Gotham Gets Scary!!!

Gotham City

!!SPOILER ALERT!!  Read at your own risk!  If you didn’t watch Gotham last night, you don’t want to read this post!!!  Stop reading now!

Last night’s episode of Gotham gave us a deeper look at one of my personal favorite villains of Batman:  the Scarecrow.  I’ve always felt that if the character were done right in either a film or in a live action television show, Scarecrow could become one of the scariest villains that Batman ever faced.  While his appearance in Batman Begins and briefly in Christopher Nolan’s two films that followed was well received by myself and others, I felt that the Scarecrow could have done so much more if his character was allowed to be fleshed out a bit more.

Gotham appears to be doing just that as last week’s episode and last night’s episode have shown to viewers of the series.  Last week we caught a glimpse of a young Jonathan Crane and his sadistic father’s search for a “cure for fear” by stealing the adrenal glands of people at their most fearful moments.  By preying on phobics, Crane’s father would literally use people’s greatest fears against them in order to force their body to produce maximum amounts of the “fear chemical” (it was named in the show but I don’t recall what it was AND I’m too lazy to google it) in their adrenal glands and then cut those glands out of their bodies.  From a fear of drowning to a fear of pigs, Dr. Crane scared the bejeezus out of people in that episode and continued doing that in last night’s episode as well.

Last night we also got to see the reason for Crane’s attempt to cure fear in both himself and in his son.  As Gordon and Bullock attempt to catch him, they uncover the fact that Gerald Crane couldn’t (or wouldn’t) save his wife from burning to death in their home and then lied about what really happened to her.  Once Crane cured himself, he began “treating” his son, Jonathan.  The show climaxed with a shoot-out between Gordon, Bullock, and Gerald Crane.  Prior to the shoot out and his eventual death, Dr. Crane pumped Jonathan full of his cure and sent the kid into a spasmatic fit.  The episode ended with Jonathan in a hospital room reliving his greatest fear over and over.  What was that fear?  A scarecrow, of course!

The element of fear was cranked up big time in this episode, and there were moments of true horror scattered throughout as well.  I LOVED this and I hope that they continue with it as the series continues.

While the Crane arc developed over the course of the evening, we also got to catch up with Fish Mooney.  We find Fish as a captive of someone (I’m thinking it might be the Dollmaker, but I could be wrong) and she and a whole lot of other kidnapped people are being held in what appears to be an underground chamber.  She befriends one of the other prisoners and soon decides to establish herself as the leader of the group in a very violent way.  Overacting ensues, and one of the other prisoners arrives back from somewhere with her eyes torn out.  Oh, yeah!

However, it wasn’t Jada Pinkett Smith’s overacting that was the highlight of the evening, it was the first meeting of two of Batman’s most iconic villains on the show.  The man who will eventually become the Riddler, Edward Nygma, had his first meeting with Penguin at GCPD.  The encounter was brief, humorous, and simply wonderful.  Nygma annoyed Penguin (which is saying a lot considering Penguin’s current “snitch” rep) and Penguin rebuffed him quickly by telling him that if he knows who he is then he knows that he’s “Standing too close.”  It was quick and great, and I can’t wait to see more encounters between villains as the show progresses.

Also of note was Penguin’s slow rise to power under both Falcone and Maroni.  An uneasy truce was called between the two mobsters, but Maroni swore that he would get revenge on Penguin for double-crossing him as soon as Falcone passed away.  Penguin has gotten out of tighter spots before (as seen last week), so I have no worries about him making it out of this one alive.

We were also given a little more insight into Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth’s relationship.  Sean Pertwee has proven to be the best actor in this series so far (even though there are many brilliant performances) as he has managed to make Alfred one of the most interesting characters in the show.  Fans of the comics know that Alfred is SO MUCH MORE than just Bruce Wayne’s butler, and I’m glad to see Gotham give him his due.

Overall, last night’s episode was excellent.  The writing, direction, and acting (except for Smith) seems to get better with each episode.  Gotham has managed to take us back into the history of Batman and build (or rebuild) core characters from the beginning.  You would think that the general public’s familiarity with some of these characters (especially Bruce Wayne, Penguin, Riddler, and Gordon) would make the show boring since we all basically know how things are going to turn out, but the writers have managed to revise characters or give them different origin stories to keep things interesting.  It’s excellent.

At the end of the episode there was a teaser that hinted at the Joker.  Fans of the comics know that there have been many origin stories for the character over the years, but none of them have ever taken hold as gospel truth.  Heck, even the Joker has said he isn’t sure who he is or where he came from at times.  It’s the chaos of the character that makes the Joker so great, so I wonder just how the show will play out his origin (if they will play it out at all)!

Stay tuned, true believers, and thanks for reading!