Episode 2 starts with Jim and the GCPD raiding the house
that Jonathan Crane and the thugs were making fear toxin in.
Harvey and Jim see a menacing scarecrow next to the house and upon closer inspection
see that there is a man in the scarecrow costume. He is clearly manic and under
the influence of the fear toxin and screams “SCARECROW IS COMING.”
Scarecrow goes to visit his prior home of three years,
Arkham Asylum, and warden Reed. We see the warden hurriedly burning documents in
his office, trying to get rid of anything incriminating. Scarecrow shows up
and accuses the Warden of locking him in a cell for three years subjecting him to constant ice baths and electroshock therapy. Scarecrow says
that he managed to cure himself, he was afraid of the scarecrow so he became
the scarecrow. Scarecrow then gives the warden a healthy dose of fear toxin right to
the kisser and we see the warden’s biggest fears, clowns. The warden takes a
gun and goes on a bloody rampage killing every clown in sight – which of course
are actually all of the workers in Arkham. While the warden is clearing house,
Scarecrow goes to the patient ward to recruit his army.
Cobblepot takes a trip to visit Jim at the GCPD demanding that Jim
reveals the location of Jonathan Crane. He then demands that Jim finds and locks
up Crane within 24 hours or admit to everyone that he failed and allow
Penguin to clean the city up. Meanwhile. Selina and Tabitha each have received
business cards from Barbara that say that ‘opportunity awaits.’ Last season we
were led to believe that Barbara had died, and Selina and Tabitha were under
that impression as well. Barbara may have a new haircut, be we know she has the same
old crazy going on. Barbara’s new plan is to be the main weapon distributor for all of the street criminals in Gotham. Tabitha promptly rejects this plan,
but Selina’s interests have clearly been piqued.
Jim gets word that there has been a breakout at Arkham and tries
to round up some of GCPD’s finest to come with him. His colleagues are clearly
not the biggest Gordon supporters and he receives no back up. Jim doesn’t seem
like he was expecting much support, but unexpectedly Harvey also refuses to go
and support his partner. When Jim gets
to Arkham, Scarecrow recognizes him and unleashes his army of Arkham patients and
locks Jim in with them. Jim kicks some ass and takes some names and eventually
the moment we’ve been waiting for happens – Jim and Scarecrow meet face to
hay-mask.
While this showdown is occurring in Arkham, a more
sophisticated ‘business’ meeting is happening at Barbara’s new digs. Cobblepot
visits her and lets her know that in order to run her operation, she will “of
course” need a business license and will be charged a weapons tax. Barbara
lightly chuckles and gives Cobblepot an incredulous look, but he is far from
joking. As he’s leaving, Cobblepot wonders aloud how Barbara managed to acquire
enough funds to buy all of these weapons and set up shop.
Okay, back to the real action. Scarecrow uses some fancy
scythe work to corner Jim and then gives him a helping of fear toxin. We now
get to see Jim’s biggest fear – I’ll give you three guesses… yup you got it, not
being able to save Lee. There is a harrowing scene with Lee in a bathtub full of blood blaming Jim for ruining her life. Scarecrow tries to manipulate Jim
into thinking that Lee is asking him to hurt himself, but Jim’s pseudo superhuman
badassness kicks in and he overcomes the illusion. He confronts Scarecrow again
who can’t believe it proclaiming that “it’s impossible to defeat the toxin.”
Scarecrow gets his insane cronies to attack Jim, but luckily Jim realizes that
water nixes the effects of the gas and sets off sprinklers to stop the army of
crazies from taking him out.
Oh and we get another Ivy sighting! Ivy feels disrespected
and angry after being shunned by the newly forming femme fatale group of
Selina, Tabitha, and Barbara. She decides that she needs to be given more
respect so she visits the potion shop she went to earlier in search of ancient
potions. Ivy uses her perfume to convince the owner to give them to her and she
drinks them all, ignoring his pleading that they are too strong for her and
might get into her DNA. We see Ivy start mutating a bit before the end of the
scene. I’m sure that in the next episode or two we’ll be able to see the final
product of all of this ancient potion chugging.
In the meantime it’s Christmas come early for Bruce. Not
only does Alfred save him from getting shot by a thug when he tries to take on
a whole group by himself, but Lucius Fox interrupts a conversation to bring
goodies! Lucius is worried about Bruce’s injuries from “rockclimbing” so he
wants to make to give him all the help he can. At the end of the episode we get
to see Bruce try on his fancy new batsuit – oh wait just fancy new vigilante
suit for now.
I am loving what they are doing with the Scarecrow story
arc. Gotham’s version of Scarecrow
is fantastic and the nightmarish visions from the fear toxin are perfect. I am
looking forward to Ivy causing some trouble in the very near future. It's also refreshing to see the Batman storyline rapidly progressing. It looks
like episode 3 will feature Jim trying to get Falcone to help him take down
Cobblepot – which I’m sure he will be eager to do, it’s not like Jim murdered
anyone close to him. Bruce and Selina’s relationship will also get another test next
week when he witnesses her participate in a botched robbery – will he risk his
life for a thief? We’ll find out next Thursday!
