- Gordon and Bullock set out to stop Gerald Crane, a biology teacher who has been harvesting the glands of his murder victims. Meanwhile, after finding herself in an unusual setting, Mooney continues plotting to gain power, and Falcone attempts to change Maroni's plan for the Penguin. Then, Bruce takes a treacherous hike.
- Oswald's fate seems sealed when Maroni demands his head for Falcone, but the don comes up with juicier payoff: hated judge Turnball, caught in the 'perverse' brothel act. Alfred's discrete presence proves vital for Bruce, who embarks alone on the nature hike he normally would do with his late father, but makes a bad fall. James's ex-Arkham-asylum lover Dr. Leslie Thompkins is appointed as GCPD's medical examiner, so he decides to take professional distance in the precinct. They and Harvey investigate the series of crimes exposing people to their phobias and harvesting hormones from their corpses. It turns out that traumatized scientist Gerald Crane is composing a serum to cure himself and son Gerald from all fear, with tragic results. Fish is on the run in a squatter slum, but manages to take over from their sole armed leader by binding him and establishes a rule of terror.—KGF Vissers
- "Gotham" - "The Scarecrow" - Feb. 9, 2015
The hunt continues for Crane.
An older man comes home during a dark and stormy night and is accosted by a hooded figure. He runs to the door and sees another. They are both men and have creepy zombie-like faces.
Fish wakes up in an industrial warehouse-type place full of men fighting. She asks a regular looking guy if she is dreaming. He says he hopes so. Two thugs stand menacingly, appraising Fish. Presumably with bad intent. She tells them the first man to come at her will die fast and the second will die slow. She asks whose first and they walk off. Regular-looking guy is impressed.
Jim and Lee are coming home from their third date and he wonders if he'll be getting an invite to her apartment. She says yes but not tonight since she starts a new job in the morning. She's coming to work at the GCPD as the new medical examiner. He claims it's good. She says they'll see. They share a goodnight kiss and she steps into a cab.
Gordon meets Harvey at the crime scene of the guy from the opening. He has the same surgical incisions as past victims of Crane and is missing his adrenal glands. Gordon wonders what he's doing with them. We cut to Crane grinding them up and then creating some kind of liquid and filling a syringe with it. He creeps down a hallway and then injects himself with the liquid. His eyes become quite green and he falls to the floor. He sees a woman walking down the steps and she bursts into flames and asks why he won't help her.
Bruce is packing and Alfred offers to come with him, wherever he is going. Bruce demurs and says it wouldn't be right. Bruce assures him that he will be fine and will be back before dark. He says his father would've approved of carrying on this tradition they had together. (Apparently, they took an overnight trip and watched the sunrise together.)
Penguin is explaining to Falcone about what happened to him almost getting killed as they walk through Fish's ruined club. Penguin is worried that Maroni is planning to retaliate against him. Falcone asks him to clean the place up. He also wants him to redesign to get rid of the Fish-y feeling. Penguin is pleading with him for protection but Falcone seems more concerned about rebuilding the nightclub. Falcone says he wants to reopen the club and have Penguin run it and his days of sneaking around and spying are over. He's earned that. He says they are now together publicly so he wants him to spruce up the place and leave Maroni to Falcone.
Lee shows up for her first day of work and Gordon pretends to the captain that he only knows her from Arkham. She plays along. It is stiff. Harvey welcomes her aboard and tells Jim that office romance always ends in tears and he knows from experience. They find Crane in a yearbook, he's a high school biology teacher. They head back to school.
Fish introduces herself to regular looking guy who is named Kelly. He tells her this place is considered a prison by some. He quickly stops her when "breakfast" arrives in the form of slop buckets thrown threw the bars. They have to let he "Boss" eat first, he is named Mace. He is a fearsome bearded man.
Bruce walks through the woods and picks up a rock from a pile, he goes back to the pile and takes another.
Jim and Harvey go to the school where Crane hasn't shown up for weeks. The principal tells them that he was a good teacher and father and lost his wife to a car accident years ago. They ask if he ever talked about fear or phobias. She asks if someone is killing "phobics" and if they were missing their adrenal glands. She shows them an academic paper he wrote a few months back on how fear was an evolutionary flaw. She says he was trying to cure himself of fear and that's what the syringes are about. He's killing the phobics while they are afraid spiking their fear and then harvesting adrenal glands to cure himself. They discover there is another test subject and wonder who it is.
We cut back to Crane in the hallway of crazy looking at the burning woman. She disappears and we see his son approach from behind wondering if he's okay. Crane says he's glorious and that it's working. He says it's almost Jonathan's turn to be cured of fear and asks if he's ready.
Maroni and Falcone go for a stroll outside on the grounds at Falcone's. They agree that they are "friends." Maroni says a sandwich and a stroll won't keep him from killing Penguin. Falcone says "So be it."
Meanwhile Penguin is furiously overseeing the remake of the club, now called Oswald's. He is excited to send out the invites for the opening. He will deliver one in person.
Fish approaches the "Boss" Mace. She says she just wants a word. She asks why he is the boss. He says he has the only knife in he whole place. She says she wants to make a deal and says she might have skills useful to him. She kneels down before him and says "all kinds" of skills and if he protects her from the others she will show him. He asks "You think you're worth protecting?" She says he has no idea.
Oswald delivers his in person invite to Jim Gordon but he's not there. He is eyed and trailed by Nygma. Penguin turns to him and asks what he wants. He offers a riddle. Penguin doesn't like riddles. He says he knows who he is. He offers up odd Penguin facts. Penguin says it was nice to meet him and tells him to keep moving. Jim and Harvey emerge and Penguin delivers his party invite. Jim declines. He offers his help on his case if it's tricky since they've worked well in the past. Jim tells him he shouldn't be there. Penguin says one day soon Jim will need his help and asks him to reconsider his invitation. Jim junks the invite.
