Jonathan Crane (Gotham)

"Jonathan Crane isn't here anymore, just the Scarecrow!"

- Jonathan becomes the Scarecrow. "My father thought that I was weak. My whole life. Scared little Jonathan. But I'm not weak anymore. And I will never go back to being that boy!"

- Jonathan to Jim Gordon. "Brothers and sisters. Look at you.Prisoners, all of you. My father would have freed you.But he was killed. Murdered by the GCPD. Men who couldn't understand. But they will. For you will be my army. And those men who killed my father shall truly know fear!"

- Jonathan Crane to the prisoners of Gotham Asylum.

Jonathan Crane, also known as the Scarecrow, is a character in the FOX television series Gotham, appearing as a reluctant accomplice and supporting antagonist to his father Gerald Crane in the Season 1 episodes "The Fearsome Dr. Crane" and "The Scarecrow". He returns as one of the major antagonists in the fourth season.

He is portrayed by Charlie Tahan and acts as the origin to the Batman supervillain Scarecrow.

Background
Jonathan lost his mother Karen in a house fire when he was just a young boy, and was left in the sole care of his father Gerald Crane. Gerald was also traumatized over his wife's death, and looked for a way to eliminate fear in order to face up to it. Gerald began kidnapping people at a support group he attended under the name of "Todd" and exposed them to their greatest fears and then killed them. He extracted their adrenal glands as part of a plot to create a serum to eliminate fear. He got Jonathan to assist, although the boy was reluctant.

Assisting his father
Gerald's killing spree draws the attention of the Gotham City Police Department, with detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock looking into the case.

Gerald kidnaps a therapist named Scottie Mullins from the support group and exposes her to her greatest fear - drowning, which he carries out at a swimming pool. Jonathan arrives on the scene to inform his father that the meter where they have parked is about to run out. He is shocked by what he sees, although aware of his father's plans. Gerald assures his son it will be alright, and gives him money to feed the meter.

In the midst of drowning Scottie, Gordon and Bullock arrive on the scene, with Bullock saving Scottie and Gordon giving chase. However Gerald manages to escape with Jonathan.

Gerald kills another victim and extracts their adrenal glands, and manages to create his serum which he uses on himself, which causes him to hallucinate a fire and his burning wife. Having gone through this hallucination, Gerald's fears are eliminated. He tries the serum on Jonathan, but in panic Jonathan flees the scene and into a nearby cornfield. Gerald gives chase and while running away, Jonathan dismisses his father, claiming that he isn't afraid and does not need the serum. Nonetheless, Gerald injects his son with the serum. After overdosing, Jonathan looks up at a scarecrow and begins to hallucinate it as a monstrous creature, causing him to scream in terror. Bullock and Gordon arrive, and Gerald (having had his fears eliminated) opens fire on the officers, but ends up being shot dead.

Jonathan is taken to hospital, where a doctor informs him that as a side effect of the serum, he will be in a constant state of fear. Strapped down on his hospital bed, Jonathan hallucinates a monstrous Scarecrow creeping around the bed before finally swooping down on the boy and "attacking" him.

Birth of the Scarecrow
Years later, Crane is visited at Arkham by a criminal gang. One member once was an orderly at Arkham and reveals their leader that Crane used to talk about the fear formula of his father. The warden reveals that the fear serum injected into Jonathan's system overloaded his fear response and created the fear of a certain boogey man inside Jonathan. The warden claims that this will be useful to control him and then allows the gangsters to take Jonathan with them. Jonathan leads them to his former home, where he shows them several flasks of his father's serum hidden underneath a floor board. Although he helps them get the serum, Jonathan then panicks and begs the men to allow him to leave, as he cannot be there after dark. The men ignore this plea, however, and the gang leader orders him to take his father's notebook and create as much of the fear gas as the leader demands. To keep him compliant, the gangsters take the scarecrow off from the nearby field and wave it around near Crane - who completely panicks and agrees to their orders. However, during the first attack the gang performs with Crane's gas, Jim Gordon immediately connects the gas to Jonathan. The two head to Arkham to see Crane but the warden prevents them from meeting Crane. They keep the scarecrow in their makeshift lab. When the gang decides that they will use the gas to attack the opening of Oswald Cobblepot's newest club, they leave Jonathan behind in the building. They even lock him up in a small dark room, together with the Scarecrow.

While trapped inside the room, Jonathan loudly bangs against the door and begs the men to let him go. The men have left, however, and Jonathan screams in terror as the Scarecrow beast seemingly calls his name and attacks him.

