The Scarecrow.

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”– Penguin

The most publicized aspect of this episode was the first meeting of Edward Nygma and Oswald Cobblepot. The Penguin meets The Riddler. It's been all over the Gotham twitter account for weeks. Talk about your overblown letdowns. Their scene pretty much consisted of the two exchanging a few terse sentences and then walking away. If you want a video definition of anticlimactic, go check that scene out. They might have some great stuff coming up in the future, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

There's actually nothing much to write home about for this episode in general. They did a few things right: rounding out the Scarecrow story and building up the bond between Alfred and Bruce. They did a few things wrong: killing off yet another flash-and-fizzle villain and giving Fish the most nonsensical subplot in the world.

But hey, I hear there's a magical baby that shits rainbows on The Originals, so it could be worse.

Jim & Harvey

B & B

“I’ll tell you one thing, girls didn’t look like this when I was back in high school.” – Harvey
“Easy...” – Jim

These guys mostly just putzed around the precinct, gabbing about girls and braiding each others’ hair. They made some time to kill Dr. Crane in between pedicures and facials, though.

Fish

DWhat in the ever-loving hell is going on with Fish’s plot right now? Kidnapped by total randos and locked away in sewer land? As awesome as some of Fish’ storylines have been this season, the current one kind of sucks. A lot. Forget about asking literally ANY questions about where she is or how she got there, Fish decides that her first order of business should be taking over the joint? And wielding a small knife will achieve this? Goodness gracious, these writers are grasping at straws. Even the girl who had her eyes ripped out didn’t make that subplot interesting.

Doctor Crane

B+Nobody breathe wrong, but I think we have our first fully formed villain of the year. We’re a little light on the backstory  - something to do with a tragically deceased wife - ain’t that always the way? – but we’ve actually got a clear motivation and goal here. Long story short, Crane believes that fear is the cause of all the evil in the world (war, murder, rape, genocide, etc.), so he’s on a mission to cure himself and his son of fear completely. Hence the stolen adrenal glands and the really gross concoction he smooshes them into. Whatever this serum does, the massive dose he gives his son obviously drives poor Jonathan Crane totally insane. Say what you want about bad CGI, that scarecrow hallucination was freaking terrifying.

 Bruce

A

“Cup of tea, you cheeky monkey?” - Alfred

Bruce goes on a hike, throws some rocks, and falls down a hill. Riveting stuff.

Okay, okay, there’s more to it than that. The hike was a tear-jerking father/son tradition that Bruce tries to keep up on his own, and the rock throwing was a symptom of a grief-stricken child missing his parents. Crying yet? Me too. Even after spraining his ankle, Bruce manages to drag himself back up the hill, where Alfred is of course waiting with a fire and tea.  Oh, Alfred.

Together they watch the sunrise and wreak havoc on my feelings. 

Penguin 

CI've got to say, I’m getting less and less enamored with Penguin as the weeks drag on. Sure, he has his moments, but more often than not he’s kind of a wimpy little dude. For all the double crossing he does, these mobsters tend to push him around pretty often. Still, I had to feel a little bad for him when no one showed up to his grand opening.

Falcone & Maroni

A & AThese two are sick and twisted. I love it.

The Scarecrow

B

I guess an apology might be in order? I bitched and moaned last week about how this show will never be able to tell us the 'Origin Stories' of our favorite heroes/villains because they started them off too young. Whoops. This week not only saw a continuation of the phobia killer from last week, it gave us the story behind Jonathan Crane, The Scarecrow. Sure, we're never going to see him all grown up and terrorizing Gotham, but we did get a pretty awesome explanation for how this villain became a villain. Next time, maybe I won't jump to judgment so quick. 

Who are we kidding, that's what I do best! 

Extra Credit

• Jim calls her Lee. Be still my shipper heart.
• "Master B!" This was just the episode of nicknames!
• No Barbara AGAIN? Wow someone really got the message, huh?

Demerits

• Fish's entire plot. Just one big demerit for that whole thing.