrise. Bruce’s plan is to go alone and carry on the tradition, over Alfred’s concerns, and in the course of his journey picks up two rocks to add to the individual piles he and his father have collected over the years. It’s apparent they’ve been doing this for quite some time.

Only it doesn’t quite go the way Bruce planned it. And it’s good to finally see Bruce just completely lose it. He’s been bottling up all of this grief for so long, and it’s past time for him to just fall apart because he’s alone. His pain is palpable, and one wonders if he’ll regret destroying the rock piles later in his life. So when he falls down the gully and sprains his ankle, it’s almost a galvanizing reset button for him, as he has to get himself together to extricate himself from his predicament. Because he’s alone, with no one to help him.

Or is he?

Alfred, the old softie, is at the top of the hill, waiting with a camp fire. And he’s got an easy answer when Bruce takes him to task for not helping: “I didn’t help you get down there.” And they wait for the sunrise. “Cup o’ tea, you cheeky monkey?”

As for Penguin, he’s trying to get Falcone’s protection while Falcone is inspecting the club and figuring out how to redecorate. The club makes money, and money means influence, which means Falcone continues to have the power necessary to protect Penguin from Maroni. Falcone has a meeting of the minds with Maroni over young Oswald, and it involves sharing leverage over a rather hard-nosed judge who seems to have a thing for whips and leather and young men. Yipe.

So Penguin, enjoying the protection of Don Falcone, is prepping to open Oswald’s (not the Iceberg Lounge yet) when Maroni shows up at the club to threaten his life as soon as Falcone’s no longer alive…

And the meat of the hour: the conclusion of the Crane case.

Gordon and Bullock are tracking another victim — this time a high school teacher with a fear of zombies? — and it turns out he’s on the faculty at the high school where Dr. Crane works. The principal (who has a pretty cushy office) recognizes that Crane is actually working on the research he outlined in a paper he wrote. He’s looking for a cure for fear, driven by his failure to save his wife in a house fire.

Working with Nygma, Gordon and Bullock figure out Crane is working up fear serum for two test subjects. The other, of course, his son Jonathan. The future Scarecrow gets a pretty interesting origin story here, as the elder Crane doses him with a massive amount of the anti-fear toxin. This has the exact opposite effect Crane was looking to produce, as the chemical cocktail hits Jonathan’s brain and has him hallucinating evil scarecrows everywhere, even after the drugs themselves have worn off.

I can think of some terrible ways to live. Seeing your worst nightmare everywhere every moment of the day is, as Charles Barkley would say, a turrrible way to go…

And now Jim Gordon has to deal with flirty girlfriend at work. What a turrrible predicament.

And how many weeks without Montoya & Allen, now? What’s the count?

Still not missing Barbara Kean, but when she comes back, she’d better be riding a unicorn and blasting rainbows out of her head, or some similarly massive story-advancing event that has changes the show forever.

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[Show Web Site at FOX]     [Previous Recap: 114 “The Fearsome Dr. Crane”]