However, I have to admit that Bruce seems to be doing more than the GCPD. Penguin made a deal with the mayor and chief of police to require all criminals to have a “crime license.” It cut Gotham’s crime in half, but more importantly, Penguin is making bank off it. The only issue is that criminals can now get away with certain crimes like robbery with no repercussions from the GCPD. If they don’t have a license, then Victor and Penguin will take care of them before the GCPD even has a chance.
Gordon is the only one within the GCPD who seems to care, but that’s not very surprising. Half of the guys there were already corrupt, so this doesn’t really change much. Now it’s just up to Harvey to keep Gordon under control. He didn’t stand a chance if an unlicensed gang didn’t start wreaking havoc.
The unlicensed gang is infuriated by the idea of getting a license, so they go to Arkham to visit Johnathan Crane. Does that name sound vaguely familiar? That’s because he was briefly introduced back in season 1. He was running around with his father, trying to become the ultimate human or something like that, when his father’s plan backfired. He injected his son with a serum that caused continuous terrifying hallucinations of a scarecrow. The gang bribes the guy in charge to take him (wouldn’t it have been smarter to just use that money to buy a license?) under the hope that, despite his insanity and the passed time, Crane would still be able to create his father’s fear serum.
Gordon wants to take down the crew, purely because he wants to be able to do something again. When he sees the fear serum in action, he somehow makes the immediate connection that it was Johnathan Crane. However, a lot of the guys at the GCPD are working for Penguin, and they beat up Gordon for trying to do something about it. At this point, the only reason Penguin must have people in the GCPD to control Gordon, right?
Penguin is too caught up in his club opening and doing his hair to take care of this rogue gang. Despite how jovially he talks about his club, the dropping crime rate, and his Edward Nygma centerpiece, that doesn’t stop his soliloquy about how emotionless he has become. Ivy has clearly heard it all before, and she is sick of it.
I’d argue that Penguin doesn’t seem to be the only emotionless one. Bruce’s new activities apparently require him to stand in the shadows, move silently, and keep a straight face at all times. He faces Penguin at his club opening with the up-most diplomacy in order to find out more information about the licenses. Even around Selina, he doesn’t take his guard down. It’s a little hard to accept an apology or a compliment when he has such a blank face. She doesn’t seem to mind too much though, since she just calls him a jerk, which really reminds us how young they are exactly.
For her age, Selina is handling herself well. She has a new criminal mentor, Tabitha. However, they’re not really thriving yet. In fact, they’re barely getting by. Selina had to convince Tabitha to go along with Penguin’s licensing program so that they would get more work. But overall, I think that I will really like them as a duo once they start going on jobs together.
Meanwhile, the unlicensed gang is about to bust in to Penguin’s party, but he catches them first. Penguin decides to make a show of killing them at his party, busting out some theatrics that he must have picked up on from Nygma. Bruce tries to defuse the situation, using his status as Bruce Wayne as a more effective tool than Scrawny Boy in Black Trench Coat. When this inevitably fails, Ivy does the smart thing and just turns off the lights to cause some commotion.
In between all the fighting, Penguin gets sprayed with the fear gas. Of course, Penguin’s demon on the fear gas is Nygma. This leads to a fantastic photo of him hugging Gordon asking for help. Is there a remedy yet? If they were hoping that Crane would come up with a remedy, then they are in for some bad news. While Crane was trapped with his hallucinations, he became one with the scarecrow.
Maybe with the Scarecrow around, the GCPD will actually have something to do. Otherwise, the only way anything is getting done is by Bruce. After the party, Bruce goes as Scrawny Boy in Black Trench Coat to the guy in charge of the licenses to get a full list of everyone who has bought one. The guy doesn’t even put up a fight. I don’t know how this man got involved with the criminal underworld to begin with when he has a mindset like that. Why Penguin didn’t put Victor or some other bodyguard around the guy is beyond me.
Bruce is close to becoming the superhero we all know him to be, but there’s something holding him back. That thing? A better outfit. And from next week’s preview, it seems like he will be getting just that.
Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer
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