S01.E15: The Scarecrow

[Perfect Xero]

I think that Jim was living at Barbara's and continued for a while after they broke up, after the Selina/Ivy crash episode he realized that Barbara wasn't coming back and moved out and has been sleeping at the police station since.

 

I don't think it was a big deal for him to move out because he probably didn't actually have anything of his there other than his clothes.

[Captain I0]

The Bruce-Alfred story was the parallel story to the Cranes. Both dads have sons who with traumatic experiences and want their sons to heal. Crane does it one way. Alfred tries it another way. I don't know if having an injured teen crawl his way uphill unaided is the best way, but it's better than killing a bunch of people to steal adrenal hormones to inject into your kid.

That's like your opinion, man

[Danielg342]

While I agree that the lack of sexual assault was a bit unrealistic, I'm completely willing to go without, trust me. And Fish's showdown with the Gun Show Twins was purposely written for her to express, obliquely, that any kind of attack on her is going to prove more trouble than it's worth and you two really don't want to be beaten up/shredded/deballed by a wee little tiny girl, now do ya? No, you don't. Just keep walking and everybody's okay.

That's what I was thinking too. The prisoners could have tried to sexually assault Fish but given how easy Fish won control of the prison, I can see that any unwanted advances would get quickly- and painfully- rebuffed.

[Camera One]

The episode was alright.  I can't say I loved any of the individual stories, but they were decent.  

 

The Fish-in-random-jail wasn't that interesting to me.  I still don't understand how she got there.  Wasn't that guy charging her on the boat?  But he's a captive as well?  Or is he with the armed guys?  

 

I agree the storylines were really disjointed.  I like Bruce, and the early part of his trek.  I expected him to find some secret document when he threw his dad's rocks away.  Alfred not helping him up was weird, and I expected worse than a sprained ankle.  

 

The Scarecrow felt dragged out from last week.  

 

I loved the Ed/Penguin scene too.  

[Milz]

That's like your opinion, man

 

Here's the entire sentence that I wrote: "I don't know if having an injured teen crawl his way uphill unaided is the best way, but it's better than killing a bunch of people to steal adrenal hormones to inject into your kid."  So yes, it is my opinion. :-)

[Sandman]

Poor Jonathan. Poor doomed Jonathan. CGI scarecrow is nothing to mess with. And he got injected with adrenal gland goop, which was disgusting to watch get prepared. Maybe he could hang with Ivy, since they're both disturbed and a bit psycho.

 

Is there a future supervillain (or anybody else, for that matter) on the show who isn't an incipient nutcase? I get it, show, Gotham's a hellhole. Mother Machree!

[Old House Nut]

I liked it better than most commenters, but a few quick nits to pick. First, when Bruce was crawling up the hill, he seemed surprised when he finally made it to the top and saw Alfred. But it was night and Alfred was sitting by a crackling fire with a lantern glowing too. At some point on the climb up more than 10 feet away, wouldn't he have noticed the light and called for help?

 

Second, what was the point of strapping a stick to his shin if he had an ankle injury? The only reason that would do anything at all is if he had broken his leg and needed to stabilize the break. I'd chalk that up to his just trying to slough off the seriousness of his wound to Alfred when he said it was a sprain ("Oh nothing. Just a little sprain!") but that makes Alfred a pretty terrible person if he allowed Bruce to sit there all night with a broken bone.

 

Third, in one scene Bruce is seen lying at the bottom of the hill and feeling pain. When the show resumes, it is night and he is still in exactly the same place. Only then does he reach for a stick and his pack. I'd have rather seen his fall take place in the dark and then have him respond a little more promptly instead of glossing over a two hour (at least) period of utter inaction. 

 

Fourth, someone needs to work on consistency when editing this. In the scene when Leslie is introduced, Harvey reaches with his right hand directly over his head as he leans backward a little to shake her hand. One second later the camera angle changes, and Harvey is reaching across his chest to shake her hand.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Old House Nut

[Kel Varnsen]

I agree with Jim... kissing and all of that at the office is unprofessional. They are there to work and should leave the romance for non-working hours. Even that long kiss they had (while it was hot) was also unprofessional. If one of my co-workers had such an intimate kiss right in the middle of our office... they would have a stern talking to by a supervisor. I feel like Leslie should know this as well... her acting like a schoolgirl is not cute.

Not only was it unprofessional, but as I brought up in the previous episode. Most of the other cops already hate Jim. Now he is 1) reminding them regularly that he has a super hot girlfriend and 2) could potentially be getting special treatment at work from the ME (giving his cases priority or that sort of thing) they are going to hate him even more.

 

Also I know Dr. Crane senior was crazy, but doing some kind of procedure to get rid of all of your fear seems really stupid. It made me think of those people who have that nervous system condition where they can't feel pain, and they end up suffering a lot of injuries, because they don't always realize their body is getting hurt.   

[Sandman]

Doctor Crane received the gift of fear, but he decided exchange it for the family-size box of weasel-crazy.

[immortalfrieza]

Also I know Dr. Crane senior was crazy, but doing some kind of procedure to get rid of all of your fear seems really stupid. It made me think of those people who have that nervous system condition where they can't feel pain, and they end up suffering a lot of injuries, because they don't always realize their body is getting hurt.   

This episode reminds me of a Scarecrow comic plotline where he would dose people with some sort of toxin that would make them completely fearless just so they would do things like jump out of a 10 story window or crash their cars because said they'd survive it, or another one where he'd dose people with another toxin that would take away their fear of reprisal so they'd run around killing people just because they felt like it.

 

I figured they were going to have Crane Senior go out doing something really stupid because he didn't have fear. Apparently when it comes to fiction anyone who genuinely lacks fear for any reason also equals them becoming brick stupid once that has happened no matter how intelligent they were actually supposed to be. Unlike with somebody that is unable to feel pain and thus unknowingly harm themselves someone that lacks fear should be able to recognize intellectually that they are under threat or about to take a potentially harmful action and thus take measures to avoid that because that's the smart thing to do instead of ignoring those threats like it wasn't there as Crane Senior did here. I think the way fiction portrays being fearless shouldn't equal doing suicidally stupid things simply because they don't have any fear to stop them from doing it.

[Sandman]

Are the Scarecrow's toxins supposed to flood the victims' systems with adrenaline while removing the sensation of fear? The assumption seems to be that if the flight part of the fight-or-flight reaction is taken away, all that's left out of the whole range of emotions is fight.

[John Potts]

Must say, it was nice to see Jim doing some actual detective work. Even Harvey got off his ass and did something that didn't involve talking to Fish! On the other hand, if I was a mad scientist attempting to "cure" mankind of fear, I'd use my son to take the notes on the effects of my nutty experiments. And being fearless is all very well, but the problem with a gun isn't so much being afraid of it, but that it can kill you (as Dr Crane discovered at the end)

 

Danielg342 It's also nice seeing Falcone and Maroni being such good buds...for such mortal enemies, they do seem to get along just fine.

 

I do like that in a world of the ridiculously OTT villains, those two are so well grounded in the real world. Just because they are rivals doesn't mean the are always shooting at each other - all out war is bad for business.

 

jbrecken  I wonder if Fish is going to end up as Bane's mother.

 

I was thinking Bane too (though hadn't considered Fish might be his mother)

Edited April 8, 2015 by John Potts