Warning: Spoiler Alert
Being able to juggle multiple-storylines in an episode and have them all tied up satisfactorily in the end’s quite a feat, for a TV show, especially one that’s still in its first season. The FOX series “Gotham,” pulled that trick off quite nicely Monday night, in an episode entitled “Scarecrow,” the conclusion to the previous week’s show. Although the main story revolved around GCPD Detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock, attempting to capture a serial killer, preying on people with phobias, the hour was jam-packed with the activities of the rest of the cast.
On yet another rainy night in Gotham City, a gray-haired man enters his apartment, flips the light-switch and his main light’s out, so he goes over and lights a table lamp. We see when the lightning flashes, a figure in silhouette in front of the windows, in the back of the room. The man looks out through his front window, then senses a presence and turns around and says hello. A man in a hooded robe starts to approach him and suddenly we hear someone playing with the front doorknob. The man in the apartment reveals himself, sending the gray-haired man into a panic, he tries running out his door, only to be greeted by another man dressed the same way.
In what appears to be a closed off parking garage swarming with people, two gang members are duking it out, the camera then pans to another area and we see Fish Mooney waking up and looking disoriented. A mousy looking guy comes over and says hello and Fish asks if she’s dreaming. She asks where they’re at and the guy responds, some folks think it’s prison, some think it’s Hell, but he just thinks it’s cold.
Two beefy looking guys suddenly walk over and stand about five feet away, smiling. Fish asks what they want and mousy says that the first guy that approaches a new girl usually gets jumped by the second guy. Fish stands up walks over to the pair and says here’s the deal. The first guy that attacks me, will die like that and she snaps her fingers. The second guy will die slow, so who’s first? The pair turn around and walk away.
Jim and his new girlfriend Lee Thompkins are on the street after a date as Gordon attempts to hail a cab. Jim makes overtures into coming over to Lee’s place, but she begs off, saying she starts her new job in the morning, she’s the new Medical Examiner for the GCPD. Although Gordon suggested she apply for the gig, he seems ill-at-ease, finding out she got it. They kiss goodnight and she gets into a taxi.
Bullock’s waiting for his partner at the scene of a homicide, a 62-year-old high-school English teacher, with the same incision on his abdomen as the last victim. Bullock says his adrenal gland’s likely gone as well. The two detectives start checking the apartment for clues.
The word ramshackle, might have been invented to describe the next house we head to, inside’s Gerald Crane, who takes the fresh adrenal gland then crushes it into a powder, mixes it with some other chemicals, then pours it into a syringe. He then steps out into the hallway, right in front of the stairs and injects himself, his pupils dilate and he falls to the ground in agony. Suddenly he sees a vision, a woman’s walking down the stairs, which are on fire and she says why won’t you help me Gerald? Crane cringes in panic.
Next stop’s Stately Wayne Manor, as young Bruce prepares to embark on a hike that he took every year with his father, this is his first time doing it since the murder of his parents. Alfred asks Bruce if he wants him to go along and Bruce says it wouldn’t be right. Alfred tells him his father would approve of his son carrying on the tradition, but Bruce replies that he and his dad stayed all night and watched the sunrise. Alfred says perhaps next year and Bruce tells him he’ll return before night falls.
We’re now at Fish Mooney’s club and Oswald Cobblepot’s relaying his tale of once again escaping death at the hands of Sal Maroni to Carmine Falcone. Falcone interrupts him and asks if he’s going to clean the place up and Penguin responds, if Falcone wants him to. Falcone says look into redesigning the place as well, as it reeks of Fish Mooney.
Penguin’s fear gets the better of him and he says to Falcone, he’s asking for protection from Sal Maroni and Falcone’s talking about redesigning the club. Falcone looks Cobblepot in the eye and says this place makes money, without money we lose influence, without influence we lose control. If we lose control, then Maroni knocking you off goes from hypothetical to real.
He then tells Penguin, the club’s his and to get it renovated and opened as soon as possible. He then tells Cobblepot, that his days of sneaking and spying on Maroni are over, he’s now with Falcone publicly and things will get a lot better. Penguin’s happy as a kid when the ice-cream man arrives.
Jim and Harvey are digging into their search back at the station, when Lee stops by as it’s her first day as Medical Examiner. Captain Sarah Essen stops by and says they’re glad they met and she tells Lee, she’ll take her on a tour of the station. Harvey tells Gordon he’s got rotten luck, all office-romances end in tears. Bullock’s going through the yearbook of the school the victim taught at, when he shouts that’s him. He recognizes Gerald Crane who teaches biology at the school, from the swimming-pool, when he tried drowning Scottie Mullen. They head over to the school.
