Gotham
Fox
Season 4 Episode 2 “A Dark Knight: The Fear Reaper”
SPOILERS AHEAD
The shining light of this episode, a wonderful, spine-tinglingly creepy portrayal of the Scarecrow! Returning to Arkham to seek revenge on the Warden who sold him to the thugs who tormented him into creating more Fear Toxin, Crane doses the Warden, revealing his fear of clowns from his childhood (leading to him shooting a handful of other Asylum staff). Scarecrow then doses the other Arkham inmates, preparing an army of fear hallucination psychopaths to use to battle the GCPD that he blames for the death of his father, specifically Jim Gordon. Learning that Scarecrow has set up camp in Arkham, Gordon is forced to go it alone as all of the GCPD, even Bullock (having to save face to be able to win over the rest of the GCPD to get them to help with bigger battles later) refuses to help him. Inside the Asylum, Gordon battles off infected inmates before coming face to face with Scarecrow, narrowly dodging deadly blows from his scythe, he is hit in the face with Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin. Haunted by images of Lee sitting in a bathtub with blood running from wounds in her wrists, the hallucination blames James for destroying everything, voices suggest he join her and they could be together forever as a straight razor appears in Jim’s hand.
Focused on the fact that Lee would never suggest Jim take his own life, Gordon wills himself out of the Fear Toxin hallucination much to the Scarecrow’s surprise. As the inmates attack Jim he realizes that water counteracts the effect of the Toxin, causing him to activate Arkham’s sprinkler system as Scarecrow escapes. Elsewhere in Gotham, Selena and Tabitha are lured to a building via anonymous notes they received. Barbara Kean reveals herself, having invited Selena and Tabitha to her in hopes that they would join her in providing weapons to the new series of Penguin Licensed criminals, allowing them an avenue to gain power again. Penguin visits Barbara, attempting to intimidate her, explaining his position of power with his new license authority as Zsasz steals one of her guns, demeaning Ivy in the process, furthering her interest in joining Barbara, Tabitha, and Selena, tired of being disregarded and disrespected. Bruce escapes a near-death encounter with the help of Alfred as he was almost shot, after a poor excuse provided to Lucius Fox earlier, Fox arrives at Wayne Manor with a Wayne Enterprises lightweight Kevlar suit that provides substantial protection from ‘rock climbing accidents’ and is ‘virtually gun proof’, coupled with a hands free communication device he could share with Alfred, and a helmet of Alfred’s design, the prototype Bat Suit makes its appearance.
The overwhelming highlight of this episode was the Scarecrow, the look, the sound, the movement, the entire spirit of the Scarecrow has been one of the greatest head to toe creations Gotham has provided. I am incredibly thrilled to see him on the show in this fashion and cannot wait to see his arc as he continues to induce fear and spiral even further into madness. As excited as I am about the Scarecrow’s look on this show, I am almost equally unexcited about the prototype of Bruce Wayne’s Bat Suit. I understand we could not immediately jump into the cape, cowl, bat visage to strike fear into the criminal underbelly of the city, but when I see Bruce in his new suit, all I can see is a gothic version of Kick-Ass.
How do you feel about the second chapter of Gotham’s new season? Are you loving how scared you are of Scarecrow? Are you excited to see another version of the Sirens band together to build up power against Penguin? What about Bruce and his continued evolution towards Batman, and more importantly, what do you think of his new suit?
Stay tuned for another exciting chapter in the world of Gotham, until then, keep it nerdy.