Crane shoots up his son with his adrenal juice, telling him he loves him and wouldn't harm him. Jonathan's eyes go big and green and freaks out and Crane says to look in his eyes. Jonathan screams.
Bruce continues his walk through the woods. He comes upon another artful pile of stones. He takes the ones he took earlier and places one on a pile with his initials and one marked by his father's initials. He looks sad. He takes his father's initialed stone in hand and throws it into the woods. He then throws more and kicks the piles over in anger. He sinks down and cries. He grabs his bag and stalks off. Suddenly, he falls and tumbles down a steep grade, hitting several fallen logs along the way. He realizes he is injured and stranded with a rain storm approaching. His ankle is severely banged up.
Lee and Jim chat at the office. She says her first day is busy. She gives him a quick smooch. He asks her not to do that in the office since it's not professional. She says she should hope not. Bullock approaches.
Falcone offers Maroni a cigar. Maroni wonders why Falcone wants to keep Penguin alive. Falcone says he's a clever and clever enough to know that he'll never be the boss and he likes to keep clever people around. Falcone offers money at first but Maroni says that won't do. Falcone instead offers to whack a judge that Maroni hates. Maroni says his head and 200k will buy Penguin. Falcone says he can do better than his head. He opens a curtain to reveal the judge behind glass. He is bound and gagged and crying as a woman whips him and a young man lays dead near by. Falcone caught him with the young man and is now offering to share in torturing him with Maroni. Maroni likes the view.
Gordon and Bullock go over the case and Bullock asks if Jim will asks Penguin for his help. Jim says no he wants to get inside Crane's head instead, find out why he was obsessed with fear. They look up the wife's car crash and it turns out she died in a house fire. Crane was in the house when his wife died and he didn't save her because he was afraid of the fire and now he's ashamed. We cut to Crane in the house having the vision of his wife on fire. He calls out to his son who has taken off running outside. Crane says they need to stick with the protocol but Jonathan pleads that he is not afraid in the same way his father is. Crane says all people on the planet are paralyzed by fear. He tells Jonathan he just wants to help him and mankind and tells him to be brave. He says it will be over before he knows it. They have this conversation in front of a creepy, decrepit scarecrow.
Alfred looks out at the darkening sky and checks his watch, clearly worried. Bruce tries to get moving in the woods. He drags himself to a stick, breaks it and ties it to his leg like a brace with a belt. He grabs his backpack and begins to climb up the embankment down which he fell.
Fish goes to see Mace. She kinda, sorta flirts with him. He calls her a firecracker and she says he's looking at the 4th of July. He asks her not to talk too much and calls her baby. She says not to call her baby and stabs him with his own knife in the neck. He falls to the ground. She holds the knife up to the group and announces that she is in charge now.
Harvey and Jim arrive at the house and Jonathan wants to run. Crane says they have to finish the protocol. Jim and Harvey enter the house, guns drawn. Crane and Jonathan run outside and he plunges a huge dosage of adrenal glands into him over his protests. Jonathan looks up at the scarecrow and begins screaming and howling. Harvey and Jim draw on Crane. He says he has no fear and shoots at them. He should have some because they shoot him back,dead. Jim goes to the writhing, spasming Jonathan and yells to Harvey to call an ambulance.
Bruce continues to scrabble up the hill. Winded. He comes upon Alfred at the top. He has built a fire. Bruce asks how long he's been there. He says an hour. Bruce sarcastically thanks him for his help. Alfred notes he didn't get him down there. He helps Bruce to his feet. Bruce says he's cold, tired, and his ankle is sprained and wants to go home. Alfred asks if he'd rather stay and watch the sunrise like he did with his dad. Bruce says they can stay if Alfred can handle it. Alfred says it's cushy compared to some of the places he's been.
We cut to opening night at Oswald's. His nenn sign is an umbrella. It's pretty quiet except for a noisy band onstage and Maroni and his gang. He compliments Penguin on the club and how far he's risen. He says he chatted with Falcone and all is kosher with them as long as Penguin doesn't give Falcone any of Maroni's secrets.Maroni pours champagne and says Penguin better hope Falcone lives a long life because the second he's gone, so is Penguin.
Alfred rouses Bruce for sunrise.
Lee is working in her lab when Jim arrives. She apologizes, hearing his suspect was killed at the scene. She asks him to let her know how the son does. Jim asks if she thinks she'll like it. She says she does so far. She invites him to the circus. He says yes. He reiterates no kissing on the job. She agrees but still mocks him for being afraid to be seen as unprofessional to show his feelings. She says she'll be discreet and gives him a peck.
Fish addresses her new minions and says that up until now there's been no order in this place and with her in charge, things are going to change. A new prisoner is brought in and thrown to the ground she crawls in on her knees moaning that they took her eyes. And indeed her sockets are a bloody, scary mess.
At the hospital the doctor explains to Jim that Jonathan was shot up with an odd combination of stuff including the adrenal gland tissue as well as another element they can't put their finger on. He says it nearly killed him but he will live. They ran a CT scan and notes the effects of the hormones have worn off but his brain activity shows that he's in a constant state of intense terror and they don't know if it ever will. He asks him to imagine the thing he fears the most and that it is all you see every waking hour. Jonathan writhes in pain on the bed as a vision of the creepy scarecrow climbs over and attacks him.
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