Back at facility Fish’s locked-up in, the mousy guy who’s named Tully tells Fish it’s time for breakfast. Mooney starts to get up when Tully tells her, they have to wait for the boss to go first. A nasty-looking guy, and his two goons grab their food and kick the tray towards the crowd, and they all run to get some food.
Bruce’s on his hike to the spot he and his father went every year, when he stops and picks up a rock, examines it, then puts it in his pocket. He’s ready to keep walking, but grabs another stone, looks at that one and puts that in another pocket. Then Bruce proceeds to the site.
Gordon and Bullock head to the school and the principal tells them that Crane called one day, said he wouldn’t be in and he’s been MIA ever since. Bullock asks if it was about three weeks ago, as that’s when he moved from his house and the principal said it was. She said that Gerald was a nice man, but he could get quiet and moody, she attributed that to the death of his wife about six-years before, she said Mrs. Crane died in a car accident. However she said, he’s very close to his son Jonathan.
Harvey asks if he ever talked about fear or phobias and the principal asked if phobics were getting targeted and killed and Gordon responded they were. She then asked if their adrenal glands had gotten removed and Bullock asked how she knew that. She picks up a bound set of papers and set that Crane wrote an academic paper a few moths ago and asked her to proof it.
Crane’s theory’s that fear’s an evolutionary flaw and it was the reason that we had wars, murders, thefts and rape. Jim asked if Crane killed people to prove a theory, and the principal told him he was attempting to cure himself from suffering from fear. She said it was Crane’s obsession.
Crane injects himself again and this time he appears far less frightened when the vision appears. His son Jonathan walks over to him and asks his father if he’s okay and Crane responds he’s glorious. He says that his theory’s working, soon Jonathan will undergo what Crane refers to as the protocol and asks his son if he’s ready? The young teen looks very worried.
Falcone’s hosting his rival Sal Maroni at his home and asks Falcone if they’re friends and Carmine responds of course. Maroni says good, because I’m telling you right now, I’m going to kill that two-bit weasel Penguin. Falcone smiles and replies, so be it.
Penguin’s yelling at the construction workers to get hustling as the club opens in ten-hours. Penguin’s henchman enters and says these are hot from the printer and there’s a box of invitations to the grand opening of Oswald’s. Cobblepot tells his henchman, this isn’t just an opening, it’s my moment, then he tells his guy to deliver all the invitations, but he’s going to deliver one himself.
Fish and Tully walk over to Mace’s goons and asks for a moment of their boss’ time and she’s not there to cause trouble. Mace nods and she approaches him and says there are lots of tough guys there, why’s he the boss. Mace responds the place has just one knife and he owns it. Fish then says that if he protects her, she’ll be very valuable to him. He asks if she believes she’s worth his protection, she replies he’s got no idea how worthy she is. Mace smiles.
We witness a historic meeting in the next scene as Cobblepot heads to the station to deliver Jim his invite, but sees Gordon’s not at his desk. However GCPD forensic scientist Ed Nygma, sees Cobblepot and the two circle the main station room before ending up standing side-by-side.
Ed smiles at Oswald and the Penguin says can I help you, and Ed responds, I don’t know can you and both men laugh. Penguin asks him what he wants and Ed replies, what do poor people have and nobody wants and Cobblepot asks if that’s a riddle? Ed asks if he likes riddles and Oswald says no, so Ed says well the answer’s nothing. He then introduces himself and tells the Penguin he knows who he is. Cobblepot says well since you know that you must realize you’re standing too close and Nygma takes a step back. The Penguin then says good-bye and good luck, but doesn’t move, Ed picks up that he’s expected to go away.
Jim and Harvey head to their desks and Gordon sees Cobblepot and tells Harvey he’ll be right back. Penguin gives him the invitation and says thanks I’m not going. Oswald asks if he needs help on the case he’s working as they worked together great the last time Jim asked him for help. Gordon says no, then tells Cobblepot to stop coming around. Penguin says that Gordon will need his help one day soon, better to walk in the dark with a friend, than in the light by yourself.
Gerald Crane’s ready to start the protocol on his son Jonathan, he injects him with the mixture and tells Jonathan he’s a good boy. Jonathan starts shaking and feeling the pain and his vision gets hazy. Gerald tells his son to keep looking into his eyes.