Attack on Arkham
When their plans have failed, one of the gangsters storms back into the house and demands that Crane fabricates more of the toxin. However, when he locks up the room they imprisoned Crane in, he finds no horrified boy there. Instead, he finds Crane clad in the rags of the former scarecrow. When the surprised man asks the person whether it is Crane under the rags, Crane replies that Crane is not here right now, just the Scarecrow. He then aims his arm at the gangster and, using a pipe attached to his arm, douses the gangster in fear gas. Although the GCPD learns of the location after the gang leader has been captured, they find the house abandoned when they arrive. In the backyard, they find the gangster Crane attacked - tied to the scarecrow and out of his mind in panic. The man loudly screams that the Scarecrow is coming but is too afraid to speak any more. Meanwhile, Scarecrow infiltrated Arkham Asylum where he confronts the warden that sold him off. Crane asks whether Reed is trying to cover his dirty footprints but claims that it is too late - Reed's deeds have already stained him. Reed asks how Scarecrow managed to get into the building and Crane replies that he picked up a thing or two during his three year long imprisonment. Surprised, Reed realizes that he is being confronted by Jonathan Crane. Crane confirms it but claims that he is no longer the frightened boy he was anymore. Angry and bitter, Crane mentions that Reed did nothing to help his psyche, his ways of "treating" patients were ice baths and shock therapy. Reed tells Jonathan that he could just leave and promises that he wouldn't tell anyone. Crane claims that he has no intention of leaving. He claims that he managed to cure himself - he was afraid of the scarecrow and now they are one. When Reed jumps towards his desk to get his gun from one of the drawers, Crane douses him in fear gas. While Reed is experiencing the drug, Crane tells the frightened man that his father was a genius, who did everything he did for Jonathan's sake - out of love. He states that Gerald Crane was trying to destroy fear and orders the warden to face his fears.

After the warden has fled, Crane heads into the cell blocks, where he talks to the men and women tied to their beds. He claims that they are all prisoners and that his father would have saved them all. He claims that his father was murdered by the GCPD and that the Arkham inmates will be his army. With his newfound army, which Crane covers in fear gas to make them compliant, Crane plans to storm the GCPD to show the men who murdered his father what it is like to experience true fear. When Gordon arrives at the asylum, having heard of the riot, Crane sees him on the security feed. He recognizes Gordon as the man who murdered his father and prepares vengeance. Using the controls of the asylum, Crane closes all escape routes for Gordon and also uses the loudspeakers to send the maniacs at Gordon. Addressing Gordon directly, Crane states that tonight Gordon will know true fear. After Gordon has defeated the henchmen, Crane attacks him personally and disarms Gordon with his scythe. Aiming his scythe at Gordon's throat, Scarecrow claims that he did not believe in fate until out of all the policemen in Gotham, Gordon was the sole one to show up. Scarecrow removes his mask and Gordon asks what happened to Jonathan. Crane replies that it all started with Gordon murdering his father. Gordon tries to explain that Gerald Crane was insane and even tried to murder Jonathan but Crane doesn't listen and screams that Gerald was a pioneer that tried to save all mankind. Crane then gasses Gordon with his fear gas, causing him to panick. While Gordon is subjected to the gas, Crane wonders what it is that scares Gordon the most.

At the climax of Gordon's fear trip, Crane tries to manipulate Gordon into committing suicide. However, Gordon is able to overcome the effects of the fear toxin, allowing him to fight back against Crane. Outraged, Crane demands to know how Gordon overcame the toxin. Gordon throws Crane to the ground and disarms him, stating that he overcame his fears. Crane draws a knife and claims that it is impossible, one can only defeat his fear by becoming it - like Crane did. Gordon claims that Crane has a choice to make and offers to help. However, Crane spitefully claims that he will never become that weak boy again and hurls his knife at Gordon. While Gordon jumps out of the knife's path, Crane turns around and flees through a secret exit. Gordon follows him but Crane has already reached one of the main halls where he sends all the assembled lunatics to kill Gordon. While they fight Gordon, Gordon realizes that water is the counter-serum for Crane's fear toxin and activates the building's sprinklers. While the fear toxin is reversed, several men still attack Gordon, allowing Crane to flee from the asylum.

Personality
In his teenage years, Jonathan Crane was shown to be a normal boy forced into his crazed father's wave of crimes. Although he was an accomplice in his father's kidnappings, Jonathan is shown to be disturbed and distressed at the situation; but he continues to remain loyal to his dad. As Gerald continues his quest to eliminate fear, Jonathan is pushed over the edge and attempts to abandon his father, showing opposition to his scheme and claiming that he wasn't even afraid.

After being injected with the formula, Jonathan suffered frightening side effects and began to hallucinate a monstrous Scarecrow stalking him, sending Jonathan into madness.

Having been forced to create his father's fear toxin for a gang of outlaws, as well as being exposed to a scarecrow in order to keep him in line, Jonathan's mind finally snapped and took on the identity of the monstrous scarecrow that had been tormenting him; going as far as to dismiss his identity as Jonathan Crane and rather as the Scarecrow.

Season 1

 * "The Fearsome Dr. Crane"
 * "The Scarecrow"

Season 4

 * "A Dark Knight: Pax Penguina"
 * "A Dark Knight: The Fear Reaper"

Trivia

 * This version of the character is the youngest incarnation of the supervillain Scarecrow.
 * Ben McKenzie (who plays Jim Gordon) had expressed interest during the third season of the show of Jonathan Crane being reintroduced and further exploring the character; which came true for season 4.
 * Unlike most versions of Scarecrow, this one isn't a professor (due to his young age).
 * Jonathan's origin in the show takes elements from his different origins in the comics, although slightly changing them. In his Prime Earth counterpart, Jonathan was raised by his sadistic grandmother and never had contact with his real father Gerald (who in this continuity wasn't a villain) and had little contact with his mother Karen. When grown up, he attempts to get revenge on his father by killing him, but is stopped by Batman. In the New 52 backstory, Jonathan is experimented on by his father Dr. Crane as part of his research. When Dr. Crane dies, Jonathan is trapped in a darkened room and it takes a few days for authorities to find him as Dr. Crane's school reports him missing.