GOTHAM Season 4 Episode 2 Review: The Fear Reaper


Welcome back to the Purge. Or Gotham. Same thing. With Penguin’s licenses still firmly in place, criminals are still allowed to wreak havoc and Penguin is playing the act of a political figure very well. He must have really learned the art of political talk when he was mayor. 

After he was sprayed with the fear gas, Penguin is checking to see if Gordon has caught Johnathan Crane yet. However, Gordon is having none of it. Gordon tries to talk badly about Penguin to the press (that apparently just follows Penguin around at all times now), but Penguin fixes it with some political talk and a good ol’ Donald Trump handshake for pictures. 

It seems like there is nothing that Gordon can do to convince the rest of the GCPD members to go against Penguin, but that’s not very surprising. The GCPD has always been corrupt. Even Johnathan Crane releasing all the Arkham members to build an army doesn’t spring the GCPD into action. They all believe in Penguin’s ability to dissolve the situation for them. 

Within Arkham, Crane is spraying everyone with fear gas in order to go after Gordon for killing his father. With no one else in the GCPD willing to go with him, Gordon goes alone to Arkham, fulfilling all of Crane’s hopes and dreams for revenge. He sprays Gordon with the fear gas to find out what his biggest fear is. Gordon hallucinates Lee, in a bath tub, committing suicide. He nearly slits in own wrists in response before he suddenly overcomes his fear and thus defeats the toxin. What Crane has struggled with for years, he overcame in about five minutes. 

Crane moves on to Plan B, which seems to be using all the other Arkham members to fight him. Gordon goes on to beat up all of them, before using a fire extinguisher to take them out. Turns out that the water in the fire extinguisher caused the toxin to wear off. That’s what I like to hear: a problem that could be solved with a nice warm shower. 

However, in all of this, Crane is able to get away. Penguin is very upset to hear this news. However, maybe Gordon would have been able to catch him if anybody else went with him. No one else seems to realize this piece of information though. Penguin is ready to get the other members of the GCPD to join him for higher pay, which seems redundant, since everyone in the GCPD is already backing him. 

The support for Penguin is heavily cemented in at this point. Gordon has to start taking drastic actions if he wants to see any sort of change. So, despite the fact he killed his son, Jim is thinking about going to Falcone to build an army against Penguin. You never truly retire from the criminal life in this show. 

Yet, Gordon doesn’t realize that there is another criminal back in town. Barbara makes an appearance, with shorter hair and a fancy (expensive) armory, ready for business. She wants Tabitha and Selina to join her enterprise in selling her weapons to those with crime licenses (but even though the licenses don’t give the criminals the ability to kill her, wouldn’t they give the ability to rob her?). Tabitha is just trying to keep from killing her, so there is no way that she will agree to a business partnership. She doesn’t even ask the important questions, like where Barbara got the money for this armory. 

Selina is very interested in Barbara’s offer, and tries to talk Tabitha into it. Even Ivy comes to try to get in on the action. Since Penguin is also telling her to be quiet, he probably didn’t even notice that she was gone. They all want to get back at the Penguin that have treated them like garbage. Tabitha refuses to let Ivy in, but agrees to work with Barbara in exchange for something. Selina made the unfortunate mistake of not asking what that something would be, and is very startled to find out that Tabitha intends to take Barbara’s hand. Tabitha raises her machete, but barely misses her hand at the last second. For now, the fact that Barbara was willing to give her hand is enough. 

Penguin also wants something from Barbara, and that thing is more money. Penguin wants to tax Barbara’s store, and threatens to keep a close eye on her. He doesn’t want her to usurp his spot on top. To be fair, he is rightly concerned. She does have a knack for that. With Selina and Tabitha at her side, she may be able to contest him. However, if she has Ivy at her side, she may be able to take down Penguin from the inside. 

At least, that’s what I thought was going to happen before Ivy goes on her own path for power. She is ready to wreck havoc, and drinks all these weird mystical bottles that will probably give her some incredible, dangerous powers. The perfume power she has is already pretty impressive, but I guess after you have one power, you want them all. 

She probably feels the most alive that she has in awhile, and I bet that Bruce could relate to that. Despite being caught breaking and entering during his nightly activities, Bruce wants to go back out there. Alfred won’t stop him, but he won’t go with him either. Which is why, next time Bruce goes out, everything goes wrong; Bruce’s mask is removed and a gun is put to his face, and of course Alfred has to come to save the day. Both Alfred and even the gang of criminals agree, this is too dangerous for a kid to be doing. 

Lucius Fox has been onto Bruce this entire time, but now he is here to provide a solution to their problem. He brings an outfit made of durable material they have been working on at Wayne Enterprises. It is a much better outfit, although it still just looks like a really nice leather jacket with dress pants. Nonetheless, it is progress. 

Bruce needs the support right now, since it seems like he is only one who might be able to do something about Penguin’s licenses and Barbara’s armory. While Gordon tracking down Falcone may to lead to something, I think that it is far more likely that Bruce may be able to get more done. Or maybe Ivy’s rage will be enough to take everything down. Everyone seems to doubt the strength of women here anyway. They’ll probably just assume she is on her period as opposed to some magical potions or whatever she drank was. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer


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