Let’s start on a happy note: Bruce’s little stroll through the woods. The side story was merely an after thought when compared to what the rest of the characters were up to this week, but it was a nice, self-contained little story that helped tell us a bit about Bruce and Alfred. The dynamic between the two is almost always delightful and interesting to watch, and this week was no different.
We learn that Bruce would always on a yearly hike with his late father, and is choosing to continue the tradition alone. While on the hike, he comes across a pile of rocks that he and his father added to each year, and in a fit of rage and grief he knocks it down and tosses the rocks into the woods. It’s a small but tender moment, and said a lot about Bruce’s character, who is so often stoic and hides his feelings from those around him. If the series is going to stray more toward a procedural, I hope it delivers more character-driven side stories like this one.
Another high point this week was the short exchange between Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot, who will someday become two of Batman’s biggest adversaries. Fun musical cues and tricky camera work made the moment – which could have easily been campy and terrible – into something special. It ultimately didn’t add much to the story at large, but it was a fun little aside that we get so rarely from Gotham‘s doom and gloom.
The biggest disappointments this week were the Penguin and Fish storylines, and the investigation into Dr. Crane, which was chalk full of clunky storytelling. Last week we were given an incredible exchange between Penguin and Sal Maroni, which ended in an exciting cliffhanger. Unfortunately, that storyline fell flat on its face as Maroni made a quick deal with Falcone and swiftly swept his beef with Penguin under the rug (though he did promise to come after the little snitch when Falcone kicks the bucket, so there’s that). While Falcone and Maroni shared a darkly twisted and entertaining moment together while looking in on the judge captured to settle the deal, the rest of the story took the wind out of the plot line’s sails.
Fish suffered a similarly anti-climactic fate this week, as her little face-off with a pirate last week took place off screen. Instead, we cut to Fish in some kind of underground shanty town with a bunch of other prisoners. What they’re doing there, and who put them there, is a mystery, but not one that’s interesting enough to get invested in. Fish quickly woos the leader, a boring guy named Mace, and kills him, thus taking his place. What this means is unclear, but it’s entirely predictable. Hopefully her story goes somewhere interesting, because I’m not buying into it yet.
And finally onto Dr. Crane and his poor son, Jonathan. Their story was perhaps the most intriguing, but it was plagued with a pretty poorly executed manhunt that amounted to nothing more than a boring Law and Order episode. The search for Crane was completely devoid of any tension, and because we were shown the crazy doc’s true intentions while Gordon and Bullock were trying to figure them out, it amounted to some pretty laughable police work. I do feel bad for Jonathan Crane, the future Scarecrow, though. The fact that he’s now saddled with inescapable fear because of his father’s burning (no pun intended) desire to rid him and the rest of the world of fear entirely is something straight out of a Greek tragedy. I wasn’t keen on Jonathan’s inclusion in last week’s episode, but it had quite the payoff this week.
In other news, Gordon is having trouble adjusting to working with Dr. Thompkins, Barbara is (thankfully) nowhere to be seen, and Penguin is now in charge of Fish’s club. Why on Earth it’s named “Oswald’s” and not “The Iceberg Lounge” is anyone’s guess, though. In a show full of fan service and Easter Eggs, you’d think that a simple callback like that one would be mandatory.
All in all, I found “The Scarecrow” to be a massive disappointment. Which, again, is especially sad when you consider how thankful I was for last week’s episode of Gotham. Perhaps I shouldn’t get my hopes up for next week, which will apparently feature a young Joker. Oh boy.