Bruce gets to the site and the first thing we notice is two piles of rocks, one with a rock that has the initials B.W. the other reading T.W. Bruce adds the new stones to the pile, then picks up the rock with his father’s initials, first he looks very sad, but it turns into anger and he throws the stone away. He then throws all the rocks away and starts stomping off from the site. But Bruce trips and goes falling down a very steep hill, hitting every log and rock along the journey, until he stops rolling. He’s unconscious.
Falcone and Maroni are in Carmine’s house when Sal asks him why he values Cobblepot so much and Falcone responds he always likes a clever man by his side. He says Oswald’s clever enough to realize that he’ll never be boss. Sal says to Falcone, his beef with Penguin’s personal not a money issue. Carmine then asks Maroni if he knows Chief Judge Stanley Turnbull and Sal says he put away a lot of friends of his. He smiles and says if Falcone delivers Turnbull’s head and gives him 200 thousand, he’ll leave Penguin alone. Falcone says you can have more than his head and reveals he’s holding the judge prisoner.
Harvey tells Jim to get Penguin to help, but Gordon refuses. Instead they dig into the records and find out Karen Falcone died in a house fire. She was upstairs, but Gerald and Jonathan were downstairs and escaped, they’ve discovered Crane’s real fear and decide to check the old house to see if Crane’s there.
Back at the Crane’s house Jonathan attempts to run away but Gerald catches him and talks him into completing the protocol, while they’re standing in front of an old shabby scarecrow. Crane tells his son he’ll never be sacred again, the two of them will be the only two humans without any fears.
Fish and Tully walk over to Mace and his goons and Fish asks Mace what’s up Doc? The boss says his name’s Mace, but Fish says she likes to give her friends nicknames and she chose Doc for him as he such wise eyes for a big man. Mace tells her to come on over and she asks if that means he’ll protect her and he says yeah and grabs her and puts her on his lap.
He calls her Baby and she says she doesn’t like being called that, he tells her to stop talking before he gets angry. Fish then produces the knife and slits Mace’s throat, killing him instantly. She then yells to the rest of the crowd, my name’s Fish Mooney and now I’m in charge.
Bruce wakes up and sees he sprained his ankle too badly to walk on it. He crawls over to a branch, breaks it in half and then ties a belt around it and uses it as a splint for his leg. He still can’t walk well and starts making his attempt at crawling back up the side of the hill.
Gordon and Bullock burst into the Crane’s and Jonathan tells his father they need to leave, but Gerald says they need to finish the protocol. They run outside to the spot in front of the scarecrow and Crane fills the entire syringe with the mixture. Jonathan protests it’s too much but his father says he’ll be fine and injects his son, the dose is too much for the teen to handle and he looks at the scarecrow and watches as its eyes turn glowing red.
Gerald gets into a shootout with the two detectives, yelling he has no fear. He’s soon dead riddled with bullets from both officers. Jonathan’s having a seizure and Jim tells Bullock to call an ambulance and tries to calm the young teen down, but his screams just get louder.
Bruce crawls to the top of the hill and finds Alfred sitting there in front of a fire and drinking tea, he tells his ward he’s been there for about an hour and asks if Bruce stopped for a pint on the way. The boy’s just steamed says he sprained his ankle, he’s cold and tired and just wants to go home. Alfred asks if he wants to go home, or stay and watch the sun rise. They choose to stay.
The opening of Oswald’s is far from a success as there might be six customers in the club. There’s a punk band on stage and one guy with a giant Mohawk dancing in front of them. Penguin’s pouring champagne when Maroni and his two guys come in, Cobblepot starts to book, and Maroni says all’s cool. He and Falcone reached a deal. Then he tells Penguin he’d better pray Falcone lives a long life, because when he dies, so will Oswald.
Bruce falls asleep on Alfred’s shoulder, when Alfred rouses him to watch the sunrise. Bruce looks content and at peace.
Fish starts telling the crowd that she’s going to instill order and structure into this place, when the guards open the fence and throw a woman into the facility. Tully gasps she’s back and the woman starts screaming, my eyes they took my eyes and we see fear register on Fish’s face.
Jim goes to check on Jonathan at the hospital and the doctor says the boy’s in really tough shape. Even though the chemicals have left his body, the results have remained. Jonathan’s in a constant state of fear, every second he thinks his greatest fear’s going to get him. We then see thins from Jonathan’s perspective, the scarecrow with glowing eyes is in his face where ever he turns.
Next week another very well-known enemy of Batman’s introduced and yes it’s the criminal you’ve waited for since the season began.
The Story Continues Next Monday Night at 8:00 pm on FOX.
