I’ve been afraid for a while now where Gotham’s been going, if anywhere at all. Gotham is a show about villains, or at least as much as it should be based on its source material, and waiting for a “scare your pants off” moment has been a nigh impossible process. While I can say that my pants were firmly on my person for the entirety of the episode, I’ll admit that, “The Fearsome Doctor Crane” should’ve been what the doctor ordered but fell just short of a real shot in the arm.
This week, we have not Jonathan Crane, but Gerald Crane, portrayed by Smallville’s Jor-El, Julian Sands. The father of our eventual Scarecrow, it’s this Dr. Crane who’s devoted to the future field of his son’s: fear. Naturally, a support group for awfully general phobias are his prime targets and his string of crimes, from a drowning to a rooftop execution, are a refreshing contrast from the dark camp I’ve grown accustomed in the series, though they lack any sort of hard impact from loosely related victims.
That we were spared the capricious image of an evil kid Scarecrow is something of a victory and Sands sells Crane’s fidgety, psychotic gait well – goofy teenage sidekicks aside. I gather that the theorized “elevated form of cortisol” will eventually morph, in the distant future, into a fear toxin of some sort. That the Gotham City of this show may never see it is just another wasted easter egg.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, it was love, not fear, that dominated the episode. I’ve enjoyed watching Donal Logue’s Harvey Bullock for a good while this season and seeing him sheepishly bat an eye over Maria Thayer’s pretty-redhead, Scottie Mullen, was a charming layer to him. It’s a shame I still can’t say the same about Gordon. His and Leslie Thompkins’ relationship seems grossly unlikely for a couple I assume only met weeks ago – and under the pretenses of working in an insane asylum, no less.
Their date night this episode reeked of the soap-opera cues we’ve seen from the CW’s DC offerings, only there are no Lex Luthors or Oliver Queens to carry it. Morena Baccarin’s a suitable pick for Thompkins, but she given little more than pretty dress to wear. Of course, I can’t say any more in defense of Gordon and Barbara. I barely believed they were ever close enough to share an apartment, nor can I buy Gordon and Leslie falling into each others arms after one impromptu kiss.
That said, it’s rather odd that the only romance I’ve had an investment in thus far has been Bruce and Selina’s puppy love. Neither have left a large footprint on the series since, nor have they meant much to the adults’ arcs. The show hasn’t made the Wayne murders Gordon’s priority in a long while and it’s doubly disappointing that Selina’s relevance to it was all a lie. Consequentially, I’m glad that Bruce’s seemingly released Gordon from his promise if not only in the hopes that it evolves his and Bruce’s relationship beyond meet-ups about casework, because it’s just become a tedious thread to tie up.
Gotham’s worked best under pressure than when it’s had weeks (or months) to mull over some sort of payoff. Oswald Cobblepot and Don Maroni’s arc was this week’s payoff and a longtime coming at that. Their fun game of “share me a secret and I’ll share you mine” was like one big mobster sleepover, but at least it brought the confrontation we’ve been waiting for between the two of them, albeit with the revelation that Cobblepot doesn’t “care much for oatmeal.” The fiend. Robin Lord Taylor wins points for playing the world’s greatest groveler, but it escapes me how well we’re supposed to believe Cobblepot can keep whipping up miracles to save himself. As is his schtick, Cobblepot got away just in time, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take for his arcs to all run together – lie, get caught, get exiled, repeat.
Edward Nygma’s beginning to grow on me and Cory Michael Smith plays him affably, but his office exploits are quickly hitting a dead end. His silly schoolboy crush on Kristy Kringle, his riddles-for-no-reason, him getting bullied by the cops – it almost belittles the villain he’s supposed to become, if he’s ever going to be one all. His less-than-friendly rivalry with the medical examiner foreshadows something of his petty jealousy, but piling up body parts in a locker’s a messy stretch for someone who also has a question mark on his mug.
I have no idea what’s up with Fish and I’m not even sure I should care after her defeat by Falcone. Sending her adrift might’ve been the best thing for the character as long as she’s been sidelined this entire season. Whether her open-ended departure is something she deserves by now is negligible compared to the laugh-out loud action cue that saw Fish leap against an attacker in the episode’s final shot, all in the style of an animé. I don’t know if I should even ask, Gotham.
Our Dr. Crane of the week may have been anything but fearsome, but believe it or not, I’m ever more hopeful that there’s a light at the end of the long tunnel Gotham’s fallen into. Gotham, it seems, has too many fears of its own to work through and a fear of failure is one of them. The Fearsome Doctor Crane created a wealth of arcs to choose from that the series has the guts to dive into. This week, Penguin and Falcone finally got their due while we did get the first villain I’m interested in seeing again, if not one the series could actually benefit from. When it will is up to Gotham, because by now, taking risk is the stuff real terrors are made of.
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Gotham airs Monday nights at 8/7 Central on FOX. Check out all the latest episodes at Fox.com and all the latest reviews here at BagoGames.